Best Music Movies of 1996

Aspiring director Corky St. Clair and the marginally talented amateur cast of his hokey small-town musical production go overboard when they learn that Broadway theater agent Mort Guffman will be in attendance.

A Pennsylvania band scores a hit in 1964 and rides the star-making machinery as long as it can, with lots of help from its manager.

After telling the story of Flint's last journey to young Jim Hawkins, Billy Bones has a heart attack and dies just as Jim and his friends are attacked by pirates. The gang escapes into the town where they hire out a boat and crew to find the hidden treasure, which was revealed by Bones before he died. On their voyage across the seas, they soon find out that not everyone on board can be trusted.

Heading through Colorado Territory in search of gold and women, Alferd Packer and his group of bemused companions find themselves lost, starving and musically inspired by the obstacles they confront along the way, including a die-hard Confederate cyclops, a trio of surly trappers, a tribe of Japanese-speaking "Indians," and ultimately, each other.

A New York girl sets her father up with a beautiful woman in a shaky marriage while her half sister gets engaged.

The hit musical based on the life of Evita Duarte, a B-movie Argentinian actress who eventually became the wife of Argentinian president and dictator Juan Perón, and the most beloved and hated woman in Argentina.

A nice guy has just moved to New York and discovers that he must share his run-down apartment with a couple thousand singing, dancing cockroaches.

Oingo Boingo's Farewell Concert at the Universal Amphitheatre

A 1968 event put together by The Rolling Stones. The film is comprised of two concerts on a circus stage and included such acts as The Who, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull, and Jethro Tull. John Lennon and his fiancee Yoko Ono performed as part of a supergroup called The Dirty Mac, along with Eric Clapton, Mitch Mitchell, and Keith Richards.

A look at the entire process of creating and developing Patrice Chéreau’s third staging of "In the Solitude of Cotton Fields" by Bernard Marie Koltès with Pascal Greggory and Chéreau himself. From the first reading around the table through the first contact with the performance space, rehearsals and lighting to opening night, the entire creative process unfurls in front of our eyes. The film shows us the evolving and ongoing dialogue between Greggory and Chéreau, a dialogue full of crises and magical moments of harmony and insight via which the truth, intensity, complexity, mystery and depth of Koltès’ text gradually emerge to form an implicit bond between these two men. The film also shows Chéreau directing rehearsals for Mozart’s "Don Giovanni" in Salzburg, revealing both the unity of and profound differences between his opera and theater work.

This documentary examines the Seattle scene as it became the focus of a merging of punk rock, heavy metal, and innovation. Building from the grass roots, self-promoted and self-recorded until break-out success of bands like Nirvana brought the record industry to the Pacific Northwest, a phenomenon was born.

Concert footage of British rock band Oasis performing the second of two record breaking gigs at Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire, England as part of the UK summer leg of their 1996 world tour. Oasis live at Knebworth park 1996 the two gigs broke box office records when one in every 20 people in the UK applied for tickets. They have since gone into the history books as era-defining concerts. The gigs came during Oasis' world tour for '(What's The Story) Morning Glory?'

The Peter Sellars production of Handel's "Theodora", recorded live at the Glyndebourne Festival in May 1996. Dawn Upshaw stars as Theodora, with David Daniels as Didymus, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson as Irene, Richard Croft as Septimius, and Frode Olsen as Valens. William Christie conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Alice in Chains returned to the popular music eye with this live, acoustic performance in New York on 10th April, 1996. After an absence from the stage of three years the band performed a 13-song set, including 'Heaven Beside You', 'Rooster' and 'Would?'.

Bruce Macdonald follows punk bank Hard Core Logo on a harrowing last-gasp reunion tour throughout Western Canada. As magnetic lead-singer Joe Dick holds the whole magilla together through sheer force of will, all the tensions and pitfalls of life on the road come bubbling to the surface.

Music video for "Charmless Man" performed by British rock group Blur.

