Songs that Have the Strangest Meanings and Origins

Although it's probably not given much thought by anybody, there are some songs out there with bizarre and unexpected meanings or double-meanings
The Top Ten
1 The Final Countdown - Europe

I think this is your best list under the music category. I would never have thought the Final Countdown is a song about Armageddon, basically. The title could be better, though. "Songs That Have Different Meanings Than You Think" doesn't have a great ring to it, but is probably more fitting. Also, I don't know if it's actually possible to be impressed with something but disappointed at the same time, but that's kind of what I'm thinking about the lack of Bon Jovi. Weird.

The Final Countdown has a double meaning. It both is about the launch of a rocket ship and the coming of the Apocalypse. I don't think there's anything online the emphasizes this, but if you play it on Spotify, you get some facts about the song.

2 Every Breath You Take - The Police

A classic love song, right? No. Not really, much like the song Always, by Bon Jovi, Every Breath You Take is about some ruthless stalker. You might figure that out given the chorus is about some dude watching some chick.

3 Layla - Derek & The Dominos

You probably didn't know this, but Layla isn't her actual name. This classic rock song is actually about Pattie Boyd. George Harrison's wife. Layla is basically Eric Clapton's code name for Boyd. The funny thing is Eric Clapton actually eventually married Pattie Boyd.

4 Slide - The Goo Goo Dolls

Yet another song that sounds like your typical love song, Slide is anything but so. Slide is actually about a teenage girl, raised in a Catholic environment, who has become pregnant. The girl and her boyfriend are debating about having an abortion or getting married.

5 Wake Me Up When September Ends - Green Day

The video for this song made many people believe it had hidden connotations about some war. Actually, however, the song was written in memory of lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong's father, who died when he was a child.

6 Semi-Charmed Life - Third Eye Blind

Even though this is a pretty upbeat song, and you probably think it's some song about some lucky dude or something, this song has lyrics that hint to crystal meth addiction:
"The sky was gold, it was rose
I was taking sips of it through my nose
And I wish I could get back there, someplace back there
Smiling in the pictures you would take
Doing crystal meth will lift you up until you break."

7 I Don't Like Mondays - Boomtown Rats

If you take the song based on the title most of us would agree Mondays suck. But, I Don't Like Mondays is actually about a teenager named Brenda Ann Spencer, who went on a shooting spree at an elementary school in San Diego in 1979. The lines "I want to shoot the whole day down, down, down" kind of blew the cover.

8 Summer of '69 - Bryan Adams

Even though much like I Don't Like Mondays, Summer of '69 has a misleading title that is a timestamp, this song is actually about sex. Bryan Adams admitted it. The funny thing is if you do the math, Bryan Adams was 10 in '69

9 Hotel California - Eagles

This one may seem like a song about travelers checking into a luxurious hotel, but it's actually about greed in the music industry.

You can check out any time you like but you can never leave...

10 Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds - The Beatles

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds is kind of like the inverse of "semi-charmed life." Lots of people infer that it was about LSD (which kind of makes sense because if you take away the words "in", "the" and "with" it'd be an acronym for LSD,) but Lennon said Lucy In the Sky was about a painting his son Julian made featuring his friend Lucy...in the sky with diamonds. Go figure.

The Contenders
11 Centerfold - J. Geils Band

A song about a guy seeing that his once high school crush is now in playboy magazine and wonders whether to buy it or just let his fantasies be.

12 Blown Away - Carrie Underwood

About a girl who poisons her abusive father (hidden by by a tornado metaphor).

13 Sign of the Times - Harry Styles

I already included this song on a list like this one. Harry Styles said it was from the perspective of a mother dying in childbirth.

I don't know but this song isn't about a still birth it's about the mother dying not the baby.

14 Perfect - Selena Gomez

A song where Selena is cheated on and begins to fantasize about her lovers mistress. I guess it doesn't quite fit with the pattern of the other songs given that the meaning is not hidden or anything but I feel like it still belongs on this list? Also that title is so unfitting given the subject.

15 Leaving Heaven - Eminem
16 Livin' on a Prayer - Bon Jovi

Okay, time to bring in the classic rock. If you take this song for its tone, it's the cheery trademark song of Bon Jovi, but it's actually about Desmond Child (I think,) and his wife, going through desperate times.

17 Little Talks - Of Monsters and Men

A conversation between a mourning woman and her lovers ghost (I guess it's more the framing that is unusual you could be more general and just say it's a song about missing someone.)

18 Some Nights - Fun.

From the perspective of a soldier missing home and possibly starting to lose his mind.

19 August 7, 4:15 - Jon Bon Jovi

August 7, 4:15 is easily the song with the most messed up origin ever. It's a good song, but its origin is the murder mystery of Jon's tour manager's daughter's mysterious and abrupt death. It doesn't have a "hidden" meaning, although it's hard to figure this song out of you don't know its story. The words "death," "dead," "murder," and so on are actually never used.

20 Always - Bon Jovi

I doubt this one is unknown but as I said under Every Breath You Take, Always is about a stalker.

21 Funhouse - Pink

A song about not fitting into a box and trying to get out I would not have added this honestly there are so many songs about similar topics that's not to say this one is bad though.

22 Downtown - Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

I wanted to have at least one song that was weird without being messed up. This in a way is actually not strange at all it's kind of a brag song like far too much hip hop. The thing is it's about buying a used moped. Not exactly a very typical topic.

23 In the Night - The Weeknd

I am not even sure if I want to explain what it's about.

24 Car Radio - Twenty One Pilots

About a guy who loses his car radio and starts to have a nervous breakdown because there is nothing to distract him from his thoughts.

25 Pompeii - Bastille

I can't believe I only thought of this now it's a conversation between two corpses killed by the volcano in the title.

8Load More
PSearch List