Famous Songs About Food

insearchofjason · May 18th, 2004, 08:41 AM

Musical tastes: Famous songs about food
By Ian Hodder
Special to MSN

If a DJ ranked pop culture's favorite song subjects, love would top the chart. But one notch down on the countdown, with a catalog of hits that spans all genres, the topic of food would score a strong second. Folks have been getting down to food songs since ancient civilizations described pit-roasted meat in verse — way before your iPod blasted Kelis' ubiquitous "Milkshake."

The food-song cornucopia runneth over with tunes from almost every major pop musician. The Beatles played "Strawberry Fields Forever" and the lesser-known, more-culinary "Savoy Truffle." Billy Joel reminisced about "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant," as Blondie opted to "Eat to the Beat." ZZ Top enjoyed "TV Dinners." Smashing Pumpkins made "Mayonaise." Kelsey Grammer capped each episode of "Frasier" with a serving of "Tossed Salad and Scrambled Eggs," while Weird Al Yankovic cooked up "Eat It," "I Love Rocky Road," and "Girls Just Want to Have Lunch."

"Dining is and always was a great artistic opportunity," Frank Lloyd Wright once said, and the great architect's remark doesn't apply just to Craftsman-style kitchen furniture. Food consumption ranks up there with breathing on the primal-urge meter and, especially when shared with others, meals satisfy spiritual and social urges to which oxygen exchange can't hold a candle (Faith Hill's "Breathe" notwithstanding).

A brief history
Back in the day of China's aptly titled Chou Dynasty, around the 12th century B.C., scribes of the Shih Ching book of songs honored their society's agricultural abundance with mouth-watering passages about gourds, millet and tripe. Funny grub aside, they also tucked into roast lamb, washed down with rice wine. Moving ahead through history to the Bible, the Song of Solomon is ripe with food imagery, including a section that equates a woman's bosom with a bunch of grapes.

Even many of the ditties you haven't sung since childhood (or the last time you overdid it on the rice wine) are chow-related. For example: "Hot Cross Buns," with its subject's religious symbolism; "On Top of Old Smoky," the "all covered with cheese" version; and "Jimmy Crack Corn," which research reveals is actually about making moonshine. And those "four and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie"? Legend has it medieval English bakers would slip live birds under a baked crust, so the critters would fly free when the treat was served.

Nourishing the senses
"In many ways cooking and music are similar art forms," says New York culinary historian Andrew F. Smith, editor of the forthcoming Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. Both require ingredients and instruments and result in an ephemeral product best experienced with friends. Yes, food consumption fulfills a biological need, Smith continues, but it also nourishes our other senses. "The characteristics of food are often hard to verbalize, but they're very powerful."

This explains why songwriters are fond of using food as metaphors for feelings difficult to express with words. Because we associate at a visceral level certain dishes with certain qualities, like chocolate-chip cookies with Grandma's TLC, food references are a forceful artistic device. Meaning that musical menu items should be taken with a grain of salt. In London's Observer newspaper, music critic Campbell Stevenson wrote that "when Robert Plant asks you to 'squeeze my lemon,' he's not in need of help preparing a dressing for his couscous." Same deal with the aforementioned Kelis, who's not in need of help preparing a frosty dairy beverage.

Musician and former restaurateur Bob Pastorio hosts a Virginia radio show about edibles and culture. He also wrote the food-songs entry for Smith's encyclopedia and compiled a list of popular American food songs that quickly surpassed 700 titles. (For a list of 500, surf to mixedup.com.) "Food is so universal and pervasive," Pastorio says, "that it's a topic you can never run dry on."

Among his research findings are "a whole lot of New Orleans blues songs that seem to be about food, but are really about sex." Chief offender: "It Must Be Jelly ('Cause Jam Don't Shake Like That)." Pastorio is, however, an aficionado of music (and victuals) from the South, considered by many the epicenter of America's food-song scene. His favorites? "Bread and Butter," "Chicken Cordon Blues," and "Red Beans and Rice." You know the latter as the theme of the TBS series "Dinner and a Movie."

Lyrical tastes
When asked for her favorite food song, my music-geek friend Paula reeled off Japanese band Cibo Matto's "White Pepper Ice Cream" and Squeeze's "Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)," before belting her top pick: "What would you doo-ooo-ooo for a Klondike Bar?" Further unscientific study determined that adman-made lyrics, from "my bologna has a first name" to "I feel like chicken tonight," are among the most-memorable music ever devised.

The final word on food songs goes to the late blues musician Albert Collins and his song "Too Many Dirty Dishes." Before work, the song's narrator scarfs a bowl of Froot Loops and leaves the sink empty, only to return in the evening to a steak bone and a suspicious sinkful of plates. Thus, Collins has touched upon eating for both subsistence and sumpin'-sumpin', brand-name food products, and with a touch of wit, the deep emotions only a food song can trigger.

http://wine.msn.com/?article.aspx?aid=22

groovethang · Jun 4th, 2004, 08:41 PM

Personally my fave food song will always be...

