The Rose

 On this date in 1979, "The Rose" was released.

Loosely based on the life of Janis Joplin, the film follows a self-destructive rock star in the late 1960s, who struggles to cope with the pressures of her career and the demands of her ruthless business manager. Originally titled "Pearl" (after Janis Joplin's nickname, which was also the title of her last album), the film's screenplay was revised and fictionalized after her family declined to allow the producers the rights to her story.

Mark Rydell would only agree to direct if he could cast Bette Midler in the lead. Before that, Midler had only appeared in bit parts, and was known primarily as a singer. When approached with the script, Midler believed it was too soon after Joplin's death to portray her life in a movie. Rewrites were then made, with Midler's guidance, that deleted some portions of the original script, and embellished other parts of the story.

The song "The Rose" that plays under the closing credits. However the song was not written for the movie: Amanda McBroom recalls, "I wrote it in 1977 [or] 1978, and I sang it occasionally in clubs. ... Jim Nabors had a local talk show, and I sang ["The Rose"] on his show once." According to McBroom, she wrote "The Rose" in response to her manager's suggestion that she write "some Bob Seger-type tunes" to expedite a record deal: McBroom obliged by writing "The Rose" in forty-five minutes. Said McBroom: "'The Rose' is ... just one verse [musically] repeated three times. When I finished it, I realized it doesn't have a bridge or a hook, but I couldn't think of anything to [add]."

Speaking of "The Rose" and Bob Seger, in the club where Rose joins the drag version of herself on stage, they sing "The Fire Down Below" by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band. The song was released in 1976, but the movie is set in 1969.