Actors Try Singing - Joaquin Phoenix on Deck

There has been a buzz since Joaquin Phoenix stated he's retiring from making films and is recording a rap album. There have been numerous actors who have tried their hand at a singing career with dismal results. There will always be those TV actor one hit wonders, anyone remember the Donna Reed Show with Shelley Fabares and Paul Peterson. It doesn't hurt that they had people like Carole King and Gerry Goffin writing for them. Today on WNYC's Soundcheck they discuss this very topic and the host John Schaefer blogs about it. . Mare Winningham, Rick Moranis and Minnie Driver have all appeared on his show promoting their musical endeavors.

I've thought about this often and have yet to come up with an actor (acting has to have been his/her first career) who had a successful recording career. Rick Springfield is eliminated. He had a hit with Speak To The Sky, long before his cartoon, Mission Magic or General Hospital. Schaefer mentions Eddie Murphy, She And Him (Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward) and of course William Shatner. I can list a lot of actors who have had top 10 hits, but never a career singing: David Soul, John Travolta, Vicki Lawrence, Jack Wagner. Dyers.org has a list of Actors Who Tried to Sing, along with their album covers. Check out: Kristy McNichol, Donny Most, Anson Williams, Keanu Reeves, the list goes on. Kevin Bacon and his brother have successfully played live for many years, but never had a hit.

I would love to be enlightened. Is there is a actor who did have a successful singing career post acting? Does this mean it is much easier to act than to perform music? I guess Joaqin is up for taking the challenge.

A Musican can be an Actor, but An Actor Cannot be a Musician

If there is a successful actor who has made the transition to successful musician, I'd like to know who it is. I'm talking about the actor whose first career is acting. This eliminates Rick Springfield who I know a lot of people think started on General Hospital. Long before he was a doctor on that show, he had a top 40 hit with Speak To The Sky. Sure John Travolta and David Soul had hits, (Can you name them?*) so did Shelley Fabares and Leif Garrett. But did they ever have a follow up hit? Remember Eddie Murphy's My Girl Like To Party All The Time? Most people don't.

It is with great interest, that I wanted to hear Scarlet Johansson's new album which is mostly Tom Waits covers. Yesterday they previewed a few tracks on the Howard Stern show. While I only heard about a minute each of a few songs, I am stumped by it. It is over, over produced by TV On The Radio's David Andrew Sitek. Was that done to mask her vocals? The vocals sound like they were recorded at 45 and played back at 331/3, backwards.

There are many musician who have had successful film careers, but never the other way around and it looks like that spell won't be broken with Scarlet's latest.

* Let Her In and Don't Give Up On Us