86 Songs with Food in the Title

At the intersection of music and food rests a dazzling buffet of options for self-expression. Quick-witted songwriters turn to the dinner table when formulating life advice (e.g., "mind your biscuits and gravy"). They use food imagery as a tantalizing way to communicate pick-up lines and flirtation (e.g., "my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard," "Do fries go with that shake?" and "spread it like peanut butter and jelly").

Listeners also dance to food-named dances like the Mashed Potato, the Chicken Noodle Soup, and the Watermelon Crawl. They employ terms of endearment for lovers that prompt visions of

• bakery items and confections (e.g., sugar, honey, various pies, candy)
• vegetable plants (e.g., sweet pea)
• fruits (e.g., sugar plum), and
• more (e.g., honey).

Food isn't just for sustenance. It's also a language of self-expression. If you love food for all of its uses, then make a playlist of pop, rock, and country songs with food in the title. We have a long list to start you out!

Originally sung by girl group Labelle (as in Patti Labelle), this sexually suggestive 2001 R&B song is about a Creole prostitute named Lady Marmalade. Yes, she's named after jam. (Insert your own joke here about spreading her love all over the city.)

Ms. Marmalade makes a business transaction with a customer named Joe. She leaves him waiting in her boudoir an overly long time while freshening up, thus causing him to blurt out, "Voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir?" ("Are you going to sleep with me tonight?") The song was featured on the Moulin Rouge soundtrack.

In this 1985 funk song, His Royal Badness describes a narrator who works in a five and dime store when he is visited by a strikingly attractive stranger. Her distinctive, second-hand beret is the color of bright raspberries, and when it is warm she wears little else. With an attraction this magnetic, the narrator and his new, raspberry beret-clad ladyfriend head off together on his motorcycle for a sexual tryst.

This 2015 country song boils down to one piece of advice that uses food to communicate its central message: "Mind your own biscuits and life will be gravy." The narrator is concerned that we're overly curious about the buffet of trouble that others heap on their plates instead of cleaning up our own. We love to gossip and pass judgment.

She specifically points out the unhelpfulness of

• downtalking neighbors
• maligning others and making them feel small
• pointing out lies, failures, and incidents of cheating and
• airing the family's dirty laundry.

Each and every one of us, let's you do you and me do me. We'll all be better off that way. If this is a message that resonates, make a playlist of songs about gossip and rumors to help spread the message.

If you're feasting on cake by the ocean, I imagine it's hard to keep sand out of the buttercream frosting. The contagious 2015 pop ditty was an international smash hit for DNCE, a group formed by Joe Jonas and pals. The group was working with Swedish music producers who kept confusing the term "sex on the beach" with "cake by the ocean." The mistranslation inspired this clever song.

The song's narrator encourages his love interest to take sexual risks with him by enacting his fantasy of having "cake by the ocean." He's imagining a bakery by the sea:

Red velvet, vanilla, chocolate in my life
Confetti, I'm ready, I need it every night
Red velvet, vanilla,
Chocolate in my life
I keep on hoping
We'll eat cake by the ocean.

If your sweetheart has you daydreaming about honey, candy, sugar, and other sweet confections, make them a playlist of songs about sugar and sweets to let them know how much you love them.

The woman in this 2010 R&B song is a fool for love, but she's a hungry fool. She has an on again-off again romance with a man who has her acting erratically. Her sweetheart gives her compliments by referring to her as "collard greens and cornbread" while she calls him her "sweet potato pie." Sounds like they are hungry for each other's love! Fantasia first rose to fame after winning the third season of American Idol in 2004.

Recalling an important memory from his youth, the narrator in this 2009 alt-rock tune highlights how much he and his childhood crush cherished each other. They sat together talking and appreciating one another's company, with a sweetness like that of strawberries. His life has taken since taken different turns, and without the tenderness of a relationship like that, he feels unfulfilled.

One way to drop extra weight quick is to go vegetarian. Forego meat in favor of healthy grains as well as fresh fruits and vegetables like the guy in this 1978 pop song. The narrator tried it for nearly 70 days before having carnivorous dreams of a big fat cheeseburger on a big warm bun. The burger was medium rare with a slice of onion, tomato, and lettuce. We can almost imagine the juices dripping from his chin.

The song was inspired by a boating trip gone wrong in which Jimmy Buffett and other passengers aboard had to survive several days on peanut butter and canned food. Upon their arrival, they feasted upon cheeseburgers.

Yep, there's actually a song named after strips of fatty salt-cured pork. It's not technically about bacon, though. The phrase "throw some bacon on it" means that everything's going well and the only thing that could top it would be if it had bacon.

Nick Jonas first compliments his ex-lover's beauty in this 2016 pop ditty. Then, he acknowledges that as fine as she is, he enjoys his freedom even more. His ex may be sizzlin', but he prefers the single life with no commitment and no drama, bacon optional.

