Let's try: Songs that Mention Other Songs by Title in the Lyrics

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For instance, "Thirteen" by Big Star mentions "Paint it Black." Dylan's "Sara" mentions his own "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." Pavement's "Unseen Power of the Picket Fence" mentions most of the songs on _Reckoning_ (though "Time After Time" was clearly Malkmus's least favorite song). More recently, "Hornets! Hornets!" by The Hold Steady mentions, oddly enough, "Running Up that Hill" by Kate Bush. What other examples are there of this sub-sub-genre?

(Note: "Sweet Home Alabama," though it alludes and responds to Neil Young's "Alabama," wouldn't qualify, since it doesn't directly namecheck Young's song by title.)

― Tyrone Slothrop (Tyrone Slothrop), Sunday, 8 May 2005 02:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, the Hold Steady/Lifter Puller kind of make a living at this. "Certain Songs" mentions "Only the Good Die Young" and "Paradise by the Dashboard Light." "Half Dead and Dynamite" mentions "Beast of Burden," "Working in a Coal Mine," "Green Eyed Lady" and "Lay Lady Lay." And "Candy's Room" mentions, well, "Candy's Room." And I'll bet they have a bunch of others I can't think of right now. (I haven't heard the new Hold Steady album yet.)

― Salmon Pink (Salmon Pink), Sunday, 8 May 2005 02:47 (twenty-one years ago)

(Note: "Sweet Home Alabama," though it alludes and responds to Neil Young's "Alabama," wouldn't qualify, since it doesn't directly namecheck Young's song by title.)

Nope. Neil Young can be heard singing "southern man" from the song "Southern Man" in Sweet Home Alabama, making Sweet Home Alabama a Skynard song in response to a Neil Young song with a the titular sampling of the very Neil Young song they were singing about in the first place!

Holy shit, Marty!

― Cunga (Cunga), Sunday, 8 May 2005 04:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Rufus Wainwright's "Memphis Skyline" mentions Jeff Buckley's cover of "Hallelujah"

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Sunday, 8 May 2005 04:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Pet Shop Boys' "I Want To Wake Up": "I stood at the kitchen-sink, my radio played/Songs like 'Tainted Love' and 'Love Is Strange.'"

Saint Etienne's "Erica America": "So tired of their small town games/Whistle the tune of 'A Horse With No Name.'"

― brittle-lemon, Sunday, 8 May 2005 05:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Elliot Smith: Baby Britian, "Crimson and Clover played over and over"

Beatles: Glass Onion

That Oasis song that invites you on a Yellow Submarine, if that counts.

― Cunga (Cunga), Sunday, 8 May 2005 06:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Then Jimmy Eat World did the same: "Crimson and Clover played over and over" + "Don't Let's Start"

― Matt Boch (Matt Boch), Sunday, 8 May 2005 07:07 (twenty-one years ago)

"and my favorite song's entitled boredom"

Orange Juice - Rip It Up

― rentboy (rentboy), Sunday, 8 May 2005 11:06 (twenty-one years ago)

The Beatles: I am the Walrus mentions Lucy in the Sky in the lyrics

― Eva van Rein (Gaia1981), Sunday, 8 May 2005 11:40 (twenty-one years ago)

...and the Walrus, in turn, shows up in "Glass Onion"!

The third verse SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE's "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" consists of four previous Sly titles.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Sunday, 8 May 2005 12:04 (twenty-one years ago)

...and the Walrus, in turn, shows up in "Glass Onion"!

...as Cunga already noted.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Sunday, 8 May 2005 12:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Johnny Rivers, "Summer Rain": "And the jukebox kept on playing 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'"

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Sunday, 8 May 2005 19:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, "Tomorrow Never Knows" is referenced in Oasis' "Morning Glory".

― Sundar (sundar), Sunday, 8 May 2005 20:50 (twenty-one years ago)

..and the Walrus, in turn, shows up in "Glass Onion"

Aren't there a couple others in there? At least "I told you 'bout Strawberry Fields" is there, I remember.

― Sundar (sundar), Sunday, 8 May 2005 20:53 (twenty-one years ago)

The Spinners' "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love" includes the title of their previous hit -- "I'll Be Around" -- and while it's not specifically identified as such I've always felt like I could hear Phillipe Wynne smile and wink as he sings it.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 8 May 2005 21:11 (twenty-one years ago)

There are a few namechecked in Kylie's "Step Back In Time" (Ball of Confusion, Blame it on the Boogie etc).

― ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 8 May 2005 21:21 (twenty-one years ago)

B-52s, "Deadbeat Club": references "96 Tears"

Talk Talk, "Does Caroline Know": "I can't sing 'Caroline, No'"

John Lennon, "How Do You Sleep": references "Yesterday"

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Sunday, 8 May 2005 21:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Ah yes, and:

Neil Young, "Long May You Roll" (Beach Boys, "Caroline No")
Gillian Welch, "My First Lover" (Steve Miller, "Quicksilver Girl")
Eliott Smith, "Waltz #2 (XO)" (The Everly Brothers, "Cathy's Clown")

I never knew you could hear "Southern Man" in "Sweet Home Alabama," BTW.

