Let's break the fourth wall, musically!

Cafe Society
1

Quick question:

How many songs can you name that - essentially (whether they really DO or not, they give the appearance of it, anyway) - refer to the fact that they’re songs?

For instance, in Philosophy, by Ben Folds Five, he sings, “And now it’s time for this song to end”

Elton John, of course, has Your Song.

The Spin Doctors, in Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong, say “I hope you heard this song, and it pissed ya off,” along with “whatcha gonna do to get into another one of these here rock and roll songs?”

Carly Simon’s Your So Vain is probably the best-known example of this.

And I think there’s a song called One Song Glory from Rent.

Any others you can think of?

2

Most live versions of songs that have a spoken word introduction. The most recent song fitting the OP’s criteria that comes to mind:

Bowling For Soup’s ‘My Hometown’ which pays homage to the people that knew them before they were famous and uses lines like: This song goes out to my good friends I had before the Grammy nominations, my big brother, the girls who spoke to me in high school - I hope this song finds you well

3

This is the theme to Garry’s Show,
The opening theme to Garry’s show.
This is the music that you hear as you watch the credits.
We’re almost to the part of where I start to whistle.
Then we’ll watch “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show”.

This was the theme to Garry Shandling’s show.

4

From A New England

5

Oooh, this is a good topic…

Nick Cave - The Weeping Song (obviously), and at a push The Curse of Millhaven (the chorus emerges to be the manic song of Loretta).

Dammit, I’ve had too much to drink, I can’t think of others…

6

Rockin’ Robin, by a million different people:

Somethin’ and a-somethin’ all day long
Somethin’ and a-somethin’ and a-singin’ this song
Rockin’ Robin (Tweet!)

In That’s Your Funeral from the musical Oliver, Mr. Bumble sings, “I don’t think this song is funny!” and it usually gets a laugh.

I’m sure I could think of more. I’ll get back to you.

7

“Sunday Bloody Sunday” by U2.

“Is This the Single?” by The Negro Problem.

“Simple Song” by Poi Dog Pondering (I just wanna state this simply/Inside this simple song…")

“G Turns to D” by Sloan refers to its own chord changes.

“Naive Melody” by Talking Heads. The title refers to the band members presumably switching instruments with each other, so that no one’s doing something they’re really good at. (It always sounded good to me, though.) They should probably also get some credit for the self-consciously arty title of their second album: More Songs About Buildings and Food.

I don’t remember if “You’ll Dance to Anything” by The Dead Milkmen refers to itself per se, but it manages to diss a whole bunch of other artists, at least. (“You’ll dance to anything… by The Cure…”). I think it might refer to itself at the very end.

8

Another one that just occured to me was I Bet You They Won’t Play This Song On the Radio, by Monty Python.

9

The Beautiful South’s Song for Whoever:

“Oh Cathy, oh Allison, Oh Phillipa, Oh Sue,
You made me so much money I wrote this song for you”

10

A few by The Beatles:

Julia: “So I sing a song of love, Julia…”
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da: “And if you want some fun – take Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da!” [“Savoy Truffle” also references this song by title.]

“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “With a Little Help From My Friends” make a very postmodern and self-referential twin-spin… the first song is basically an extended intro to the [fake] band and to the second song, and “With a Little Help…” has the “Billy Shears” character apologizing if he “sing[s] out of tune,” etc. etc.

11

“Goodnight Song”, by Tears For Fears, refers to itself by name:

Goodnight Song
Played so wrong
Blame the crowd, they screamed so loud, so long

So does “My Iron Lung”, by Radiohead:

This, this is our new song
Just like the last one
A total waste of time
My Iron Lung

12

Pena:
Mascara Snake: Fast & bulbous
Captain Beefheart: That’s right Mascara Snake, fast & boulbous
Mascara Snake: Bulbous also tapered
Captain Beefheart: But you’re supposed to wait til I say my line; ‘Also a tin tear-drop’
Mascara Snake:Oh Christ
Frank Zappa (In recording booth): From the beginning…

Hair Pie: Bake 2:
Captain Beefheart (holding a microphone in front of outdoor shrubbery): We’re out here recording a bush. The name of the composition is 'Neon Meate Dream Of A Octafish …No, wait. It’s called ‘Hair Pie’. “What do you think?”

2 Teenaged Observers: “It sounds good.”

13

Title of the Song by Da Vinci’s Notebook is a hilarious parody of the innumerable boy-band break-up/please-forgive-me songs. A snippit:

14

Pink Floyd got their licks in early with “Jugband Blues” on Saucerful of Secrets:

15

Moving this thread from IMHO to Cafe Society.

16

Not to mention George Harrison’s horrifically catchy “This Song,” from his 1976 album 33 1/3:

*This song
has nothing tricky about it
This song
ain’t black or white and as far as I know
Don’t infringe on anyone’s copyright, so . . .

This song
we’ll let be
This song
is in E
This song
is for you and . . .*

17

They Might Be Giants are famous for this. Among others, you have:

“and now this song is over now, this song is over now”
“It’s a brand new record, for 1990: They Might Be Giants’ brand new album Flooooood!”

“Make a hole with the gun perpendicular to the name of this town on a desktop globe: exit wound through a foreign nation, showing the home of the one this was written for,” and later in the same song:
“Everything sticks like a broken record - everything sticks like a broken record - everything sticks until it goes away…”

“I like to play the drums; I think I’m getting good but I can handle criticism. I’ll show you what I know and you can tell me if you think I’m getting better on the drums…” (while the drummer goes from a clever light beat to an aggressive caveman bashing)

And in their perfect pop/techno song Man It’s So Loud In Here, they use every single cliché ever used in dance music including some of the best drum machine programming ever, and sing “Baby, check this out, I’ve got something to say – Man, it’s so loud in here! – when they stop the drum machine and I can think again, I’ll remember what it was.”
Mark Knopfler sings about not wanting to make a guitar “cry or sing” in Sultans of Swing, but then proceeds to do exactly that in the spaces between lines – that whole song is practically a tutorial on how to be subtle and brilliant playing electric guitar in a rock song, but it’s disguised as a paian to a forgotten swing band.

And of course, I need to mention Alan Jackson for his Three Minute, Positive, Not-too-country, Up-tempo Love Song, which starts with the line “This is a three-minute song” and ends at 2:56 with a guitar note, held for four seconds as the singer talks to his producer:
“Hey Keith, how much time was that?”
“About 2:56.”
“We need four more seconds!” Guitar hit, and the song actually ends, precisely at 3:00.

…and, as much as I hate to admit it, rappers have been doing this for ages. “My name is (whoever) and I’m (whatever) and I have so much effing money and cars and (whatever)”. Yawn.

18

I’ve written about this before because I love it: Life in a Glasshouse, the last song on Radiohead’s Amnesiac, ends “There’s someone listening in…”
It’s not a direct breaking of the fourth wall, but it works on that level as well as well as being a part of the song (it’s the last line of all the choruses). It brings you outside of the music and it’s a very jarring way to end an album.

19

Cher’s Song for the Lonely
Cher’s Different Kind of Love Song

Which were, oddly, the first two songs on the same album.

20

“Fight” by Pain:
“And if the fight’s right,
the fighters just might
decide to be friends
and make amends.
And as we get closer to the end,
it’s time to sing the chorus once again!”