American actor and filmmaker Clint Eastwood, an audiophile, has had a strong passion for music all his life, particularly jazz and country and western music. He is a pianist and composer in addition to his main career as an actor, director, and film producer.[1] He developed as a ragtime pianist early on, and in late 1959 he produced the album Cowboy Favorites, which was released on the Cameo label.[1][2] Jazz has played an important role in Eastwood's life from a young age and although he was never successful as a musician, he passed on the influence to his son Kyle Eastwood, a successful jazz bassist and composer. Eastwood has his own Warner Bros. Records-distributed imprint, Malpaso Records, as part of his deal with Warner Brothers, which has released all of the scores of Eastwood's films from The Bridges of Madison County onward. Eastwood co-wrote "Why Should I Care" with Linda Thompson and Carole Bayer Sager, which was recorded by Diana Krall for the film True Crime (1999). "Why Should I Care" was also released on Krall's album When I Look in Your Eyes (also 1999).[3]

Eastwood composed the film scores of Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, Grace Is Gone, Changeling, Hereafter, J. Edgar, and the original piano compositions for In the Line of Fire. One of his songs can be heard over the credits of Gran Torino.

Albums

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Title Details
Rawhide's Clint Eastwood Sings Cowboy Favorites
Eastwood After Hours: Live at Carnegie Hall [2CD]
Music for the Movies of Clint Eastwood
The Singing Cowboys (Clint Eastwood & Frankie Laine) [2CD]
  • Release date: 2014
  • Label: Not Now Music

Singles

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Year Single Peak chart
positions
Album
US Country CAN Country
1961 "Unknown Girl of My Dreams"
1962 "Cowboy Wedding Song / Rowdy" Rawhide's Clint Eastwood Sings Cowboy Favorites [Bonus Track]
"Get Yourself Another Fool"
1970 "I Talk to the Trees" (B-side only)
"Best Things" (B-side only)
"Burning Bridges"
1980 "Bar Room Buddies" (with Merle Haggard) 1 1 Bronco Billy [Original Soundtrack]
"Beers to You" (with Ray Charles) 55 Any Which Way You Can [Original Soundtrack]
1981 "Cowboy in a Three Piece Business Suit"
2009 "Gran Torino" (as Walt Kowalski with Jamie Cullum) The Pursuit
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Guest singles

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Year Single Artist Peak chart positions Album
US Country US CAN Country
1984 "Make My Day" T. G. Sheppard 12 62 11 Slow Burn
1990 "Smokin' the Hive" (B-side) Randy Travis * * Heroes & Friends

(*) "Smokin' the Hive" was the B-side of "A Few Ole Country Boys" (a duet with Travis and George Jones with no involvement from Eastwood), a record that hit number 8 on the U.S. country charts and number 4 on the Canadian charts.

Other songs

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Year Song Title Release Functioned as Film Album Notes
1961 "For All We Know" Unknown Girl of My Dreams
[EP]
Singer Rawhide The Singing Cowboys
1962 "For You For Me for Evermore" Get Yourself Another Fool
[EP]
1964 "Sweet Betsy from Pike" A Fistful of Dollars Uncredited
1969 "I Still See Elisa" Paint Your Wagon
"Gold Fever"
1970 "When I Loved Her" Burning Bridges
[EP]
Kelly's Heroes
"Sam Hall" Two Mules for Sister Sara
1971 "Dove She is a Pretty Bird" The Beguiled
1981 "Dark Blue Feeling" Cowboy in a Three Piece Business Suit [EP] Bronco Billy
1982 "When I Sing About You" Honkytonk Man Honkytonk Man [Original Soundtrack]
"Honkytonk Man"
"In the Jailhouse Now" Duets with Marty Robbins
"No Sweeter Cheater Than You"
1984 "Montage Blues" Piano player City Heat Play with: Mike Lang and Pete Jolly
"Amanda's Theme" Composer Tightrope Music for the movies of Clint Eastwood
1986 "How Much I Care" Heartbreak Ridge Sung by Jill Hollier
1992 "Claudia's Theme" Unforgiven Unforgiven [Original Soundtrack]
1993 "Big Fran's Baby" A Perfect World A Perfect World [Original Soundtrack]
1995 "Doe Eyes (Love Theme from The Bridges of Madison County)" The Bridges of Madison County The Bridges of Madison County [Original Soundtrack]
1997 "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" Singer Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil [Original Soundtrack]
"Power Waltz" Composer Absolute Power
"Kate's Theme" Music for the Movies of Clint Eastwood
"C. E. Blues" Eastwood After Hours: Live at Carnegie Hall
1999 "Why Should I Care" True Crime True Crime [Original Soundtrack]
When I Look in Your Eyes
Sung by Diana Krall
2000 "ESPACIO" Space Cowboys Music for the Movies of Clint Eastwood
2003 "Mystic River" Mystic River Mystic River [Original Soundtrack]
2004 "Blue Morgan" Million Dollar Baby Million Dollar Baby [Original Soundtrack]
2006 "Flags of Our Fathers" Flags of Our Fathers Flags of Our Fathers [Original Soundtrack]
2007 "Grace Is Gone" Grace Is Gone Grace Is Gone [Original Soundtrack]
2008 Compose by all songs Changeling Changeling [Original Soundtrack]
2009 "9,000 Days" Invictus Invictus [Original Soundtrack]
2010 Compose by all songs Hereafter Hereafter [Original Soundtrack]
2011 Compose by all songs J. Edgar J. Edgar [Original Soundtrack] Not released (promo only)
2012 "You Are My Sunshine" Singer Trouble with the Curve
2014 "Taya's Theme" Composer American Sniper American Sniper [Original Soundtrack]
2016 "Flying Home (Theme from Sully)" Sully Sully [Original Soundtrack] Sung by The Tierney Sutton Band

References

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  1. ^ a b McGilligan, p.114
  2. ^ Hughes, 91
  3. ^ "Krall, Eastwood Team For 'crime'". Billboard. AllBusiness.com. March 11, 1999. Archived from the original on December 30, 2008.

Bibliography

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