Many actors and actresses think they can have music careers just like musicians think they can have acting careers. There'll never be a day when both sides will think it can't happen, and more often than not, it can't.
The entertainment industry has always struggled with this misconception. Remember Eddie Murphy's tried and failed music career, and Bon Jovi's short-lived acting career. Elvis was one of the first musicians who made films and was successful. Then the Beatles and later Prince followed. But at least the music was still the essential part of their films.
Now Harry Styles is pursuing an acting career and seems to be doing okay, and Johnny Depp is more into his band than anything else. But can you picture Black Widow as a singer?
Unfortunately, Scarlett Johansson falls into the group of celebrities who tried and failed in the music industry.
Her First Album Featured David Bowie
Johansson has always loved music. She told The Associated Press that she initially went into acting so she'd be able to do musicals.
"That’s where my dream career was going to be when I was 8 years old, like the young Cosette in “Les Miserables.” Then I started making films and I never ended up doing musical theater," she said. "Of course, by the time I turned 13, I kind of buried that part of myself. You know, it’s always been there. I’ve always loved to sing and I’ve always loved music and listened to lots of music and all kinds of music."
Before she was even Black Widow, Johansson started to dabble in music. The first time we heard Johansson sing was in Sophia Coppola's Lost in Translation, where she sings The Pretenders' song "Brass in Pocket."
Later on, in 2006, she sang the track "Summertime" for the benefit album Unexpected Dreams – Songs From the Stars.
The next year, she surprised fans by coming out on stage to sing a duet on the song "Just Like Honey" with The Jesus and Mary Chain at Coachella.
It wasn't until 2008 that she released her debut album, Anywhere I Lay My Head, and she got to work with some of the best people in the industry.
The album took her five weeks to make and had one original song called "Song for Jo." The other ten songs were Tom Waits covers. David Bowie and members from the alternative bands Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Celebration also featured and TV on the Radio's David Andrew Sitek produced it. The lead single was "Falling Down."
"I’ve always been a huge fan of Tom Waits and I had this kind of golden opportunity to make an album however I wanted and it’s kind of a dream chance," Johansson told The Associated Press. "Originally I thought that I would do an album of standards and I wanted to include a Tom Waits song. And I don’t know, I thought maybe everybody does standards, and so, I see Tom Waits as being kind of a composer of modern standards and so it seemed appropriate that I could interpret his songs.
"Obviously, it’s not an album where I’m trying to sound like him. It would be impossible. He writes such beautiful songs and incredible melodies and they’re so cinematic and kind of open-ended so I felt like it would be something that I could be inspired by."
Johansson told Interview that she was approached about making something after "Summertime."
"I had originally recorded a song, a version of 'Summertime', for a benefit album. The album was distributed by Rhino, and the people at the label felt really pleased with the song, so they said, 'Have you ever thought about recording a whole album?'"
Despite the big names featured in it, the album had mixed reviews and peaked at 126 on the Billboard 200.
Of the album, Spin said, "As one scene in Lost in Translation confirmed, she's about as capable as a karaoke enthusiast needs to be."
She Had Even Stranger Collaborations On Her Second Album
Anywhere I Lay My Head might have been her debut album but it certainly wasn't her first recorded album. She recorded her first way before, in fact, with Pete Yorn. The collaboration happened on a spur of the moment.
"I was having a strange week of insomnia and when I finally passed out, it came to me in a dream. I woke up and the whole thing was in my head, fully formed." Yorn told Digital Spy. "Within ten minutes, I was texting Scarlett, 'We have to make a record!'"
Johansson recorded her songs for Break Up in two evenings, but that too earned mixed reviews. As with her first album, Break Up also attracted negative reviews of her vocal range.
In 2010, Johansson collaborated with Steel Train on their album Terrible Thrills Vol. 1. She sang the song "Bullet." That same year she also sang "One Whole Hour" for the documentary film Wretches & Jabberers.
She further combined film and music when she sang on a J. Ralph song called "Before My Time" in 2012, for the end credits of the climate documentary Chasing Ice. In 2016, she recorded "Trust in Me" for The Jungle Book soundtrack and "Set It All Free" and "I Don't Wanna" for Sing: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.
Meanwhile, Johansson also formed the girl group Singles with Este Haim from HAIM, Holly Miranda, Kendra Morris, and Julia Haltigan, and they released the single, "Candy." But they disbanded when another band called Single came forward with a cease and desist order.
Johansson collaborated with Pete Yorn again in 2018, for the album Apart. Harry Potter's Bonnie Wright directed the music video for the album's song "Iguana Bird."
Johansson seems to have excellent connections in the music industry, but we're not sure any of them could have saved her career as a singer in the end. Not even David Bowie. But we're glad she's stuck to her guns and continued to sing over the years, even when no one else wanted her to.