Big mac, fillet o fish, quarter pounder, french fries, icy coke, thick shake, sundaes and apple pie.

Yep that's the 80's (I believe) Mc Donalds version of "I'm lovin' it"

Glucose · Jun 7th, 2004, 04:37 AM

Well here is a songs about chewing gum. . . . .. . .

Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor (On The Bedpost Overnight)
Lonnie Donegan & his Skiffle Group

Oh me oh my oh you
Whatever shall I do?
Hallelujah, the question is peculiar
I'd give a lot of dough
If only I could know
The answer to my question
Is it yes or is it no?

CHORUS:
Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight?
If your mother says don't chew it, do you swallow it in spite?
Can you catch it on your tonsils, can you heave it left & right?
Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight?

Here comes a blushing bride
The groom is by her side
Up to the altar, just as steady as Gibraltar
The groom has got the ring
& it's such a pretty thing
But as he slips it on her finger
The choir begins to sing:

(chorus)

Now the nation rise as one
To send their wanted son
Up to the White House, yes, the nation's only White House
To voice their discontent
Unto the Pres-I-dent
They pawn the burning question, What has swept this continent?
(Lonnie speaks: If tin whistles are made of tin, what do they make fog horns out of?
Another man shouts: Boom boom!)

(chorus)

On the bedpost overnight
(Man: Hello there, I love you & the one who holds you tight!
Lonnie: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sat'day night!)
On the bedpost overnight
(Man: A dollar is a dollar & a dime is a dime!
Lonnie: He'd sing another chorus but he hasn't got the time!)
On the bedpost overnight, yeah!

groovethang · Jun 7th, 2004, 10:26 AM

Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer weiner, that is what I truly want to be. Cuz if I were an Oscar Mayer weiner, everyone would be in love with me.

my bologna has a first name, it's o s c a r. my bologna has a second name, it's m a y e r. Oh, I love to eat it everyday and if you ask me why I'll say- cuz Oscar Mayer has a way with b o l o g n a

aguilera_lover · Jun 7th, 2004, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glucose

Well here is a songs about chewing gum. . . . .. . .

Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor (On The Bedpost Overnight)

Thank you. Know I will be singing this song the rest of the freaking night.

Glucose · Jun 7th, 2004, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aguilera_lover

Thank you. Know I will be singing this song the rest of the freaking night.

Anytime . . .

.

aguilera_lover · Jun 8th, 2004, 04:53 PM

Yep, last night at work, the only song that came to my mind was Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor. And I only know the chorus, so it got old fast.

Junk Food Junkie is another song about food. Specifically, it is about moi.

Glucose · Jun 9th, 2004, 10:56 PM

I hate that - when you only know a few words to a songs.

Here's another food song.

(don't know HOW I'd heard of these lyrics before, but . . . I have).

Song Lyrics for 'Hot Potato' Song (wow!)
Hot potato, hot potato (Hot potato hot potato)
Hot potato, hot potato (Hot potato hot potato)
Hot potato, hot potato, potato, potato, potato, potato... potato, potato, potato
Cold spaghetti, cold spaghetti (cold spaghetti, cold spaggetti)
Cold spaghetti, cold spaghetti (cold spaghetti, cold spaggetti)
Cold spaghetti, cold spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti... spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti

aguilera_lover · Jun 11th, 2004, 08:21 PM

WTF?!

I think I could of written that song! And it's a good thing I don't know it, because if I got it stuck in my head, I would probably have to murder myself.

Glucose · Jun 12th, 2004, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aguilera_lover

WTF?!

I think I could of written that song! And it's a good thing I don't know it, because if I got it stuck in my head, I would probably have to murder myself.

I think a childrens band called 'The Wiggles' sing this one - AND the only I reason I have heard of this song is b/c my little cousin use to listen to The Wiggles all the time. - cross my heart!

aguilera_lover · Jun 14th, 2004, 04:49 PM

^ Yeah, whatever. I know you own all of their CDs, including their "Greatest Hits."

groovethang · Jun 14th, 2004, 08:40 PM

On top of spaghetti,
All covered with cheese,
I lost my poor meatball,
When somebody sneezed.

It rolled off the table,
And on to the floor,
And then my poor meatball,
Rolled out of the door.

It rolled in the garden,
And under a bush,
And then my poor meatball,
Was nothing but mush.

The mush was as tasty
As tasty could be,
And then the next summer,
It grew into a tree.

The tree was all covered,
All covered with moss,
And on it grew meatballs,
And tomato sauce.

