List of songs that retell a work of literature

This is a list of songs which retell, in whole or in part, a work of literature. Albums listed here consist entirely of songs retelling a work of literature.

This is an incomplete list of songs, which may never be able to satisfy certain standards for completeness.

Contents:

Top · 0–9 · A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

0-9

• "1984" by David Bowie is one of many songs he wrote about George Orwell's 1984, meant to be a song in a 1984 musical.
• "20 000 ljööd vee all" by Vennaskond about Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
• "2112" by Rush, is loosely based on the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand
• "40" by U2 is based on the 40th Psalm.

A

• "A Curious Feeling", an album by Tony Banks, is heavily inspired by Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
• "Achilles, Agony and Ecstasy in Eight Parts" from the Manowar album The Triumph of Steel is a retelling of the fight between Hector and Achilles in the Iliad.
• "The Adventures of Kaptain Kopter and Commander Cassidy in Potatoland" by Spirit is a parody of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
• "Afternoons and Coffeespoons" by Crash Test Dummies is based on the T. S. Eliot poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock".
• "Ahab" by MC Lars retells the story of Moby-Dick by Herman Melville from the perspective of Captain Ahab.
• "Alone" by Green Carnation is based on the Edgar Allan Poe poem of the same title. "Alone" by Arcturus is based on the same poem.
• "Altair-4" by Blind Guardian is about The Tommyknockers by Stephen King.
• "All is Not Well" by Hannah Fury is based on the romance of Elphaba and Fiyero from Wicked by Gregory Maguire.
• "Among the Living" by Anthrax is about Stephen King's The Stand.
• "And Then There Was Silence" by Blind Guardian is based on Homer's Iliad.
• "And Your Little Dog Too" by Hannah Fury is told from the point of view of Wicked Witch of the West from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
• "A Man for All Seasons" by Al Stewart was based on Robert Bolt's play.
• "A Picture of Dorian Gray" by The Television Personalities is about Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.
• "Animal in Man" by dead prez from is a retelling of George Orwell's Animal Farm.
• Animals by Pink Floyd is very loosely based on Orwell's Animal Farm. Also, the bridge of the album song "Sheep" is inspired by Psalm 23.
• "Animal Farm" by Hazel O'Connor also re-tells Animal Farm.
• "Annabel Lee" by Stevie Nicks rewrites the eponymous poem by E.A. Poe.
• "Annabel Lee" by Tiger Army is based on the Poe poem of the same title.
• "A Rose for Emily" by The Zombies took its title from William Faulkner's short story.
• "Arctic Death" by Virginia Astley is inspired by the William Butler Yeats poem "An Airman Forecasts His Own Death"

B

• "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" by Leonard Nimoy retells J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.
• "The Ballad of Skip Wiley" by Jimmy Buffett is a song about the character from Carl Hiaasen's novel Tourist Season.
• "Banana Co." by Radiohead is based on the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.
• "The Bard's Song (The Hobbit)" by Blind Guardian retells Tolkien's The Hobbit.
• "Barefoot Children in the Rain" by Jimmy Buffett partially retells Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
• "Las Batallas" by Café Tacuba retells José Emilio Pacheco's Las batallas en el desierto.
• "Battle of Evermore" by Led Zeppelin mentions names from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
• "Beans" by Nirvana retells Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums.
• "Beneath These Waves" by Demons & Wizards retells the story of Herman Melville's Moby Dick from Captain Ahab's perspective.
• "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" by The Divine Comedy is based on the short story of the same title by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
• "Big Brother" by David Bowie is one of many songs he wrote about George Orwell's 1984, meant to be a song in a 1984 musical.
• "Billy Liar" by The Decemberists relates some of the adventures of the title character of Keith Waterhouse's novel of the same name.
• "Black Blade" by Blue Öyster Cult is based on Elric of Melniboné stories by Michael Moorcock.
• "Blood and Thunder" by Mastodon refers to Melville's Moby Dick.
• "Bowling in the Hills" by Eddie from Ohio retells Washington Irving's short story Rip Van Winkle.
• "Brave New World" by Iron Maiden retells the story of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, as does Reagan Youth's "Brave New World".

