Monty Python’s “I Bet You They Won’t Play This Song on the Radio?” refers to itself.
And Harry Chapin’s “Dance Band of the Titanic” refers to “Nearer My God to Thee”.
While not strictly in keeping with the OP, I just had to mention “The Radio” by Dr. Hook. The song not only refers to an external song - that external song is embedded as this song’s chorus. While the title doesn’t refer to the song by name, it does refer to what that external song is playing on. Come on, that’s gotta fit somehow…
And for a perfectly self-referential song, how 'bout “This song’s just six words long” by Weird Al Yankovic. The title contains the entirety of the song’s lyrics!
Just thought of another: “Straw Hat and Old Dirty Hank” by Barenaked Ladies. The song itself is a tribute to the plight of the farmer. The words in the title are not sung in the song. They are an allusion to “The Farmer Song” by Murray Mclaughlin, whose chorus begins “Straw hat and old dirty hankie.”
Bruce? Bruce Springsteen? Is that you?
“Ant Music.”
Damn! As soon as I saw the thread title, I wanted to come post that one. Purely a metasong.
“A Praise Chorus” by Jimmy Eat World has a couple levels of meta.
– The middle of the song is basically a string of lines that all reference other songs. Right after that, though, there is a line “Davey, sing me something that I know”. The singer who sang those song references IS a guest singer called Davey (vanBohlen), who obviously just did sing something that he knew.
– One of the lines in that list of song references is “Why did we ever meet?” Davey’s band, the Promise Ring, had a song called “Why Did we Ever Meet?”
– The bassline to A Praise Chorus sounds immensely like the bassline to “Why Did We Ever Meet?”
Does “Killing Me Softly” count?
Hold On by Tom Waits:
Well I thought The Strange Case of Frank Cash and the Morning Pap would have been mentioned already.
What’s wrong with that?
A couple more in this vein…
"Here is the Chorus" - Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer
*I have a line of a song, it sets the mood it sets the time
I color it with images, and maybe it will rhyme
Now it gains momentum, getting stronger on the way
The chorus is approaching and it’s what I want to say
CHORUS:
Here is the chorus, it’s the title of the song
Here is the chorus, and it’s taking you along
It sums up all the verses and the themes that it contains
Here is the chorus, and I’m singing it again*
"Grunge Song" - Radio Free Vestibule
This is the part of the song that’s really quiet
We play very soft, it sounds like a ballad
And this is the part where we play real hard
It’s must louder than at the beginning
And we go back to the quiet part - again
“I Beg Your Pardon” by KonKan–not exactly referencing a title, but a lyric from Lynn Anderson’s “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden”, a line from which is prominently sampled in the song.
One of my favorite '80s songs!
Yes, that is a very good one. You get a gold star for the day.
Roy Orbison’s singin’ for the lonely … —“Thunder Road” by Bruce Springsteen
“Let’s Twist Again”—Chubby Checker
Woooo!
Gosh, now I’m all glowy.
Glowy, glowy Hallelujah.