― Tyrone Slothrop (Tyrone Slothrop), Monday, 9 May 2005 02:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I never knew it until just now, though I've even had to teach the song. But it's there, buried under the music right after the line "Well, I heard Mr Young sing about her".

― Sundar (sundar), Monday, 9 May 2005 02:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Television Personalities - "Part Time Punks" [mentions Swell Maps' "Read About Seymour", as well as Siouxsie and an undisclosed O-Levels single]

Pooh Sticks - "On Tape" [mentions stacks of stuff, but is most ridiculuously specific about Orange Juice's "Falling and Laughing, the original Postcard version"]

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Monday, 9 May 2005 02:38 (twenty-one years ago)

The Dead Milkmen's "Punk Rock Girl" mentions "California Dreamin'".

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 9 May 2005 03:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Luke Haines in a song whose name I forget quotes his previous album names "and of course I love the old ones, from New Wave to Murder Park" ... thats the best I can do.

― vanessa novaeris (novaeris), Monday, 9 May 2005 03:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Belle & Sebastian do this all over the place, although the only example I can think of now is "I Don't Love Anyone" referencing "The World is as Soft As Lace"

― mikef-who-mostly-lurks (mfleming), Monday, 9 May 2005 04:03 (twenty-one years ago)

The Cramps - Beautiful Gardens sez: "Palisades Park by Freddie Cannon"

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 9 May 2005 06:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Aren't there a couple others in there? At least "I told you 'bout Strawberry Fields" is there, I remember.
Yes, Lady Madonna and Fool on the Hill are also mentioned

― Eva van Rein (Gaia1981), Monday, 9 May 2005 06:27 (twenty-one years ago)

The Mama's and the Papas - Creeque Alley mentions California Dreaming & Good Vibrations

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 9 May 2005 06:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Alvin Stardust - I Feel Like Buddy Holly (namechecks Raining In My Heart, Yesterday and Homeward Bound)

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 9 May 2005 10:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Heinz Burt checks C'Mon Everybody in 'Just Like Eddy'. Just been looking at this sad story.

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 9 May 2005 10:17 (twenty-one years ago)

£18 to his name. That's still about a tenner more than Hendrix had when he checked out.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 9 May 2005 10:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Mikef - Do you think Belle & Sebastian cribbed this lyrical theme from Felt?

Felt had at least a couple of songs that are self-referential:

Declaration mentions "Black Ship In The Harbour".

Ballad of The Band mentions "Crystal Ball" AND "Dismantled King (Is Off The Throne)".

― Bill A (Bill A), Monday, 9 May 2005 10:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Speaking of Felt, there's "Listening To Marmalade" from the upcoming (and splendid) new Go-Kart Mozart album which namechecks "Reflections Of My Life."

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 9 May 2005 10:30 (twenty-one years ago)

The Cramps and "96 Tears" have both been mentioned, without a mention of "Human Fly" -- "I've got 96 tears in 96 eyes." Best line ever!

― Salmon Pink (Salmon Pink), Monday, 9 May 2005 11:53 (twenty-one years ago)

First of all, the entire lyrics of "Titles" by Barclay James Harvest deserves the ownership of this thread.

Besides:
Sparks: When Do I Get To Sing "My Way"
Also, "Auld Lang Syne" is mentioned in Slade's "All Join Hands.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 9 May 2005 11:55 (twenty-one years ago)

HooDoo Gurus - Let's All Turn On, mentions:
Ride the White Swan, Get it On, Twist and Shout,
Shake Some Action, Psychotic Reaction,
No Satisfaction, Sky Pilot, Sky Saxon,
Blitzkrieg Bop, Jailhouse Rock, Stop Stop Stop, At The Hop, Bluejean Bop ..
...Oh there are more ....

― diedre mousedropping and a quarter (Dave225), Monday, 9 May 2005 12:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Golden Earring - Radar Love: And the radio's playin' some forgotten song; Brenda Lee's 'Comin' On Strong.'

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Monday, 9 May 2005 13:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Klaus Nomi "After The Fall":

"Well I told you about the "Total Eclipse" now, but yet it caught you unaware..."

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Monday, 9 May 2005 14:21 (twenty-one years ago)

(Wow. I always thought that the "Comin' on Strong" lyric referred to the strength of Ms. Lee's radio signal!)

