10 movies that inspired legendary musicians
When writing a song, artists will often take inspiration from a number of different experiences. Although it’s easy to pull from real-life ventures, some of the greatest songs of all time have been written about some of the simplest setups, from having a morning coffee to a simple love song about one’s muse. All creative mediums are up for grabs, and the silver screen made for a great starting point for the likes of Radiohead and Bruce Springsteen.
Across the songs listed below, the writers took inspiration from what they saw at the movies, bringing their own stamp to what the screenwriters had to say. While plenty of movies have inspired songs on their soundtrack, these tracks can be listened to completely separated from the movie they accompany.
However, with that, writing about a movie presents a challenge for songwriters. Since the golden rule of the movies is ‘show don’t tell’, these artists needed to work with a lack of visibility and still came up with some of the most iconic songs of their careers.
While a handful of the tracks included in this list go for that larger-than-life aesthetic in their production, genres from folk to orchestral musicians have transcended the movies that inspired them on each of these songs. There might not be a screen or a music video to accompany every one of the inclusions, but this is the closest one can get to hearing a movie come to life without a traditional score.
10 movies that inspired legendary musicians:
The Girl Can’t Help It – The Beatles – ‘Birthday’
Every great rock vocalist owes their career to Little Richard. Although he may have come out before the British Invasion, Richard’s signature holler made an indelible impact on everyone who wanted to unleash chaos solely through their voice. Richard’s major introduction to the world was in The Girl Can’t Help It, and Paul McCartney paid attention when watching the film again in 1968.
While McCartney was one of Richard’s biggest fans, a screening of The Girl Can’t Help It on television inspired The Beatles’ ‘Birthday’. Originally starting with the main riff on piano, McCartney held a watch party for the movie at his house between sessions at Abbey Road Studios, which resulted in ‘The Fab Four’ filling the tune with a sense of reckless abandon.
Outside the main guitar hook, every aspect of the song is an earworm by itself, even letting Yoko Ono join in on backing vocals during the chorus of ‘I would like you to dance’. The sessions for The White Album have been documented as a dark time in Beatles history, but from the sounds of this, Little Richard provided them with at least one fun night in the studio.
Romeo + Juliet – Radiohead – ‘Exit Music (for a Film)’
The end of the ‘90s saw Radiohead in a state of change. Although they had shaken off the one-hit wonder claims with The Bends, Thom Yorke was inching towards something more robotic for the next album OK Computer. Just before work got started on the project, the band was asked to contribute a song to Baz Luhrman’s new vision for Romeo + Juliet.
After watching the movie, Yorke wrote this song to play over the credits, imagining a getaway story in which Romeo and Juliet escape their fate by running to make a new life for themselves. Starting with Yorke on acoustic guitar, the song gradually builds to one of the most satisfying climaxes in Radiohead’s discography, as Yorke wishes that any naysayers will choke on their words once they’ve run off.
Despite saving it for the movie, the rest of Radiohead thought enough of the tune to make it one of the centrepieces of OK Computer, coming right after ‘Subterranean Homesick Alien’ as a cinematic closer to the first section of the record. There aren’t too many artists who can take on the work of Shakespeare and transform it into something bigger, but Yorke’s impassioned wail does make a worthy case.
Young Frankenstein – Aerosmith – ‘Walk This Way’
At the end of 1976, Aerosmith were on the verge of something big. Although their massive following didn’t translate to record sales, their work on the road gave them one of the most savage fanbases in rock music, comprising blue-collar workers feeding off Steven Tyler’s odes to sex. Toys in the Attic promised to capitalise on those ideals, but things stopped during the recording of ‘Walk This Way’.
Despite having one of Joe Perry’s best guitar licks, Tyler was stuck trying to find the right words to accompany the melody. After hours of working on it, the band took a break and decided to catch a screening of Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, where Igor says the line “walk this way”.
Immediately inspired by the movie, Tyler turned the slapstick routine from the movie into one of the most suggestive songs Aerosmith ever made. When listeners aren’t trying to keep up with Tyler’s flow, they are hearing some of the filthiest lyrics of his career, talking about a cheerleader who showed him a good time. The riff might do the heavy lifting, but Tyler’s lyrics are the sexual backbeat.
Badlands – Bruce Springsteen -‘Nebraska’
Throughout Bruce Springsteen’s back catalogue, there’s a lonely feeling surrounding Nebraska. After deciding to release it without the E Street Band, ‘The Boss’ made some of his most revealing songs, talking about folks down on their luck and knowing the odds are stacked against them. There might be hope for some of them, but the title track isn’t going for a happy ending.
Inspired by the movie Badlands, Springsteen sings the real-life story of Charles Starkweather, who went on a murder rampage in 1958 and was sentenced to death. Although Springsteen takes on Starkweather’s perspective, he breathes flesh and blood into this killer, relating to the emotions that led him to snap in the first place.
The song might end with Starkweather awaiting his execution, but all Springsteen can offer in his lyrics is asking the judge if he can have his girlfriend by his side when he meets his maker. ‘Nebraska’ might not shy away from the dark side of life, but Springsteen never forgets the humanity behind the most inhumane actions.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Avenged Sevenfold – ‘Bat Country’
Avenged Sevenfold were born in the seedy underbelly of California. Although they started life as a metalcore-based outfit, their turn towards the mainstream on City of Evil turned them into one of the biggest metal acts of the 2000s. They may have been flying the flag for heavy music but the band never lost their dark side.
