# Songs that are letters **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 6, 2008, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971 "2008-08-06T00:09:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971/21 "2008-08-06T04:18:32Z")
“Paperback Writer” is probably one of the more famous ones. (Thanks, Jeopardy!) ---
**Author:** ![Vision\_of\_Love](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Vision\_of\_Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vision_of_Love)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971/22 "2008-08-06T05:56:51Z")
**Don’t Cry Joni** (1975) by Conway Twitty and Joni Lee. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cc_VogD_Pc) ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971/23 "2008-08-06T06:00:54Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] But the Beatles song would certainly qualify. [/quote] Yabbut I don’t know the lyrics. There’s also a 1937 song, _Having A Wonderful Time (Wish You Were Here_). ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971/24 "2008-08-06T06:50:10Z")
[Letter to Hermione](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC0RSXOemQs),\* from David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”\*\* album. \*Links to YouTube video. \*\*Also called “Man of Words/Man of Music” but originally titled “David Bowie,” not to be confused with the original album originally titled “David Bowie.” ---
**Author:** ![Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abby_Emma_Sasha)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971/25 "2008-08-06T07:01:04Z")
Don’t forget _Dear Mr. Jesus_. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971/26 "2008-08-06T07:02:10Z")
_Tie a Yellow Ribbon_ is mostly the letter a prisoner sends to his wife before being released, it’s only the last couple of lines that reveal the results of that letter. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971/27 "2008-08-06T07:09:33Z")
[24 Hours From Tulsa](http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/g/genepitney8817/24hoursfromtulsa299244.html). It’s not tactful, it’s not sympathetic, but it’s a letter. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971/28 "2008-08-06T11:08:53Z")
And then there was the song popular about 50 years ago whose name I forget and who lyrics I just barely remember, but it was supposedly written by a grammar freak to his girlfriend and all the punctuation was sounded out, eg. “Sweet Heart semi-colon I love you exclamation point Some day comma in the future comma…” ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971/29 "2008-08-06T11:25:12Z")
Rod Stewart’s “You Wear It Well” is supposed to be a letter he’s writing to an ex-girlfriend, while on a break at work. - “Dear Eloise, I am writing to say A number of funny things I heard today. I heard that he’s left you and gone off to sea. Could be the best thing that’s happened to me.” - The Hollies, "Dear Eloise - The chorus of Jim Croce’s “Box Number 10” is a series of letters from a struggling musician, asking his parents for money. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971/30 "2008-08-06T12:26:37Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] Yabbut I don’t know the lyrics. [/QUOTE] As I write this letter Send my love to you Remember that I’ll always Be in love with you. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971/31 "2008-08-06T12:38:23Z")
“A Letter to Elise” by the Cure is really good. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971/32 "2008-08-06T15:07:31Z")
[We Love You, Call Collect](http://www.top40db.net/Lyrics/?SongID=69618&By=Genre&Match=Spoken+Word) by Art Linkletter (who is still alive at age 96!) was dedicated to his daughter Diane, who jumped out a window and died, [supposedly](http://www.snopes.com/horrors/drugs/linkletter.asp) while high on LSD. Also, Living Colour’s [Open Letter (To A Landlord).](http://www.musicsonglyrics.com/L/livingcolourlyrics/livingcolouropenlettertoalandlordlyrics.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971/33 "2008-08-06T15:50:52Z")
“Gabriel’s Letter/My First Woman” from the musical _Kiss of the Spider Woman_ is split between the character Valentin reading a letter from his unrequited love and Molina recalling his first sexual experience. There are a couple of other songs from the musical that sound like letters, “Dear One” and “You Could Never Shame Me,” but I haven’t seen the show and I can’t tell from Wikipedia’s plot summary. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971/34 "2008-08-06T16:09:48Z")
Isn’t [Unchained Melody](http://www.weddingvendors.com/music/lyrics/r/righteous-brothers/unchained-melody/) supposed to be a letter from a guy in prison? I’ve always assumed [For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her](http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/foremily.htm) is a letter just based on the title. ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/898d66/32.png) [@Mycroft\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_H)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971/35 "2008-08-06T16:14:16Z")
Eliza Gilkyson has a song “Jedidiah 1777” on her album _Paradise Hotel_ that deals with man’s letters home during the American Revolutionary War. I like the song and the background story makes it even [more interesting](http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/18747/gilkysoneliza-paradise). From the site: ’ “Jedidiah 1777” tells of Gilkyson’s ancestral grandfather, Brigadier General Jedidiah Huntington, who fought alongside George Washington in the American Revolutionary War. Over a simple and relentless acoustic pattern, she sings, in dry matter-of-fact tones, lyrics that come directly from Huntington’s own letters to his family—letters she found at a Connecticut Historical Library. It’s an engrossing song that could have achieved something approaching epic status had Huntington been a more prolific correspondent.’ ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971/36 "2008-08-06T16:17:27Z")
Tom Waits’ song [Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis](http://www.metrolyrics.com/christmas-card-from-a-hooker-in-minneapolis-lyrics-tom-waits.html) is in letter form. ---
**Author:** ![Dahnlor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahnlor/32/533_2.png) [@Dahnlor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahnlor)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971/37 "2008-08-06T17:41:23Z")
“Letter to Dana” by Sonata Arctica “Dear John Letter (To the Devil)” by Keith Green ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2008, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971/38 "2008-08-06T18:13:56Z")
Brad Paisley - [Letter to Me](http://www.cmt.com/videos/brad-paisley/187138/letter-to-me.jhtml) ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971/39 "2008-08-07T00:47:16Z")
I lied, earlier. Jim Croce’s “Box Number 10” features a series of collect phone calls to his parents, not letters. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971/40 "2008-08-07T02:16:22Z")
[South of Cincinnati](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZlBR7z59fo) - **Dwight Yoakam** The chorus is an unsent letter from a woman to her ex. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-are-letters/458971.md?page=3)