Music can describe tales and commemorate great individuals. In this post, we will go through ten great songs you might not have heard about actors and actresses. Intense or more subtle allusions, these songs show how music and cinema are so intimate and how some musicians and bands have been driven by the lives and careers of seventh-art stars.
1. “Michael Caine” by Madness
“All I wanted was a word, a photograph to keep at home.“
This 1984 song by the British ska band Madness explores the mind of an informant in the midst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland through a lens of paranoia and identity loss.
This title takes after the actor Michael Caine who provided vocal tracks similar to that seen in The Ipcress File, when his character uses his name repeatedly in order to stay sane under pressure.
2. “Initials B.B.” by Serge Gainsbourg
“She wears boots which reach up to the tops of her thighs / like a chalice containing her beauty.”
It was the first single from his album Initials B.B., about the French actress and sex icon Brigitte Bardot. Gainsbourg had an affair with her in 1967, and a music video was produced containing clips of Bardot at photo shoots and studio sessions.
3. “Just Like Fred Astaire” by James
“Cause when I hold her in my arms I feel like Fred Astaire”
“Just Like Fred Astaire” is a love song by the British rock band James, which was recorded on their album Millionaires in 1999. Song lyrics liken the rapture of romance to the elegance of the great dancer Fred Astaire. Tim Booth, lead singer, penned the track for his fiancée Kate that spoke to the radical nature of love.
This name was originally “Fred Astaire” until objections from Astaire’s estate were raised about its use of his name and image.
4. “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by Bauhaus
“White on white translucent black capes, Back on the rack, Bela Lugosi’s dead”
“Bela Lugosi’s Dead” is the first single by the English post-punk band Bauhaus released on the Small Wonder label in August 1979. This is generally considered the very first gothic rock song, or at least a basis for the style. Its title honours Bela Lugosi, the Hungarian-American actor who played Count Dracula in the movie Dracula (1931).
The song and lyrics echo Lugosi’s role, explore the dead and the macabre in the same gothic style that made him so beloved.
5. “2HB” by Roxy Music
“Here’s looking at you, kid.“
The song 2HB on Roxy Music’s 1972 debut album is a pun for “To Humphrey Bogart,” reflecting the band’s respect for the actor, especially his role in ‘Casablanca’.
It’s the frontman Bryan Ferry’s version of Bogart’s line “Here’s looking at you, kid” – that added punch to the song. Ferry has spoken of his obsession with movies, saying to The Sun, “I was a big fan of cinema and found a lot of inspiration there, as you can see in the song ‘2HB.”
6. “Rosanna” by Toto
“All I wanted was a word, a photograph to keep at home.“
The lead single from Toto’s 1982 album Toto IV, “Rosanna,” was one of the band’s best-selling songs. It debuted at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went on to win multiple Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year. The song’s title also raised suspicions about the song’s inspiration, which was most likely an association with actress Rosanna Arquette.
By the time the song was released, Arquette was dating Toto’s keyboardist Steve Porcaro. But the band’s primary songwriter, David Paich, explained that they didn’t record “Rosanna” with her in mind.
In an interview for song writer universe, David Paich said that “I had just met her. I didn’t have the title of the song until I met her. She was walking through my kitchen with Steve Porcaro, who she was dating at the time. I met her, and I just started playing the song and singing “Rosanna” as the title and it seemed to fit perfectly. So she charmed her way into the song.“
7. “The Vanishing of Maria Schneider” by dEUS
“And no one knows what you’ve become / You elegantly put us on / Forever and a day.”
Including in the album Vantage Point by the Belgium band dEUS, this song reflects the enigmatic life of Maria Schneider, best known for her role in Last Tango in Paris.
She was devastated by drug addiction, sexual confusion, and a suicide attempt after her role in Bertolucci’s movie. Some publications even suggested that Bertolucci and Last Tango were to blame for her downfall.
8. “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle” by Nirvana
“She’ll come back as fire / And burn all the liars.”
“Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle” is a song by Nirvana from their album In Utero (1993).
It is a tribute to the Seattle-born actress Frances Farmer, whose brilliant career in the 1930s was put on hold by personal demons and institutionalization. Farmer’s uprising against the status quo and subsequent media denialism impacted Kurt Cobain, who sympathized with her. In this song, Cobain critiques the media’s exploitative ways and yearns for redemption in the same way that Farmer’s struggles had.
9. “Madonna, Sean and Me” by Sonic Youth
“Sean” is Sean Penn, Madonna’s husband from 1985 to 1989.
“Expressway to Yr. Skull” (aka Madonna, Sean, and Me) is the final track on Sonic Youth’s album EVOL (1986). Alternative titles to the song refer to the pop singer Madonna and the actor Sean Penn, a hugely popular couple and probably one of the wildest marriages of the 80s.
“Expressway to Yr Skull” was listed on the back cover as “Madonna, Sean and Me” and on the lyric sheet as “The Crucifixion of Sean Penn.”
“The Right Profile” is inspired by American actor Montgomery Clift, with lyrics referencing his car crash and the struggles with alcohol and drug abuse that followed. The period between his 1956 crash and his death in 1966 is often described as “the longest suicide in Hollywood history.”
