Five of the most awesome band cameos in movies

If I were writing this piece about television, I’d begin with the Dillards – the fabulous bluegrass outfit that appeared as the fictionalized Darlings in a handful of episodes of the Andy Griffith Show in the 1960s. I would probably say something about how the show took an actual band, cast a real actor as the frontman to handle the dialogue parts, and ended up with something passable as a real fake band.

I suspect Cameron Crowe watched Andy Griffith when he was a kid because he used the same trick when he made his movie Singles in 1992. He took three guys from an actual band – Eddie, Stone, and Jeff were their names – and stuck a real actor in as their frontman. In the case of the Darlings, that actor was Denver Pyle.

In the case of Citizen Dick (the band from Singles), the pro was Matt Dillon. Since Dillon was the fictional lead singer, the actual band’s lead singer, Eddie Vedder, had to be Citizen Dick’s drummer.

Five fabulous band cameos from movies

But that’s only if I was writing this about television. I’d probably go on to talk about the actual band – The Wellingtons – who had recorded the theme song for Gilligan’s Island dressing up like mod rockers and playing the Mosquitoes, a fictional band that shows up on Gilligan’s actual island.

Or how the actual duo Chad & Jeremy appeared as the Redcoats on The Dick Van Dyke Show at just about the same time. My basic point would be that it wasn’t unusual for real bands to show up as thinly veiled versions of themselves on TV.

But I’m not writing about television today. I’m writing about movies. Here are five great movie cameos by mostly famous bands – one for each post-war decade in the twentieth century. (And, not to spoil the surprise, but if you read til the end, you’ll get a bonus selection. Don’t tell anyone.)