Post by Walrus on Aug 11, 2018 5:44:46 GMT -4
The Beatles' influence can be heard on so much of the music that came after them that listing all of them would be impossible, but here are some songs that directly reference the band and/or their songs:
The Saga of The Beatles by Johnny & The Hurricanes (1964)
All For the Beatles by Harry Nilsson (1964)
The Grooviest Girl in the World by The Simple Image (1969)
- "Hey little beauty in the sky, my Lucy in the skies, come fly with me in my balloon"
Imagine by Argosy (1969)
- "We'll dance and we'll sing for a year and a day to a Sergeant Pepper band"
Life on Mars by David Bowie (1971)
- "Now the workers have struck for fame because Lennon's on sale again"
Ballrooms of Mars by T. Rex (1973)
- "John Lennon knows your name and I've seen his"
Post World War Two Blues by Al Stewart (1973)
- "music was the scenery, Sergeant Pepper was real to me"
Taxman, Mr Thief by Cheap Trick (1977)
London Calling by The Clash (1979)
Danceway by Blondie (1982)
- "England in the air, Beatle in the bathroom"
The Late Great Johnny Ace by Paul Simon (1983)
- a tribute to two singers who died young under tragic circumstances, Johnny Ace in 1954 and John Lennon in 1980
We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel (1989)
- "Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania"
All I Want is Everything by Jellyfish (1990)
Supersonic by Oasis (1994)
The Lines You Amend by Sloan (1996)
- "You'll always come to mind whenever I hear that song, the one about photographs, sung by Ringo Starr"
When by Shania Twain (1997)
- "John's back with The Beatles and they're going out on tour"
- listed amongst other impossible things, such as Elvis coming back to life and the narrator's lover coming back to her
Words and Music by Paul Kelly (1998)
- The first verse is about hearing I Feel Fine for the first time
Petit Love by Smile.dk (2001)
Earthbound by Rodney Crowell (2003)
- "Tom Waits, Aretha Franklin, Mary Karr, Walter Cronkite, Seamus Heaney, Ringo Starr, the Dalai Lama and Charlie Brown make me wanna stick around"
This Too Will Pass by Rodney Crowell (2003)
- inspired by George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, ends with the line "goodnight, George", a tribute to him shortly after his death
Wrong Party by Dallas Crane (2004)
- "I shot Lennon down with a warm gun"
The Blues is Here to Stay by Tab Benoit & Cyril Neville (2005)
- a song about the importance of blues music and its influence on rock and roll
- "Without old Lightin', Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters to grow up on, hey, The Beatles and the Stones, they'd've never left home"
Look What the Cat Dragged In by The Rolling Stones (2005)
- "You look like a leper dressed as Sergeant Pepper"
Miss Tomorrow by Cheap Trick (2009)
I Love Lady Gaga by 77 Bombay Street (2011)
- a song about various pop and rock artists who the narrator likes, the first one mentioned is The Beatles
She Likes The Beatles by William Clark Green (2013)
- "She likes The Beatles and I like the Stones"
Bob Lennon John Dylan by The Phoenix Foundation (2014)
- "I feel the love of Bob Lennon, I feel the love of John Dylan, I feel the love when they go solo, I feel the love of Yoko Bono", and later, "I feel the love of Han Solo, I feel the love of Yoko Ono"
I Wish (My Taylor Swift) by The Knocks (2015)
- "And all the valley girls will come, with me and Ringo on the drums"
Black Beatles by Rae Sremmurd ft. Gucci Mane (2016)
- "I'm a fuckin' black Beatle, cream seats in the Regal, rockin' John Lennon lenses, like to see 'em spread eagle"
- "Black Beatle, bitch, me and Paul McCartney related"
- was the basis for the Mannequin Challenge meme, which Paul McCartney himself participated in
Who You Selling For by The Pretty Reckless (2016)
Thick Girls Knock Me Out (Richard Starkey) by The Dandy Warhols (2017)
The Saga of The Beatles by Johnny & The Hurricanes (1964)
- a song about The Beatles, by an American group who they opened for in Hamburg
- a parody of Lorne Greene's Ringo, a song about a western outlaw, changed to be about Ringo Starr
- from the perspective of girls who love The Beatles
All For the Beatles by Harry Nilsson (1964)
- a song about The Beatles, released by Harry Nilsson under the name Foto Fi Four
- a song about the narrator's girlfriend being obsessed with The Beatles
- a song about a girl whose boyfriend cut his hair like The Beatles, leading to a lot of attention from other girls
- a song about a girl admiring a boy with a Beatle haircut
- a song about a young American man, a fan of rock groups like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and an aspiring musician himself, who is drafted to fight in the Vietnam War
- The Singing Guitars were the most popular rock group in the Soviet Union in the 60s and were sometimes referred to as the Soviet Beatles
The Grooviest Girl in the World by The Simple Image (1969)
- "Hey little beauty in the sky, my Lucy in the skies, come fly with me in my balloon"
Imagine by Argosy (1969)
- "We'll dance and we'll sing for a year and a day to a Sergeant Pepper band"
- coincidentally shares a title with John Lennon's signature solo song, which was released two years later
- "The Beatles' new record's a gas"
- this song was coincidentally released one day after The Beatles' final album, Let It Be; when the song was written, Abbey Road was their "new record"
Life on Mars by David Bowie (1971)
- "Now the workers have struck for fame because Lennon's on sale again"
Ballrooms of Mars by T. Rex (1973)
- "John Lennon knows your name and I've seen his"
Post World War Two Blues by Al Stewart (1973)
- "music was the scenery, Sergeant Pepper was real to me"
Taxman, Mr Thief by Cheap Trick (1977)
- "Like The Beatles, he ain't human"
- "Taxman, Mr Heath, he's looking for a run-in"
London Calling by The Clash (1979)
- "Phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust", a dig at other bands in the English music scene at the time who tried too hard to emulate The Beatles
Do You Remember Rock n Roll Radio by The Ramones (1980)
- "Will you remember Jerry Lee, John Lennon, T. Rex and Ol Moulty?"
