By which I don’t mean “songs that refer/shout out to other songs” (like Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama with respect to Neil Young’s Southern Man), but rather songs that are clearly meant as extensions to, or followups of a specific earlier song?
For example, earlier today I had two classic songs by Chubby Checker come up on a random play shuffle: The Twist (“Come on baby, let’s do the twist…”), followed about 15 minutes later by the musically similar Let’s Twist Again (“Let’s twist again, like we did last summer; yeah, let’s twist again, like we did last year”). I wasn’t around when these songs were Top 40 hits, but I would assume Let’s Twist Again was an undisguised (and successful) effort to keep the Twist payola going.
I also remember a record that my parents used to have, many years ago, that had both the Elvis Presley version of Are You Lonesome Tonight? and a “response” song sung by a woman, Yes I’m Lonesome Tonight. Though that wasn’t really a different song but rather the same song, with even the same melody, but with the words rearranged to echo back the same sentiments from “the other side” (lame, lame, lame – I’d rather pair it with Gloria Gaynor’s song I Will Survive, or even Alanis Morissette’s You Oughta Know).
I used to think the Counting Crows song Mister Jones was a follow-up of sorts to Bob Dylan’s Ballad of a Thin Man, but apparently it’s not.
“Devil went down to Georgia” AND “The Devil Comes Back to Georgia” is the BEST example I can think of right now.
“Nothing but a G thang” and “The Next Episode” both by Dr. Dre sorta follow up each other, though not really in any story wise fashion, but it is pretty much the follow up to the old one.
Huh. I’ve never heard of “The Devil Comes Back To Georgia”. To the Google search tab!
Aren’t those two Dr. Dre songs on the same album? So having one earlier song say “just chill, to the next episode” and then a later song be “the next episode” seems more like the gangsta rap take on The Beatles’ Sun King Medley, but only sorta.
Not sure if it’s a sequel, strictly speaking, but The Who’s “Pure and Easy” follows “The Song is Over”, quoting it’s last lines in the opening verse. Last lines of “The Song is Over”:
First lines of “Pure and Easy”:
For what it’s worth, “The Song is Over” seems to be about love lost, while “Pure and Easy” seems to use music as a metaphor for . . . something more eternal (?).
Doesn’t The Song Is Over directly follow the song My Wife on the album Who’s Next? If you’re gonna say any other song by The Who is linked to The Song It’s Over it should be that one
Bad phrasing on my part; I meant “Pure and Easy” follows “The Song is Over” in that it quotes its final lines, not sequentially album-wise (I don’t think “Pure and Easy” was commercially available at all at least until '74’s Odds & Sods).
Lesley Gore had “It’s My Party”, followed by “Judy’s Turn to Cry”. Listening to both songs makes me wonder, who the hell wants Johnny, anyway? He sounds like a jerk.
Peter Schilling’s Major Tom is a follow up to David Bowie’s Space Oddity (although he once said he had never heard of Space Oddity, which is ridiculous…I think he’s backed off of that now).
“Nothing but a G thing” was recorded in 1992 for the debut album "The Chronic " by Dr. Dre.
“The Next Episode” was recorded for the album 2001, also known as “The Chronic 2001” but was released in 1999. The song is basically a continuation of the first though in terms of beat and makeup, but they were released 7 years apart.
David Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes” was a sequel of sorts to “Space Oddity.”
And the Kinks “Destroyer” was a sequel of sorts to “Lola.”
Then there’s the category of “answer songs.” Country music star Jim Reeves had a huge hit with a song called “He’ll Have to Go.” That inspired an equally big hit called “He’ll Have to Stay” by Jeanne Black.
