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Famous songs with reference to pets or animals
Can you think of famous songs with a reference to our pets or animals?
Here is one that comes to mind. As the British Invasion obliterated the US music scene in 1965, US artist Sam the Sham and The Pharaos with their hit Wooly Bully hit #2 in the charts and sold a million records. Wooly Bully is a reference to an aggressive furry animal, or slang referring to someone who dances funny, but in this case it’s the name of Sam’s pet cat.
“According to Sam: “The name of my cat was ‘Wooly Bully’, so I started from there.
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144 Replies
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This one is probably the anthem for all pet lovers, the Beatles “Martha My Dear” which is a 1968 song Paul McCartney wrote about his beloved English Sheep dog that appeared on the White Album. It has a nice piano part, and really sweet melody.
There is a famous radio interview in the 60s that was done at Paul’s residence with John Lennon when Martha was a new pup, and you can hear Martha howling in the background from another room, and at one point in the interview, John stops and starts howling along with Martha. You can see Paul playing with Martha in the Beatles Something video as well.
I like the pictures in the video with Martha sitting right there in between the Fab 4 like she is a 5th Beatle!
I remember a few years ago this song had a special place for me after my dog Max died.
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A Horse with No Name – America
Blackbird – TFMLT (The Fabulous MLT)
Crocodile Rock – Sir Elton John
Eye of The Tiger – Survivor
Hey Buldog – Beatles
Wild Horses – Stones
Who Let the Dogs Out – Baha Men
Stray Cat Strut – The Stray Cats
Puppy Love – Donny Osmond
Octopus’s Garden – Beatles
Rock Lobster – The B52’s
White Rabbit – Jefferson Airplane
Me and You and a Dog Named Blue – Lobo
The Funky Chicken – ???
Cats in the Cradle – Harry Chapin?
You aint Nothing but a Hound Dog – Elvis
*** Ok, I took a bit of a shortcut. I glanced at a list on the internet and put down the ones I probably would have come up with if I took some time and thought about it. Surprisingly I came up with several that were not on the list.
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Awesome list John. There are some on your list I would have never thought of. -
Just to give credit where it’s due, Puppy Love was originally a hit for Paul Anka.
Donny and Marie had a morning talk show in the late 90’s, and one day Paul Anka made an appearance. Donny asked him if he had any hard feelings about Donny scoring a hit with his old song, and Paul said, “Are you kidding? The royalties from your recording put my kids through college!”
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I assumed it was a Paul Anka song, but I had never heard his version. What an incredible song writer he was. I couldn’t name them, but remember a while ago hearing how many hits he had that he had written for others or others covered.
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Hungry Like The Wolf- Duran Duran….
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Paul Anka, born in my city, Ottawa, ???
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I agree, John. I just checked Wikipedia, and in addition to his own hits from mostly the late 50’s he also wrote for or with people like Frank Sinatra, Buddy Holly, and Michael Jackson. -
Here’s one that just hit me. Probably not on any list anywhere and most likely not known outside the US.
The Purple People Eater – ???  They did a movie title by that years ago. Very low budget and maybe tacky, but my kids found it hilarious.
I hesitate to share another my dad used to sing. “Great Big Gobs of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts”Â
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This is fun! Avoiding the temptation to just look them up:
I Am the Walrus – The Beatles
And Your Bird Can Sing – The Beatles
Rocky Raccoon – The Beatles
Bluebird – Paul McCartney
Gonna Buy Me a Dog – The Monkees
The Porpoise Song – The Monkees
What’s New, Pussycat? – Tom Jones
Crazy Horses – The Osmonds
Bird Dog – The Everly Brothers
Running Bear – Johnny Preston
Snake in the Grass – Dave Dee et al.
The Lion Sleeps Tonight – The Tokens
Tiger – Fabian
Spiders and Snakes – Jim Stafford
The Birds and the Bees – Jewel Akens
Rockin’ Robin – Bobby Day
Muskrat Love – The Captain and Tennille
Honky Cat – Elton John
Night Owl Cafe – John Sebastian
Disco Duck – Rick Dees
Pretty Flamingo – Manfred Mann
I Go Ape – Neil Sedaka
Snowbird – Anne Murray
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Thanks Jung, I didn’t know Woolly Bully was about Sam’s cat!
You mentioned Martha My Dear, about Paul’s dog. Dear Prudence was about a cat, wasn’t it?
I guess the most famous song about a pet would have to be Ben by Michael Jackson.
There’s also They’re Coming To Take Me Away by the Top 40 guy. About his dog.
I hope theme songs don’t count, because there is hundreds. Felix the Cat, Porky Pig, The Littlest Hobo, Flipper, Born Free, Kimba, Mr Ed –
“A horse is a horse of course of course …”
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Bungle in the Jungle
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puff the magic dragon
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Martha
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Dear Prudence was about Mia Farrow daughter.
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