The trailer for Notorious, the new Notorious B.I.G. biopic, hit the web this week and is set for a release in January ‘09. With the number of music-related biopics seemingly increasing every year, I feel it is my civic pop culture duty to offer future screenwriters of these paint-by-number Oscar-baiters a handy guide to giving their movie a catchy title.
You have exactly TWO options for the title of a musical biopic:
A) A fragment of the musician’s name.
B) Part of a song lyric that also vaguely might describe the musician’s life kind of.
It’s that easy! To prove it, here are about 500 examples:
Jimi Hendrix
A) Jimi
B) Kiss The Sky
Syd Barrett
A) Syd
B) You Crazy Diamond
Tupac
A) ‘Pac
B) All Eyez…
Paul Simon
A) Simon
B) Still Crazy…
Neil Diamond
A) Diamond
B) So Good
Stevie Ray Vaughan
A) SRV
B) Tightrope
George Harrison
A) George
B) All Things…
Neil Young
A) Neil
B) Keep On Searching
Steven Tyler
A) Tyler
B) …In An Elevator
Keith Moon
A) Moon
B) Won’t Get Fooled
Roger Daltrey
A) Roger
B) Won’t Get Fooled
Jimmy Page
A) Page
B) Stairway To…
Ozzy Osbourne
A) Ozzy
B) Off The Rails
Sid Vicious
A) Vicious
B) No Future
Elton John
A) Elton
B) I’m A Rocket…
Joni Mitchell
A) Joni
B) Think I’m Falling
Garth Brooks
A) Garth
B) I Got Friends…
Frank Sinatra
A) Frank
B) …Way
Stevie Wonder
A) Stevie
B) Signed, Sealed
Dr. Dre
A) Dre
B) N/A – The movie will be called “Dre”
Bruce Springsteen
A) Bruce
B) Tramps Like Us
Rod Stewart
A) Rod
B) Wake Up, Maggie
Vanilla Ice
A) Vanilla
B) Ice Ice…
Huey Lewis
A) Huey
B) …For A Living
James Brown
A) James
B) …On Up
George Thorogood
A) Thoro
B) …To The Bone
Boyz II Men
A) Boyz
B) End Of The Road
Herbie Hancock
A) Herbie
B) Rockit
Pat Benatar
A) Pat
B) Best Shot
George Gershwin
A) Gersh
B) An American…
Tiny Tim
A) Tim
B) Through The Tulips
Mama Cass
A) Mama
B) A Little Dream
Sir Mix-A-Lot
A) Sir
B) Butts
Michael Jackson
A) Michael
B) Bad
Madonna
A) Madon
B) …ike A Vir…
Prince
A) Pri
B) Purple
Bono
A) B
B) One
Mick Jagger
A) Mick
B) Satis…
The Beatles
A) The
B) Something
See how easy that was? I wrote this post in literally ten seconds (seven were spent on resizing those pictures).
Now you try — leave your best musical biopic titles in the comments!
