I originally posted this at another message board - brought it here to get more hits:
My theatre department is doing a show called Boy Gets Girl.
Our director is looking for a series of songs that could be considered to have a ‘stalker’ theme (thinkEvery Breath You Take by The Police - probably the most obvious of the genre. Or perhaps Cherish by The Association - with lyrics like:
SO far, I have the following songs from the other message board:
Dalbello - Gonna Get Close to You (also covered by Queensryche)
Peter Gabriel - Intruder
The Communards - So Cold The Night
Blondie - Maria and One Way or the Other
Rockwell - Somebody’s Watching Me
Pat Benatar - I’m Gonna Follow You
The Toadies - Possum Kingdom
The Four Tops - Bernadette
Alice Cooper - Gail and Die For You
Any others come to mind? Other genres (for example? Opera pieces or musical numbers that might SEEM like a stalker song, by today’s standards (such as On The Street Where You Live from My Fair Lady).
watchin’ you sleep, i’m lookin’ in your window,
everyday i drive past your house
standin’ in your front yard, why don’t you come out?
watchin’ you sleep…nowhere to hide,
“Come to my Window” and “You are my sunshine” are a couple of songs in which the singer says that the object of the affection does not see the attraction as mutual.
Why would “on the street where you live” be a stalker song?
*Possession *by Sarah McLachlan is about a stalker, though the lyrics are so subtle it might be hard to work in to a play.
*Forget me Not *by Bad English always frightened me when I heard it on the radio. Even more than simply hearing anything by Bad English on the radio frightens me.
“Bernadette” doesn’t work so well as a stalker song, as the narrator is clearly in a bona fide relationship with Bernadette. He’s a mite possesive, but that’s about it. Try “Just My Imagination” by the Temptations instead.
Elvis’s Costello’s “Home is Anywhere You Hang Your Head” and “I Want You” are dandy creepy obesessive love songs.
In the “Cherish” vein, how about “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” by Frankie Vallie? (Though it was already used in this way in the movie Conspiracy Theory.)
“I find a window in the kitchen, and I let myself in
Rummage through the refrigerator, find myself a beer
I can’t believe I’m really here, and she’s lying in that bed
I can almost feel her touch, and her anxious breath”
Truth to tell, I can’t ever keep the lyrics in my memory for more than about three seconds after I hear them so I don’t know if the song itself is actually a stalker song, but Justin Timberlake’s Cry Me A River has the creepiest stalking video I’ve ever seen…
I was going to say “Skatanic” by Reel Big Fish, but I see I’m not the first (or the second!) to think of that one.
The Beatles’ “Run for Your Life” from Rubber Soul might work well. The scary lyrics (e.g., “Well, I’d rather see you dead, little girl / Than to be with another man”) combine with the upbeat, bouncy tempo for a pretty creepy effect.