It finally happened, thanks to Baz Luhrmann‘s creativity and what appears to be an Oscar-worthy metamorphosis by Austin Butler–we have one of the most anticipated music biopics in recent memory.
Elvis looks over the 42 short years the “King” was with us, and how he continues to hurl his bedazzled and overly sequenced shadow over the music world today. Whether Butler and Tom Hanks earn all the gold in Tinseltown next spring remains to be seen. However, their appearance on the big screen brings up an equally important query — what is taking so long with the other music biopics we want?!
We have already seen Aretha Franklin’s life on screen, thanks to the incomparable Jennifer Hudson. Freddie Mercury’s biopic crushed even louder as Rami Malek won an Oscar for becoming the best voice in rock and roll history. (If you want to argue that, come at me Internet. Oh, Steve Perry is number two.) As for what’s in the queue for music biopics? Hollywood has already confirmed they are bringing us Bob Dylan (again), as well as Amy Winehouse and Bob Marley.
But that’s it. How can that be? Maybe, the convoy of retread thoughts–remakes, reboots, and requels–is getting in the way of incredible stories musicophiles and cinephiles are demanding to see? So, let’s help out Hollywood.
Here are the Top 10 music biopics Hollywood still needs to make.
HM. Sir Paul McCartney
He’s a Beatle! That’s it. Need I really say more?
If you are a musician, discography historian, or even a fan of four puny-looking chaps from Liverpool, England, this is a music biopic that must be made. Seriously, the guy helped introduce the world to this Rock and Roll thing. The Beatles changed the face of music and no one knew it was coming. Except for Ringo, George, John, and this visionary named Paul.
Interestingly, his life is so far beyond The Fab Four (although John Lennon’s death was almost catastrophic for him). There is Linda, Wings, Heather, Art, Animal Rights, Number One (most in American History at 29), and Michael Jackson. There is so much to say. Given this Beatle is 80, he’s lived long enough. We need his story in film, so make it happen, Tinseltown.
Potential Title: Hello, Goodbye
10. Marvin Gaye
Seriously, Hollywood? The hell is your problem?! This music biopic has been rumored for years that Dr. Dre is already working on this much-overdue biopic for the big screen. Unfortunately, Gaye’s estate hasn’t been the easiest to work with and make this little miracle happen. Like, at all. In fact, numerous production houses have approached them about Marvin Gaye’s story and the estate refused to sign off. They did with Dre but that was 2018. How’s that going on? (See what I did there?)
Why this important and gripping story hasn’t been told already is criminal. So many misunderstood and unknown facts about soul music’s cornerstone (any Mount Rushmore about soul music and R&B will have him in it, or be profoundly ignored). Like, he was part of a boy band — in the 1950s, or wanted to be a wide receiver for the Detroit Lions. Really!
Marvin Gaye was gone too soon, primarily and notoriously renowned for his father murdering him. His legacy will always remain. We need his story, spirit, and voice on an IMAX screen now.
Potential Title: What’s Goin’ On
9. Debbie Harry
Sorry, kids. You’ll have to trust us on this one, or just look her up. Before that happens, do these names ring a bell? Pink. Lady Gaga. Madonna. Britney Spears. Joan Jett. Cyndi Lauper. Katy Perry? You enjoy their girl-power attitude and the rebellious music? Well, none of them would have a template to etch out their prominent careers if it had not been for the pioneering work of music, fashion, and stage persona of Blondie’s personification, Debbie Harry.
Harry blazed the trail they all follow. She broke molds, set standards, and didn’t take anyone’s ess!
Arguably, the first female musician iconoclast, Debbie Harry challenged everything that most women before did. She transcended the musical genre leapfrogging from punk to rap (one of the first female rappers ever in “Rapture” and even the regaled Fab 5 Freddy got a shout-out) and pop to reggae (“The Tide is High” anyone).
Now the fun part: She was naturally a redhead, but still, the woman would be called ‘Blondie’ at first, by truck drivers. (Yes, really!) Her unapologetic vision created a fool-proof blueprint for all women entering the field…and some men too (REM’s Michael Stipe calls her one of his biggest influences).
Few people in music have the reach that Harry holds in the music industry. More people with less influence have movies. This woman earned hers long ago.
Potential Title: Call Me Blondie
8. Run DMC
Rap. If you like it, pay homage to the golden throne with Adidas footstops. Case closed. Write the damn script for this musician biopic already!
Two kindergarten friends, Joseph Simmons (Rev. Run and Russell’s younger brother) and Darryl McDaniels (D-Mc) grew up together writing rhymes and loving beats from Daryl’s set of turntables. Eventually, these two met local DJs from Queens, DJ Mizell (later known as the archetypal Jam Master Jay), and the rest made history.
