Richard Thompson - Al Bowlly’s In Heaven:
Well we were heroes then, and the girls were all pretty
And a uniform was a lucky charm, bought you the key to the city
We used to dance, Al Bowlley would sing
“Love is the Sweetest Thing”
Al Bowlly’s in heaven and I’m in limbo now…
Video here
Other versions reference The Very Thought of You as the Al Bowlley song.
In “Adam’s Song” by Blink 182, there’s a line that says, “I took my time, hurried up, the choice was mine,” which is from Nirvana’s “Come As You Are.”
In the Springtime of His Voodoo by Tori Amos starts off with the line, “Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona and I’m quite sure I’m in the wrong song” which is a pretty clear reference to Take It Easy by the Eagles.
HTR was a huge Monsoon (Sheila Chandra) fan when she was a teenager and years later referenced a lyric line from Monsoon’s song “Ever So Lonely” (link is audio-only of the Extended mix). They otherwise have nothing in common. Don’t know if these count, but she named a song “Life On Mars” as a tip of the hat to Bowie, but it’s not one of her Bowie covers. In this self-cover, she references Kate Bush (“Running Up That Hill”), David Bowie (“Starman”) and Yes (“Long Distance Runaround”).
Golden Earring’s Radar Love mentions “Brenda Lee’s Comin’ on Strong”.
Regina Spektor’s On the Radio mentions Guns and Roses’ song November Rain.
If you’re referring to “It’s a big enough umbrella, But it’s always me that ends up getting wet”, those lyrics were also in the song O My God from the album Synchronicity.
A friend of mine wrote a song for his band Magic Juan called Possessed by the Devil. It’s a song about a cracker who kills a black man and is trying to excuse his actions by claiming that he was possessed. Somehow John managed to work in a Black Sabbath tribute:
I can do many things, I’m possessed by the devil
Satan laughing spreads his wings, I’m possessed by the devil
I’ll never forget hearing this song in their rehearsals and making them stop to ask him if he had really said that. I was laughing so hard they had to take a break and get in tune again, ya know what I’m sayin’.
The Dire Straits song “Walk of Life” references “I Got a Woman”, “Be-Bop-A-Lula”, “What’d I Say”, and “Mack the Knife”.
Jude Cole’s Start the Car ends with the line “Maybelline why can’t you be true?” thrown into the ending chorus.
It is an obvious reference to and line from Maybelline by Chuck Berry.
Don McLean’s American Pie has a few
Elvis Costello, American without Tears:
In Revlon and Crimpelene they captured my heart
To the strain of a piano and a cocktail murderess
She was singing that ‘It’s Too Late’, I agreed with that part
For two English girls that had changed their address
A couple of verses from Dream Theater’s “Octavarium”:
Sailing on the seven seize the day tripper Diem’s ready
Jack the Ripper Owen Wilson Phillips and my Supper’s ready
Lucy in the Sky with diamond Dave’s not here I come to save the Day for
Nightmare Cinema show me the way to get back home
Again
[…]
Flying Off the Hand With careful with
That axe Eugene Gene the dance machine messiah
Light my Fire gabba, gabba
Hey hey my my Generations home again
Spock’s Beard also references an earlier song of theirs in “June”:
And the crowd kept goin’ singin’ Waste Away
but it just didn’t feel right
Bob Seger’s Night Moves:
On a radio call-in show where he was a guest, someone asked, and he said the song was “Be my Baby”.
(OK, it was really released in 1963, but that doesn’t rhyme.)
Spandau Ballet—On their hit song “True” they sing the line “listenin’ to Marvin all night long” referencing Marvin Gaye’s “Anna’s Song”.
“True” was actually written while Marvin Gaye was still alive; I had always thought it was written as a tribute after his death. (he was of course shot and killed by his father)
The Traveling Wilburies’ “End of the Line” includes a tribute to Jimi Hendrix::
*Maybe somewhere down the road a ways,
You’ll think of me and wonder where I am these days.
Maybe somewhere down the road when somebody plays
"Purple Haze."
*
Deep Purple’s “Hungry Daze” alludes to their earlier hit “Smoke on the Water.”
We all came out to Montreux… but that’s another song.
In “Sara,” Bob Dylan mentions an earlier song he’d written for his wife:
*I can still hear the sounds of those Methodist bells,
I had taken the cure and had just gotten through
Staying up for days in the Chelsea Hotel,
Writing **“Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” **for you.
*
ELO, “Shangri-la”:
“Slide Show” by Scottish band Travis references Beck’s “Devil’s Haircut” and Oasis’s “Wonderwall.”
“There’s no devil’s haircut in my mind. There is not a wonderwall to climb or step around.”
Wikipedia says Queen’s “Bring Back that Leroy Brown” was supposedly a tribute to Jim Croce, who of course wrote Bad Bad Leroy Brown and had died the previous year. But there’s not much in the lyrics or the style of the song that reminds me of Croce or BBLB.
More Money for You and Me, a novelty song by the Four Preps(1960).
Parodies of “I’m Mr. Blue” by the Fleetwoods, “Alley Oop” by the Hollywood Argyles, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” by the Platters, “In this Whole Wide World” by the Four Freshmen, “It Takes a Worried Man” and “Tom Dooley” by the Kingston Trio, “Teenager in Love” by Dion and the Belmonts.