Singers Who Name-Check Other Singers in Their Songs

Apologies if this thread has existed in the past, but I found this interesting...

I was listening to Randy Newman's "Trouble In Paradise" today, and realized that on the opening track "I Love L.A." he sings "...crank up The Beach Boys, baby..."

and then later in the LP, on "My Life is Good," he sings "... the name of this young man is Mr. Bruce Springsteen... (who says) "Rand, I'm tired... how'd you like to be The Boss for awhile?"

That's TWO mentions of TWO artists/groups on one LP.

So, I'm thinking, there must be lots of examples of artists name-checking heroes/friends/nemesis, right?

I don't mean like, Lennon's "How Can You Sleep?" because he never SAYS "Paul," y'know?

Others off the top of my head:

RANDY NEWMAN "The Story of a Rock 'n' Roll Band" (ELO)

THE BEACH BOYS: "Do You Remember" (Little Richard, Danny and the Juniors, Chuck Berry, Elvis), "Mona" (Phil Spector)

BARENAKED LADIES "Brian Wilson" (Brian)

ELTON JOHN "Empty Garden" (John Lennon - actually, "Hey, hey Johnny")

HARRY NILSSON "The Flying Saucer Song" (Ringo Starr), "You Can't Do That (Medley)" (Beatles, actually "Beatles forever...")

BILLY JOEL "We Didn't Start The Fire" (Buddy Holly)

WEEZER "Buddy Holly" (Buddy)

DEAD MILKMEN "Punk Rock Girl (Beach Boys) [j/k mistaking "California Dreamin' as a "BB" song]

GEORGE HARRISON "Pure Smokey" (Smokey Robinson)

CHUCK BERRY "Roll Over Beethoven" (Beethoven, Tchaikovsky [sp?])


And I KNOW there's something with "Put a Frank Sinatra record on..." from something but I can't place it...

All right, my brain's gonna pop...

JEFF!

 

Paul MC Cartney - Let im in- Phil & Don (Everlys)

 

Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road: "Loretta's singing on the radio"

Grandaddy - Jed's Other Poem: "I try to sing it funny like Beck / But it's bringing me down"

 

The Young Fresh Fellows do that all the time, most notably on their GREAT album "The Men Who Loved Music" which features:

"Hank, Karen and Elvis" (Williams, Carpenter, and Presley, that is)
"My Friend Ringo"
"Where the Hell Did they Go" (mentions Larry Williams and Pete and Tommy from Badfinger)
"Amy Grant"
"Beer Money" (mentions the Del Fuegos)

 

I said to Hank Williams: how lonely does it get?
Hank Williams hasn't answered yet
But I hear him coughing all night long
A hundred floors above me in the Tower of Song

TOWER OF SONG (Leonard Cohen, 1987)

In the blues realm, we have "J.B. Lenoir Is Dead" by John Mayall, and Gary Moore's "King of the Blues".

 

ELO: Shangri-La "...fading like the Beatles in Hey Jude..."
The Who: Cache, Cache "...to the sound of old T-Rex..."

 

Lynyrd Skynyrd dissing Neil Young in Sweet Home Alabama.

"Well I hope Neil Young still remembers.
A Southern band don't need him around, anyhow"

 

Dylan gets name-checked quite a bit..

'I asked Bobby Dylan,
I asked the Beatles
I asked Timothy Leary
But he couldn't help me either'
(The Who, 'The Seeker')

Wilco has a song called 'Bob Dylan's 49th Beard'

 

"All the Young Dudes" - Mott the Hoople (mentions T-Rex, the Stones, and the Fabs)

"Surrender" - Cheap Trick ("...got my Kiss records out.")

 

Almost forgot one:

"Runnin' Down a Dream" - Tom Petty ("...me and Del [Shannon] were singin'...")

 

Two I can think of right off.........

Wilson Pickett - Cole, Cooke & Redding

The Sandals - Tell Us Dylan
"Tell us, tell us Dylan, tell us, tell us Donovan"

 

Rupert Holmes' "I Don't Want To Hold Your Hand" mentions "The Beatles."
James Taylor mentions his old group "Flying Machine" in the song "Fire And Rain."