Many of us have addictions, or at least strong cravings that aren't so good for us. The guy in this 2001 pop song acknowledges several of them: cigarettes, chocolate milk, and jelly beans by the fistful. He refuses to mention the other ones. He asks for kindness if he seems to be a bit of a mess.

Raise a cold beer or a sweet iced tea to the simple things in life along with the Georgia boy in this 2008 country song. He celebrates all of the things that give life value and comfort: God, love of family and country, jeans that fit just right, plus good music, peaches, pecan pie, and of course, Southern fried chicken.

If you're also from Georgia, why not celebrate it with a playlist of songs about the great state of Georgia?

In this 2015 R&B song, the narrator uses a grab bag of images related to royalty, food, and driving to describe her physical relationship with her love interest. She allures her man using promises of pleasure and a light meal afterward:

See I can make you feel good love
And when it's all over
I'mma fluff your pillow, baby
Bring you a sandwich and a soda.

Tamia claims that the song is not actually about subservience but instead about taking care of someone you love.

Nonconformity gets a nod in this 2008 pop song after the aging band received some unflattering suggestions from music industry executives. Weezer met with record label executives who urged the band to record music with broader commercial appeal.

Angry about the feedback, Rivers Cuomo (lead singer and guitarist) reacted like a rebellious teen and cranked out this song and an accompanying video:

I'mma do the things that I wanna do
I ain't got a thing to prove to you
I'll eat my candy with the pork and beans
Excuse my manners if I make a scene
I ain't gonna wear the clothes that you like
I'm fine and dandy with the me inside
One look in the mirror and I'm tickled pink
I don't give a hoot about what you think.

Ironically, the song became one of Weezer's most successful songs and won the band a Grammy for the video. If you're a one-of-a-kind and want to celebrate it, make a playlist of songs about individuality and personal uniqueness.

Put the bacon down, and don't rub that fatty stuff on anything but the inside of your mouth. The YouTube comedy duo of Rhett & Link asked their viewers for suggested song titles, and bacon was a common theme.

A viewer with the username "jeffisnude" suggested the winning song title, and Rhett & Link wrote this 2012 novelty tune to fit his title. It became a viral video. The song features a guy who calls 911 only to discover that regardless of his emergency, rubbing bacon on it is the solution. You simply must watch the video.

This super simple electronic dance number was an international hit in 2015. The narrator urges the listener to paint a mental picture of the following:

Spread it like peanut butter jelly
Do it like I owe you some money.

The narrator wants to be the bread to their love interest's peanut butter and jelly. We'll leave you to imagine what "it" might be.

Teens in the 1960s hit the dance floors with a variety of new dance crazes, including a move called the Mashed Potato. Featuring a lot of heel-toe action, the dance was first celebrated by James Brown in his 1959 song, "Mashed Potatoes." However, it was Dee Dee Sharp's 1962 rock song that climbed both the R&B and pop charts and later was adopted by the Campbell Soup Company for an advertising campaign. Sharp later added a gravy-related song to her menu of songs. Yummy!

How cheesy do you have to be to fall in love with the pizza delivery girl? According to the 2009 pop song by this boy band, the narrator eats pizza every day just so he can see his crush. The song appeared in an episode of "Jonas" on the Disney channel television.

Sometimes don't you want to play hooky from work or school? In this simple, playful pop tune from 2005, it's raining outside and the narrator tries to lovingly convince his sweetheart to sleep in and pretend it's the weekend. He tries to entice her with a promise of banana pancakes, but as tasty as that sounds, her alarm and phone are pulling her attention in another direction, up and into a busy day.

Let's just say this 2007 pop song is not about fruit. A man makes a sexually charged proposition to a woman he's been flirting with. Using the imagery of sweet, juicy kiwi fruit dripping down his chin, he confesses that he has feelings for her and seeks to demonstrate the intensity of his love. Ease up, fella, and wipe your face off.

Is there anything you just can't get your fill of? For the good ole boy in this 2010 country tune, it's the girl he loves as well as good old fashioned chicken and biscuits. He celebrates his girlfriend as a mud-slinging pickup-driving country gal who isn't scared to fight. She's also a backwoods, tractor-driving chick who can hunt, fish and cook. (That gal's a keeper.)

Because every redneck girl also has a softer side, the narrator boasts that she's also pretty, sweet, hot, and a great kisser. No wonder he keeps going back for second helpings of her love. She's as good as chicken and biscuits.

According to the old man in this 1972 country song, there are only three things that are worth a dime. The protagonist says that women, unfortunately, think of themselves and friends are too quick to abandon you in difficult times. However, there's true value to in the loyalty of old dogs, the innocence of children, and the taste of watermelon wine.