"Really love your peaches, want to shake your tree": Songs about food (well, with food in the title!)

"Cream tangerine and Montelimar

A ginger sling with a pineapple heart

A coffee dessert - yes you know it's good news

But you'll have to have them all pulled out

After the Savoy truffle"

The Beatles - Savoy Truffle

Before we start...a handy piece of advice from The Clash...Don't Get Lost In The Supermarket.

This is by no means an exhaustive list...comment away with your own additions! For example, I know that there are oodles (and noodles?) of blues songs not listed, but that's not really my 'specialist subject' and I've tried to stick to songs I know (most of which are in my personal music library).

So let's start with...

APPETISERS / NIBBLES

• Electric Soup – Corduroy
• Post Houmous – Morcheeba (it has literally only just occurred to me, whilst typing this up, that their name is a dope-smoking reference!)
• Pumpkin Seeds – Devendra Banhart
• The Soup – Regina Spektor
• Tick Eats The Olives – Devendra Banhart

FAST FOOD?

• Hot Burrito #1 – Belly (Hot Burrito #1 and #2 – Flying Burrito Brothers)
• Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad – Wanda Jackson
• Hot Tamale – Donna The Buffalo

MEAT AND POULTRY

• Cold Turkey – The Beatles
• Goodbye Pork Pie Hat – Charles Mingus
• Meat Hook – Tracy Bonham
  And who could forget...
• Spam – Monty Python (if Spam can ever be called a meat!)

FISH AND SEAFOOD

• Catfish Blues – Robert Petway
• Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie – Joanna Newsom
• Pulling Mussels (From A Shell) – Squeeze
• Rock Lobster – The B52s
• Turnip Fish – Sultans Of Ping FC (which could also be in 'vegetables' I suppose...an executive decision!)

MAIN DISHES / ENTREES (Which, for some reason, seem to be primarily about pie!)

• American Pie – Don McLean
• Jambalaya (On The Bayou) – Hank Williams (or The Carpenters)
• Memphis Soul Stew – King Curtis
• Ocean Pie – Shed Seven
• Petootie Pie – Ella Fitzgerald
• Rainbow Stew – Merle Haggard

LET'S CARB IT UP A NOTCH!

• A Widow's Toast – Neko Case
• Bread And Butter – The Newbeats
• Bread And Roses – Mr Hudson And The Library
• Shortnin' Bread – Paul Robeson
• There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis – Kirsty MacColl
• Toast – Tori Amos

WANT ANY CONDIMENTS WITH THAT?

• Emperor Tomato Ketchup – Stereolab
• Lady Marmalade – LaBelle
• Marmalade – The Geraldine Fibbers
• Reading Time With Pickle – Regina Spektor

SEASONING?

• Cinnamon Girl – Neil Young
• Ginger Park – 50 Foot Wave
• Let No Man Steal Your Thyme – Pentangle
• Open Sesame – Kool & The Gang
• Rosemary – Nina Nastasia
• Rosemary – Suzanne Vega
• Sally Cinnamon – The Stone Roses

VEGETABLES

• Battle Of The Beanfield – The Levellers
• Glass Onion – The Beatles
• Green Onions – Booker T & The MGs
• Know Your Onion! – The Shins
• Navy Bean – Tracy Bonham
• Polk Salad Annie – Tony Joe White
• Pumpkin – Tricky
• Sliced Tomatoes – Just Brothers (ok, so tomatoes are technically a fruit...pumpkins are too I guess?)
• Sprout And The Bean – Joanna Newsom
• Sweet Potato – Sia
• The Onion Song – Marvin Gaye
• Vege-tables – Brian Wilson
• Vegetable – Radiohead

HOW ABOUT SOME FRUIT?

• Agent Orange – Tori Amos
• Black Cherry – Goldfrapp
• Black Horse And The Cherry Tree – KT Tunstall
• Blackberry Way – The Move
• Blueberry Hill – Fats Domino (an ex of mine was adamant that the lyrics to this are “I found my freedom...”; that makes no sense at all, and therefore she was quite silly!)
• Cantaloupe Island – Herbie Hancock
• Coconut Grove – The Lovin' Spoonful (I have a cover by Sandie Shaw)
• Golden Apples Of The Sun – Devendra Banhart (with Vashti Bunyan)
• Gooseberry Fool – Kinky Machine
• I Heard It Through The Grapevine – Marvin Gaye (slightly tenuous, but such a great song it demanded to be included!)
• Lemon Incest – Serge and Charlotte Gainsbourg
• Love Tastes Like Strawberries – Miriam Makeba
• Orange Moon – Erykah Badu
• Peach, Pear, Plum – Joanna Newsom
• Peaches – Presidents Of The United States Of America
• Raspberry Beret – Prince
• Raspberry Swirl – Tori Amos
• Shiny Apple – The Waifs
• Strange Fruit – Billie Holiday (and many others)
• Strawberry Fields Forever – The Beatles
• Strawberry Julius – Bikini Kill
• Strawberry Letter #23 – The Brothers Johnson
• Strawberry Street – Jeff Buckley
• Tangerine – Moist

FRUIT TOO HEALTHY FOR YOU? HAVE SOME SWEETIES (Candy if you are American) OR A BIKKY OR TWO

• Biscuit – Portishead
• Broken Biscuit – Sia
• Butterscotch – CocoRosie
• Candy Everyone Wants – 10,000 Maniacs
• Candy Kisses – Kitty Wells
• Caramel – Suzanne Vega
• Dolly Mixture Kid – Kinky Machine
• Lollipop – The Chordettes (or Ronald and Ruby)
• My Boy Lollipop – Millie Small
• No-Biscuit Blues – Kate and Anna McGarrigle
• So Like Candy – Elvis Costello
• Sweets For My Sweet – The Drifters
• Whitechocolatespaceegg – Liz Phair

WANT TO GO THE WHOLE HOG AND OPT FOR DESSERT?

• Banana Pancakes – Jack Johnson
• Doughnut Song – Tori Amos
• Ice Cream – New Young Pony Club
• Just Desserts – Chumbawamba
• Nobody In Town Can Bake A Sweet Jelly Roll Like Mine – Bessie Smith
• She Don't Use Jelly – The Flaming Lips (I guess this would be in the condiments section for US folk)
• The Jello Fund – The Lemonheads

SUGAR (There are so many it needs its own category...as does 'honey', which comes next)

• Brown Sugar – The Rolling Stones
• I Need A Little Sugar In My Bowl – Bessie Smith (what wanton smut for an old time gal!)
• Pour Some Sugar On Me – Millie Jackson
• Spin Spin Sugar – Sneaker Pimps
• Sugar – The Archies (dreadful, dreadful song)
• Sugar – Heather Nova
• Sugar And Spice – The Searchers
• Sugar Blues – Ella Fitzgerald
• Sugar Daddy – The Jackson 5
• Sugar Dumpling – Desmond Dekker and The Aces (or Sam Cooke)
• Sugar Is Sweeter – CJ Bolland
• Sugar Pie – Ella Fitzgerald
• Sugar Pie – Har Mar Superstar

HONEY (And this is just a selection!)

• Deep Honey – Goldfrapp
• Honey Bop – Wanda Jackson
• Honey Molasses – Jill Scott
• Honey Now – Gillian Welch
• Honey Or Tar – CocoRosie (well I know which I'd choose!)
• Honey Pie – The Beatles
• Milk And Honey – Nick Drake
• Pony 4 Honey – The Need
• Slow Like Honey – Fiona Apple
• Sticky Honey – Juliette and The Licks
• Tupelo Honey – Van Morrison
• Wild Honey Pie – The Beatles

MISCELLANEOUS

• 32 Flavors – Ani DiFranco
• Cornflake Girl – Tori Amos
• Hominy Grits – Josephine Foster
• The Sun Maid – Soul Asylum (ok, so there's no mention of food, but this always makes me think of raisins! Purely unintentional I'm sure)

A FEW SUGGESTIONS OF THINGS TO WASH IT ALL DOWN WITH (Drinks could be a whole separate blog!)

• Champagne Supernova – Oasis (for the decadent)
• Margaritaville – Jimmy Buffet
• Milkshake – Kelis
• One Mint Julep – The Clovers (or Ray Charles)
• Pennyroyal Tea – Nirvana
  ...or if it really has all been too much
• Black Coffee In Bed – Squeeze

IF YOU'VE SERIOUSLY OVERDONE IT

• Intergalactic Laxative – Donovan

AND TO FINISH IT ALL OFF

• Give The Anarchist A Cigarette – Chumbawamba

A SELECTION ABOUT EATING / DINING / COOKING...WITH TIPS ON WHERE TO EAT!

• Breakfast In Bed – Dusty Springfield
• Chowdown – Corduroy
• Double Cookin' – Checkerboard Squares
• Eat For Two – 10,000 Maniacs
• Eat It – Weird Al Yankovic (he has squillions of others about food too)
• Eat To The Beat – Blondie
• Feed The Light – Joan As Police Woman
• Feed The Tree – Belly
• I Eat Dinner – Kate and Anna McGarrigle
• Nighthawks At The Diner – Tom Waits
• Power Lunch – Har Mar Superstar (featuring Beth Ditto)
• Smokey Joe's Cafe – The Coasters (or The Robins)
• The First Taste – Fiona Apple
• Tom's Diner – Suzanne Vega

EVEN THE ARTISTS AND BANDS THEMSELVES ARE GETTING IN ON THE ACT:

Fiona Apple, Bananarama, Blind Melon, Bread, Cake, Cherry Ghost, The Cranberries, Cream, Flying Burrito Brothers, Hot Chocolate, The Jam, Jelly Roll Morton, Korn, Lamb, The Lemonheads, Meatloaf, Mint Royale, Peaches, Peechees, Prefab Sprout, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Salt-N-Pepa, The Smashing Pumpkins, Sugar, The Sugarcubes, Tangerine Dream, T-Bone Walker, Wild Cherry...you get the picture!

And we've got Sam Cooke and Sam Baker to do all the work for us!

I realise that most of these songs actually have nothing to do with food...even if they do pertain to ;o) But it's certainly food for thought!

Just one more wafer thin mint?

FINAL NOTE:

One Vision by Queen, when it was being written, was called Fried Chicken, and Yesterday by The Beatles was hummed by Sir Paul of McCartney as Scrambled Eggs whilst he was composing it!