C

• "Calypso" by Suzanne Vega is based on one of the scenes in the Odyssey by Homer.
• "The Cask Of Amontillado" by The Alan Parsons Project based on The Cask of Amontillado, a short story by Edgar Allan Poe.
• "Cassandra" by ABBA is based on the character in the Iliad by Homer.
• "Catch-22" by Pink is based on the novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.
• "Chapter 24" by Pink Floyd is about the I Ching
• "Chapter Four" by Avenged Sevenfold is based on the book of Genesis: Chapter 4.
• "Charlotte Sometimes" by The Cure is about Penelope Farmer's novel of the same name.
• "China in Your Hand" by T'Pau is based on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
• "The Clairvoyant" by Iron Maiden is based on Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card.
• "Cent'anni di solitudine" by Modena City Ramblers is based on the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.
• "Crimson King" by Demons & Wizards is told from the point of view of Randall Flagg the main antagonist from The Dark Tower (series) by Stephen King.
• "Cute Without the E (Cut From the Team)" by Taking Back Sunday is based on William Shakespeare's play Othello.
• "Courage (for Hugh MacLennan) by The Tragically Hip references a passage from MacLennan's The Watch That Ends The Night.

D

• "Dalai Lama" by Rammstein is loosely based on Der Erlkönig by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
• "Dante's Inferno" by Iced Earth, retells Dante's Inferno.
• "The Dawn of a New Age" by Satyricon is based on the Book of Revelation.
• "Dead" by Pixies refurbishes the biblical legend of David and Bathsheba.
• "Dracula" Iced Earth is about Dracula by Bram Stoker
• "Don't Stand So Close to Me" by The Police references Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.
• "Doublespeak" by Thrice is about George Orwell's Nineteen-Eighty-Four.

E

• "El Dorado" by Iron Maiden references a poem by Edgar Allan Poe of the same name
• "Elvenpath" by Nightwish refers to the basic premise of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
• "The End of The Universe" by S.P.O.C.K refers to The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams.
• "Eveline" by Nickel Creek is based on the James Joyce short story of the same name.

F

• "Fable" by Gatsbys American Dream is based on William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies.
• "The Face of Dorian Gray" by Robert Marlow is based on Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.
• "Flight of Icarus" by Iron Maiden is loosely based on the Greek myth of Icarus.
• "Footprints" by Half Man Half Biscuit is a parody of "Footprints" by Mary Stevenson, itself adapted from Psalm 77.19.
• "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Metallica is based on Ernest Hemingway's novel of the same title
• "Frankenstein" by Iced Earth is about Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
• "Franz Kafka! Intro", "Turnin' to a Bug", "Livin' Like a Bug Ain't Easy", and "Franz Kafka! Finale" by the fictional band Scäb (from the cartoon series Home Movies) are about Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis.
• "From the Underworld" by The Herd is based on the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice.

G

• "The Gladdest Thing" by Deb Talan incorporates as its chorus the poem Afternoon on a Hill by Edna St. Vincent Millay.
• "The Giant's Laughter" by Thyrfing is inspired by the poem Jätten by Esaias Tegner.
• "Grendel" by Marillion is a retelling of John Gardner's novel Grendel, which is a retelling of Beowulf.
• "The Ghost of Tom Joad" by Bruce Springsteen is about The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
• "Goodbye Sky Harbor" by Jimmy Eat World is about the book A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.
• "Guardian of the Blind" by Blind Guardian is based on It by Stephen King.
• "The Gunslinger" by Demons & Wizards is based on Stephen King's The Dark Tower series.

