The music used in a movie can often times be just as memorable as the movie itself. Done right, a film’s soundtrack can engage a viewer beyond just what they’re seeing on the screen and propel the narrative forward.
Music and movies have been intertwining art forms since films began incorporating recorded sound. So it makes sense that some flicks have inspired songwriters to pen new tunes – for that, see our list of 45 Rock Songs Inspired by Movies.
But what about the other way round? There are fewer of those, but below we’re taking a look at 16 movies inspired by rock songs.
1. Alice’s Restaurant (1969)Song: “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant Massacre” is frankly the perfect kind of song to turn into a movie, chock full of eccentric detail. Guthrie himself starred in this 1969 film, alongside Pat Quinn as Alice Brock and James Broderick as Ray Brock. It premiered in Boston on August 19, 1969, just a few days after Guthrie appeared at Woodstock. Considering its wacky plot, director Arthur Penn still aimed to make a film with a sincere message. “I wanted to show that the U.S. is a country paralyzed by fear, that people were afraid of losing all they hold dear to them,” he said in one interview. “It’s the new generation that’s trying to save everything.”
2. The Gambler (1980)Song: “The Gambler,” Kenny Rogers
A number of people have covered “The Gambler,” penned by Don Schlitz, but it was Kenny Rogers who really brought the song to its full potential in 1978. Two years later, Rogers himself starred in The Gambler, a made-for-TV movie loosely based on the song’s story, directed by Dick Lowry. In it, Rogers’ character Brady Hawkes, a singer and — you guessed it — gambler, attempts to reunite with a long lost son.
3. Coward of the County (1981)Song: “Coward of the County,” Kenny Rogers
A double-dose of Kenny Rogers! A year after he appeared in The Gambler, he popped up in another Western film called Coward of the County, based on Rogers’ 1979 hit of the same name. To quote the film’s IMDb synopsis: “A life-long yellow-belly who made a deathbed promise to his father to be a pacifist seeks bloody revenge on the men who gang-raped his wife.”
4. Rhinestone (1984)Song: “Rhinestone Cowboy,” Glen Campbell
Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton: It’s a more likely combination than you’d think. They co-starred in the 1984 film Rhinestone, based on the 1975 hit song “Rhinestone Cowboy,” as recorded by Glen Campbell. The movie itself was a bust, critically and commercially, but it did provide Parton with two Top 10 country hits of her own: “Tennessee Homesick Blues” and “God Won’t Get You.”
5. Copacabana (1985)Song: “Copacabana (At the Copa),” Barry Manilow
In 1978, Barry Manilow collaborated with writers Jack Feldman and Bruce Sussman on the song “Copacabana” about the escapades of showgirl Lola and bartender Tony at a nightclub in Havana. “It’s a full story in three verses and three repeated choruses,” Manilow recalled in 2019. “I don’t know how they did it.” Seven years later, the same trio collaborated again on a cinematic expansion of the song that appeared on television, in which Manilow himself played Tony. It was then expanded even further into a two-act stage musical that was performed in London’s West End for two years.
6. Pretty in Pink (1986)Song: “Pretty in Pink,” Psychedelic Furs
According to Molly Ringwald, star of 1986’s Pretty in Pink, it was she who introduced screenwriter John Hughes to the song “Pretty in Pink” by the Psychedelic Furs. “John had been wanting to write something for me, and he often used song titles for his projects since most of what he wrote was inspired by music,” she recalled to Vogue in 2021. “He wrote Pretty in Pink in between Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club and based it loosely around the Psychedelic Furs song. At that point in my life I also just really liked pink — [protagonist] Andie’s room was basically modeled after my own.”
7. The Hitcher (1986)Song: “Riders on the Storm,” The Doors
The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm” is prime movie-making material with its eerie and dramatic tone. Screenwriter Eric Red recognized that and, in the early ’80s, took inspiration from the song to write The Hitcher. “The script was inspired by the Doors song ‘Riders on the Storm,’ which I felt was a great jumping off point for a thriller,” he said in an interview with the Horror Writers Association. The Hitcher came out in 1986, starring Rutger Hauer as a homicidal hitch hiker.
