Musical References to Music

A few days ago, my daughter and I were singing along to Lynard Skynard's "Sweet Home Alabama". When it got to the verse:
Well, I heard Mister Young sing about her
Well, I heard ole Neil put her down.
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A southern man don't need him around anyhow.
I asked Annie if she would like to hear Neil Young's song they mentioned there. What song? was her response. We talked about the lyrics, and she agreed to listen to "Southern Man" by Neil Young. After hearing it, her opinion was that it was not a very good song, and she wasn't surprised Lynard Skynard didn't like it either. That made me laugh.

But it got me to thinking about songs that make direct (and oblique) references to other songs, bands, or singers. The one that popped into my mind almost instantly was American Pie, by Don McLean. There are many references in this song, but the one that stands out for me is, "The birds flew off with the fallout shelter Eight miles high and falling fast", which I always took as a reference to the Byrds' song, "Eight Miles High".

The next was "Major Tom (Coming Home)" by Peter Schilling, which I take as either a response or sequel to, or parody of, David Bowie's "Space Oddity". Although, in this case, the reference is not to a singer or a band, but to Major Tom, a character in David Bowie's song.

Finally, there's Stevie Wonder's song "Sir Duke", which gives a quick list of musical pioneers: Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Satchmo (Louis Armstrong), "Sir" Duke Ellington, and Ella Fitzgerald.

Anyway, I thought it would be cool to begin to collect a list of songs that contain references to other songs/singers/bands. If you know of one, please add it as a comment to this post.