The Hollywood stars who also hit the charts as singers.

Bruce Willis

Near the end of his run as a private eye on Moonlighting, a pre-Die Hard Bruce Willis made his official music debut with The Return of Bruno, released through Motown in 1987. His version of the classic soul song "Respect Yourself" landed at #5 on the pop charts, making it even more successful - as a pop record, that is - than the original.

The track was first recorded by The Staple Singers in 1971 and became a crossover hit, peaking at #12 on the Hot 100 but climbing to #2 on the soul charts, where Willis' rendition would hit #20. He had another hit that year with "Under the Boardwalk," a 1964 pop song by The Drifters. While it only reached #59 in the US, it was a huge hit in the UK at #2 and became the nation's 12th best-selling single of 1987.

He didn't have much time to consider chucking an acting career for a singing one, though; just one year later, he would become a full-fledged movie star playing detective John McClane in Die Hard.

Adam Sandler

Adam Sandler scored with "The Chanukah Song," where we learned that Goldie Hawn, Henry Winkler and all three Stooges were in fact, Jewish. Sandler first performed the song on a Weekend Update segment of SNL in 1994, and it became a #10 hit the following year. It was re-released as a single for the next three years and charted each time, at #46, #25, and #80, respectively. He's since recorded two follow-ups with new lists of celebs, including Bruce Springsteen ("who isn't Jewish, but my mother thinks he is") and Osama bin Laden ("not a big fan of the Jews"). Fellow Jew Neil Diamond, who was not referenced the song, covered it for his 2009 album A Cherry Cherry Christmas.

Let's not forget the other songs that came out of the golden age of SNL. "Wild and Crazy Guy" Steve Martin had a string of musical comedy hits in the late-'70s, most notably "King Tut" (#17), which he performed during one of the priciest skits the show produced at that time. The song was a parody of the Treasures of Tutankhamun, a popular traveling exhibit of artifacts from the ancient Egyptian's tomb. The "artifacts" in the skit were kitchen appliances.

Then, of course, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi hit the charts as The Blues Brothers with several songs, including their debut single, "Soul Man," which peaked at #14 in 1979.

Richard Harris

Long before he donned his wizard's cap as Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies, Richard Harris had a #2 hit with the 1968 song "MacArthur Park," from his album A Tramp Shining. While the end of the '60s saw pop songs climbing to the three-minute range, the Jimmy Webb-penned tune clocked in at a whopping seven minutes, with a few seconds thrown in for good measure. Still, Harris knew the song was perfect for his pop debut, and it proved to be an enduring hit for several other artists, including Donna Summer and Waylon Jennings.

Hugh Laurie

Hugh Laurie, the English actor who played Dr. Gregory House on House, M.D., released an album called Let Them Talk in 2011 and charted with the song "Police Dog Blues," originally recorded by ragtime bluesman Arthur "Blind" Blake in 1929. The narrator is a lovesick traveling man who's scared of a girl's dog, Rambler, because "when he gets the chance, he leaves his mark on everybody's pants."

Eddie Murphy

Long before he took a turn as a singing donkey in the Shrek films, Eddie Murphy occupied the #2 spot on the pop charts with "Party All the Time" (Lionel Richie's "Say You, Say Me" had a lock on #1). Written and produced by Rick James, the 1985 song follows Murphy's plight as a lonely guy trying to hold onto a party girl who gets around. The track was the first single released from Murphy's second album, How Could It Be. In 1989, he would score another hit with "Put Your Mouth On Me," which peaked at #27 (#2 on the R&B charts). In between singles, he was finishing out the decade with movies like The Golden Child, Beverly Hills Cop II and Coming to America.

Tracey Ullman

Curb Your Enthusiasm fans know Tracey Ullman for her role as Larry David's foil Irma Kostroski, but we first spotted her on The Tracey Ullman Show, a clever variety show that held the time slot after Married... with Children when the Fox network went on the air in 1987. It was the launching pad for The Simpsons, which started as a series of animated shorts that ran as interstitials on the show.

Ullman, a UK native, was starring in the English comedy series Three Of A Kind when she met the wife of a label boss at a hair salon and signed a record deal that lasted two albums and produced one big hit: "They Don't Know," a '60s throwback written and originally recorded by Kirsty MacColl in 1979 that was a #8 hit for Ullman in 1984.

And yes, that is Paul McCartney in the video. Ullman had a role in his movie Give My Regards To Broadstreet, which was filming at the time.

