I feel suitably ashamed at not having thought of “Sweet Cream Ladies,” because you’re right, it is the best one. Amazing that it got on the radio in 1969.
There was an exchange at a Beatles press conference once when a reporter repeated the claims by anti-Beatles conservatives that Day Tripper was about a prostitute and Norwegian Wood was about a lesbian. He asked Lennon and McCartney what their intention was when they wrote those songs, and Paul responded “We were just trying to write songs about prostitutes and lesbians was all”.
While it was almost certainly a joke, there’s been a standing rumor for almost 50 years that Day Tripper is about a prostitute.
I had always heard that “She’s Leaving Home” was supposed to be the prostitution song. The line “meeting a man from the motor trade” was (according to religious wing-nuts) OBVIOUSLY a reference to a pimp luring that nice young girl into a life of prostitution. (How could she do that to her mother??)
“The Girl with the Holiday Smile” by Lyle Lovett:
“I met a hooker at the grocery store /
Wasn’t bad lookin’, she was a pretty little whore…”
What about “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” from Jesus Christ Superstar? It’s sung by the character Mary Magdalene, who (at least in the context of the musical) is a reformed hooker.
I was going to say Suite Madame Blue, but it looks like there may be an unrelated underlying message
“St. Teresa” by Joan Osborne
At least it’s 99% likely. The song doesn’t explicitly say Teresa is a prostitute but it says she’s a good-looking woman who’s out working on the street in order to make enough money to buy drugs.
You’re probably confusing this song with “Bad Girls” (which is about prostitutes). It’s pretty clear the woman in “She Works Hard For the Money” is a waitress.
Actually, I believe it is about a young man in a relationship with a much older woman, based on his own experiences.
Also “The Oldest Profession” and “Don’t Take Much” from the same musical
“At the House of Marcus Lycus” from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
“Black Bird” by Lennon-Macarthney
“Lying Eyes” by The Eagles
“I don’t know how to love him” by Loyd-Webber
“I dreamed a dream” by C. Mackintosh
I must be retarded. I can’t believe how many songs I grew up listening to, and could tell you the title and artist after hearing just a couple seconds of any part of them, but I never had a clue about the lyrics. I either got them completely wrong, or just mumbled noises that sort of resembled them phonetically.
When I hear this song in my head, believe it or not, I hear the lyrics to MacArthur Park. The part of Sweet Cream Ladies that begins “They will love you in the darkness,” which I swear on a stack of Bibles I never knew was in the song before tonight, scans identically with the part of MacArthur Park that begins, “I don’t think that I can take it.”
Here is song from old country. Maxine, by kiwi singer Sharon O’Neill.
From “Sweet Charity”:
*
You Should See Yourself
Big Spender
Charity’s Soliloquy
Rich Man’s Frug
There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This
The Rhythm of Life
*
And probably a few more.
The 40s tune Drinking Rum and Coca Cola?
Candy’s Room by Bruce.
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John (“I’m not a present for your friends to open…”)
Girls on the Avenue by Richard Clapton.
For mine, Candy’s Room is the best. It captures that weird stalker quality of the John who thinks he’s the one she really loves.
Something Fast by the Sisters of Mercy (heh) is probably about a prostitute:
You can stand all night, at a red light anywhere in town
hailing marys left and right, none of them slow down
I’ve seen the best of men go past, I don’t want to be the last
But there’s a chance that the singer is saying that the woman in question is like a prostitute due to her sleeping with many men.
Broke Down Girl, Buffy Sainte Marie
It has one of the best lines in a song:
Edweena by The Residents.
“When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?” by John Ball
For perhaps the oldest and most widely recorded “Lili Marlene” (also known as “Lily, Lilly, Lilli” for the first name and “Marleen” and “Marlane” for the last name. I have also seen it listed as “Lilly of the Lamppost”)