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Throughout the centuries, the Moon has prompted incalculable poetic utterances and random musings. Sometimes that takes the shape of a simple text or murmuring to “Look at the Moon.” Other times, it’s poetry on paper. And sometimes that lyricism is expressed through music
Not unlike your astrological reading, music is subject to interpretation, conscious or otherwise, and is simply a way to learn more about yourself. According to astrology, the Moon tends to evoke all manner of emotions. It is the stuff of things both illuminated and hidden in the shadows. The things we wanted so desperately and received or the feelings we so desperately try to run away from yet cannot escape. There’s nothing the Moon doesn’t witness or mirror back to us.
The following songs about the Moon not only make for a lovely dance break but tend to take you straight into your feels. The ecstatic, the impulsive, the vulnerable, the depressed, the unrepressed. It’s all here. As with astrology, it’s up to you to draw your own interpretation and disentangle—or not—whatever complicated emotions may or may not lurk.
Let yourself feel. (Talking to you, Virgo.)
35 Most Iconic Songs About the Moon
Different songs will resonate in different ways for you at different moments in time. The following tracks are in no particular order. Meaning isn’t always found through a literal interpretation of the lyrics.
1. Moondance | Van Morrison
If you’ve never caught yourself humming “It’s a marvelous night for a Moon dance” on a moonlit night, you may want to rethink your priorities in life. Legendary songwriter Van Morrison doesn’t pretend to know what it is about the Moon that makes us think about the person we love, but he certainly captures that longing in this track from his album of the same name.
Incidentally, this was the iconic album that introduced the world to “Crazy Love,” “Into the Mystic,” And “It Stoned Me.” Rolling Stone included it in their ranking of the 500 best albums ever, declaring it sufficiently brilliant to “define his sound for decades.”
2. Blue Moon | Various Artists
The precise origins of the song are disputed, although the lyrics have made it a well-known classic. Written before codependency was a known thing, Blue Moon captures that human longing to love and be loved. It’s been crooned by countless artists, among them the lovely Billie Holiday as well as Louis Armstrong, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Cyndi Lauper, and The Marcels, whose doo-wop rendition made the number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B Singles in 1961.
3. That Moon Song | Gregory Alan Isakov
The intro notes to this number subtly suggest it will be reminescent of a friend grabbing a guitar and low-key strumming while you’re hanging out. The surprise comes shortly after when the strumming crescendos to grunge poetry lyrics that are self-indulgent and woeful, as are those in most breakup songs. Technically, Isakov is a Libra, although his birthdate falls on the cusp of being a Scorpio, and that’s apparent.
4. Moonlight Sonata | Beethoven
Emotions needn’t be expressed in words to be felt. “Moonlight Sonata” has always conjured a dramatic, brooding, vibe along with many other intense emotions that tend to feel more so late at night when we’re under the Moon’s sway. Perhaps that’s due to Beethoven’s Sagittarian stubborn tendency to ignore known boundaries. Whatever the reason, it compelled him compose what remains a classic centuries later.
5. Pink Moon | Nick Drake
If you tuned into This is Us largely for the soundtrack, you probably already appreciate the work of the late Drake. The lyrics of “Pink Moon,” written a couple of years before the 26 year old’s unfortunate death by overdose, are disarmingly simple. The Guardian reported that it was a time when Drake was struggling with what some referred to as depression and others thought was a loosening grasp of reality. Despite the tragic circumstances around its origins, the song’s robust early 70s-style strumming takes you straight into your feels.
6. The Killing Moon | Echo & the Bunnymen
Moody and melancholic with an existential and vengeful vibe, this 1984 smash belies the band’s iconic and indefinable sound. Although their style has been dubbed “gloomy post-punk,” “Doors-inspired psychedelia,” and “a tinge of goth-pop,” forget what others want to tell you to think. Focus instead on how it makes you feel. Careful not to cut yourself on all the sharp edges.