When writing the basis for ‘Bat Country’, A7X took inspiration from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. In both the book and the movie, viewers get a look at the corrupted version of the American dream, where people are hungry enough to do whatever is necessary to fulfil their most corrupted desires.
Though most of the song feels like a road trip through the different layers of hell, M. Shadows pulls different passages directly from the book, including the opening line, “he who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man”. Seeing how Avenged were now one of the biggest acts in the mainstream, listeners were probably wondering how they had to sell their humanity to reach these new heights.
The Ten Commandments – Metallica – ‘Creeping Death’
One of the common misconceptions about metal music is that every song has to be about something demonic. Although plenty of artists have earned their trade out of making spooky songs, there are just as many others who like to sing about the dark side of humanity as well. If anything, Metallica pulled from biblical passages when penning ‘Creeping Death’.
Inspired by the film adaptation of The Ten Commandments, this is practically a word-for-word adaptation of the plagues of Egypt, as Hetfield plays the role of death that comes to kill the first-born son of the Pharaoh. Considering the song’s speed, Hetfield shrieks like a demon from hell, coming up from the depths to exact vengeance on Moses’ behalf to let the Israelites go.
The standout section of the song comes in the breakdown, giving way to booming power chords as the rest of the band members chant “Die” in the background while Hetfield talks about skulking across the land. Compared to the screen adaptation, this is the pure sound of evil coming to the Egyptian people.
Twilight franchise – My Chemical Romance – ‘Vampire Money’
Not every movie has to give the songwriter the best inspiration. Even if a film leaves them with a few cheap laughs, they can still have enough resentment to get a song going. And while the Twilight series was the perfect fit for a band like My Chemical Romance, Gerard Way was having no part in it.
When Way wrote the plot of the emo icon’s rock opera Danger Days, he tossed in ‘Vampire Money’ as a satire for people who write songs to get featured on the Twilight soundtrack. For most up-and-coming acts, having a song in a glittering vampire movie was a golden ticket, but Way only saw desperation. Across this song, he is seething with anger at suits that put together bands to make a quick buck off kids who don’t know any better.
This track wasn’t the last time Way would get salty on this album. He also took a few jabs at his fellow rockers, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, on the same album with ‘We Don’t Need Another Song About California’. Though the Twilight franchise did have its fair share of soundtrack highlights, there was still some kickass music to be made out of clowning on them too.
The Wizard of Oz – Elton John – ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’
Elton John’s meteoric rise to fame wasn’t that dissimilar to Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. Before the sunglasses and fashionable suits, Reginald Dwight was a mild-mannered kid who found his calling playing his piano until his partnership with Bernie Taupin sent him to stardom. Once Taupin was at the top, he channelled the land of Oz when he didn’t like what he saw.
Instead of the Yellow Brick Road leading Dorothy on the right path, Taupin sees the glittering walkway as the path to stardom. Although he may have envisioned himself in the world of rock and roll, Taupin’s upbringing as a kid working in the woods was too daunting for the paparazzi, and this song is him trying to make peace with the yellow brick road that he was forced on.
Granted, John didn’t feel the same way, soaking up the limelight for whatever it was worth and making the ‘70s his classic era with one top ten hit after another. Then again, if John had taken a step away from the partying and excess, chances are he would have wanted to get off the merry-go-round of fame as well.
Wonderwall – Oasis – ‘Wonderwall’
Noel Gallagher has always been a bit cagey about the meanings of his songs. Although he has talked about writing songs on a whim on a train, he’s the only one who knows the meaning behind the full of nonsense like ‘Supersonic’ or ‘Shakermaker’. When writing Oasis’ most iconic song, it circles back to where Oasis always ends up: The Beatles.
During the writing process, Noel’s original title for the song was ‘Wishing Stone’, until he took inspiration from a soundtrack album George Harrison made for a film called Wonderwall. While Noel hadn’t even seen the movie, the lyrics are a love song that Noel is singing to an imaginary friend.
Despite being speculated as being about his wife Meg Matthews, Noel told Q Magazine (via Songfacts), “It’s about an imaginary friend who’s going to come and save you from yourself”. Knicking the title of a Beatles project may have been expected at this point, but Noel could put into words what most other songwriters might take a lifetime trying to achieve.
Rocky – Lady Gaga – ‘The Edge of Glory’
The word ‘subtlety’ shouldn’t belong in Lady Gaga’s vocabulary. Much like her inspirations like Madonna, Gaga has made an empire out of going as over the top as possible, from the belting ballads to some of the greatest club jams of the late 2000s. When she finally reached the heights of fame, ‘The Edge of Glory’ was the comeback story most fans weren’t ready for.
When writing the basis for this song, Gaga mentioned taking inspiration from the Rocky franchise, telling MTV UK: “That song is about looking life in the eye and when you die saying ‘I won, I’m a champion’ like Rocky sprinting to the top of the staircase”. Gaga wasn’t alone in bringing a sense of bombast, bringing in Clarence Clemons from Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band for the climactic saxophone break.
While the album Born This Way began with the title track proclaiming her identity, ‘The Edge of Glory’ is the moment of truth where Gaga finally finds a confidante who will help bring her to stardom all over again. If ‘Born This Way’ was the statement of intent, ‘Glory’ coming at the album’s end is the victory lap celebration.