 

I can't believe nobody has mentioned this one.
"Roy Orbison singing for the lonely"
Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road

 

Van Morrison - "Jackie Wilson Said"
He also mentions Ray Charles in the opening to line to "Got To Go Back" ("I used to listen to Ray sing I Believe To My Soul")

 

Life Is A Rock by REUNION

Life Is A Rock
Reunion Song Lyrics

Life is a rock but the radio rolled me.
Got to turn it up ouder, so my DJ told me.
Life is a rock but the radio rolled me.
At the end of my rainbow lies a golden oldie.


FM, AM, hits are clickin' while the clock is tockin'-tickin'
Friends and Romans, salutations, Brenda and the Tabulations
Carly Simon, I behold her, Rolling Stoning, centerfolder
Johnny Cash and Johnny Rivers, can't stop now, I got the shivers
Mungo Jerry, Peter Peter Paul and Paul and Mary Mary
Dr. John the nightly tripper, Doris Day and Jack the Ripper
Gotta go Sir, got to swelter, Leon Russell, Gimme Shelter
Miracles in smokey places, slide guitars and Fender basses.


Arthur Janov primal, Screamin' Hawkins Jay and Dale and Ronnie,
Kukla Fran and Norma Okla, Denver John and Osmond Donny
JJ Cale and ZZ Top and LL Bean and DD Dinah
David Bowie, Steely Dan and sing me proud, oh CC Rider
Edgar Winter, Joanie Sommers, Ides of March and Johnny Thunder
Eric Clapton, pedal wah-wah, Stephen Foster, do-dah do-dah
Good Vibrations, Help Me Rhonda, Surfer Girl and Little Honda
Tighter, tighter, honey, honey, sugar, sugar, yummy, yummy.


Shimmy shimmy ko-ko bop and Fats is back and Finger Poppin'.
Mushroom omelet, Bonnie Bramlett, Wilson Pickett, stomp and kick it.
CBS and Warner Brothers, RCA and all the others.
Rock it, sock it, Alan Freed me, Murray Kaufman, tried to lead me.
Fish, and Swim, and Boston Monkey, Make it bad and play it funky.
Freddy King and Albert King and B.B. King and frolicking.

 

Oops... nobody mentioned Deep Purple

We all came out to montreux
On the lake geneva shoreline
To make records with a mobile
We didn’t have much time
Frank Zappa and the Mothers
Were at the best place around
But some stupid with a flare gun
Burned the place to the ground
Smoke on the water, fire in the sky

 

Of course, Deep Purple mention Frank Zappa (and the Mothers) in Smoke of the Water, but that is so common knowledge that it is not even worth pointing out
____________
That was NOT in response to Claus's message above... simply thought about the same thing at the same time

 

Megalomaniac by Incubus mentions Elvis and one of the carpenters.

 

Song for Bob Dylan - David Bowie
Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio - Ramones (I -think-...)

 

Rodney Crowell's "Earthbound" name-checks a rather mixed batch of folks:

Tom Waits, Aretha Franklin, Mary Karr...
Walter Cronkite, Seamus Heaney, Ringo Starr...
Dalai Lama, Charlie Brown, think I might stick around

 

There are plenty of other Van songs that name-check other singers. For starters:

"Real Real Gone" mentions Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke, James Brown, Gene Chandler.
"Cleaning Windows" mention Jimmie Rodgers, Leadbelly, Blind Lemon Jefferson.

Also--

ELO: "Illusions in G Minor" -- "Tunes that sounded like the Rolling Stones and Leonard Cohen..."

But my favorite bit of name dropping comes from Bob Dylan's "Highlands":
"I'm listening to Neil Young, I gotta turn up the sound
Someone's always yelling turn it down."

The thought of His Bobness blasting Neil Young always makes me smile...

 

My absolute fav: the BBC version of "Moon in June" by the Soft Machine.

"And to all our mates, like Kevin [Ayers]
Caravan and the old Pink Floyd"

 

The As* Ponys used " Some Stupid with a Flare Gun" as an album name...