So if you eat spaghetti,
All covered with cheese,
Hold on to your meatball,
Whenever you sneeze

May 18th, 2004, 08:41 AM	#1
insearchofjason Registered User Join Date: Mar 2001 Posts: 15,678	Famous Songs About Food Musical tastes: Famous songs about food By Ian Hodder Special to MSN If a DJ ranked pop culture's favorite song subjects, love would top the chart. But one notch down on the countdown, with a catalog of hits that spans all genres, the topic of food would score a strong second. Folks have been getting down to food songs since ancient civilizations described pit-roasted meat in verse — way before your iPod blasted Kelis' ubiquitous "Milkshake." The food-song cornucopia runneth over with tunes from almost every major pop musician. The Beatles played "Strawberry Fields Forever" and the lesser-known, more-culinary "Savoy Truffle." Billy Joel reminisced about "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant," as Blondie opted to "Eat to the Beat." ZZ Top enjoyed "TV Dinners." Smashing Pumpkins made "Mayonaise." Kelsey Grammer capped each episode of "Frasier" with a serving of "Tossed Salad and Scrambled Eggs," while Weird Al Yankovic cooked up "Eat It," "I Love Rocky Road," and "Girls Just Want to Have Lunch." "Dining is and always was a great artistic opportunity," Frank Lloyd Wright once said, and the great architect's remark doesn't apply just to Craftsman-style kitchen furniture. Food consumption ranks up there with breathing on the primal-urge meter and, especially when shared with others, meals satisfy spiritual and social urges to which oxygen exchange can't hold a candle (Faith Hill's "Breathe" notwithstanding). A brief history Back in the day of China's aptly titled Chou Dynasty, around the 12th century B.C., scribes of the Shih Ching book of songs honored their society's agricultural abundance with mouth-watering passages about gourds, millet and tripe. Funny grub aside, they also tucked into roast lamb, washed down with rice wine. Moving ahead through history to the Bible, the Song of Solomon is ripe with food imagery, including a section that equates a woman's bosom with a bunch of grapes. Even many of the ditties you haven't sung since childhood (or the last time you overdid it on the rice wine) are chow-related. For example: "Hot Cross Buns," with its subject's religious symbolism; "On Top of Old Smoky," the "all covered with cheese" version; and "Jimmy Crack Corn," which research reveals is actually about making moonshine. And those "four and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie"? Legend has it medieval English bakers would slip live birds under a baked crust, so the critters would fly free when the treat was served. Nourishing the senses "In many ways cooking and music are similar art forms," says New York culinary historian Andrew F. Smith, editor of the forthcoming Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. Both require ingredients and instruments and result in an ephemeral product best experienced with friends. Yes, food consumption fulfills a biological need, Smith continues, but it also nourishes our other senses. "The characteristics of food are often hard to verbalize, but they're very powerful." This explains why songwriters are fond of using food as metaphors for feelings difficult to express with words. Because we associate at a visceral level certain dishes with certain qualities, like chocolate-chip cookies with Grandma's TLC, food references are a forceful artistic device. Meaning that musical menu items should be taken with a grain of salt. In London's Observer newspaper, music critic Campbell Stevenson wrote that "when Robert Plant asks you to 'squeeze my lemon,' he's not in need of help preparing a dressing for his couscous." Same deal with the aforementioned Kelis, who's not in need of help preparing a frosty dairy beverage. Musician and former restaurateur Bob Pastorio hosts a Virginia radio show about edibles and culture. He also wrote the food-songs entry for Smith's encyclopedia and compiled a list of popular American food songs that quickly surpassed 700 titles. (For a list of 500, surf to mixedup.com.) "Food is so universal and pervasive," Pastorio says, "that it's a topic you can never run dry on." Among his research findings are "a whole lot of New Orleans blues songs that seem to be about food, but are really about sex." Chief offender: "It Must Be Jelly ('Cause Jam Don't Shake Like That)." Pastorio is, however, an aficionado of music (and victuals) from the South, considered by many the epicenter of America's food-song scene. His favorites? "Bread and Butter," "Chicken Cordon Blues," and "Red Beans and Rice." You know the latter as the theme of the TBS series "Dinner and a Movie." Lyrical tastes When asked for her favorite food song, my music-geek friend Paula reeled off Japanese band Cibo Matto's "White Pepper Ice Cream" and Squeeze's "Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)," before belting her top pick: "What would you doo-ooo-ooo for a Klondike Bar?" Further unscientific study determined that adman-made lyrics, from "my bologna has a first name" to "I feel like chicken tonight," are among the most-memorable music ever devised. The final word on food songs goes to the late blues musician Albert Collins and his song "Too Many Dirty Dishes." Before work, the song's narrator scarfs a bowl of Froot Loops and leaves the sink empty, only to return in the evening to a steak bone and a suspicious sinkful of plates. Thus, Collins has touched upon eating for both subsistence and sumpin'-sumpin', brand-name food products, and with a touch of wit, the deep emotions only a food song can trigger. http://wine.msn.com/?article.aspx?aid=22

