Eat This! 20 Tasty Songs About Food

Great music you can jam and munch to!

As a music lover, and as a writer who enjoys participating in writing prompts, I’ve found that Medium is a wonderful place. Not only are there several great stories published about music here every day, but there are also frequently a lot of music-related writing prompts and writing challenges.

A great recent one comes from writer and music lover Nichola Scurry. In it, she shares some of her favorite songs about food and she challenges other writers to do the same.

Here’s her very fun story about it:

Since it’s impossible for me to resist awesome prompts like this one, I’m doing it too!

In no order of preference, here are 20 great food-related songs that I like:

1. Blueberries for Breakfast — The Mamas & The Papas

I never heard this one until yesterday, but man, I like it! Or, as they often said during the period when it was recorded, “It’s groovy and I dig it, baby!”

2. Popcorn — Hot Butter

My wife and I frequently goof around and ask Siri and Alexa to play songs about random things that pop into our heads. One night, a few years ago, we were eating popcorn and my wife said, “Siri, play me a song about popcorn.” The above song then started playing — and we’ve loved it ever since.

3. Lollipop — MIKA

I haven’t eaten an actual lollipop in several years, but this is a fun song that always makes me happy when I hear it.

4. Hollaback Girl — Gwen Stefani

A great song that expertly reminds each of us how to spell “bananas.”

5. Cherry Pie — Sade

I was originally going to use Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” here, but I love Sade’s “Cherry Pie” a little bit more. Sorry, Warrant.

6. Breakfast At Tiffany’s — Deep Blue Something

This is more about the movie Breakfast At Tiffany’s than it is about actually eating breakfast, but darn it, that’s good enough for me.

7. Apples, Peaches, Bananas, and Pears — The Monkees

Unless you’re a super fan of The Monkees (like me and writer Laura Lind), there’s a very good chance you don’t know this song. It was recorded in 1966, but it wasn’t included on any of The Monkees’ original studio albums. It was never released until it appeared on a “rarities” compilation in 1987.

Even though I’m not too big of a fruit-eater, I like this song quite a bit! It’s a little silly-sounding, I suppose, but it has the great “Monkees’ sound” and is a lot of fun to listen to.

8. Cheese and Onions — The Rutles

If you’ve never seen the brilliant and hilarious movie All You Need Is Cash, which is a mockumentary about a band called The Rutles (who VERY closely resemble The Beatles), do yourself a favor and watch it sometime.

“Cheese And Onions” is one of my favorites from it. In the movie, it’s featured in a clip from The Rutles’ (fake) movie Yellow Submarine Sandwich, which bears a very striking resemblance to The Beatles’ (very real) movie Yellow Submarine.

I love it!

9. I Want Candy — Bow Wow Wow

One of my favorite songs from the 1980s. The guitar riffs in it are awesome.

10. Peaches — The Presidents of The United States of America

I listened to this one last night and it’s been stuck in my head ever since. I’m now looking into moving to the country. They’d better have millions of peaches ready for me.

11. Yum Yum Breakfast Burrito — Parry Gripp

I didn’t know about this song until I discovered it while researching “food songs” for this article.

I have nothing else to say here except — yum yum!

12. Honey — Mariah Carey

Honey, yo!

13. Mango Tree — Zac Brown Band and Sara Bareilles

While working on this article last night, I asked my wife for song suggestions for it. She told me about this song, which I’d never previously heard of before.

See, single people? It’s good to be married!

14. Fancy Like — Walker Hayes

A very fun song that makes me want to eat a steak and wash it down with an Oreo milkshake.

15. (Do The) Mashed Potatoes — James Brown

Another song I was unfamiliar with that my wife educated me about. It’s got great music in it.

16. Gravy (For My Mashed Potatoes) — Dee Dee Sharp

You needed some gravy for the mashed potatoes from the James Brown song, right?

See, folks? I got you covered here!

17. Biscuits — Kacey Musgraves

This is one of the first songs I ever heard from Kacey Musgraves. It may seem like just a simple and fun song, but it’s actually got some great advice in it.

18. Jack & Diane — John Mellencamp

A great little ditty about two American kids in love — and suckin’ on a chili dog!

Well, there’s much more to the song than just those things, of course, but the chili dog qualifies it for my playlist.

19. Vega-Tables — Brian Wilson

“Vegetables” first appeared on The Beach Boys’ album “Smiley Smile” in 1967, but I’ve never been too crazy about that version of it.

However, I love this version that Beach Boy Brian Wilson recorded for his Brian Wilson Presents Smile album in 2004.

It’s a must-listen-to for lovers of vegetables!

20. Sweet Potato Pie — James Taylor

We have to wrap this playlist up with something tasty for dessert, right?

I think this great song from James Taylor is the perfect way to do that.

And here’s my complete playlist of the above songs on Spotify:

As of the writing of this story, three other music-loving writer friends of mine have also participated in Nichola’s challenge. Check these out:

From Alex Markham:

From Kevin Alexander:

From Paul Combs:

P.S. — If you enjoy reading about or participating in music-related writing challenges like the one above, here is another one currently going on in Plethora of Pop.

It’s about creating very special music playlists, but not for people — for our beloved pets!

I, without planning on doing so, started it off with this article:

I didn’t write it with the intention of turning it into a writing prompt, but the very talented Katemiya read it and was motivated to create a playlist for her cat.

Here’s her very entertaining story about it:

Katemiya ended her piece by challenging other music and animal lovers to create playlists for their pets too — no matter what kinds of animals they are.

If you take part in either of the above challenges or even if just read the stories featured in them, I hope you enjoy yourself!

I’m tagging some of our newest writers in Plethora of Pop here — but all writers, readers, animal lovers, and food eaters are welcome to play along in any and all of the above!

Rose Butcher, Ginger Cook, Daniel Whyte IV, Leah Seldon, Gregorius Kohar, Gregg Siegel, Ashraff Hathibelagal, RobertWiley77, Francis B., Steve Goldberg, P. L. Goaway, David Robson, Alex Rosado, Rebecca Jay, Susie Kearley, Heather Paz, and Lark Morrigan

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