When "This Is Spinal Tap" opened on March 2, 1984, it made a modest $4.7 million, but the cast and crew behind this "rockumentary" likely had no idea what an oft-quoted, cultural touchstone it would become. ("This one goes to 11.")
At the time, maybe the send-up of big-hair heavy metal bands was too close to reality, and many moviegoers thought Spinal Tap was a real band. Actually, the film did have a soundtrack (with such classics as "Sex Farm Woman") since the comic geniuses of Spinal Tap wrote and performed their own songs. They even took the group on the road in 2009 for the film's 25th anniversary and even opened up for themselves as their other musical persona, The Folksmen from Spinal Tap's folk sequel of sorts, "A Mighty Wind."
The clueless hard rockers -- Michael McKean (as lead singer David St. Hubbins), Christopher Guest (as tongue-flicking guitarist Nigel Tufnel) and Harry Shearer (as cucumber-packing bassist Derek Smalls- first appeared in a sketch on a 1979 TV pilot starring Rob Reiner. Realizing they had struck comic gold, they got the band back together and made "This is Spinal Tap."
They called on their comedy buddies to make cameos, including Billy Crystal and Dana Carvey as mime waiters, as well as real musicians like Atomic Rooster drummer R.J Parnell, who played the band's longest-surviving drummer, Mick Shrimpton.
The result: A cult classic that we can't stop quoting or re-watching.
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