Rap acts have everything because of them — gold records, lyrical focus, watched videos, acting crossovers, and even corporate sponsorships. Alcohol. Drugs. Depression. Physical Pain. Breakups. Murder. Their story has it all, and most of us wouldn’t have much in music without it.
Regretfully, some of Jam Master Jay’s life has been told by Netflix. Watch it for the value, but in short, Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington were charged with the slain DJ’s murder in 2020, 18 years after the shot was fired for allegedly being pissed JMJ backed out of a drug deal.
Aside from that tragedy, these men laid the groundwork upon which billions of dollars have been made! This story needs to be told in the movies.
Potential Title: The Kings from Queens
7. Donny Hathaway
He was the voice of a people. Before Teddy, Luther, Stevie, and even Marvin, there was Donny. Taken from music way too young at 33 from suicide and grueling battles of paranoid schizophrenia, his Gospel-inspired voice was brushed velvet and became the clarion call of young black people (and many white folks) across this country.
Many have heard “A Song for You,” but you should listen closely to the passion and the pain in his voice. It is a visceral lesson in telling a story through song. It penetrates your soul. Donny Hathaway was one of the first-ever balladeers to become transparent through his lyrics. His life was in those words. Listen to his compelling version of the liberating staple “Someday We’ll All Be Free.” If you don’t get a single goose bump, you have no pulse. It’s a medical fact.
Listen to his music and you’ll discover what millions already know. And in only three decades, he put his life on display and believe, the world was watching. His inspirational songwriting and charismatic compositions laid the foundation for American Soul and R&B. For many, he is the reason we have that genre of music. And his story is emblematic of what many deal within silence. His life can still inspire others, much like his music continues to do. That’s a music biopic ready to make for Hollywood.
If only someone would grab the damn pen.
Potential Title: A Song for You
6. George Michael
All you dudes who like to go unshaven, here’s the reason you’re permitted to have that five-o-clock-shadow. George Michael was the quintessential maven of style — on stage, on video, and in music. The guy was so much more than his beginnings of earworm “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” with ‘Wham!’
Look at his discography on any streaming platform. He made crossing genres look like riding a bike across a street. His range and voice were that dynamic. How’s this? Pop (‘Faith’), jazz (‘Kissing a Fool’), and all those ballads. Listen to ‘One More Try’ for a surprise. And then, that song. (Yes, ‘I Want Your Sex’).
The LGBT community alone would make this movie crazy profitable. His story would inspire those who have fought AIDS or even personal sexuality in a time when folk boarded themselves inside the closet. He died of “natural causes” in 2016 and is still celebrated to this day.
If for any other reason, George Michael’s story should be written to inspire many who don’t know to read it.
Potential Title: Careless Whisper
5. Janis Joplin
Everything Jim Morrison inspired and Jimi Hendrix embodied…was Janis Joplin. Her tragic and toiled life is the stuff Hollywood producers drool to make. So, what’s taking so long? Her seemingly enraged style helped her meteoric rise to fame and largely, her plummet to a tragic demise at the age of 27 because of a heroin overdose.
Before people were given hyperbolic and royalty titles, she was the ‘Queen’. Many were beacons, Joplin was the lighthouse of the psychedelic rock movement during the hippie movement 1960s. How hard would it be to portray a tumultuous four-year career in music and only 27 years of life from a lower-income south Texas town near the shore?
Her deep-seated pain from school bullies to social anxiety to riddling insecurity led to her raspy lyrics that translated into the heyday of blues and rock. When traditional norms were ignored, she was driving the movement. The brighter the flame, the hotter the heat they say. Hers was the core of the sun magma and please, a fictional canvas of her life in Bette Midler’s The Rose doesn’t count.
This is a music biopic that must be done.
Potential Title: Get It While You Can
4. Led Zeppelin
Modern rock, blues, and even heavy metal glean from many sources, and believe it or not, most of them are connected to this band — John Paul Jones, John Bonham, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant.
The widely rumored stories “from the road” are the stuff of legend. Sold-out stadiums, backstage hedonism, tragedy in the band, and even the fabled background of Page living in Aleister Crowley’s mansion and channeling his sinister “magick” spirit to play some of the band’s most famous band riffs. Supernatural to the unbelievable: All befitting of Led Zeppelin.
We are never getting a reunion, so one of the best movie biopics ever made will have to do. And trust rock fans from around the world will watch this movie time and time again. Not for nothing, they all loved J.R.R. Tolkien. Hell, they reference Mordor and Gollum in the title/song below and even “The Battle of Evermore” is full of Middle Earth references. See Frodo Baggins here?