H

• "Haunted" by Poe is based on House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski.
• "Highway 61 Revisited" by Bob Dylan retells the story of Abraham and his son from Genesis, Chapter 22
• "The Highwayman" is a Loreena McKennitt song which recounts a poem by Alfred Noyes. Phil Ochs originally wrote the musical interpretation of the poem which was taken and extended by Loreena McKennitt, without attribution.
• "Home at Last" by Steely Dan retells Ulysses' encounter with the Sirens from the Odyssey
• "Home", by Breaking Benjamin, is based on The Wizard of Oz
• "Horrorshow", by the Scars, is based on the Anthony Burgess novel A Clockwork Orange.
• "House of Atreus - Act I" and "House of Atreus - Act II" form a two-part concept album by Virgin Steele based loosely on the Oresteia of Aeschylus.
• "House of Leaves" by Circa Survive is based on House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.
• "Hallelujah", by Leonard Cohen, is based on the biblical story of David and Bathsheba. It also incorporates elements of the story of Samson and Delilah.
• "House at Pooh Corner" and "Return to Pooh Corner" by Kenny Loggins are about The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne.
• "How Beautiful You Are" by The Cure is a retelling of "Les Yeux du Pauvre" a poem by Charles Baudelaire from "Le Spleen de Paris"
• "The Human Hosepipe" by Harry and the Potters retells a scene from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
• "Hug Me" by Meg & Dia is based on "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley.

I

• "I Am the Walrus" by The Beatles includes lines from a recording of a performance of William Shakespeare's King Lear.
• "I Can't Let You In" by Hannah Fury is about Fiyero's tragic affair with Elphaba (told from her point of view) from Gregory Maguire's Wicked.
• "I Cheat the Hangman" by Doobie Brothers is a song inspired by the story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce.
• I Robot is an LP by The Alan Parsons Project which retells several Isaac Asimov stories
• "I Robot" by the UK Subs is based on I, Robot by Isaac Asimov.
• "I'm That Type of Guy" by LL Cool J interpolates some movie quotes from The Wizard of Oz which is a movie based on the storybook The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
• "Indiana" by Meg & Dia is based on the George Sands novel of the same name.
• "In Like a Lion (Always Winter)" by Relient K is about C. S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.
• "Insener Garini Hüperboloid" by Vennaskond is about The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin by Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy.
• "Into the West" by Annie Lennox is about The Lord of the Rings
• "Invisible Monsters" by Motion City Soundtrack is about Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk.
• "Time to Dance" by Panic! at the Disco is also based on Palahniuk's Invisible Monsters.
• "Ion Square" by Bloc Party uses part of i carry your heart with me by E. E. Cummings as its chorus.
• "It Was Her House That Killed Nessarose" by Hannah Fury is about Elphaba's perception of Dorothy from Gregory Maguire's Wicked.

J

• "Jamaica Inn" by Tori Amos is about Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier.
• "Jekyll & Hyde" by Iced Earth is about The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson .
• "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" by Rick Wakeman is an LP which retells Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne.
• "Jillian (I'd Give My Heart)" by Within Temptation is about Daggerspell by Katharine Kerr.

K

• "Killing an Arab" by The Cure is closely related to Albert Camus's The Stranger

L

• La Leyenda de la Mancha is an album based on Don Quixote by Mago de Oz.
• "Lay Down" by Strawbs is based on Psalm 23
• "The Lady of Shallott" by Loreena McKennitt is based upon the poem of the same name by Alfred Lord Tennyson
• "The Lady of Shallott" by Momus is based on the same poem.
• "Legend of Xanadu" by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem
• "Let it Show" by Hannah Fury is based on Gregory Maguire's Wicked.
• "Lolita" by Elefant is about Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita.
• "The Longest Day" by Iron Maiden is based on Cornelius Ryan's The Longest Day, which is about D-Day.
• "Lord of the Flies" by Iron Maiden retells Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
• "Lord of the Rings" by Blind Guardian is about The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.
• "Love and Death" by The Waterboys sets William Butler Yeats' poem to music.
• "Love and Destroy" by Franz Ferdinand is based on The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.
• "Love Song for a Vampire" by Annie Lennox is about Bram Stoker's Dracula.
• "Love Story" by Taylor Swift is based on Romeo and Juliet.
• "Lucy" by The Divine Comedy is a setting of three poems by William Wordsworth.
• "Lullaby" by Lagwagon is based on Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk.
• "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" by Iron Maiden, based on the short story of the same name by Alan Sillitoe.