Riverdance Show is a cultural phenomenon that defies criticism for the enthusiastic and leaves everyone else scratching their heads. The wonderfully talented cast, headed by the Riverdance Irish Dance Company, bewitchingly spins (and stomps) its Celtic folk choreography featuring numerous breathless solos by Michael Flatley (since departed) and Jean Butler. The mellifluous Riverdance Orchestra boasts Davy Spillane, who coaxes plaintive lamentations out of a peculiar instrument that resembles a bagpipe in a metal leg brace. For Enya fans, there is the sound-alike choral group Anuna, who casts a similarly New Age-style vocal spell. Also thrown into the mix are such disparate folk traditions as American gospel and Spanish flamenco. Though it's only 70 minutes long, Riverdance is repetitive by half. But judging from the ecstatic audience ovations and the continued foot-stomping during and after the curtain calls, too much is still not enough.

A collection of music videos from one of the most successful rock and roll bands ever. From the David Lee Roth era to the Sammy Hagar era, you'll find just about every popular video from the guitar driven band that was ever produced.

Footage of Tina Turner's amazing three-night stint at the Amsterdam Arena in September, 1996, where she performed all her biggest hits in a spectacular visual production.

Earls Court, London and Maine Road, Manchester. Four record-breaking nights, 120,000 people, a whole world of possibilities at the heart of the hurricane. If you were there, here's the memories to go with the tingles. If you weren't, just get a load of what you missed. Great songs, exclusive interviews, the sights and sounds of Oasis at their very, very best.

Lewis, a young amateur theater director, is offered a job with a governmental program for the rehabilitation of mentally ill patients in a Sydney institution. His project is overrun by one of the patients who wants to stage the opera Cosi Fan Tutte by Mozart despite the fact that none of the patients are able to sing and none of them speak Italian. A comedy of errors ensues, but one which unifies the patients and their director in unexpected ways.

Neglected by her husband during the pre-Christmas rush, Mrs. Claus takes the reindeer and sleigh out for a drive, only to end up stranded in the neighborhood of Manhattan's Lower East Side.

A pair of kidnappings expose the complex power dynamics within the corrupt and unpredictable workings of 1930s Kansas City.

One of puppet-maker Geppetto's creations comes magically to life. This puppet, Pinocchio, has one major desire and that is to become a real boy someday. In order to accomplish this goal he has to learn to act responsibly. This film shows you the adventures on which he learns valuable lessons.

1. Back In Black 2. Shot Down In Flames 3. Thunderstruck 4. Girl's Got Rhythm 5. Hard As A Rock 6. Shoot To Thrill 7. Boogie Man 8. Hail Caesar 9. Hells Bells 10. Dog Eat Dog 11. The Jack 12. Ballbreaker 13. Rock And Roll Ain't Noise Pollution 14. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap 15. You Shook Me All Night Long 16. Whole Lotta Rosie 17. T.N.T. 18. Let There Be Rock 19. Highway To Hell 20. For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) No Bull captures the over the top spectacle that was AC/DC's 1996 Ballbreaker tour. Shot at the Plaza De Toros De Las Ventas bullfighting arena in Madrid, the film has been completely re-edited in HD and remixed in both Stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound.

Giorgio, a young soldier, is in love with the married Clara and becomes her lover. But they are separated when Giorgio is posted far away, where he meets the unhappy, unhealthy, and unattractive Fosca, who develops a passionate love for Giorgio and tries to make him love her. This rendition of Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning musical was recorded on the stage with it's original all-star Broadway cast. Originally broadcast as part of "American Playhouse" on PBS (season thirteen, episode six).

Filmed in the years after college rock band R.E.M. broke through to widespread pop success, ROAD MOVIE features the acclaimed band live near their hometown of Athens, Georgia. Filmed at Atlanta's Omni arena as part of their "Monster Tour," which followed their 1994 MONSTER album, R.E.M. perform stellar versions of "Losing My Religion," "Man on the Moon," "Everybody Hurts," "Find the River," "Wake Up Bomb," "Undertow" and many other hits.

Latin pop superstar Gloria Estefan brings the crowd to their feet in this concert video, shot at a performance in her hometown of Miami in September 1996, featuring her band Miami Sound Machine and a troupe of Latin dancers. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

CREMASTER 1 (1995) is a musical revue performed on the blue Astroturf playing field of Bronco Stadium in Boise, Idaho - Barney's hometown. Two Goodyear Blimps float above the arena like the airships that often transmit live sporting events via television broadcast. Four air hostesses tend to each blimp. The only sound is soft ambient music, which suggests the hum of the engines.

