And the Band Played On

And the Band Played On is a book written by Randy Shilts (original copyright 1987) chronicling the discovery and spread of HIV and AIDS, with a special emphasis on government indifference to what was perceived as a "gay disease."

Shilts was a journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle and the book is an extensive work of investigatory journalism, written in the form of an extended timeline, with the events that shaped the epidemic presented as sequential matter-of-fact summaries. Randy Shilts himself died of AIDS in 1994.

And the Band Played On was used as the basis for a 1993 HBO movie of the same name, and Elton John's The Last Song was finally heard at the end of the film, appearing during a closing montage featuring many celebrities who died of AIDS, such as musician Freddie Mercury, actors Rock Hudson and Robert Reed, tennis player Arthur Ashe, nurse and AIDS poster boy Bobbi Campbell and fashion designer Willi Smith.

The movie starred Matthew Modine as Don Francis and Richard Masur as Bill Darrow, doctors at the Centers for Disease Control.