Music biopics that rock

Soul’s James Brown is the latest singer to have his life story filmed, in a ‘rags to riches’ genre that began with the first ‘talkie’ in 1927.

THE 1927 film The Jazz Singer is renowned as the first ‘talkie’, but it’s also the first musical biopic, the story of how young Jakie Rabinowitz (Jolson) defies his father’s wishes that he become a cantor to follow his dream of becoming a secular jazz singer.

The movie was remade in 1980, starring Neil Diamond, and today the musical biopic is a staple of Hollywood. The latest, Get On Up, is the story of how James Brown rose from humble origins to become the ‘Godfather of Soul’ and the self-proclaimed “hardest-working man in show business”.