2 hours ago
11
20. REM – Man on the Moon (1992)
This tribute to comedian Andy Kaufman came at the height of REM’s superstardom, but it’s a typically elliptical song that defies easy analysis, the chorus seeming to compare the moon landing conspiracy theories with claims Kaufman faked his own death. Its bassline recalls another lunar classic, The Killing Moon by Echo and the Bunnymen.
19. The Police – Walking on the Moon (1979)
The lyrics of this No 1 hit fall into the sort of doggerel Sting can often be prone to (“Giant steps are what you take … I hope my leg don’t break”), but the lunar arrangement also captures the song’s true subject, walking dizzily back from a girlfriend’s house, feet hardly touching the ground.
18. Shakespears Sister – Moonchild (1992)
As with blockbuster ballad Stay, Moonchild’s twisted synth-rock thrives on the distinct contrast between the velvety, theatrical delivery of Siobhan Fahey and the skyscrapingly high vocals of Marcella Detroit. Here the moon makes common cause with the misfits as Fahey and Detroit reassure them: “Oh, little moonchild, you’re not the only one …”
17. Ozzy Osbourne – Bark at the Moon (1983)
Firmly embracing the dark side of the moon, this slice of gothic horror from Ozzy’s third solo album depicts a terrifying beast rising from “a nameless grave”, with howling and cackling laid on suitably thick. It makes the similarly themed Thriller by Michael Jackson and Warren Zevon’s Werewolves of London seem wholesome by comparison.
16. The Walkmen – Red Moon (2008)
An insistent wash of brass dominates this ballad from 2000s NYC indie-rock linchpins the Walkmen, evoking the “riptide pulling me under” in the lyrics – the same tide pulled by the gravity of the eponymous red moon. But “tomorrow the sun will be brighter,” promises singer Hamilton Leithauser.
15. Radiohead – Sail to the Moon (2003)
Thom Yorke wrote this as a lullaby for his young son Noah, its lyrics musing over whether Yorke Jr would make a better president than George W Bush. The piano-led arrangement is sparse, but its seasick time signature shifts and Yorke’s keening falsetto make it characteristically unsettling.
14. The Microphones – The Moon (2001)
In this lo-fi reverie by DIY stalwart Phil Elverum, a couple visit the towns where they grew up before returning home to bask on their roof, the strength and light of the moon seeming to centre and ground them after their disquieting trip. Rubbery guitar gives way to a clattering wall of sound.
13. Neko Case – I Wish I Was the Moon (2002)
The Americana singer-songwriter’s spacious country ballad has the feel of a mid-century standard. Case’s fans associate the song with her troubled relationship with her estranged father: “How will you know / If you found me at last?” she asks, belting the lines out with abandon over a seesawing accordion.
12. Nick Drake – Pink Moon (1972)
The title track of the enigmatic singer-songwriter’s final album evokes an ethereal moon appearing and disappearing on a cloudy night. But there’s something menacing behind the pretty piano figure and gently chopping acoustic guitar: “None of you stand so tall / Pink moon gonna get ye all,” predicts Drake coolly.
11. Frank Sinatra and Count Basie – Fly Me to the Moon (1964)
Starting life as In Other Words and first recorded by Kaye Ballard in 1954, Fly Me to the Moon was retitled by Sinatra and Basie and released a decade later, when songwriter Bart Howard’s celestial metaphors bordered on realism: in 1964, the prospect of seeing what spring was like on Jupiter or Mars seemed just around the corner.
10. Ella Fitzgerald and the Delta Rhythm Boys – It’s Only a Paper Moon (1945)
A world without love is as false as a paper moon in this jazz standard, “but it wouldn’t be make-believe / If you believed in me,” sing Fitzgerald and her backing vocalists. Two years later, Tennessee Williams had A Streetcar Named Desire’s Blanche DuBois sing it as her secret past is uncovered: he referred to it as a “saccharine popular ballad” in the stage directions.
9. Benny Goodman and Helen Forrest – The Moon Won’t Talk (1940)
The moon sees all and knows all in this big band number by jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman and swing vocalist Helen Forrest – but it won’t tell, more’s the pity. Is Forrest right to intuit something suspicious about her lover’s moonlight walk? “I spoke to the moon,” she sings, “but the moon won’t talk.”
8. Public Service Broadcasting – Go! (2015)
PSB’s 2015 album The Race for Space sets Nasa audio and contemporaneous broadcasts to music to tell the story of the cold war space race. Over a propulsive beat, mission controllers bark their consent for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to make history and descend: “Retro? Go! Fido? Go! Guidance? Go!” The obscure codenames up the drama.
7. David Bowie – Space Oddity (1969)
This Bowie classic – released five days before the launch of Apollo 11 and used by the BBC during its coverage of the moon mission – begins with a depiction of the astronaut as celebrity. But this is far from the typical portrait of an effortlessly capable space traveller; instead we get the alienated and queasy Major Tom, isolated in his “tin can” 100,000 miles from Earth.
6. Julie Byrne – Moonless (2023)
Julie Byrne’s gorgeous album The Greater Wings explores her grief for her late soulmate Eric Littmann. Here, the absence of the moon represents her loss: “The sky is moonless / And the sea surrounds me.” Byrne’s voice is glacial and stately over the gentle keys as she seems to reach some sort of acceptance: “I’m not waiting for your love.”
5. The Three Degrees – Everybody Gets to Go to the Moon (1971)
Few songs capture the giddy rush of the space age like the Three Degrees’ cover of Jimmy Webb’s Everybody Gets to Go to the Moon, memorably performed in the film The French Connection. “Don’t you think it’s a miracle that we’re the generation that’s going to one day populate the moon!” the song enthuses, before blasting off like a Saturn V rocket.
4. Audrey Hepburn – Moon River (1961)
Impossible to hear without picturing Hepburn playing it on her mini-acoustic guitar in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Unbelievably the song was nearly cut from the movie after a poor test screening. (“Over my dead body!” Hepburn retorted.) Johnny Mercer’s lyrics evoke the American dream, albeit shot through with an unusual sense of companionship: “Two drifters off to see the world … Moon River and me.”
3. Gil Scott-Heron – Whitey on the Moon (1970)
A fierce corrective to the Apollo space programme’s phenomenal cost and all white, male personnel (not the case with Artemis II). This acerbic forerunner of early hip-hop sees Scott-Heron contrast the dire state of late-60s urban America with the expense and cultural vacuity of the lunar mission: “No hot water, no toilets, no lights / But whitey’s on the moon.”
2. Elvis Presley – Blue Moon (1956)
If you’re used to hearing this Rodgers and Hart masterpiece bellowed out in football stadiums, Elvis’s eerie version may seem unexpectedly delicate. It creeps like the full moon rising over a deserted cornfield, Presley almost whispering into the mic, until he suddenly erupts into a high-pitched yodel.
1. Paul Simon – Song About the Moon (1983)
The moon can be used to illustrate any emotion, contends Paul Simon: “If you want to write a song about the heart / And its ever-longing for a counterpart … Write a song about the moon,” he advises. Hearts and Bones started life as a reunion album with Simon’s counterpart Art Garfunkel. The more restrained version of this song that includes Garfunkel’s cascading backing vocals can be found on YouTube and is probably superior. Alas, Simon deleted Garfunkel’s parts and released the whole record as a solo album, precipitating one of their many long-term rifts. As usual, he was worried about being eclipsed.
