Pick a Day

Music History Events: Movies

November 5, 1999 Mariah Carey makes her acting debut, playing a temperamental opera singer in the romantic comedy The Bachelor, starring Chris O'Donnell and Renée Zellweger.

May 16, 1999 Diana Ross and Brandy star as mother and daughter in the made-for-TV movie Double Platinum.

September 24, 1998 The film SLC Punk! premieres. Set in the unlikely location of Salt Lake City, Utah, the film documents the '80s punk movement in the western US through the eyes of a fan. The film becomes a favorite in punk culture for being one of the accurate, if stylized, portrayals of the genre. The soundtrack includes songs by the Ramones, Blondie, The Velvet Underground, Dead Kennedys, and Generation X.

August 28, 1998 The Frankie Lymon biopic Why Do Fools Fall In Love opens in theaters. Named after Lymon's famous song, the film stars Larenz Tate, Halle Berry and Vivica A. Fox.

May 19, 1998 Godzilla: The Album, the soundtrack to the blockbuster movie, is released. It contains both "Come With Me" (Puff Daddy's rap reworking of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir") and Rage Against The Machine's "No Shelter," a song about media manipulation that mocks the film with the line, "Godzilla, pure mothaf--n' filler to keep ya eyes off the real killer."

April 6, 1997 The Michael Jackson short film/theme ride Captain EO is shown for the last time at Disneyland.

September 24, 1996 "That Thing You Do," the title track to That Thing You Do!, a musical film directed by and starring Tom Hanks, is released. The track is written by Adam Schlesinger, bass player for Fountains of Wayne, and performed by fictional band The Wonders. The song goes on to peak at #41 in America and is nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes. It loses out on both occasions to Madonna's "You Must Love Me," from Evita.

October 27, 1995 Copycat debuts in US movie theaters. Harry Connick, Jr. plays a murderer who terrorizes Sigourney Weaver and mentors a budding serial killer in the psychological thriller. It's quite a departure for the smooth singer of love songs.

April 26, 1995 The movie Friday, written, produced and starring Ice Cube, hits theaters. The soundtrack goes to #1 and the film becomes a franchise, with two sequels.

March 27, 1995 Film composer Hans Zimmer wins his first Academy Award for Best Original Score for his African-inspired music on Disney's The Lion King (1994).

June 4, 1994 The soundtrack from the film The Crow hits #1 on the US Albums chart.

December 10, 1993 Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit hits theaters. Two teenagers in the film, Lauryn Hill and Tanya Trotter, duet on the song "His Eye Is on the Sparrow," which makes the soundtrack. Hill soon becomes a star with her band the Fugees and later as a solo artist; Trotter goes on to form the duo The War and Treaty with her husband Michael.

January 17, 1992 Mick Jagger attends the premiere of his film Freejack at Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

January 17, 1992 The movie Juice opens in theaters, starring Tupac Shakur, Queen Latifah and Cindy Herron of En Vogue.

December 23, 1991 James Brown sues the producers of the movie The Commitments, claiming his name and likeness were used without his permission (he loses the case five years later).

December 22, 1991 Gregg Allman (of The Allman Brothers Band) makes his acting debut as a drug kingpin in the movie Rush.

September 13, 1991 Alice Cooper plays Freddy Krueger's father in the movie Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.

March 1, 1991 Director Oliver Stone's biopic The Doors, starring Val Kilmer, opens in Los Angeles.

April 19, 1990 The TV movie Summer Dreams: The Story Of The Beach Boys airs on ABC.

July 21, 1989 UHF, a comedy film written by and starring Weird Al Yankovic, debuts. The soundtrack features many of Yankovic's signature song parodies, as well as a few of his original songs. While the film does poorly in box office due to bad timing at the beginning of summer just before blockbuster season, the film gains a huge cult following. "UHF" stands for "Ultra High Frequency," an archaic method of television broadcast in the United States which tended to feature local, mom-and-pop stations and shoestring-budget content.

January 14, 1989 The soundtrack to the film Dirty Dancing reaches sales of ten million copies, which is now known as Diamond certification. The movie was set in 1963, and the soundtrack contained songs from that era along with new ones like "(I've Had) The Time of My Life," which were written for the film.

December 16, 1988 Rain Man, starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, premieres in US theaters with a synth soundtrack courtesy of Hollywood newbie Hans Zimmer. The German-born composer earns his first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score for his work on the film.

October 7, 1988 The documentary Imagine: John Lennon, commissioned by Yoko Ono and directed by Andrew Solt, opens in theaters.

April 11, 1988 Cher wins Best Actress for the romantic comedy Moonstruck at the Academy Awards in New York.

March 30, 1988 The movie Beetlejuice hits theaters, introducing a new generation to the 1956 Harry Belafonte Calypso favorite "The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)," which plays in a wild scene where dinner guests are possessed by Beetlejuice the ghost and made to perform a routine to the song.

November 14, 1987 The Dirty Dancing soundtrack hits #1 in America. Even though it was set in 1963, the movie featured modern, original songs "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life" and "Hungry Eyes."

October 8, 1987 The acclaimed Chuck Berry documentary Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll premieres in US theaters.

June 29, 1987 The Living Daylights, the first James Bond film to star Timothy Dalton as 007, premieres in London. The theme song was written and performed by a-ha, who are unable to attend. The film's composer, John Barry, is asked about the Norwegian band and calls them "Hitler Youth."More

July 20, 1986 Sid and Nancy, the biopic about The Sex Pistols' Sid Vicious, premieres. Gary Oldman stars as Vicious.

May 16, 1986 Top Gun hits theaters with a soundtrack that includes the Kenny Loggins action theme "Danger Zone" and the Berlin love ballad "Take My Breath Away." Both songs are huge hits, continuing a trend of blockbuster movies debuting popular tunes.