“T’was in the darkest depth of Mordor/ I met a girl so fair, / But Gollum, the evil one crept up/ And slipped away with her.”
Led Zeppelin II (Jimmy Page and Robert Plant)
Yes, world. The men behind Led Zeppelin, one of the greatest bands in rock and roll history, were nerds!
Potential Title: Ramble On
3. David Bowie
Many musicians have taken the alter-ego approach to venture into different genres of music. Garth had Chris Gaines. Bono metamorphosed into The Fly. Morrissey went the way of Norman Bates to become Ann Coates. Eminem is Slim Shady. Prince and his symbol. But it all began with this visionary when David Bowie became Ziggy Stardust.
In the 1970s, very few people on the planet had a bigger following. Largely because he was among the most influential entertainers on film as well. The Man Who Fell to Earth, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Basquiat, The Last Temptation of Christ, but the most notable was Labyrinth — a personification of that alter-ego. Then, for a more business approach, Bowie adopted the persona of Thin White Duke. All of this was to be his own person, and not who others wanted him to be — a pop superstar.
Then, he met the other-worldly funk master Nile Rodgers. That’s when Bowie admitted his popularity was waning and earned his unmistakable cool factor. Together, they discovered this unknown blues guitarist from Dallas, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and made “Let’s Dance.” (Yes, that was SRV!) From there, we were introduced to “China Girl,” “Modern Love,” “Blue Jean,” and this little-known duo song with some background singer with a major overbite named Freddie Mercury.
Bowie was an icon in two different fields. Talk about a cinematic universe. All the planets will need to be aligned for this to happen, but what a marvelous film it could be.
Potential Title: Stardust
2. Kurt Cobain
This is a no-brainer for fans, so where in the plaid hell is the compunction from Hollywood to make Kurt Cobain’s life a movie? He used his bitter pain to create a musical genre unconsidered until the tyrannical ’90s. Grunge came on like a flannel, dark storm and this guy was its Nature, its tempest amid the musical storm.
Alternative Rock, as it more broadly became known, typified a generation of angst and unrest. What was strange is that he knew fame would come with the package, but he resented it daily. He hated the media’s interest in his life, which led to the enigmatic front man becoming even more of a recluse who drowned his secrets and washed away his afflictions with hard drugs.
Cobain routinely toyed with his death, but one day with a shotgun to his head, he became the reason the notorious “27 Club” is known among the laymen. His life was tragic, and Hollywood has only glanced upon his surface with Gus Van Sant’s Last Days, among a few other documentaries about his plagued life.
The voice of a generation would create a movie to match leaving Kurt Cobain’s life among the pantheon of music biopics.
Potential Title: Come into Bloom
1. Prince
I would bet your salary that when you read this title, Prince’s name was among the first to come to mind with everyone for a mandatory music biopic. Think about his music catalog, his aura among entertainment, and the literal thousands of musicians he has inspired. And then, there’s his cinematic halftime show that movie directors wish they created (there was actual purple rain during his seminal song.) Prince’s illustrious life — not his unfortunate death at 57 — demands to be one of the most powerful music biopics ever.
He created Purple Rain, one of the most popular musical films ever, along with its accompanying multi-platinum soundtrack. He was generous with his God-gifted talent (he wrote “Purple Rain” for Stevie Nicks, “Manic Monday” for The Bangles, and “Nothing Compares 2 U” for Sinead O’Connor — for free).
About everything Prince did was newsworthy and groundbreaking. The federal government hated his music, as did one of his music labels. He was a man of his own cosmos, yet few people understood the man underneath the spandex and whimsy. That life would generate a monumental music biopic. And, just in case Hollywood needs extra incentive to make this the greatest music biopic ever, dude had a–let’s say–wanton mind for all things sex so there’s that. (Go listen to “Darling Nikki.”)
His name says it — even when the Symbol couldn’t — Prince is truly music royalty. We would think there is literally no one who can duplicate his presence, voice, and versatility on stage. However, if Elvis and Freddie Mercury can live once again on film, Prince could too. At least, he should!
Potential Title: Sign O’ The Times
Since he saw ‘Dune’ in the $1 movie theater as a kid, this guy has been a lover of geek culture. It wasn’t until he became a professional copywriter, ghostwriter, and speechwriter that he began to write about it (a lot).
From the gravitas of the Sith, the genius of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, or the gluttony of today’s comic fan, SPW digs intelligent debate about entertainment. He’s also addicted to listicles, storytelling, useless trivia, and the Oxford comma. And, he prefers his puns intended.