Songs about the open road have been around since … well, at least since Walt Whitman wrote his ‘Song of the Open Road’ in 1856. In popular music, too, songs in praise of cars, roads, driving, and the power and speed of automotive engineering have a pretty considerable pedigree.
10 of the Best Songs about Cats
The late Terry Pratchett once wrote that if cats looked like frogs we’d realize what nasty, cruel little bastards they are. ‘Style,’ he went on. ‘That’s what people remember.’ Pratchett himself was a cat-lover who was surrounded by his family pet when he died in 2015. Many writers have been cat people. But what about songwriters?
11 of the Best Songs about School
Love them or hate them, our schooldays are formative and, as the old cliché has it, make us what we are today, for good or ill. Many of the greatest and most famous popular songs written about schooldays don’t pull any punches about the harsh realities of school life – and one or two of the tracks I’ve chosen here see the teachers wielding their fists themselves.
Sting’s ‘Russians’: A Cold-War Classic
What connects Soviet children’s TV with John Connor from The Terminator? Before I come back to this most important question, here’s another: what has the Russian composer Prokofiev ever done for pop music?
The Curious Story of ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’
I think it was Mark Lamarr who first cautioned against the idea of singing ‘turn around bright eyes’ in the company of a group of choirboys, but thankfully Bonnie Taylor’s smash 1983 hit ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ rises above such unfortunate innuendo. It’s a big brick out of the Wall of Sound and if any song of the 1980s deserves the label ‘power ballad’, surely this is it.
The Story Behind ‘Careless Whisper’
Written by George Michael in 1979 when he was still a teenager, ‘Careless Whisper’ became a number one hit in 1984 on both sides of the Atlantic, topping both the UK and US singles charts.
The Curious Origins of ‘Call Me Maybe’
‘Call Me Maybe’ is the best-known song by the Canadian singer-songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen. This 2011 song began life as a folk song, written by Jepsen and Tavish Crowe. It’s about a girl who sees a boy she likes; she gives him her phone number and tells him to call her, if he wants to. The song leaves us wondering whether the two of them actually end up getting together.
The Meaning of Kylie’s ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’
‘Can’t Get You out of My Head’ is one of Kylie Minogue’s best-known and most-played tracks. Taken from the 2001 album Fever, it’s a dancefloor classic and its release as a single, just three days before 9/11 back in September 2001, was accompanied by one of Kylie’s most popular (and raunchy) videos.
The Meaning of ‘Behind These Hazel Eyes’
‘Behind These Hazel Eyes’ is one of Kelly Clarkson’s greatest songs. It appeared on her second album, Breakaway, and Clarkson has commented that the song is her favourite track on the album. Indeed, the album was very nearly named after ‘Behind These Hazel Eyes’ rather than ‘Breakaway’.
The (Literary) Story Behind ‘Watermelon Sugar’
Here’s a question for you: who originated the phrase ‘watermelon sugar’? The expression has been brought to a whole new audience by Harry Styles, whose 2019 song of that name has attracted considerable commentary because of its surprising meaning.