M

• "Memory" from the musical Cats is based on lines from a poem by T. S. Eliot.
• "Me Gustas Cuando Callas" by the Brazilian Girls is a sung version of Pablo Neruda's poem of the same name/
• "Misery Loves Company" by Anthrax is about Misery by Stephen King.
• "Moon over Bourbon Street" by Sting is describing a character from Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire
• "Monster" by Meg & Dia is based on Cathy Ames' character in John Steinbeck's "East of Eden".
• "Mr. Raven" by MC Lars retells "The Raven", a poem by Edgar Allan Poe.
• "My Name Is Macbeth" by Mitch Benn is Shakespeare's Macbeth reworked in the style of Eminem
• "The Melting Point of wax" by Thrice retells the story of The Fall of Icarus.
• "Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Iron Maiden is based on the short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe.
• "My Antonia" by Emmylou Harris with Dave Matthews is about My Antonia by Willa Cather.

N

• "Narnia" by Steve Hackett is based on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis.
• "Narcissist" by The Libertines is loosely based on the character of Dorian Gray from Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray".
• "Nescio" by The Nits is based on De Uitvreter by Nescio.
• "Never Come Down Again" by Hannah Fury is based on Gregory Maguire's Wicked, told from Elphaba's point of view.
• "Nice, Nice, Very Nice" by Ambrosia has lyrics taken almost verbatim from the poem in chapter 2 (and the bridge from the one on chapter 58) of Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle.
• Nightfall in Middle-Earth is an album by Blind Guardian that retells Tolkien's The Silmarillion.
• "No Love Lost" by Joy Division is based on and includes quotes from The House of Dolls by Ka-tzetnik 135633.
• "November Rain" by Guns N' Roses is loosely based on Del James's short story "Without You".
• "No Quarter" by Led Zeppelin is based on the final battle in Tolkien's The Hobbit.
• "Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy)" by Rob Zombie is based on A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.

O

• "One" by Metallica is based on the novel Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo.
• "Oor Hamlet" by Adam McNaughtan retells Hamlet by William Shakespeare.
• "Out of the Silent Planet" by Iron Maiden is based on the movie Forbidden Planet and the science-fiction novel by C. S. Lewis.
• "Oedipus" by Regina Spektor refers to the tragedy of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles.
• "Oedipus Rex" by Tom Lehrer also refers to the Sophocles play.
• "The Odyssey" by Symphony X is based on Homer's epic of the same name.
• "Ol' Evil Eye" by Insane Clown Posse is based on Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart.
• "Omega Man" by Iron Savior is based on the novel I Am Legend by Richard Matheson.
• "Owen Meaney" by Lagwagon is based on the novel A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving.
• "Oh! You Pretty Things" by David Bowie contains lyrics that reference Anthem by Ayn Rand.

