Van Halen, I’ll Wait
Elvis’s “Return to Sender.” She keeps sending his letters back, so he says he’s going to hand-deliver it.
Imagine You Were Mine By Mitch Benn.
“I’m Gonna Make You Mine” by Lou Christie.
Melissa Etheridge’s “Come to my Window” is a classic stalker song, though a bit less agressive (“I would dial the numbers to listen to your voice, but I can’t be bothered to actually follow you around. Could you maybe make it easy for me? No, I can’t meet you right now, but if you show up I’ll be there. Seriously. I love-”)
Her “I’m the only one” is in the same vein, but it’s not quite as stalkerish. More like unwilling to break up.
Here is the story behind the song.
Kate Bush had a song that was about stalking, but typical for Kate, it was a very different take on it.
“Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.”
I always interpreted it as “you DO know people talk, right? Anybody sees you with someone else, it’s gonna get to me so fast people will think there’s a hurricane on.”
Or as we say in Spanish, “if you don’t want people to know you’ve done something, don’t do it” (si no quieres que se sepa, no lo hagas).
In this song, Elvis isn’t forcing himself on a stranger- he’s TRYING to send an apology to a girlfriend he had a fight with- and she just doesn’t want to hear it. And in the last verse, he says that, if he gets his hand-delivered letter returned, THEN he’ll understand it’s all over.
It can be a fine line between obsessive and determined. Elvis WILL take no for an answer, if his girl tells him it’s all over, but he’s not going to let her break up with him indirectly without even an acknowledgement.
I just happened to hear Michael Buble’s song You Just Haven’t Met Me Yet, and it struck me that the lyrics are just inviting stalkers to pursue him.
He sees you when you’re sleeping
He knows when you’re awake
He knows if you’ve been bad or good
You just don’t understand how MUCH he loves you, you selfish BITCH! Look, he’s sorry… he’s SORRY! He shouldn’t have said that. He just wants to BE there for you, because what you have is SPECIAL, and it’s like you keep pushing him AWAY…
“I Will Be With Her Tonight,” the Toadies.
Hahaha. ::snort::
Our awful, awful band just performed a song about this for the first time last week. Our songwriter is a genius, it’s not her fault none of the rest of us can sing or play instruments.
Freddie in “My Fair Lady” -
And oh! The towering feeling
Just to know somehow you are near.
The overpowering feeling
That any second you may suddenly appear!
People stop and stare. They don’t bother me.
For there’s no where else on earth that I would rather be.
Let the time go by, I won’t care if I
Can be here on the street where you live.
I guess you can’t blame him, because in the original play it’s clear that he gets the girl in the end, not Professor Higgins. Here, he is frustrated by the film producers.
The Beatles song “No Reply” always strikes me as crossing that line between courting and stalking. And on the other side of stalking - the stalking of the ex who you won’t admit is an ex - there’s “Run For Your Life”.
I believe the Turtles have confirmed that it’s definitely about unrequited love and is not intended to be a happy song.
Melanieby Weird Al Yankovic
Superman by REM
I Put A Spell On You by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins et alia
The road I cruise is a bitch now
ya know ya can’t turn me ‘round
And if a house gets in my way
ya know I’m burnin’ it down
You ran the night that you left me
you put me in my place
I got you in a stranglehold baby
I’m gonna crush your face
Holy crap. I’ve never paid attention to the lyrics of that song before, and just thought of it as an all-timekiller guitar groove. Now I’m not sure if I can ever dig it again.
The Mrs. Dunn Song by Derek Dubois.Local hero, and my son’s friend.
Ummm…Maxwell, “Somebody’s Watching Me?”
I Will Possess Your Heart by Death Cab For Cutie:
There are days when outside your window
I see my reflection as I slowly pass,
and I long for this mirrored perspective
when we’ll be lovers, lovers at last.