Slashfood Ate (8): Great songs about food and drink

by Bob Sassone, Posted Mar 28th 2007 @ 4:29PM

Julie London I've been working on this story for months, because I wasn't sure which songs I should include and which songs I should leave off the list. And then I finally decided what the rules would be: only songs that are about food or drink or have them in the title. In other words, just because a song mentions food or drink doesn't mean it's about food or drink, so I'm leaving those off the list. Here we go:

1. "Black Coffee" (Julie London): OK, I'll admit it, this is a truly personal choice. I'm a big fan of standards, and also a big fan of film noir. And this song has noir written all over it. Julie London (you might remember her as the head nurse from the TV show Emergency) sings it so seductively and in a sultry manner you just want to run out and buy some coffee and take up smoking (several people have covered this song, including Sarah Vaughan and k.d. lang, but London's version is the best). Really cool song.

2. "Food, Glorious Food!" (from Oliver): The ultimate "let's celebrate food!" song.

3. "Eat It" (Weird Al Yankovic): A lot of Weird Al's parodies focus on food, but this is the one to judge all the others by.

4. "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" (George Thorogood): Another song that was done by several artists, but there's something edgy and nasty about Thorogood's version.

5. "The Coffee Song" (Frank Sinatra): Any song that has contains phrases like "coffee ketchup gives 'em flavor," "coffee pickles way outsell the dill" has to be on this list.

6. "One For My Baby" (Frank Sinatra): The ultimate sad, drinking-alone-in-a-bar song.

7. "The Candy Man" (Sammy Davis, Jr.): Some might think this is a trivial, silly song, and maybe it is, but the whole song is about candy candy candy, and Davis really does a great job with it.

8. "Cheeseburger in Paradise" (Jimmy Buffett): Actually, I don't even like Buffett that much, but there's no denying this is a catchy, iconic song.

If you're wondering why I didn't list instrumental songs with food in their titles it's because that's more of an abstract thing. They might have food in the title and were inspired by food, but instrumentals are a hard thing to judge.

Filed Under: Lists, Slashfood Ate
Tags: black coffee, BlackCoffee, cheeseburger in paradise, coffee song, drinking, eat it, eating, food glorious food, frank sinatra, george thorogood, GeorgeThorogood, jimmy buffett, JimmyBuffett, julie london, oliver, one bourbon one scotch one beer, one for my baby, slashfood ate, songs about drinks, songs about food, weird al

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Reader comments (Page 2 of 2)

3-29-2007 @2:39PM garrick said... "One Hamburger for Madame" by Jack Shildret & Orchestra.
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3-30-2007 @1:09PM Megan said... How about Savoy Truffle by the Beatles? Makes me think of all kind of delicious candies. : )
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3-29-2007 @8:52PM Joe D. said... Cab Calloway's "Everybody Eats When They Come to my House," has got to be one of the most fun food songs ever penned. "Have a banana, Hannah/Try the salami, Tommy/Get with the gravy, Davy/ Everybody eats when they come to my house."

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