P

• "Patrick Bateman" by the Manic Street Preachers is about the lead character in American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.
• "Pattern Recognition" by Sonic Youth is based on William Gibson's novel of the same name.
• "The Pearl" by Fleming and John is based on the novella of the same name by John Steinbeck.
• "Penelope" by Robi Rosa is based on the character from Homer's Odyssey.
• "Pennywise" by Pennywise is about the character Pennywise from the novel It by Stephen King.
• "Pet Sematary" by The Ramones is about "Pet Sematary" by Stephen King.
• "The Phantom of the Opera" by Iron Maiden is about The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux.
• "The Phantom of the Opera Ghost" by Iced Earth is also about Leroux's play.
• "A Pict Song" by Billy Bragg is based on a poem of the same name by Rudyard Kipling.
• "Poor Little Rich Boy" by Regina Spector refers to a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
• "Popular" by Nada Surf is based upon the book Penny's Guide to Teen-Age Charm and Popularity by Gloria Winters (1964).
• "Prince Caspian" by Phish is about C. S. Lewis' Prince Caspian.
• "The Prophecy" by Iron Maiden is based on the book Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card, and appears on the concept album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.
• "Pull Me Under" by Dream Theater is based on Shakespeare's Hamlet, from Prince Hamlet's point of view.

Q

• "Quelque Chose de Tennessee" by Johnny Hallyday contains the last sentence of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (in french) by Tennessee Williams.

R

• "Raistlin and the Rose" by Lake of Tears is based on Dragonlance Legends trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
• "Ramble On" by Led Zeppelin mentions characters and places from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, including "Mordor" and "Gollum".
• "ReJoyce" by Jefferson Airplane is Grace Slick's psychedelic version of James Joyce's Ulysses.
• "A Revolta dos Dândis" by Engenheiros do Hawaii mirrors the ideas present on "The Dandy's Revolt," a chapter of Albert Camus's The Rebel.
• "Richard Cory" by Paul Simon is about the Edwin Arlington Robinson poem "Richard Cory".
• "Ride a White Swan" by T.Rex refers to the plot of Tolkien's The Hobbit.
• "Riki Tiki Tavi" by Donovan is a spoof on the mongoose character from The Jungle Book.
• "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Iron Maiden is a retelling of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
• "The River" by PJ Harvey is based upon the Flannery O'Connor story of the same name.
• "Roderigo" by Seven Mary Three is based on the book One Hundred Years of Solitude.
• "Rivendell" by Rush is about the fictional place of the same name from The Lord of the Rings.
• "Rebecca" by Meg & Dia is based on the Daphne Du Maurier book.

S

• "Sahara" by Eddie From Ohio retells Jon Krakauer's nonfiction book Into the Wild.
• "Sailing to Philadelphia" by Mark Knopfler is based upon Thomas Pynchon's nonfiction book Mason & Dixon.
• "The Salesman, Denver Max" by The Blood Brothers is based on the Joyce Carol Oates short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"
• "Samson" by Regina Spektor references the biblical story of Samson and Delilah.
• "Scentless Apprentice" by Nirvana retells Perfume by Patrick Süskind.
• "The Sensual World" by Kate Bush is based on the closing paragraphs of James Joyce's Ulysses.
• "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" by Pink Floyd is based on the I Ching.
• "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" by Iron Maiden is based on Orson Scott Card's book Seventh Son.
• "Sex Crime (1984)" by The Eurythmics based on George Orwell's novel "1984".
• "Shalott" by Emilie Autumn tells the story of "The Lady of Shallott" by Alfred Lord Tennyson.
• "Sirens of Titan" by Al Stewart is based on the Kurt Vonnegut novel The Sirens of Titan.
• "Skeletons in the Closet" by Anthrax is about Apt Pupil by Stephen King.
• "Smallcreeps's Day" by Mike Rutherford is based upon the novel of the same name by Peter Currell Brown.
• "The Small Print" by Muse tells the story of Faust from the point of view of the Devil.
• "The Snow Goose" by Camel is an album retelling the same title novel by Paul Gallico.
• "So Said Kay" by The Field Mice is based on Desert of the Heart by Jane Rule.
• "Someone Speaks Softly" by Hannah Fury is based on Wicked by Gregory Maguire.
• "Somewhere Far Beyond" by Blind Guardian is based on The Dark Tower by Stephen King.
• "Song For Clay" by Bloc Party is inspired by Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis.
• "The Songs of Distant Earth" by Mike Oldfield about The Songs of Distant Earth
• "Sweet Thursday" by Matt Costa is based on John Steinbeck's novel Sweet Thursday. The song also references Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.
• "The Stranger" by Tuxedomoon quotes Albert Camus's novel L'étranger.
• "The Stand" by The Alarm is about The Stand by Stephen King.
• "Stormbringer" by Deep Purple is about Elric of Melniboné.

