Your Favorite Songs in English From Bands Who Dont Speak English As a First Language

Cafe Society
41

ABBA and the Scorpions have been cited by many others, and were the first two bands I thought of. So I won’t dwell any further regarding them.

“Jerk it Out” by the Caesars:


The late Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne was in another pop band called Ivy, whose lead singer (Dominique Durand) is from France. Her accent is quite evident on many of their songs. “The Edge of the Ocean” was used in a number of movies (e.g., Angel Eyes, Music and Lyrics, Shallow Hal) and TV shows.

The Cardigans (Sweden) are pretty well known in the USA with several hit singles. My favorite is “Erase/Rewind”:

42

Lara Fabian. Her English-language hits are I Will Love Again and Love By Grace, but I’m crazy about her entire eponymous debut album. She’s Belgian, and like Celine Dion, her career began in French-language music, but for some reason, her attempt to cross over into the English-language market was not nearly as successful.

43

Does99 Red Balloons count if I prefer the German version? So did the band, evidently.

44

My answer would be the songs of Milli Vanilli, but Rob and Fab weren’t the actual singers.

45

Emmylou - First Aid Kit

46

I really dig the Japanese bands that sing mostly nonsense English lyrics just because they like the way they sound and rhyme. I started my trip down that rabbit hole back in the early Eighties with The Plastics

47

Anything by Triumvirat, a.k.a. “the German E.L.P.”

48

PFM (aka Premiata Forneria Marconi*), Italy’s premier prog rock band, has occasionally sung in English.
*Translated: Award-winning Marconi Bakery.

49

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of chatting with an Aussie, you too would leave wondering what language he was speaking.

50

Anything by ‘Nightwish’

Here’s a good one: Nightwish - Wanderlust - YouTube