They All Come Down to Montreux

Kiss Unplugged is a Kiss album featuring the group performance in MTV Unplugged. On August 9, 1995, hard rock band Kiss performed on MTV Unplugged in what fans consider the beginning of the eventual Kiss Reunion Tour. Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons contacted former members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley and invited them to participate in the event. Fan reaction to Criss and Frehley at the Unplugged show was so positive that, in 1996, the original lineup of Kiss reunited, with all four original members together for the first time since 1980. It also marked the only time the original lineup performed live without their trademark makeup, other than at Ace Frehley's wedding, and was also the only time Frehley and Criss shared a stage with Eric Singer and Bruce Kulick. Further, it was the first time Eric Singer had part of a lead vocal (shared with Peter Criss on Nothin' To Lose).

An ice-skating television adaptation of the 1939 musical film based on Lyman Frank Baum's 1900 fairy tale novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz".

On November 24, 1996, Crowded House performed their last ever concert to a crowd of more than 120,000 people on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.

See classic live performances, interviews and vintage footage of the original Lynyrd Skynyrd band.

In August 1970, 600,000 fans flocked to the Isle of Wight to witness the third and final festival to be held on the island. Besides the music, they also got a look at the greed, cynicism and corruption that would plague the music industry for years to come. They also witnessed the final, drugged out performance of Jimi Hendrix in England just two weeks before he would meet a tragic death. When it all was over, the fans view of rock and roll was never the same.

Live at The Isle Of Wight Festival 1970. This was Hendrix's final performance in England. He died a few weeks later.

A star-studded tribute to Star Trek on its 30th anniversary, hosted by many of the stars and guest stars from all of the Trek series and movies. Also features a huge number of clips from all of the series and movies. At the end, real-life astronauts Aldrin and Jemison present NASA award plaques to the cast members.

Gulliver begins a voyage by boat, but in the middle of the trip is caught in a storm and the ship sinks. Gulliver comes then to Lilliput, an island inhabited by tiny people. It will have many adventures, helping to establish peace with the neighboring country.

Inside a secret door under the stairs, Claire and her sister Caitlin find an enchanted trunk, a magical locket and an invitation that whisks them away to a magical kingdom.

Do The Alphabet is a 1996 Sesame Street direct-to-video compilation, with a framing sequence starring Big Bird and Baby Bear.

Have you ever felt too small to do a really big job? That's what Dave felt when his brothers headed off to defend their country, leaving him behind with the sheep. This re-telling of the classical biblical story of David and Goliath teaches kids that with God's help, even the little guys can do big things!

Documentary of shows and experiences of Southern California's punk rock band.

The Donmar Warehouse production of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's classic musical, starring Adrian Lester and directed by Sam Mendes.

Hoist anchor, maties! And set a course for the grandest pirate yarn ever to shiver your timbers in this thrillingly animated, song- and –laughter filled version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s swashbuckling adventure classic!

Brian Wilson and the boys of summer add a pinch of down-home twang to their classic harmonies with the help of country music's finest. In this 1996 recording session for the album "Stars and Stripes," The Beach Boys rework 12 of their songs, including "409" (with Junior Brown), "The Warmth of the Sun" (with Willie Nelson), "In My Room" (with Tammy Wynette), "Don't Worry Baby" (with Lorrie Morgan), and "I Get Around" (with Sawyer Brown).

A televised production of The Merry Widow featuring behind the scenes content.

Documents the highlights of a concert version of the musical written by former ABBA members Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, performed in Minnesota. Based on a series of novels detailing a family's poverty-driven migration from Sweden to America in the mid-19th century, we also meet some of the descendants to the emigrants.

An infectious hybrid of rock, funk and hip-hop, 311 have sold millions of records since their formation in the early 1990s. This follow-up to Enlarged to Show Detail features even more rare and exclusive clips. Along with live concert performances of tunes such as "Freeze Time" and "Beautiful Disaster," this video includes band interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and several music videos. Please note: Contains explicit content.

Morrissey captured live during his '95 U.K. Tour. Recorded over two nights at Sheffield's City Hall And the Winter Gardens in Blackpool.