Fans regularly make film biopics about famous musicians successful, but they also love to nitpick the results. Or to misquote Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division and the subject of a rather good musical biopic (Control), love will tear apart any work of fan service if it screws up the story, paints the subject in too unflattering a light or, worst of all, mangles the music with impersonations that barely rise above the level of karaoke. (Consider, if you dare, Kevin Spacey as Bobby Darin in Beyond the Sea.)

On the other hand, there’s also something irksome about biopics that have actors lip sync to the original songs, like Naomi Ackie did for I Wanna Dance With Somebody or, much less successfully, Dennis Quaid in Great Balls of Fire! Especially if that means access to the original recordings or even rights to the songs in the first...