Song Meanings
The stories and meanings behind well-known songs.
Cake by the Ocean by DNCE: The Meaning Behind the Song
A song built entirely on a phrase two Swedish producers got wrong. They meant a cocktail. Joe Jonas heard what they actually said, decided it was...
Song MeaningYour Idol by the Saja Boys: The Meaning Behind the Song
A boy band song that is openly about eating its audience. It reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100, went platinum in the United States,...
Song MeaningThe Freshmen by The Verve Pipe: The Meaning Behind the Song
One of the biggest American rock singles of 1997 is a song about guilt that its own writer has spent thirty years calling badly written. He...
Song MeaningCrimson and Clover by Tommy James and the Shondells: The Meaning Behind the Song
A phrase that means nothing on its own, a guitar soaked in tremolo, and a vocal that dissolves into a pulse at the end. The record...
Song MeaningFor What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield: The Meaning Behind the Song
This is the song film directors reach for the moment a scene needs to signal Vietnam. It has scored helicopter shots, jungle patrols and archive footage...
Song MeaningMoon River: The Meaning Behind the Song
Ten lines, a guitar, and a woman sitting on a fire escape. The song that came out of that scene won an Oscar and two Grammys,...
Song MeaningSilver Springs by Fleetwood Mac: The Meaning Behind the Song
Stevie Nicks wrote a song promising a man that he would never escape the sound of her voice, and then the band left it off the...
Song MeaningVienna by Billy Joel: The Meaning Behind the Song
This song was a B-side. It was not a single, radio ignored it, and for about thirty years it sat on an album full of bigger...
Song MeaningRooster by Alice in Chains: The Meaning Behind the Song
A son wrote a song from inside his father’s memories of a war the man refused to talk about. He did it without asking, guessing at...
Song MeaningWhite Winter Hymnal by Fleet Foxes: The Meaning Behind the Song
Two and a half minutes, one repeated verse, five voices, and an image of snow turning red. Almost nobody who loves this song can tell you...
Song MeaningThe Weight by The Band: The Meaning Behind the Song
A man arrives in a town, tries to deliver one message for a friend, and cannot get out again. Every person he meets asks him for...
Song MeaningUptown Girl by Billy Joel: The Meaning Behind the Song
A working man watches a wealthy woman get out of a car and decides to try anyway. That is the entire plot, delivered in three minutes...
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