Pick a Day

Music History Events: Movies

May 8, 1965 D.A. Pennebaker films Bob Dylan in one of the earliest music videos ever shot, the famous "flashcard" clip for "Subterranean Homesick Blues."More

August 27, 1964 Disney releases Mary Poppins, a Sherman Brothers musical featuring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. It's the first movie role for Andrews, who is already a Broadway star. Her portrayal of the title character earns her the Academy Award for Best Actress.More

August 11, 1964 With Beatlemania at a fever pitch, the group's first movie, A Hard Day's Night, debuts in America.More

April 15, 1964 After a long day of filming their first movie, Ringo Starr tells the other Beatles it's been "a hard day's night." John Lennon turns the phrase into a song, and the movie title is changed from Beatlemania! to A Hard Day's Night.

April 5, 1964 The Beatles film the famous opening scene from their first movie, A Hard Day's Night, running away from several rabid female fans at London's Marylebone train station.

August 7, 1963 Beach Party, starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, opens in theaters. It's the first of many movies with a beach theme, and it features music by the surf-rock pioneer Dick Dale. Twenty-four years later, Frankie and Annette appear in Back To The Beach, where they are now parents of crazy teenagers.

October 18, 1961 Mirisch Pictures releases the film version of the Broadway musical West Side Story, starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, and Rita Moreno. The soundtrack features music by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim - including the song "Somewhere," later recorded by Tom Waits, Aretha Franklin, Josh Groban, Kylie Minogue, and others.

August 9, 1961 The movie Come September, starring first-time actor Bobby Darin and his wife Sandra Dee, opens in theaters. The pair met on set and married after a whirlwind romance.

December 28, 1960 The Connie Francis movie Where The Boys Are is released. The movie - risqué for its time - is about four college girls on Spring Break. It leads to a whole genre of Spring Break movies and popularizes Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where it was shot, as the destination of choice.

November 15, 1956 Elvis Presley's first movie, Love Me Tender, premieres at the Paramount Theater in New York City. The film is a Civil War drama that was going to be called The Reno Brothers, but when Elvis became a major star during the shoot, it was re-titled after his hit song, with Elvis given top billing.

May 31, 1956 Buddy Holly sees the John Wayne film The Searchers. Wayne's line, "That'll be the day," inspires him to write a song with that title.

May 16, 1956 Doris Day introduces her signature song, "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)," in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller The Man Who Knew Too Much.More

March 25, 1955 The movie Blackboard Jungle is released, giving new exposure to the song "Rock Around The Clock," which is featured in the film. A few months later, the song becomes the first ever #1 rock song.

April 11, 1952 Singin' In The Rain, starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and newcomer Debbie Reynolds, is released in the US, but barely makes a splash.More

November 26, 1942 Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, premieres at the Hollywood Theatre in New York City. The World War II-era romance revives an old love song - "As Time Goes By" - and inspires the Al Stewart hit "Year of the Cat."More

February 12, 1937 On the Avenue, a musical starring Dick Powell and Alice Faye, debuts in movie theaters and introduces the holiday classic "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm."

February 6, 2026 The K-pop concert film Stray Kids: The dominATE Experience is released in theaters, offering an alternative to teenage girls with no interest in the Super Bowl. It tops the global box office that week, becoming one of the few concert films to do so.

October 24, 2025 Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, the first Bruce Springsteen biopic, opens in theaters, with Jeremy Allen White in the lead role. It's centered on a down time in his personal life: 1981 and 1982, when he was battling depression and working on his plaintive album Nebraska.

September 12, 2025 Spinal Tap II: The End Continues hits theaters, documenting the group's one-off reunion concert in New Orleans, where they're joined by Elton John on "Stonehenge." Unfortunately, Elton is hospitalized after the stone monument lowered onto the stage falls and crushes him.

July 25, 2025 The Adam Sandler movie Happy Gilmore 2 is released on Netflix. Bad Bunny plays Happy's caddy, Eminem is a heckler, and Post Malone shows up as an announcer.

June 20, 2025 The animated movie KPop Demon Hunters debuts on Netflix with a soundtrack loaded with K-pop songs made by the same people responsible for the likes of BTS and Blackpink. The songs amass billions of streams, and "Golden," sung by the demon hunters Huntr/x, goes to #1 in America.

April 18, 2025 Sinners opens in theaters, with 88-year-old Buddy Guy playing a character he inspired: a musician who somewhat literally goes through hell to become a blues legend and open his own club in Chicago. The film picks up a bunch of awards, including an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

December 25, 2024 The Robbie Williams biopic Better Man, with Williams depicted as a CGI chimp, opens in theaters. Despite the monkey business, the film covers some heavy topics, like his battles with addiction and struggles with fame.

November 22, 2024 The film version of Wicked, starring Ariana Grande as Galinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, opens in theaters. It's a blockbuster, earning $112 million in America on opening weekend, more than any other Broadway musical adaptation. It's also by far the biggest opening weekend box office for a movie staring a pop singer, blowing past the $42 million opening of Lady Gaga's A Star Is Born.

October 11, 2024 The movie Piece By Piece, a biography of Pharrell Williams set in the animated LEGO universe, opens in theaters. Many of his close collaborators, including Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, Snoop Dogg, lend their voices and appear as Lego avatars.

September 6, 2024 Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opens in theaters with a soundtrack that revives the '70s songs "MacArthur Park," "Tragedy" and "Margaritaville." Other songs in the film include "Right Here Waiting" by Richard Marx and "Svefn-G-Englar" by Sigur Rós.

February 14, 2024 The biopic Bob Marley: One Love, produced by Bob's son Ziggy Marley, opens in theaters. It gets plenty of love at the box office, going to #1 its first week of release.

December 1, 2023 Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé opens in theaters, offering a behind-the-scenes look at her Renaissance tour. It tops the domestic box office the opening weekend with a $21 million take. Like Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour film, it's distributed by AMC Theatres, bypassing traditional studios to allow Beyoncé, who wrote and produced it, to get a bigger cut.

June 10, 2023 The movie Mary J. Blige's Real Love airs on Lifetime. Based on her 1992 hit, it's followed a week later by Mary J. Blige's Strength Of A Woman, which continues the story of a young woman who must decide if the guy she falls for is worth the sacrifices. Blige is an executive producer on both films, which were made in collaboration with her production company, Blue Butterfly.

September 25, 2022 The movie Don't Worry Darling, starring Harry Styles, tops the box office while his song "As It Was" remains at #1 on the Hot 100. The film is directed by Olivia Wilde, who started dating Styles after meeting him on set.