Cathy’s Clown - The Everly Brothers
Cathy’s New Clown - John Wesley Harding
And my absolute favorite (in order of release)
Be My Yoko - The Bobs
Be My Yoko Ono - Barenaked Ladies
I Won’t Be Your Yoko Ono - Dar Williams
OOOps, thanks ESHT! My bad. Woody indeed.
I should never post first thing in the morning…
There is a whole list of these on Wikipedia.
Here are a couple I don’t see there:
Duke of Earl - Gene Chandler
I Stopped the Duke of Earl - Upfronts
Dutchess of Earl - The Pearlettes
Work With Me, Annie - Hank Ballard & the Midnighters, answered by:
Annie Had a Baby - Hank Ballard & the Midnighters
and Annie’s Aunt Fannie - Hank Ballard & the Midnighters
and Roll with Me, Henry - Etta James, answered by:
Henry’s Got Flat Feet (Can’t Dance No More) - Hank Ballard
I’ve heard it suggested that Work With Me, Annie is itself an answer to the Midnighters’ Get It, but I don’t buy it. The Annie songs worked on a double entendre. Get It is at most a 1-1/4 entendre.
Stand by Your Man - Tammy Wynette
(I’m A) Stand by Your Woman Man - Ronnie Milsap
Garth Brooks did The Thunder Rolls and then supposedly followed it up with The Storm, but The Storm is pretty bad.
“Hot Rod Lincoln” was an answer song (or perhaps more accurately a sequel) to 1951’s “Hot Rod Race” by Archie Shibley and his Mountain Dew Boys. The original version of “Hot Rod Lincoln” was recorded in 1955 by Charlie Ryan and the Livingston Brothers, but Commander Cody’s cover is probably the best known version.
Graham Parker and the Rumour recorded an album they called Max, after Fleetwood Mac recorded Rumours. (Only the title was an answer, however.)
Parody.
Note that “My Guy” was released first. “My Girl” doesn’t really “answer” it in any way. There’s no relationship between the lyrics of the two songs beyond the basic theme of loving your SO – the theme of tens of thousands of songs.
Again, “Up on the Roof” came first, and that title is quoted at the beginning of “Under the Boardwalk,” but there’s otherwise no specific relationship between the two songs. To me, the criteria for a true “” are stronger than this (e.g., similar plot lines, characters in common, etc.).
Yes…this pair definitely qualifies!
“I’m Sorry I Went” by the Cannon Sisters answers Claudine Clark’s “Party Lights.”
“Major Tom (Coming Home)” by Peter Schilling is an answer song to David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.”
On a cassette I have by Napoleon XIV, the album opens with “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha Ha!”. I bought the album for that song (and because it was dirt cheap in a discount rack), but I was not familiar with the song on the other side of the tape by “Josephine XV”, entitled “I’m Happy They Took You Away, Ha ha”
Charles Mingus wrote a tune based on the chord changes to “What Is This Thing Called Love?” and called it “Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am.”
All the Single Ladies (Beyoncé)
Mrs. Robinson (The Beatles)
All You Need is Love (The Beatles)
What’s Love Got to Do With It (Tina Turner)
Stand by Your Man (Tammy Wynette)
D-I-V-O-R-C-E (Tammy Wynette)
Stormy Weather (Lena Horne)
Walking on Sunshire (Katrina and the Waves)
Poppa Don’t Preach (Madonna)
Parents Just Don’t Understand (DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince)
There was a number one hit in 2004 by Eamon called ‘Fuck You (I Don’t Want You Back)’ which was answered by Frankee with ‘F.U.R.B. (Fuck You Right Back)’. Both went to number one in the UK, if I remember correctly, but they were both one-hit wonders.
Along the same lines, “Jim Dandy” and “Jim Dandy Got Married,” both by LaVern Baker
Springsteen’s “Mary’s place” is somewhat of a sequal to his “Thunder road”. A rather poignant one.
David Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes” is a sequel to “Space Oddity,” and it sort of confirms the interpretation that “Major Tom” wasn’t an astronaut but a drug addict who had drifted away from reality) but wants to come back.
And "the Kinks’ “Destroyer” is a sequel to “Lola.”
U2 wrote their own sequel to John Lennon’s “God.”
Although the OP didn’t actually provide a definition of “answer songs”, what’s generally meant by that term is when a song is deliberately written as a response to some other specific song. I don’t think any of these qualifies, although in each case, I’m sufficiently unfamiliar with the lyrics to at least one of the songs that I’m unable to say with certainty.
Hank THompson’s Fifties country hit “The Wild Side of Life” inspired an answer song by Kitty Wells: “It Wasn’t Gos Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.”
Thompson’s song laments a cheating woman, while Wells’ song suggests that, when a woman strays, it’s probably some man’s fault.
It’s hard to be sure, but several of John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s Seventies songs seemed to be aimed at each other, and replying to perceived insults from the other (real or not).
Rightly or wrongly, Lennon THOUGHT McCartney’s “Too Many People” was a slap at him, and that helped inspire Lennon’s “How Do You Sleep?”
“Silly Love Songs” may have been a reply to Lennon’s quip in that song that McCartney’s tunes were “Muzak to my ears.”
Along the same lines, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have often been hostile to each other over the years. On his solo album Keith slammed Mick in “You Don’t Move Me Any More.” I suspect that Mick was referring to that song when he wrote the lyrics to"Mixed Emotions" for the Stones’ comeback album. I think Mick was saying, “You don’t like me, Keith? Well, I’m not crazy about you either, jerk. But let’s put that behind us and just rock!”
In 1962, Steve Lawrence had a #1 hit with the Gerry Goffin/Carole King tune “Go Away Little Girl.” Not long after, some female artist sang a song to the same tune called “I Won’t Go Away Little Boy.” Googling doesn’t do me any good finding the artist, but I remember it had the line “So please don’t try to resist/Just give me one little kiss.” “Go Away Little Girl” had the line “When you are near me like this/You’re much too hard to resist.”
The answer song wasn’t very good - that’s probably why I can’t find any reference to it!
I never knew until now that Pure Prairie League had recorded this. It was originally by Big Brother & the Holding Company (post-Janis), and released in 1970, when the song they were answering was still relatively current.