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 9 May 2005 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Since I mentioned it on another thread, "Spice Up Your Life" by the Spice Girls namechecks "Kung Fu Fighting" and "Dancing Queen"

― ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 9 May 2005 19:39 (twenty-one years ago)

"Savoy Truffle" mentions "Ob La Di Ob La Da"

― darin (darin), Monday, 9 May 2005 19:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Miss Kittin & The Hacker's "1982":

Let's go to the rendez vous
Of the past, me and you
Dj plays deja vu
As we were in 82

I see your face fade to grey
Just wait for the blue monday
Imagine you're dancing
You're a robot, man machine

I just can't get enough

I don't want a tainted love
I want something from above
But don't go
Just play me moscow discow

Let's go to the rendez vous
Of the past, me and you
Dj plays deja vu
As we were in 82

― Seb (Seb), Monday, 9 May 2005 21:01 (twenty-one years ago)

The Clash - Complete Control mentions Remote Control from their first album ("They said release Remote Control")

The other song mentoned in Glass Onion is Fool on the Hill

― Ben Dot (1977), Monday, 9 May 2005 22:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Just for the record, here are the complete lyrics to "Titles" by Barclay James Harvest:

The long and winding road that leads to your door
Here comes the sun it's alright people shout for more
But were you trying to deceive telling me
All you need is love to succeed
Across the universe one after nine 'o' nine
I got a feeling for you blue and I feel fine
I tried so hard to make believe that I'd see
All you need is love to succeed
CHORUS:
Lady Madonna let it be
Something in the way you moved me yesterday
All you need is love so they say

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 9 May 2005 23:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Close, but no cigar for Thunder Road...

"Roy Orbison's singing for the lonely" (Only the lonely)

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 00:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Reunion's "Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)" mentions a bunch of songs, "Help Me Rhonda" and "Liar, Liar" are the first two that come to mind ...

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 05:19 (twenty-one years ago)

haha "life is a rock (but the radio rolled me)" owns this thread. public enemy mentions "can i kick it" in "how to kill a radio consultant", built to spill's "you were right" mentions at least half a dozen songs surely. indie rock does this like crazy.

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 05:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Elvis Costello does this all the time. From "American Without Tears": "she was singing that 'It's Too Late,' I agreed with that part." And then on "Suit of Lights," from the same album, he sings "While Nat King Cole sings 'Welcome to my World'...."

There's a story about Rodney Crowell getting his former father-in-law, Johnny Cash, to sing "I Walk the Line" inside Crowell's own song "I Walk The Line Revisited," to a different tune. The Man in Black is said to have said, "You’ve got a lot of nerve changing my melody, son."

― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 14:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Hootie & The Blowfish riff on Dylan:

Put on a little Dylan, sitting on a fence
I say that line is great, you ask me what it meant by:
"Said I shot a man named Gray, took his wife to Italy
She inherited a million bucks, and when she died
It came to me, I can't help it if I'm lucky"

I only wanna be with you
Ain't Bobby so cool?
I only wanna be with you

Yeah, I'm tangled up in blue
I only wanna be with you

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 15:38 (twenty-one years ago)

What's that Folk Implosion song that name checks a bunch of Silver Apples titles? "Nothin' Gonna Stop The Flow"?

How about Mary Lou Lord's "His Indie World" or Tullycraft's "Pop songs your new boyfriend's too stupid to know about"?

I can't remember if those last two just name bands or if they actually name songs. And I'm too enthralled by "Rossz Csillag..." to take it off at the moment. Sorry.

― --s-tephen (--s-tephen), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 16:04 (twenty-one years ago)

An obscure alt country band named Unitas came out with a song called Porch Life in the late 1990s. The chorus begins with..."What's your favorite Uncle Tupelo song?" Then the last verse goes, "So I'm thinking Screen Door. That's my favorite one."

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 16:14 (twenty-one years ago)

The band Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe (which was just a legal re-definition of the classic progressive rock band, Yes) had a song called "Quartet", where the second movement (She Gives Me Love) has shameless and gratuitous references to earlier Yes hits, including:

"Long distance runaround"
"South side of the sky"
"Gates of delirium"
"Awakened" (a reference to "Awaken")
and, "Roundabout"

― Greg Kohs, Tuesday, 10 May 2005 19:50 (twenty-one years ago)

That horrendous Billy Joel song, "We Didn't Start the Fire" contains a reference to "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets.

― Greg Kohs, Tuesday, 10 May 2005 19:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Steppenwolf-Berry Rides Again (a whole bunch of Chuck Berry stuff)
Classics IV-Stormy (words and music from their own "Spooky")

― Doobie Keebler (Charles McCain), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 20:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Van Morrison, "Jackie Wilson Said"

― mike a, Tuesday, 10 May 2005 21:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Prince: "The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker":
"Mind if I turn on the radio?"
"Oh, my favorite song" she said
And it was Joni singing "Help me I think I'm falling"

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 21:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Soul Family Sensation's Perfect Life references The Lilac Time's "Black Velvet", both of which are obviously sublime.

― David Hedgerow, Wednesday, 11 May 2005 12:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Harry Nilsson's "You Can't Do That" is a pastiche of Beatle quotes.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 12:30 (twenty-one years ago)

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