50 Greatest Movie Singing Scenes
Top of the pipes
Blue Velvet (1986)
The Scene: Frank (Dennis Hopper) heads to the living quarters of Ben (Dean Stockwell), who puts on a little show.
The Song: Alright, it's actually miming to a song (Stockwell does Roy Orbison's 'In Dreams'), but it's done so brilliantly we just had to include it.
Join In When: You surrender to the weirdness.
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
The Scene: Llewyn (Oscar Isaac) agrees to help out his buddy Jim (Justin Timberlake) with a record he's putting together, but isn't sure about the song when he turns up.
The Song: The guys jam along to 'Please Mr Kennedy', with Jim on vocals and his friend Al (Adam Driver) on back-up.
Join In When: Any time Driver enthuses "outerrrr... spaaace!"
Annie Hall (1977)
The Scene: Dressed in a super-seventies jacket, eyes mascara-ed to the hilt, Annie (Diane Keaton) takes to the stage for a tinkling piano solo.
The Song: 'Seems Like Old Times', a romantic love song that would make Alvie (Woody Allen) fall head over heels for Annie if he hadn't already.
Join In When: Don't. This is Annie's moment and you'd likely spoil it.
Mrs Doubtfire (1993)
The Scene: As the opening credits of Chris Columbus' book adap roll, actor Daniel (Robin Williams) voices animated bird Pudgy.
The Song: Daniel wraps his tongue around 'Largo al Factotum' from the opera The Barber Of Seville, and does a stand-up (Italian) job.
Join In When: You've learnt Italian.
Enchanted (2007)
The Scene: Giselle (Amy Adams) goes for a walk through Central Park with Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and attempts to explain how she knows that Prince Edward (James Marsden) is the right man for her – despite having only just met him.
The Song: Unable to simply talk about it, Giselle explains via song 'That's How You Know', recruiting other park people to her cause.
Join In When: There's a key change and everything's kicked up another notch.
Shame (2011)
The Scene: Brandon (Michael Fassbender) and his boss David (James Badge Dale) go to a New York bar to watch Brandon's sister sing a solo.
The Song: Sissy (Carey Mulligan) takes to the stage and starts singing an unremittingly sad version of 'New York, New York'.
Join In When: Brandon's emotional reaction becomes too much to bear.
Wayne's World (1992)
The Scene: Mike Myers' rock parody quickly establishes itself as a cult classic early on as Wayne (Myers) gets into a car with Garth (Dana Carvey) and puts a cassette into the player.
The Song: The guys mosh up to 'Bohemian Rhapsody', putting all other road users at considerably risk.
Join In When: Everybody starts headbanging.
Sign up for the Total Film Newsletter
Bringing all the latest movie news, features, and reviews to your inbox
Almost Famous (2000)
The Scene: The band's on the road looking indescribably gloomy, mostly because Russell has just made a total fool of himself. Then 'Tiny Dancer' comes on the bus radio.
The Song: One by one, the band joins in with the song until everybody's having a jolly old time.
Join In When: "Hold me closer tiny dancer!" Russell joins in, too, and the chorus is complete.
Anchorman (2004)
The Scene: Ron (Will Ferrell) is delighted because he's just had sex with a beautiful woman. Then the guys ask him what love is.
The Song: "It's really quite simple," Ron explains, before breaking into a rendition of 'Afternoon Delight'.
Join In When: The guys start to harmonise.
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
The Scene: At the close of Stanley Kubrick's war flick, we discover our soldiers traipsing through a fiery wasteland, where they all start singing.
The Song: Perhaps the least likely of army songs - 'Mickey Mouse March' - is chanted as the troupes head back to camp. Why? We have no idea.
Join In When: The song calls for you to squeakily yell "Mickey Mouse!"
Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.
There was "no version" of Sonic 3 that wouldn't include Live and Learn according to director Jeff Fowler: "The fans would hunt me down"
Amid Oscar buzz, Zoe Saldana opens up on her new perspective on Hollywood and why she's only really proud of Avatar and Emilia Pérez: "I think I just have to accept who I am as a creative person"