Rodney Dangerfield

In early December, 1983, Rodney Dangerfield's "Rappin' Rodney" debuted at #96, making it one of the first rap records to break into the Hot 100. The novelty number would make the rise to #83 in the new year, nestled in between The Headpins' "Just One More Time" and Musical Youth's "She's Trouble."

Dangerfield's luck runs out in the music video, an early-MTV favorite, as he's about to be hanged. He tries to enjoy his last meal of fast food while Don Novello, as his SNL character Father Guido Sarducci, keeps helping himself to it, and Pat Benatar prepares a hangman's knot for his execution. Even death doesn't offer relief as he's banished from entering Heaven (in reality, the comedian was an atheist).

Dangerfield was a hot commodity in the '80s, with roles in Caddyshack, Easy Money (he also appeared in the video for the title theme, sung by Billy Joel), and Back to School.

The Rappin' Rodney album was also a success and peaked at #38 on the albums chart. How's that for finally getting some respect?

Gwyneth Paltrow

Paltrow had a taste of chart success when she sang "Cruisin'" with Huey Lewis for the 2000 film Duets and topped the Adult Contemporary chart. But she would have to become a country star before she could be a pop star. Singing the title track for Country Strong, in which she played a recovering alcoholic trying to revive her music career, Paltrow peaked at #81 on the Hot 100 in 2010. That same year, she would begin a string of pop hits with the cast of Glee, the most popular being "Forget You," a cleaned-up version of CeeLo Green's "F—k You," which landed at #11.

Jamie Foxx

Jamie Foxx did three years on the beloved sketch comedy show In Living Color before we knew he could sing. When the show went off the air in 1994, Foxx put out his debut album. His first single, "Infatuation," topped out at #92, and he put his efforts back into acting, starring in films like Any Given Sunday and Ali. In 2004 he starred as Ray Charles in Ray, and the following year he channelled Charles to sing the hook on Kanye West's "Gold Digger," a huge hit. In 2008 he had a hit of his own with the Auto-Tune-infused "Blame It."

Jared Leto

Jared Leto has come a long way from his days of playing Jordan Catalano on the cult-classic teen drama My So-Called Life. His alt-rock band 30 Seconds to Mars started a buzz with their self-titled debut album in 2002, but their popularity exploded after releasing their acclaimed follow-up, A Beautiful Lie. All four singles made the rock charts and two crossed over to the pop charts: "The Kill (Bury Me)" at #65 and "From Yesterday" at #76. "The Kill (Bury Me)" really made a killing on the Modern Rock chart, where it remained for a record 50 weeks and peaked at #3.

As the group's frontman, Leto is more associated with music now than with acting, but he still managed to squeeze in an Oscar win for Best Supporting Actor for the 2013 drama Dallas Buyers Club.

Don Johnson

Johnson was still fighting crime in Miami as undercover detective James "Sonny" Crockett when "Heartbeat," the title track from his debut album, peaked at #5 on the charts. He would have a couple more chart entries: his next single, "Heartache Away," made it to #56, and "Till I Loved You," a duet with Barbra Streisand, reached #25 in 1988. He's also been known to co-write a song or two; he has credits on the Allman Brothers songs "Blind Love" and "Can't Take it with You."

Johnson wasn't the only detective to book a song on the charts. David Soul, who played Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson on the '70s cop drama Starsky & Hutch (inspiring the 2004 Ben Stiller/Owen Wilson comedy), topped both the US and UK charts with "Don't Give Up on Us" in 1976. Soul had always wanted to be a singer, and TV viewers actually knew his voice before they ever saw his face. He appeared as the "Covered Man" on The Merv Griffin Show in the late-'60s, claiming from beneath a mask: "My name is David Soul, and I want to be known for my music."

Jennifer Love Hewitt

Jennifer Love Hewitt sang "How Do I Deal" for the soundtrack to the horror sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer in 1999. Hewitt starred in the first two films as Julie James, who is destined to see her friends picked off one-by-one by the hand – or hook – of a crazed fisherman. The actress had already released three albums, but this single was the first to chart (at #59). In 2002, the title track from her BareNaked album bubbled under at #124.

Sometimes even the villains have their days on the charts. Before he played mother-obsessed slasher Norman Bates in the classic Psycho (1960), Anthony Perkins crooned sweet love songs throughout the '50s, including the #24 hit "Moonlight Swim." Another Alfred Hitchcock thriller, The Man Who Knew Too Much, saw the surprising debut of a light-hearted classic when star Doris Day first performed "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)," which reached #2 in 1956.

May 16, 2025

Further Reading:
TV Show Episodes Named After Songs
TV Show Theme Songs

Additional writing by Carl Wiser

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