She’s best known for her roles in Scream and Grindhouse or on the TV series Charmed, but this week Rose McGowan announced a new phase of her performing career: as a vocalist. On Sunday, she debuted her first single, the Bjork-esque “RM486” and an accompanying music video on the site Nowness.
The video features McGowan glammed up as several different personas but also topless, so the clip is NSFW. (Click here to watch it on YouTube.)
Speaking to Nowness, McGowan said she’s actually released songs previously – under pseudonyms. “In the last few years I ve actually released some songs under different names, just me pranking the public,” she said.
However, McGowan is just the most recent in a long line of celebs who are principally known for other pursuits but who have nonetheless made forays into the recording studio. Presented for your pop-cultural edification, here are 10 other celebs who have released singles.
Scarlett Johansson
She’s actually released two albums, 2008’s Anywhere I Lay My Head, which features her singing 10 songs written by Tom Waits, and 2009’s Break Up, a collaboration with Pete Yorn, inspired by Serge Gainsbourg’s albums recorded with Brigitte Bardot.
Clint Eastwood
You might think a studio album would represent a softer side of Eastwood’s, but no, not really – the album, 1959’s Cowboy Favorites, has him singing country standards, and that’s perfectly in line with his western persona. The album was released to promote Rawhide, the western TV series on which Eastwood starred from 1959 to 1966.
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Robert Downey Jr.
Ally McBeal fans probably remember Downey showing off his impressive pipes, but some of his biggest fans don’t know that he released a full album, The Futurist, in 2008. As if being a great actor weren’t enough, Downey has a fantastic singing voice, and he wrote many of the songs on the album himself – including “Broken,” which played over the end credits to his 2005 film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
Milla Jovovich
Released in April 1994, after Jovovich had already made the transition from modeling to acting, the album The Divine Comedy spawned a moderate hit: “The Gentleman Who Fell,” which climbed up to No. 21 on the Billboard modern rock chart. While Jovovich has subsequently focused on acting, she’s also released subsequent songs via her website.
Terrence Howard
Earlier this month, Howard gave an interview in which he revealed some of the more surprising details about his life, but maybe one of the most surprising aspects to his performing career is his 2008 R&B album, Shine Through It.
Katey Sagal
Sagal has been primarily known as an actor since the early ’70s, but for most of her onscreen career she’s had a parallel one as a singer. She has sung backup for everyone from Bob Dylan to Bette Midler to Olivia Newton-John, and in 1994, she released her first solo album, Well , and has since continued to record.
Bruce Willis
He’s been in many movies, to the point that his acting career overshadows the fact that he’s released three albums. The first, 1987’s The Return of Bruno, features him covering “Secret Agent Man,” and is it weird to admit secretly digging this ’80s-tastic version of the song?
Naomi Campbell
She’ll be forever known as a supermodel, and she’s more recently made appearances on popular TV shows, but in 1994, Campbell also released an album, Baby Woman. The track “Love and Tears” ended up reaching No. 40 in the U.K. singles chart.
Alyssa Milano
American fans knew her as Samantha Micelli on Who’s the Boss?, but during the years she starred on that show, 1984 to 1992, McGowan’s Charmed costar released four bubble gum pop albums in Japan. The most popular of these, 1989’s Alyssa, featured Milano covering “Be My Baby” quite competently, and you have to wonder why her recording career never crossed over to the U.S.
Tracey Ullman
She’s famous today for her impersonations, but Ullman had a side-career as a pop vocalist in the early ’80s. Her debut album, the wonderfully titled You Broke My Heart in 17 Places, had her covering ’60s classics. Another track from the album, a cover of Kristy MacColl’s "They Don’t Know," featured Paul McCartney in a cameo was later repurposed as the theme to the series Tracey Takes On .
What is your favorite song by a celeb who wasn’t necessarily famous for singing?