" Morris wanted Tom Waits and Mickey Rourke to play the brothers, and he wrote the script, but the project eventually failed.

In 1986, Jarmusch wrote and directed Down by Law, starring musicians John Lurie and Tom Waits, and Italian comic actor Roberto Benigni ( his introduction to American audiences ) as three convicts who escape from a New Orleans jailhouse.

In 1997, Waits and Brennan wrote and performed the music for Bunny the animated short film by 20th Century Fox's Blue Sky Studios, which was awarded Best Animated Short Film by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

" " Diamond in Your Mind ", which Waits wrote for Wilson's Woyzeck, did not appear on Blood Money ; however, it did emerge on Solomon Burke's album Don't Give Up on Me of the same year.

Singer-songwriter Tom Waits, a Beat fan, wrote " Jack and Neal " about Kerouac and Cassady, and recorded " On the Road " ( a song written by Kerouac after finishing the novel ) with Primus.

The work also includes tunes first made notable by such blues luminaries as Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith ; Tom Waits wrote the title track.

Jones also met Tom Waits and Chuck Weiss, whom she wrote about, and for a time, hung out with.

This particular event caused a furore behind the scenes when Mike Edison wrote a " crazed conspiracy rant " about Jon Spencer being replaced with Tom Waits for the Blues Explosion website.

The Black Rider is an album by Tom Waits, released in 1993 on Island Records, featuring studio versions of songs Waits wrote for the play The Black Rider, directed by Robert Wilson and co-written by William S. Burroughs.

Burroughs wrote the book, while Waits wrote the music and most of the lyrics.

He also wrote two movie treatments for himself and MacDonald, Timothy Waits for Love and All Stars Don't Spangle.

The US singer-songwriter Tom Waits wrote a song entitled " Shore Leave " in 1982, and included it on his album of the following year Swordfishtrombones.

Waits received increasing critical acclaim and gathered a loyal cult following with his subsequent albums.

The following year, Waits was extremely busy working on movie soundtracks, acting, and contributing to a number of music projects by other artists.

The only collection of exclusively Waits-performed material of 1991 appeared when Waits composed and conducted the almost exclusively instrumental music for Jim Jarmusch's 1991 film Night on Earth, which was released as an album the following year.

Ribot worked with Waits on many of his following albums including Franks Wild Years ( 1987 ), Mule Variations ( 1999 ), Real Gone ( 2004 ) and Bad as Me ( 2011 ).

Bowie was chosen to curate the 2007 High Line Festival, selecting musicians and artists for the Manhattan event, and performed on Scarlett Johansson's 2008 album of Tom Waits covers, Anywhere I Lay My Head.

(" Tomorrow Morning, Montreal Waits for Me ")

Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding " like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car.

Lyrically, Waits ' songs frequently present atmospheric portrayals of grotesque, often seedy characters and places — although he has also shown a penchant for more conventional ballads.

From August to December 1971, Waits made a series of demo recordings for Cohen's Bizarre / Straight label, including many songs for which he would later become known.

Waits described the album as: ... a comprehensive study of a number of aspects of this search for the center of Saturday night, which Jack Kerouac relentlessly chased from one end of this country to the other, and I've attempted to scoop up a few diamonds of this magic that I see.

With it, Waits broke onto Billboards Top 100 Albums chart for the first time in his career ( a feat Waits would not repeat until 1999 with the release of Mule Variations ).

The song " Blue Valentines " was also unique for Waits in that it featured a desolate arrangement of solo electric guitar played by Ray Crawford, accompanied by Waits ' vocal.

The same year, he began a long working relationship with Francis Ford Coppola, who asked Waits to provide music for his film One from the Heart.

Waits ended up working with singer / songwriter Crystal Gayle as his vocal foil for the album.

After leaving Asylum, the label released the first Tom Waits " Best of " album in 1981, a collection called Bounced Checks, notable for including an alternate, stripped down version of " Jersey Girl " and the otherwise unreleased " Mr. Henry ", as well as an alternate master of " Whistlin ' Past the Graveyard " and a live performance of " The Piano Has Been Drinking ".

One from the Heart received its official theatrical release in 1982, with Waits appearing in a cameo as a trumpet player as well as receiving an Oscar nomination for Original Song Score ( eventually losing out to Victor Victoria, by Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse ).

After leaving Asylum for Island Records, Waits released Swordfishtrombones in 1983, a record that marked a sharp turn in his musical direction.

The project was based on a German folktale called Der Freischütz, with Wilson responsible for the design and direction, Burroughs for writing the book, and Waits for music and lyrics, which were heavily influenced by the works of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.

In July 1991, Screamin ' Jay Hawkins released the album Black Music for White People, which features covers of two Waits compositions: " Heartattack & Vine " ( which later that year was used in a European Levi's advertisement without Waits ' permission, resulting in a lawsuit ) and " Ice Cream Man ".

In 1993, he released The Black Rider, which contained studio versions of the songs that Waits had written for the musical of the same name three years previously, with the exceptions of " Chase the Clouds Away " and " In the Morning ", which appeared in the theatrical production but not on the studio album.

Another Waits cover was released in 1996, as Meat Loaf covered Martha for his concept album Welcome to the Neighborhood.

Hachiko Waits was released in paperback by Square Fish ( an imprint of MacMillan ) in 2008.

This cover later appeared in the 1995 compilation Step Right Up: The Songs of Tom Waits.

In the same year, Waits contributed a cover of Cole Porter's " It's All Right with Me " to Red Hot + Blue, the first in the series of compilation albums from the Red Hot Organization — one of the first major AIDS benefits in the music business — which sold over a million copies worldwide.

In 1998, after Island Records released the compilation Beautiful Maladies: The Island Years, Waits left the label for Epitaph, whose president, Andy Kaulkin, said the label was "... blown away that Tom would even consider us.

The same year, Waits contributed a version of " The Return of Jackie and Judy " by The Ramones to the compilation album We're a Happy Family: A Tribute to Ramones, which was released in 2003 on Columbia Records.

The remaining trio recruited session drummer Josh Freese and engineers Sandy Solomon and Bernie Zwass to record a cover of Tom Waits ' " Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis " at Plus Four Recordings Studios, in Sherman Oaks, California in June 1995 for the compilation album Step Right Up: The Songs of Tom Waits.

Her connection, ex-boyfriend Steve Waits, president of Marrakech Records ( a reference to Village People record label Casablanca Records ), is more interested in getting back with her than in Jack's music ( and more interested in taking business calls than in wooing Samantha ), but agrees to listen to a demo.

Waits also contributed two songs to the documentary Streetwise ( 1984 ), " Rat's Theme " and " Take Care of All My Children ".