R.E.M. “Man On The Moon”

All Time Top Five Movies That Cribbed Their Name From A Good Song, And Managed To Be Pretty Good Themselves . . .

It’s not that uncommon for a film to take its name from a popular song. This week I’ve been writing about some of the good ones. And there are certainly many, many bad ones.

But good, bad or in between, I don’t know of another song that actually helped get a movie made.

Danny DeVito had worked with Andy Kaufman on “Taxi,” and as a producer, he wanted to bring Andy’s story to the big screen.

Supposedly, when he was running into the resistance from studios, worried that “the kids these days” didn’t know or care who Andy Kaufman was, DeVito pointed out that R.E.M. had recently had a hit that was all about Kaufman.

The kids knew. The kids cared. The movie got made. The kids came.

Hear a sample of R.E.M. “Man On The Moon”


Hear the whole song, sung live by R.E.M. and Bruce Springsteen, see the R.E.M. music video, and a scene from the movie.

Buy ”Automatic For The People” and the Movie on DVD.