From Archies to Wonderland to Daisy Jones & the Six
launch today Daisy Jones and the Six, Amazon’s 10-episode adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s bestselling novel about the rise and fall of a fictional rock band in the 1970s, made us wonder where The Six dominated in the long and sometimes ramshackle history of fake bands and singers in film and television. It’s a weird but often very catchy musical subgenre, and this is our attempt to figure out the best real songs for the best fake songs.
We have established the following eligibility rules: 1) Original Songs Only, with apologies to the Blues Brothers, Commitments, and other great fantasy cover artists; 2) There are no biopics or other films where musicians mainly play themselves (eg, Prince in purple rain Or Eminem 8 miles); and 3) it must be some kind of real fictional musical work, rather than someone just performing an original song in the context of a movie, show, or musical. We also had a long discussion about what to do with the Monkees, before it was decided that at a certain point, they had worked their way up to being a real band, and therefore didn’t qualify. (otherwise he would be a “daydream believer” very high ranking.)
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