Music is a powerful tool in a film’s repertoire. Whether it’s a theme song, a stunning score, or an endlessly catchy soundtrack, music can help amplify a film’s emotional qualities tenfold.
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Sometimes, a song is such a powerful source of inspiration for filmmakers that they decide to name the whole project after it. Below are 6 movies named after popular songs.
1. Edge of Seventeen
While Stevie Nicks wrote “Edge of Seventeen” as an expression of her grief following the deaths of John Lennon and her uncle, director Kelly Fremon Craig took a more literal route when she decided to use the song as the title of her 2016 film.
The coming-of-age story follows a—you guessed it—17-year-old girl, as she struggles to navigate changes in her close relationships in high school. Though the song deals with far graver circumstances in the grand scheme of things, the same sentiments of loss are felt in this Hailee Steinfeld-helmed project.
2. Pretty Woman
Though Roy Orbison originally wrote “Pretty Woman” about his wife, Claudette (according to Genius), it has now become inseparable from Julia Roberts thanks to the 1990 film of the same name. For the film’s purposes, the line Pretty woman, walkin’ down the street refers to Roberts’ character of a struggling prostitute, Vivian Ward. Throughout the film, Ward falls in love with a handsome—and rich —businessman who affords her a life-altering make-over. The film has so much stock in pop culture that anyone who goes from rags to riches can be said to have done a “Pretty Woman.”
3. Sweet Home Alabama
While Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” acted as a rallying cry for the devout Southerner, the 2002 rom-com of the same name saw the main character (Reese Witherspoon) dread returning to her rural hometown. By the end of the film, Witherspoon’s character falls in love with a back-home boy, finds a soft spot for the titular state, and decides to move back where the skies are so blue…
4. Dazed And Confused
Who better to encapsulate all the hazy shenanigans teenagers were getting into in the ’70s better than Led Zeppelin? At least that’s what Richard Linklater thought when he made the now classic film Dazed And Confused. The title, named after a song on Zeppelin’s debut album, drops the viewer into a particular time and place before they even hit play.
5. Boys Don’t Cry
The filmmakers for Boys Don’t Cry wanted a poignant title that befitted the murder of Brandon Teena—a transgender man who was killed in 1993. The film’s working title, Take It Like A Man, didn’t quite encapsulate the tragic nature of the story. However, a 1979 song from The Cure did. The Cure originally shared “Boys Don’t Cry” as a stand-alone single. The song’s commentary on masculinity fits the Hilary Swank-starring movie to a T.
6. Stand By Me
Like Dazed And Confused, The namesake for the 1986 movie Stand By Me immediately evokes a nostalgic reaction. The film, set in the late ’50s is one of the most touching coming-of-age stories ever. Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” was chosen to give the film its name after producers thought the name of the source material (Stephen King’s The Body) would give people the wrong impression. This wasn’t a bloody horror film, this was a timeless classic about standing by your friends despite life’s troubles.
Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
