The Film of the Song

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The Film of the Song is a rare sister of The Film of the Book or The Book of the Film. Bonus points if the song in question is NOT used in the movie soundtrack.

There are numerous examples of The Film of the Book. Incidentally, since songs tend to be short and sweet, rarely are films made from songs. So if it does happen, it's all the more interesting.

Note that this is restricted to feature-length films or films that take the actual plot from the song - music videos don't count, as they are more or less an illustration of the song itself, not standalone media in their own right.

There are 3 subtypes:

  • Type A - Classic The X Of The Y: An expansion of the song's content into a movie.
  • Type B - Song Name The Movie: Named for a song, but not related by content; likely it's to capitalize on a recent hit
  • Type C - Their Greatest Hit The Movie: A Biopic of a notable singer, the movie is named for one of the singer's hits. Biopics named after the singer or band themselves don't count.
Examples of The Film of the Song include:

Type A (The X Of The Y):

  • Alice's Restaurant
  • The Black Fly Song
  • Born in East L.A.
  • The Cat Came Back
  • Convoy
  • Frosty The Snowman was a song before it was a television special.
  • The Erl King
  • The Gambler turned into an entire series of Made for TV movies starring Kenny Rogers.
  • Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer
  • Harper Valley PTA, which later became a TV show.
  • I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
  • The Indian Runner
  • Jolene
  • The Legend of Tom Dooley
  • The Log Driver's Waltz
  • Ode to Billy Joe
  • Purple People Eater
  • Rovaniemen markkinoilla, a Finnish 1951 film based on a song by the same name. It was the Genre Popularizer for the Rillumarei film and live entertainment genre that drew from the musical couplet genre of light, cleverly written, often satirical songs. Many of these films were based on an existing song, or a song was specifically written to be the foundation of a film.
  • Yellow Submarine: A bit of a borderline case, as it does expand on the song and illustrates it at the same time.

Counterexamples that you might expect to be this, only they aren't

X Of Y that are very close to this

Type B (Song Name The Movie)

  • Girls Just Want To Have Fun: Sarah Jessica Parker likes to dance. Her father disagrees. The song, needless to say, is by Cyndi Lauper (but she wouldn't let New World Pictures use her recording, which is why the movie uses a cover version).
  • Drive Me Crazy: Melissa Joan Hart Romantic Comedy, sort of named for a Fine Young Cannibals song but more in honour of the Britney Spears song "Crazy." On top of being The Film of the Song, it's also The Film Of The Novel ("How I Created My Perfect Prom Date").
  • Bird On The Wire: Song by Leonard Cohen, the film is an Action Comedy starring Goldie Hawn, Mel Gibson and David Carradine.
  • Can't Buy Me Love and its remake Love Don't Cost A Thing, each named after a different song.
    • The original was able to license the song by The Beatles, whereas the remake doesn't include the Jennifer Lopez track - unlike Girls Just Want To Have Fun, it doesn't even appear in a cover.
  • Sweet Home Alabama.
  • A Hard Day's Night
  • Help!
  • My Boyfriend's Back
  • Jumpin' Jack Flash: Secret agent movie parody starring Whoopie Goldberg.
  • Dazed and Confused
  • The Crying Game
  • Take Me Home Tonight
  • Feeling Minnesota—though the song is "Feelin' Minnesota."

Type C (Their Greatest Hit The Movie)

  • Beyond The Sea: about Bobby Darin.
  • Coal Miner's Daughter: about Loretta Lynn
  • De-Lovely, about Cole Porter.
  • Great Balls Of Fire: about Jerry Lee Lewis
  • La Bamba: about Ritchie Valens
  • Walk The Line: about Johnny Cash
  • I'm your man: Not quite a Biopic. Cohen interviews and singers such as Rufus and Martha Wainwright or Antony performing Cohen's songs
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