These Rock Songs Became Movie Titles

For No Obvious Reason

The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan showPhoto byBernard Gotfryd, Library of Congress

“I would rather turn my head and cough than see any part of ‘Patch Adams’ again. The title of this movie should have been ‘Punch Adams!’ — Gene Siskel

“P.S. I Love You” by the Beatles

“P.S. I Love You” was recorded by the Beatles in September 1962, a month after drummer Pete Best was replaced by Ringo Starr. Producer George Martin, unaware of the change, hired session drummer Andy White for the recording. As it turned out, White played bongos on the track and Starr added marimbas. The song was first released in the US on 1964’s Introducing… The Beatles.

The tune was primarily written by Paul McCartney during the group’s trips to Hamburg. “That’s Paul’s song,” John Lennon said in All We Are Saying. “He was trying to write a ‘Soldier Boy’ like the Shirelles.”

“It’s just an idea for a song really, a theme song based on a letter, like the ‘Paperback Writer’ idea,” McCartney explained in Many Years From Now. “It was pretty much mine. I don’t think John had much of a hand in it.

“There are certain themes that are easier than others to hang a song on, and a letter is one of them. ‘Dear John’ is the other version of it. The letter is a popular theme and it’s just my attempt at one of those. It’s not based in reality.”

The 2007 film P.S. I Love You stars Hilary Swank and Gerald Butler. The romantic drama was panned by critics but grossed $156 million worldwide.

"P.S. I Love You" by the Beatles

“Strange Brew” by Cream

“Strange Brew” is the opening track of 1967’s Disraeli Gears, Cream’s second album. Eric Clapton performs falsetto lead vocals on the song, which originated as a cover of the 1934 blues standard “Hey Lawdy Mama.” Ahmet Ertegun began as producer but after Felix Pappalardi came up with an idea for the song, he was asked to produce the rest of the album.

“He took home with him the tape we had previously recorded of ‘Lawdy Mama,’ which was a standard twelve-bar blues,” Clapton explained in his 2007 autobiography, “and came back the next day having transformed it into a kind of McCartneyesque pop song, complete with new lyrics and the title ‘Strange Brew.’

“I didn’t particularly like the song, but I respected the fact that he had created a pop song without completely destroying the original groove. In the end, he won my approval, by cleverly allowing me to include in it an Albert King-style guitar solo.”

“It was very much against my wishes but at that moment I had absolutely no power in the band, in the studio,” bassist Jack Bruce told Guitarist. “That was just the way it was at that point, because Ahmet Ertegun was more or less in love with Eric. He thought Eric should be the frontman.”

The Strange Brew film was a 1983 Canadian comedy starring Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis as SCTV characters Bob and Doug McKenzie. In an attempt to get free beer, the unemployed brothers try to blackmail a store by placing a live mouse in a beer bottle.

"Strange Brew" by Cream

“Who’ll Stop the Rain?” by Creedence Clearwater Revival

“Who’ll Stop the Rain?,” backed with “Travelin’ Band,” was one of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s great double-sided hit singles. Released in 1970, it reached №2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Written by John Fogerty at the height of the Vietnam War, “Who’ll Stop the Rain?” is thought to be an indictment of Washington warmongers. The song was used as the title of the 1978 film that starred Nick Nolte as a merchant marine sailor who attempts to smuggle heroin from Vietnam to San Francisco.

Fogerty has hinted that the song was written about the deluge of rain at the 1969 Woodstock Festival. In 2007, Fogerty said at a concert in Shelburne, VT, “A lot of folks seem to think I sang this song at Woodstock way back then. No. I was at Woodstock 1969. I think.

“It started to rain, and got really muddy, and then half a million people took their clothes off! Boomer generation making its presence known, I guess. Anyway, then I went home and wrote this song.”

“Originally it was written about the reign of Richard Nixon,” drummer Doug Clifford told Forbes. “The reign from the sky, you know, Tricky Dick, and what was going on. So take your pick — written about Woodstock or about the reign of Richard Nixon. I think if I had to make a choice now, it would be about the rain at Woodstock.”

"Who'll Stop the Rain?" by Creedence Clearwater Revival

“Tequila Sunrise” by the Eagles

Although it has become a concert favorite, “Tequila Sunrise” only reached №64 on the Billboard Hot 100 when it was released in 1973. It was one of the first collaborations by Eagles Don Henley and Glenn Frey, who decided they should write together after they finished recording the debut album, Eagles.

“I love the song,” Frey told Cameron Crowe. “I think the goal of any songwriter is to make a song appear seamless, to never show the struggle. Nothing should sound forced. ‘Tequila Sunrise’ was written fairly quickly, and I don’t think there’s a single chord out of place.”

“I believe that was a Glenn title,” added Henley. “I think he was ambivalent about it because he thought that it was a bit too obvious or too much of a cliché because of the drink that was so popular then. I said ‘No — look at it from a different point of view. You’ve been drinking straight tequila all night, and the sun is coming up!’

“It turned out to be a really great song. The changes that Glenn came up with for the bridge are very smart. That’s one song I don’t get tired of. ‘Take another shot of courage’ refers to tequila — because we used to call it ‘instant courage.’ We very much wanted to talk to the ladies, but we often didn’t have the nerve, so we’d drink a couple of shots and suddenly it was, ‘Howdy, ma’am.’”

Tequila Sunrise is a 1988 romantic crime film that stars Mel Gibson as an ex-drug dealer trying to go straight.

"Tequila Sunrise (Live)" by the Eagles

“Jumpin’ Jack Flash” by the Rolling Stones

Many think that the Stones’ 1968 anthem “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” is about Mick Jagger’s charismatic stage persona. The song was intended for the 1968 album Beggars Banquet but was not included. It marked a return to their rock sound from the psychedelic excesses of their previous album, 1967’s Their Satanic Majesties Request.

In his autobiography Life, Keith Richards explains that the song “came from a grey dawn at Redlands,” Richards’ UK home. “Mick and I had been up all night, it was raining outside, and there was the sound of these heavy stomping rubber boots near the window, belonging to my gardener, Jack Dyer, a real country man from Sussex. It woke Mick up. He said, ‘What’s that?’ I said, ‘Oh, that’s Jack. That’s jumping Jack.’

“I started to work around the phrase on the guitar, which was in open tuning, singing the phrase ‘Jumping Jack.’ Mick said, ‘Flash,’ and suddenly we had this phrase with a great rhythm and ring to it. So we got to work on it and wrote it.”

Whoopi Goldberg starred as a computer operator in Jumpin’ Jack Flash, a 1986 comedy. Goldberg helps a British intelligence agent escape from the KGB in Eastern Europe.

“Jumpin’ Jack Flash” by the Rolling Stones

Frank Mastropolo is the author of the 200 Greatest Rock Songs: The Stories Behind the Music series and Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever.