Songs from the Dead: Short Histories of Legendary Songs

Happy Birthday to You: The Song Everybody Knows

You know Happy Birthday to You before anyone sings a word. A cake appears. Someone dims the lights. Two notes begin, and the whole room knows what comes next. The melody

Boatswain: Byron's Epitaph for His Dog (Bonus episode)

This time, Songs from the Dead is doing something unusual. Instead of an old song, this bonus episode begins with a poem. In 1808, twenty-year-old George Gordon Byron's

Whiskey in the Jar: Betrayal Ballad, Then and Now

"Whiskey in the Jar" is a betrayal ballad that keeps changing clothes. At its core, the story is simple: a robber meets Captain Farrell, steals his money, takes it home

Where to Start with Songs from the Dead

Every Monday, we take one legendary song, uncover its strange history, and play a brand-new reinterpretation. In about ten minutes, we try to bring old songs back to lif

Prodigal Son: No Way to Get Along

Robert Wilkins put two men on the same road. In 1929, he recorded "That’s No Way to Get Along", a blues song about a wounded man trying to get away. Women have treated h

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor: Bach to Muse, Eminem, and the Dance Floor

You know Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor even if you have never seen the title. Three sharp notes, a pause, then the famous fall down the organ keyboard. In cartoons

Bella Ciao: The Two Lives of an Italian Farewell

Bella Ciao means “Goodbye, beautiful.” Most people know it as an anti-fascist anthem: sung at demonstrations, football terraces, protests, remixes, and in Money Heist. Bu

Kungla Folk: The Song of a Country That Was Still Becoming Itself

Kungla Folk sounds ancient: a golden realm, Vanemuine with his kannel, birds and trees catching the tune, and the Estonian people learning to sing. But this national son

Mars, the Bringer of War: How Violence Became a Machine

Gustav Holst’s Mars, the Bringer of War does not make war magnificent. It makes war mechanical. Written in 1914, just before the First World War supplied the world with

God’s Gonna Cut You Down: The Long Life of a Short Warning

God’s Gonna Cut You Down is a short warning with a very long life. Many modern listeners know it first through Johnny Cash: slow, dark, wooden, and final. But the song e

Bourrée: The Old Tune That Went Electric

Bach’s Bourrée in E minor is a small piece with unusually long legs. This episode follows how the fifth movement of the Suite in E minor, BWV 996, escaped the world of B

Nobody: The Saddest Joke in the Room

Nobody is a comic song built around one brutal answer. Written by Alex Rogers and Bert Williams, published in 1905, and made famous by Williams in 1906, the song seems a

Over the Hills and Far Away: A Song for Leaving, Longing, and Finding Your Place

Three songs. One title. Almost nothing else in common. Over the Hills and Far Away can mean escape, adventure, exile, longing, or the place your mind goes when your body

Per Tyrsson’s Daughters: The Murder Ballad That Built a Church

Per Tyrsson’s Daughters is a murder ballad that explains a place. The song, known in Swedish as Töres döttrar i Wänge, gives an origin story to Kärna Church in Östergötl

House of the Rising Sun: The Building That Ruins Everyone

The House of the Rising Sun is a song about a building. In New Orleans. They call it the Rising Sun. It ruins people. Most people know the song from The Animals’ 1964 re

Kâtibim: The Melody You Learned by Accident

You know this melody. You may think you know it from Boney M’s Rasputin: the disco chorus, the theatrical history lesson, the “ra ra” that refuses to leave your head. Bu

Nottamun Town: The Song That Became Masters of War

Nottamun Town sounds like nonsense until it starts sounding familiar. A rider enters a strange town where nobody helps, nobody speaks plainly, and responsibility seems t

La Bamba: The Story Behind the Most Famous "Arriba"

La Bamba sounds like pure joy: three chords, a shout, a dance, and a chorus almost everyone knows. But before it became a rock and roll classic, La Bamba lived in the so

Susanna Meets Venus: The Uncomfortable History Behind a Ridiculously Catchy Hook

Oh! Susanna is one of the most famous American songs ever written. It is also one of the strangest. Written by Stephen Foster in 1847 and published in 1848, the song beg

Hurrian Hymn: What Does a 3,400-Year-Old Song Tell Us Today?

Someone wrote a song down 3,400 years ago. Then the city fell, the palace collapsed, the tablet broke, and the people who understood the notation vanished. But the song