Tons of movies and TV shows have been shot in Wilmington over the past 40 years, often with area locations providing the backdrop for memorable scenes.
Sometimes, however, the music used in Wilmington-shot fare proves at least as memorable and lasting, if not more so, than the on-screen locations.
Below you'll find a list of 17 well-known musical artists, from current stars to names of yesteryear, who've had their songs prominently featured in Wilmington-shot movies and TV series. You'll hear everything from era-defining pop hits to classic chestnuts, with the music encompassing such genres as rock, jazz, country, hip-hop and more.
Let's drop the needle.
AC/DC
Australian hard rock act
AC/DC did the whole soundtrack for 1986 Stephen King "monster" truck film "Maximum Overdrive." The resulting album, titled "Who Made Who," is actually better than anything in the movie.
Paula Cole
Definitive track from Wilmington-shot teen drama, "Dawson's Creek" (1998-2003), which made stars of Katie Holmes, Josh Jackson, the late James Van Der Beek and Michelle Williams, is Cole's soaring spine-tingler "I Don't Wanna Wait."
Gavin DeGraw
Long-running drama "One Tree Hill" (2003-2012) was a music-heavy series, but if it had a definitive song it'd probably be McGraw's rocker "I Don't Want To Be," with its lyrics about being who you are.
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
Emmy-nominated 1992 CBS TV movie "Stompin' at the Savoy," about a Black North Carolina family moving to New York City in the 1930s, had a big-name cast (Vanessa Williams, Jasmine Guy, Mario Van Peebles) and a sophisticated, jazzy soundtrack, including the title tune from Fitzgerald and Armstrong.
The Gin Blossoms
The Gin Blossoms' poppy '90s hit "'Til I Hear It From You" is one of many well-known songs on the soundtrack to beloved 1995 movie "Empire Records," about record store employees fighting a corporate takeover.
George Jones and Tammy Wynette
Actors Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon famously sang their own parts in "George and Tammy," a limited Showtime series about the tumultuous relationship between country legends Tammy Wynette and George Jones. Wynette and Jones, of course, provided the songs.
John Lennon
Lennon's deeply emotional song with The Plastic Ono Band, "Mother," is prominently featured in wackadoodle 1988 film "Track 29," starring Gary Oldman as an unhinged man in search of his birth mother. Lennon's song was no doubt an expensive one to license, but it probably helped that his bandmate in The Beatles, George Harrison, was a producer of the film.
Wynton Marsalis
The decade-plus it took to make2019 movie "Bolden," about jazz legend Buddy Bolden, is the stuff of Wilmington film industry legend. But it can't be denied that the soundtrack by modern day jazz/classical master Marsalis, a nine-time Grammy Award winner and a Pulitzer Prize winner, is the real deal.
Roy Orbison
Spooky song "In Dreams" by crooner Orbison was used to unforgettable effect in David Lynch's 1986 film "Blue Velvet," with a makeup-caked Dean Stockwell lip-syncing the song into a work light as Dennis Hopper's villain Frank Booth looked on, mesmerized.
OutKast
The 2006 film "Idlewild" from Atlanta hip-hop duo OutKast (Antwan "Big Boi" Patton and Andre "Andre 3000" Benjamin) was considered a disappointment at the time of its release. Even so, songs from its star-studded soundtrack still intrigue, like R&B-flavored rap tune "Hollywood Divorce," which features rappers Snoop Dogg and Lil' Wayne.
The Runarounds
Music-centric 2025 series about a Wilmington band trying to make it big contains a number of poppy gems, including "Senior Year" and "It's Funny How the Universe Works.'
Stone Temple Pilots
Stone Temple Pilots' "The Big Empty" was probably the biggest hit from the hard-rocking soundtrack of uber-dark 1994 film "The Crow," which had an even darker real-life component: Star Brandon Lee was accidentally shot and killed during filming in Wilmington.
Taylor Swift
Swift's music looms large in massively popular series "The Summer I Turned Pretty" (2022-25), with her hit "Cruel Summer" being especially prominent.
TLC
Vocal trio TLC's smooth 1995 pop hit "Waterfalls" is the unlikely theme song of raunchy 2013 comedy "We're the Millers," which stars Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis as drug smugglers pretending to be the heads of a Griswold-like family.
Mel Torme
Several versions of jazz standard "Dream a Little Dream" appear in the 1989 teen movie of the same title starring The Coreys (Haim and Feldman), including an iconic take by The Mamas & The Papas and a weird rock rendition in a dance scene shot at New Hanover High School's Brogden Hall. A syrupy version by Torme, aka The Velvet Fog, is accompanied by shots of Thalian Hall.
John Staton is the arts and culture reporter for the StarNews. You can reach him at jstaton@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: 17 music artists who've had songs in Wilmington-shot films, TV shows
