# Songs About Other Songs
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 13, 2016, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633 "2016-12-13T18:53:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633/1 "2016-12-13T18:53:52Z")
I am enjoying “Annie’s Going To Sing Her Song” by Tom Paxton. Wherein the song Annie sings is called “Take Me Back Again.”
Otherwise, The Band Played Waltzing Matilda. Can you think of any others?
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633/2 "2016-12-13T19:02:55Z")
Johnny “How Is This Guy Not In The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame” Rivers mentions how they kept on playing _Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band_ in _Summer Rain_.
At which point the guitar riff briefly comes in.
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### Author:  [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633/3 "2016-12-13T19:05:56Z")
“Sad songs (say so much)”. That song indirectly references every sad song. That’s a lot of songs.
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### Author:  [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633/4 "2016-12-13T19:11:17Z")
Tennessee Waltz
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### Author:  [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633/5 "2016-12-13T19:11:57Z")
_The radio’s playing some forgotten song / Brenda Lee’s “Coming On Strong”_ – Golden Earring, “Radar Love”
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### Author:  [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633/6 "2016-12-13T19:15:27Z")
“[Killing Me Softly with His Song](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Me_Softly_with_His_Song)” about Don McLean’s “Empty Chairs”
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### Author:  [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633/7 "2016-12-13T19:26:42Z")
The Beatles self-referenced some of their own songs in the lyrics of other songs they wrote. “Glass Onion” contains references to five other Beatles songs:
Strawberry Fields Forever - “I told you about strawberry fields, You know the place where nothing is real”
I am the Walrus - “I told you about the walrus and me, man”
Lady Madonna - “Lady Madonna trying to make ends meet, yeah”
The Fool on the Hill - “I told you about the fool on the hill”
Fixing a Hole - “Fixing a hole in the ocean”
“Savoy Truffle” references “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” (“We all know Ob-la-di-bla-da, but can you show me where you are?”). There are probably other examples that slip my mind.
The John Lennon solo song “How Do You Sleep”, a thinly-veiled attack on Paul McCartney, does the same: “Sgt Pepper’s…” (“So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise”), Let It Be (“Jump when your momma tell you anything”) and, most notoriously, “Yesterday” and the McCartney solo work “Another Day” (“The only thing you done was yesterday/And since you’re gone you’re just another day”).
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633/8 "2016-12-13T19:40:47Z")
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE counts, likewise.
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### Author:  [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633/9 "2016-12-13T19:47:49Z")
Little River Band’s _Reminiscing_ mention’s Cole Porter’s _Night and Day._
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### Author:  [@Nom\_de\_Plume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nom_de_Plume)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633/10 "2016-12-13T19:52:44Z")
The most obvious one is Lynrd Skynrd’s _Sweet Home Alabama_ referencing/responding to Neil Young’s _Southern Man_.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633/11 "2016-12-13T19:53:58Z")
“American Pie” directly references “That’ll Be the Day”, “The Book of Love”, “The Bible Tells Me So”, “A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation)”, “Like a Rolling Stone”, “Helter Skelter”, “Eight Miles High”, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, and indirectly references “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” & “Sympathy for the Devil”.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633/12 "2016-12-13T20:00:00Z")
> [@Nom\_de\_Plume](#):
>
> The most obvious one is Lynrd Skynrd’s _Sweet Home Alabama_ referencing/responding to Neil Young’s _Southern Man_.
Kid Rock kept it going, in ALL SUMMER LONG.
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### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633/13 "2016-12-13T20:03:52Z")
Tenacious D’s “Tribute”.
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### Author:  [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633/14 "2016-12-13T20:05:58Z")
Weird Al’s “Achy Breaky Song” is about the song it’s parodying, “Achy Breaky Heart.” Weird Al clearly hated the song.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633/15 "2016-12-13T20:06:19Z")
LIFE IS A ROCK, by Reunion, is all over the place.
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### Author:  [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633/16 "2016-12-13T20:13:46Z")
Didn’t another singer made a song about Eric Clapton song ‘Tears in heaven’?
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633/17 "2016-12-13T20:16:44Z")
American Pie - Lots of songs
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### Author:  [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633/18 "2016-12-13T20:18:35Z")
“[Set 'em up Joe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGMDbOZlQfE)” is about listening to Ernest Tubb’s “Walkin’ the Floor.”
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633/19 "2016-12-13T20:18:43Z")
Edie Money, “Take Me Home Tonight” - The Ronettes “Be My Baby” with a cameo by Ronnie Spector
“Another Auld Lang Syne” - the obvious
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2016, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-other-songs/774633/20 "2016-12-13T20:28:07Z")
Crocodile Rock (which I loathe), mentions Rock Around The Clock:
_While the other kids were Rocking Round the Clock
We were hopping and bopping to the Crocodile Rock_
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