8. Born in East L.A. (1987)Song: “Born in East L.A.,” Cheech and Chong
Allow us to provide some backstory: in 1985, Cheech and Chong released a parody version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” titled “Born in East L.A.,” which also included some references to Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” Two years later, “Born in East L.A.” was turned into a comedy film directed by Cheech Marin — his debut directorial effort. Funnily enough, Cheech and Chong and the Boss went way back. “The first gig I ever did when I had my first record out was opening for Cheech & Chong in a small college in Pennsylvania,” Springsteen recalled in 2019. “And we came out, we played about five songs, I thought it was going really good. I was sitting at the piano and somebody tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘That’s enough.’ That was it!”
9. The Indian Runner (1991)Song: “Highway Patrolman,” Bruce Springsteen
This time we’re talking about an original Bruce Springsteen song: “Highway Patrolman.” That song appeared on the album Nebraska, released in 1982, the same year that a budding young filmmaker named Sean Penn started dating Springsteen’s sister. Penn was mesmerized with the song, drunkenly telling Springsteen one night: “I’m going to make a movie out of ‘Highway Patrolman.’” Just under a decade later, Penn made good on his promise in the form of 1991’s The Indian Runner, his directorial debut. Years later, Springsteen would release the music video seen below, which used clips from the film.
10. My Own Private Idaho (1991)Song: “Private Idaho,” The B-52’s
Not even the B-52’s themselves really understand what their 1980 song “Private Idaho” is about. “Idaho is pretty mysterious to, you know, all of us,” Fred Schneider once said to the Idaho Statesman. “I know it’s a beautiful state, but then I know there’s also a lot of crazy right-wingers and all that stuff. … [the song] doesn’t relate to Idaho. The song’s about all different things. It’s not like a parody of Idaho or anything.” Nevertheless, the song served as inspiration for the 1991 film My Own Private Idaho — director Gus Van Sant had first heard it when he visited the state of Idaho in the ’80s.
11. Love Potion #9 (1992)Song: “Love Potion #9,” The Searchers
Technically, Love Potion No. 9 the film, starring Tate Donovan and Sandra Bullock, flip flops the premise of the song “Love Potion No. 9.” In the song, first recorded by the Clovers and made into a No. 3 hit by the Searchers, the potion ingested by the narrator causes them to fall madly in love with everyone they see, while the 1992 movie makes other people become infatuated with the potion-taker.
12. Demolition Man (1993)Song: “Demolition Man,” Sting
Sometimes a minor occurrence can spark a major idea. Such was the case for screenwriter Peter Lenkov, who found inspiration in Sting’s “Demolition Man.” “My boombox was broken,” Lenkov explained in a 2023 interview. “That song would replay over and over again in the car. So I was struck by the line in the song, which says ‘don’t mess around with the demolition man.’” Demolition Man the film subsequently came out in 1993, starring Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock and Nigel Hawthorne.
13. Feeling Minnesota (1993)Song: “Outshined,” Soundgarden
“I am looking California but feeling Minnesota” is arguably one of Soundgarden’s best-known lines, which may be why it ended up the inspiration behind the 1996 film Feeling Minnesota, starring Keanu Reeves and Cameron Diaz. Interestingly, the song itself was not included on the film’s soundtrack.
14. Detroit Rock City (1999)Song: “Detroit Rock City,” Kiss
The plot of 1999’s Detroit Rock City doesn’t exactly mirror the plot of the Kiss song, but there are some similar elements. In the 1976 song, a person on their way to a Kiss concert ends up dead in a car accident (a real-life incident that happened around the time of the song’s writing). In the 1999 movie, a group of teenage boys embark on the adventure of a lifetime as they make their way to a Kiss concert in Detroit.
15. Jolene (2008)Song: “Jolene,” Dolly Parton
Jessica Chastain made her acting debut in the 2008 film Jolene, loosely based on — what else? — “Jolene” by Dolly Parton. Of course, the movie takes a lot of narrative license, expanding greatly on the basic premise of one red-headed woman’s (multiple) affairs.
16. Beer for My Horses (2008)Song: “Beer for My Horses,” Toby Keith and Willie Nelson
In 2003, Toby Keith and Willie Nelson joined forces for a song called “Beer for My Horses,” which is about as country of a title as one can get. Five years later, Keith went to Las Vegas, New Mexico — a lightly populated place that still resembles something of a Western saloon town — to direct and star in Beer for My Horses the film. Nelson also appeared in the film, as did Ted Nugent.
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A look at the greatest biopics, documentaries, concert films and movies with awesome soundtracks.
Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff
