Get up close and personal with the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Jon Bon Jovi: New docs show fans a new side of their favorite artists
Music lovers, unite! A number of new documentaries are coming out that offer a glimpse inside the most vulnerable moments and celebrated milestones in the lives of the artists.
On April 16, Disney+ announced that Let It Be, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s original 1970 film about the Beatles, will debut on the platform, after being restored.
Hulu is releasing Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, a docuseries about the band's rise to fame — and frontman Jon Bon Jovi's vocal cord ailment, which threatens the future of the group. Disney+ is turning its focus on the Beach Boys, who are the subject of a film that highlights the group's humble beginnings as they crafted "the iconic, harmonious sound ... that personified the California dream."
Celine Dion’s upcoming documentary, out in June on Prime Video, gives insight not only into the singer’s life and career but also how she’s navigating living with stiff person syndrome, which she was diagnosed with in 2022.
From in-depth interviews to never-before-seen footage, viewers will be there to relive the moments that turned these performers into the legends we know today.
Here’s what to know about these upcoming films.
Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story
The New Jersey band is at the center of this four-part Hulu docuseries celebrating 40 years in the business — but it’s not all a bed of roses.
In 2022, Jon Bon Jovi had surgery for an atrophied vocal cord. While the episodes track the band’s meteoric rise from Jersey Shore clubs to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the series also paints the uncertain future the group faces amid its frontman’s recovery.
Through decades of personal videos, unreleased early demos, original lyrics and newly released photos, you’ll see Bon Jovi in a new light. For Jon Bon Jovi, that’s the most exciting part of all.
“The goal was to be both honest and introspective. I knew we didn't want to make a cliché rock 'n' roll struggle-to-fame tale. I wanted an authentic story of our journey,” he said in a press release about the film. “We don't know how the story ends — that is both scary and what fuels me.”
All four episodes of Thank You, Goodnight: A Bon Jovi Story stream April 26 on Hulu
Let It Be
For the first time in over 50 years, Michael Lindsay Hogg’s 1970 film about the Beatles will have a new audience.
The original movie was shot in January 1969 during the recording sessions of Let It Be, in what would be the band’s last album together. More than five decades after its initial release, Hogg granted director Peter Jackson access to nearly 60 hours of behind-the-scenes footage to use for his 2021 Disney+ docuseries The Beatles: Get Back.
Now fans will get to see the original version of Hogg’s film, as Let It Be contains footage not featured in Jackson's docuseries.
“Let It Be was ready to go in October/November 1969, but it didn’t come out until April 1970. One month before its release, the Beatles officially broke up. And so the people went to see Let It Be with sadness in their hearts, thinking, ‘I’ll never see the Beatles together again. I will never have that joy again,’ and it very much darkened the perception of the film,” Hogg said in a news release about the upcoming movie. “But, in fact, how often do you get to see artists of this stature working together to make what they hear in their heads into songs.”
Let It Be streams May 8 on Disney+
The Beach Boys
Centering on the legendary California group that revolutionized the sound of pop music, The Beach Boys documentary chronicles the band’s journey to become one of the most influential groups in history.
Formed in the early 1960s, the Beach Boys have sold over 100 million albums worldwide to date. The film features new interviews with surviving members Al Jardine, Mike Love, David Marks, Bruce Johnson and Brian Wilson, who is “super happy with the way the documentary turned out.”
"It really brought me back to those days with the boys, the fun and the music. And of course those incredible harmonies,” Wilson said in a news release.
The band will also release a corresponding soundtrack.
The Beach Boys streams May 24 on Disney+
I Am: Celine Dion
The Grammy-winning superstar, who revealed in 2022 that she has stiff person syndrome, is giving fans a rare glimpse inside her life.
Described as an “emotional, energetic and poetic love letter to music,” I Am: Celine Dion promises to be a personal exploration of the singer’s past and present. The film, directed by Academy Award nominee Irene Taylor, will also showcase the magnitude of Dion’s four-decade-long career in music all while navigating a life-altering illness.
I Am: Celine Dion streams June 25 on Prime Video
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James Brown: Say It Loud
The Godfather of Soul's climb to the top of the charts is exemplified in this four-part docuseries, which was produced by Questlove and Mick Jagger. It covers the peaks and valleys in James Brown's life that helped to make him an integral part of music history.
James Brown: Say It Loud streams on the A&E app
Kings From Queens: The Run DMC Story
The three-part docuseries showcases how three friends from the New York City borough of Queens went on to become one of the greatest rap groups of all time. Follow Joseph “Rev Run” Simmons, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels and archival interviews of “Jam Master Jay” Mizell, who died in 2002, as they reflect on their roles as forefathers of hip-hop.
Kings From Queens: The Run DMC Story streams on Peacock.
The Greatest Night in Pop
Be there the one night in 1985 when the biggest artists in the world came together — Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonders, Cyndi Lauper, Diana Ross and others — working together to create history as they recorded the 1985 megahit “We Are the World.”
The Greatest Night in Pop streams on Netflix