T

• "The Tain" is a song/concept EP by The Decemberists that retells the Irish epic "Táin Bó Cúailnge"
• "Tales of Brave Ulysses" is a single by Cream that retells Homer's The Odyssey.
• Tales of Mystery and Imagination is an LP by The Alan Parsons Project which retells several Poe stories.
• "Talk Shows on Mute" by Incubus is based on George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
• "Tea in the Sahara" by The Police is about The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles. King Crimson also has an instrumental called "The Sheltering Sky" about the same book.
• "Tell Mary" by Meg & Dia is based on Mary by Vladimir Nabokov.
• "Tell Your Story Walking" by Deb Talan is based on Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem.
• "Terror Train" by Demons & Wizards is sung from the perspective of Blaine the Mono, a character in Stephen King's The Dark Tower, and recalls part of the plot.
• "The Thing That Should Not Be" by Metallica is based on H. P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu
• "The Things They Carried" by Eux Autres is based on "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien.
• "Thumbelina" by Nightmare of You is based on Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins.
• "Timeless Skies" by Al Stewart is about The Silmarillion.
• "The Tomahawk Kid" by Alex Harvey is based on characters from Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island
• "To Be or Not to Be" by B. A. Robertson is based on William Shakespeare's plays.
• "To Tame a Land" by Iron Maiden tells the story of Dune by Frank Herbert
• "To The End" by My Chemical Romance retells the gothic horror story "A Rose for Emily".
• "Toilet Tisha" by Outkast retells the 18th-century Russian short story "Poor Liza" by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin.
• "Tom Joad, Parts 1 and 2" by Woody Guthrie retells The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
• "Tommyknockers" by Blind Guardian is about The Tommyknockers by Stephen King.
• "Traveler in Time" by Blind Guardian is about Dune by Frank Herbert.
• "A Trick of the Tail" by Genesis is based upon The Inheritors by William Golding
• "The Trooper" by Iron Maiden was inspired by "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Tennyson.
• "Turn, Turn, Turn", by Pete Seeger, notably covered by The Byrds, takes its lyrics from chapter three of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Holy Bible.

V

• "Venus in Furs" by The Velvet Underground is about the two main characters from Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's novel of the same name.

W

• Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds is a 1978 concept album, retelling the novel The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.
• "We Are the Dead" by David Bowie is one of many songs he wrote about Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, meant to be a song in a musical.
• "When the War Came" by The Decemberists retells Hunger by Elise Blackwell.
• "When Two Worlds Collide" by Iron Maiden tells the same story as When Worlds Collide by Philip Gordon Wylie and Edwin Balmer.
• "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane partially recalls Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
• "Who Wrote Holden Caulfield" by Green Day is based on Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
• "Wild Boys" by Duran Duran was supposed to be utilized as the theme song for a Russell Mulcahy film adaptation of the William S. Burroughs novel The Wild Boys that never materialized; the song itself is sung from the viewpoint of one of the "wild boys".
• "William, It Was Really Nothing" by The Smiths is heavily based on Billy Liar.
• "Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush is a re-telling of Emily Brontë's novel.

X

• "Xanadu" by Rush is based on Coleridge's poem "Kubla Khan".

Y

• "Yes" by Amber is based on the final chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses.
• "You Got a Death Wish, Johnny Truant?" by The Fall of Troy takes its title from House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.

Z

See also

• List of songs based on a film
• Wizard rock

External links

• The Sibl Project has a similar goal that is more inclusive, creating a list of songs which simply refer to a work of literature