Danceway by Blondie (1982)
- "England in the air, Beatle in the bathroom"
The Late Great Johnny Ace by Paul Simon (1983)
- a tribute to two singers who died young under tragic circumstances, Johnny Ace in 1954 and John Lennon in 1980
- also sets the scene for 1964 with "it was the year of The Beatles, it was the year of the Stones"
- "I wept when Lennon died, yet I envied his assailant when I visited the shrine, I cried for all those Beatles fans, so old, so quick they grow, I followed the example to destroy what I love most"
- a song from the perspective of John Hinckley Jr, who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981 in an insane attempt to impress actress Jodie Foster
- the lyrics purport that Hinckley's assassination attempt was inspired by Mark David Chapman's murder of John Lennon, though in actuality Hinckley had been stalking and intending to murder then-President Jimmy Carter as early as October 1980, two months before Lennon's murder in December 1980
- a song about the early years of rock and roll music, which Carl Perkins and the other "class of '55" singers (Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and also Elvis Presley, who was not part of this 1986 album but was on the same record label in the 1950s and is mentioned by name in the song) witnessed
- the final verse talks about rock and roll's endurance in the 1960s and beyond: "The '64s, The Beatles and the four were rock and roll's best friends / The Beatles and The Stones brought the old beat home and world went crazy again"
We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel (1989)
- "Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania"
All I Want is Everything by Jellyfish (1990)
- "I'd kind of like to play guitar and be a Beatle and be so swell"
Supersonic by Oasis (1994)
- "Can I ride with you in your BMW? You can sail with me in my yellow submarine"
Morning Glory by Oasis (1995)
- "Tomorrow never knows what it doesn't know too soon"
The Lines You Amend by Sloan (1996)
- "You'll always come to mind whenever I hear that song, the one about photographs, sung by Ringo Starr"
When by Shania Twain (1997)
- "John's back with The Beatles and they're going out on tour"
- listed amongst other impossible things, such as Elvis coming back to life and the narrator's lover coming back to her
Words and Music by Paul Kelly (1998)
- The first verse is about hearing I Feel Fine for the first time
Petit Love by Smile.dk (2001)
- "Mr Lennon said it, all you need is love, my love, my love, my love, my love"
- "A star like Ringo, war like a Green Beret"
Earthbound by Rodney Crowell (2003)
- "Tom Waits, Aretha Franklin, Mary Karr, Walter Cronkite, Seamus Heaney, Ringo Starr, the Dalai Lama and Charlie Brown make me wanna stick around"
This Too Will Pass by Rodney Crowell (2003)
- inspired by George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, ends with the line "goodnight, George", a tribute to him shortly after his death
Wrong Party by Dallas Crane (2004)
- "I shot Lennon down with a warm gun"
The Blues is Here to Stay by Tab Benoit & Cyril Neville (2005)
- a song about the importance of blues music and its influence on rock and roll
- "Without old Lightin', Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters to grow up on, hey, The Beatles and the Stones, they'd've never left home"
Look What the Cat Dragged In by The Rolling Stones (2005)
- "You look like a leper dressed as Sergeant Pepper"
Miss Tomorrow by Cheap Trick (2009)
- "Love, you said that love is all you need / Cold, you taught The Beatles 'Let It Bleed'"
- a song in which Jay-Z compares himself, Kanye West, Beyoncé and Rihanna to The Beatles: "Elvis has left the building, now I'm on The Beatles' ass / Niggas hear Watch the Throne, yeah, it's like The Beatles back / Bey-Bey my Yoko Ono, Rih-Rih complete the family / Imagine how that's gon' look front row at the Grammys"
I Love Lady Gaga by 77 Bombay Street (2011)
- a song about various pop and rock artists who the narrator likes, the first one mentioned is The Beatles
She Likes The Beatles by William Clark Green (2013)
- "She likes The Beatles and I like the Stones"
Bob Lennon John Dylan by The Phoenix Foundation (2014)
- "I feel the love of Bob Lennon, I feel the love of John Dylan, I feel the love when they go solo, I feel the love of Yoko Bono", and later, "I feel the love of Han Solo, I feel the love of Yoko Ono"
I Wish (My Taylor Swift) by The Knocks (2015)
- "And all the valley girls will come, with me and Ringo on the drums"
Black Beatles by Rae Sremmurd ft. Gucci Mane (2016)
- "I'm a fuckin' black Beatle, cream seats in the Regal, rockin' John Lennon lenses, like to see 'em spread eagle"
- "Black Beatle, bitch, me and Paul McCartney related"
- was the basis for the Mannequin Challenge meme, which Paul McCartney himself participated in
Who You Selling For by The Pretty Reckless (2016)
- "John was a walrus but he ain't no dancer like Paul"
- the title is a reference to The Beatles' Tomorrow Never Knows
- "I could put on the radio to our favorite song, Lennon and Yoko, we would play all day long"
- features John and Yoko's son, Sean
Thick Girls Knock Me Out (Richard Starkey) by The Dandy Warhols (2017)
- the title references Ringo Starr's real name
Moon Song by Phoebe Bridgers (2020)
- "We fought about John Lennon until I cried and then went to bed upset"
- Bridgers elaborated on this line in an interview: "John Lennon is problematic. And, you know, he's the best. Incredibly talented and contributed so much to culture and society."