Jun 8th, 2004, 04:53 PM	#7
aguilera_lover Registered User Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Ni! Ni! Ni! Posts: 13,111	Yep, last night at work, the only song that came to my mind was Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor. And I only know the chorus, so it got old fast. Junk Food Junkie is another song about food. Specifically, it is about moi. __________________ \

Jun 9th, 2004, 10:56 PM	#8
Glucose Registered User Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Australia, Melbourne. Posts: 915	I hate that - when you only know a few words to a songs. Here's another food song. (don't know HOW I'd heard of these lyrics before, but . . . I have). Song Lyrics for 'Hot Potato' Song (wow!) Hot potato, hot potato (Hot potato hot potato) Hot potato, hot potato (Hot potato hot potato) Hot potato, hot potato, potato, potato, potato, potato... potato, potato, potato Cold spaghetti, cold spaghetti (cold spaghetti, cold spaggetti) Cold spaghetti, cold spaghetti (cold spaghetti, cold spaggetti) Cold spaghetti, cold spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti... spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti __________________ Some People are like slinkies; Not really good for anything; But they still bring a smile to your face when you throw them down the stairs...

Jun 4th, 2004, 08:41 PM	#2
groovethang Registered User Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Waiting to be saved Posts: 2,518	Personally my fave food song will always be... Big mac, fillet o fish, quarter pounder, french fries, icy coke, thick shake, sundaes and apple pie. Yep that's the 80's (I believe) Mc Donalds version of "I'm lovin' it"

Jun 7th, 2004, 04:37 AM	#3
Glucose Registered User Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Australia, Melbourne. Posts: 915	Well here is a songs about chewing gum. . . . .. . . Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor (On The Bedpost Overnight) Lonnie Donegan & his Skiffle Group Oh me oh my oh you Whatever shall I do? Hallelujah, the question is peculiar I'd give a lot of dough If only I could know The answer to my question Is it yes or is it no? CHORUS: Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight? If your mother says don't chew it, do you swallow it in spite? Can you catch it on your tonsils, can you heave it left & right? Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight? Here comes a blushing bride The groom is by her side Up to the altar, just as steady as Gibraltar The groom has got the ring & it's such a pretty thing But as he slips it on her finger The choir begins to sing: (chorus) Now the nation rise as one To send their wanted son Up to the White House, yes, the nation's only White House To voice their discontent Unto the Pres-I-dent They pawn the burning question, What has swept this continent? (Lonnie speaks: If tin whistles are made of tin, what do they make fog horns out of? Another man shouts: Boom boom!) (chorus) On the bedpost overnight (Man: Hello there, I love you & the one who holds you tight! Lonnie: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sat'day night!) On the bedpost overnight (Man: A dollar is a dollar & a dime is a dime! Lonnie: He'd sing another chorus but he hasn't got the time!) On the bedpost overnight, yeah!

Jun 7th, 2004, 10:26 AM	#4
groovethang Registered User Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Waiting to be saved Posts: 2,518	Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer weiner, that is what I truly want to be. Cuz if I were an Oscar Mayer weiner, everyone would be in love with me. my bologna has a first name, it's o s c a r. my bologna has a second name, it's m a y e r. Oh, I love to eat it everyday and if you ask me why I'll say- cuz Oscar Mayer has a way with b o l o g n a

Jun 11th, 2004, 08:21 PM	#9
aguilera_lover Registered User Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Ni! Ni! Ni! Posts: 13,111	WTF?! I think I could of written that song! And it's a good thing I don't know it, because if I got it stuck in my head, I would probably have to murder myself.

Jun 14th, 2004, 04:49 PM	#11
aguilera_lover Registered User Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Ni! Ni! Ni! Posts: 13,111	^ Yeah, whatever. I know you own all of their CDs, including their "Greatest Hits."

Jun 14th, 2004, 08:40 PM	#12
groovethang Registered User Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Waiting to be saved Posts: 2,518	On top of spaghetti, All covered with cheese, I lost my poor meatball, When somebody sneezed. It rolled off the table, And on to the floor, And then my poor meatball, Rolled out of the door. It rolled in the garden, And under a bush, And then my poor meatball, Was nothing but mush. The mush was as tasty As tasty could be, And then the next summer, It grew into a tree. The tree was all covered, All covered with moss, And on it grew meatballs, And tomato sauce. So if you eat spaghetti, All covered with cheese, Hold on to your meatball, Whenever you sneeze