They had a hit as the Thamesmen with their single "Gimme Some Money", before changing their name to Spinal Tap and achieving a minor hit with the flower power anthem "Listen to the Flower People", and finally transitioning to heavy metal. They were known as the Originals until they found out another band had that name so they changed their name to the New Originals. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel on vocals and guitar, bassist Derek Smalls, keyboardist Viv Savage, and drummer Mick Shrimpton. The band comprises childhood friends David St. 4.3 Use of Spinal Tap as a descriptive termįilmmaker Martin "Marty" Di Bergi is creating a documentary that follows the English rock group Spinal Tap on their 1982 United States concert tour to promote their new album Smell the Glove.In 2016, film critic and author Jeremy Arnold chose it as one of the "52 Must-See Movies", describing it as "one of the single most influential movies of the past thirty-five years" and arguing that it "effectively launched a new genre-the mockumentary".
In 2002, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress, and was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry. Its later VHS release, however, brought it greater success and a cult following. This Is Spinal Tap released to critical acclaim, but its initial release found only modest commercial success. It produced the 1984 soundtrack album of the same name. Most of its dialogue was improvised and dozens of hours were filmed. The film satirizes the behavior and musical pretensions of rock bands and the hagiographic tendencies of rock documentaries such as The Song Remains the Same (1976), and The Last Waltz (1978) and follows the similar All You Need Is Cash (1978) by The Rutles. It stars Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer as members of the fictional English heavy metal band Spinal Tap (who are characterized as "one of England's loudest bands"), and Reiner as Martin "Marty" Di Bergi, a documentary filmmaker who follows them on their American tour. This Is Spinal Tap (stylized as This Is Spın̈al Tap: A Rockumentary by Martin Di Bergi) is a 1984 American mockumentary film co-written and directed by Rob Reiner in his directorial debut.