Five Songs You Didn’t Know Were Parodies of Other Songs
We only have secondhand information, but it’s our understanding that being a genius is exhausting. It’s actually a lot of work, constructing new paradigms out of thin air, and it makes everyone else look like such a dipshit. Sometimes, you just want to take a break from being innovative and make fun of them. (Okay, we do get that impulse.) That’s why some of the best songs in the pop-music canon were actually meant to mock other artists. They just did their job a little too well.
‘Back in the USSR’ by the Beatles
It seems pretty obvious in hindsight that “Back in the USSR” was a parody of the Beach Boys. The Beatles were known for their harmonies, too, but those are some pretty distinct ones, as much of a Beach Boys trademark as singing about the qualities of the girls of various regions. It’s also a song from the ‘60s about how great it is to be a commie. So that’s our bad.
‘Pepper’ by the Butthole Surfers
Likewise, the name “Butthole Surfers” probably should have been a tip-off that what followed wasn’t going to be entirely serious, and in fact, their only hit was a transparent spoof of Beck’s “Loser.” It’s got everything: the stream-of-consciousness spoken word verses, the sitar-accompanied chorus and even backmasking on the bridge. They soon made it clear that they had no real desire to be Beck, and that was the last most people heard of them.
‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ by Nirvana
Pretty much every Nirvana song is making fun of somebody, and if you listen closely, you’ll notice that the opening riff of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is just Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” in a different key. “When I came up with the guitar part, Krist (Novoselic) looked at me and said, ‘That is so ridiculous,'” Kurt Cobain later said. “It was such a cliched riff. It was so close to a Boston riff or ‘Louie Louie.’” He occasionally even began “Smells Like Teen Spirit” live by playing “More Than a Feeling.” Good luck ever not hearing it that way again.
‘Stuck in the Middle With You’ by Stealers Wheel
If you grew up in the Napster era, there’s a good chance you thought the high point of the Reservoir Dogs soundtrack was a Bob Dylan song. There’s a logical reason for that: Gerry Rafferty, singer-songwriter of Stealers Wheel, wrote the song “as a parody of Bob Dylan’s paranoia,” meant to “ridicule a music industry cocktail party.” He insisted any vocal imitation was unintentional, and truthfully, it’s too on-key to be a proper impression, but it was good enough for peer-to-peer.
‘Fourth Time Around’ by Bob Dylan
Dylan was no stranger to mockery himself. When the Beatles started following him around like brilliant little puppy dogs, Dylan was pretty annoyed, and he only got grumpier when they released “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown),” a song they made no secret of having been inspired by Dylan’s sound. In response, he recorded “Fourth Time Around,” which was the musical equivalent of taking a red pen to their song, explaining what they could have done better. He must have been so frustrated when they took his idea for parodying other musicians, too.
