"yankee-doodle-dandy"

James Brown, the "Godfather of Soul," will finally get his due in director Tate Taylor’s "Get On Up," out this week some 12 years after Brian Grazer (who co-produced it with Mick Jagger) first tried to get the project off the ground.   Early reviews champion star Chadwick Boseman’s kinetic performance as "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business." Congrats, Chadwick: those are very big (and very active) shoes to fill. This is just the latest addition to a treasure trove of music biopics that have made some serious box office noise over the decades. Below are ten that deserve a debut or encore performance on your home screen. Pick one, and give your eyes and ears a treat.  

You’ll hear a lot about patriotism this weekend. I already got an email saying it was my patriotic duty to get in on a great car deal. Even beyond the stupendous sales out there, there are the barbecues, parades, fireworks, and at some point, maybe even a warbling of the National Anthem. (Get on your feet, boy. Stand up straight, and put that hand where it belongs- across your chest!)

This Independence Day, America confronts a host of serious challenges, and appears diminished on the world stage. There’s a vacuum of leadership for all the world to see.

Every couple of years, right around Independence Day, I revisit this beloved 1942 musical biopic, and it’s always the same joyful, rousing experience.

A few months ago, I was watching a flavorful early Cagney entry called “Taxi!” (1932), and in one early scene, witnessed the diminutive but feisty actor of Irish/Norwegian stock speaking Yiddish…not one or two words, mind you, but whole sentences. And I thought to myself — yet another reason to love Jimmy Cagney.