In starlit nights, I saw you
So cruelly, you kissed me
Your lips, a magic world
Your sky, all hung with jewels
The killing moon
Will come too soon
7. Shoot the Moon | Norah Jones
A lovely little homage to the inevitability of disappointment, this single from Norah Jones brings a little discordance between the disappointment in the relatable lyrics and the seeming optimism of the music. Intentionally so, no doubt. Perhaps because what’s expressed in the words would be too self-destructive if we let ourselves linger in our sad reality rather than move ahead.
The summer days are gone too soon
You shoot the moon and miss completely
And now you’re left to face the gloom
The empty room that once smelled sweetly
8. Moonlight | Grace VanderWaal
Written by America’s Got Talent winner VanderWaal when she was 13 years old, the track has a jaunty beat and lyrics that seem to explore what the light of the moon both reveals and hides. Everything about it belies a youthful spirit as well as an old soul. Oh, and she plucks the notes on a ukulele.
9. Sisters of the Moon | Fleetwood Mac
You can already guess this is going to be dark. It doesn’t disappoint.
10. Moonlight Drive | The Doors
All the telltale traces of Jim Morrison are at play on this track, including “that Crooner-esque voice of Jim’s accompanied by that groovy guitar,” as one Reddit thread commenter wrote. There’s also talk of swimming to the Moon, which you can interpret as either mystical or unintelligible. The sleeper song was the B side companion to “Love Me Two Times” and has prompted much speculating as to any IRL meaning behind the lyrics. Or maybe it was just the drugs talking.
11. Dancing in the Moonlight | Thin Lizzy
Released in 1977, the track has some Jackson Brown-ish vibes in its sound and its simple lyrics. Although it may seem to fall short on drudging up the emotional world ruled by the Moon, it doesn’t disappoint in terms of rhythm or vibe.
12. Culver Moon | Jackson Brown
Brown also seemed a little moonstruck, perhaps not by the Moon itself but by residing in Culver City, a suburb of Los Angeles that’s been home to movie sets since the early 1900s and known for its Old Hollywood charm. His insider references will be funny to those who know Culver City, he explained in an interview, but “you don’t have to be from Culver City to know what we’re talking about.” The rest of us can imagine. His insertion of the Moon in his telling of the story make it all the more compelling.
13. Moon River | Various Artists
Introduced in the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the Oscar award-winning classic of just 10 lines and 58 words was performed by Audrey Hepburn and recognized as one of the most memorable songs in a movie by the American Film Institute. Interpretations of the bittersweet track that speak of a “dreammaker” and “heartbreaker” in the same breath have been performed by Elvis Presley, Andy Williams, and others, including The Killers. One of the most iconic of all songs about the Moon.
14. Half Moon | Blind Pilot
The Moon plays a character in these lyrics about being human by an indie band from Portland. It’s about the desire to run away from our wrongs and our guilt while knowing that some form of emotional comeuppance is sorta inescapable even as the rest of your life awaits.
15. Bark at the Moon | Ozzy Osbourne
Is the maligned subject of these lyrics in this classic Ozzy himself? No one is quite certain. Also relevant, no bats were harmed in the making of this song.
16. Moon | Kid Francescoli
The title of this 2017 hit may not be familiar to you, although chances are the up-tempo, gotta-move-your-body beat will be. The rhythm overshadows the sparse lyrics, which are a string of “Hmm-mh” followed by “And it went like…” Sorta like to think that if the Moon went out dancing to techno late at night, it would be to this track.
17. Half Moon | Janis Joplin
Joplin brings her indefinable way of playing rock and roll to this track that’s informed by the blues and riddled with guitar jams. The lyrics, of course, scream about a guy. And then there’s that voice. Miss you, Janis.
18. Dancing in the Moonlight | Toploader
The feel-good song from the British indie rock band is, unlike most other songs about the Moon, an ode to the actual “supernatural delight” that occurs on a nightly basis and causes you to actually feel that vibe. May it remind you, too, to dance in the moonlight.
19. You Are the Moon | Hush Sound
Simple piano and voice create all the ambience needed in the 2006 release from the indie pop band from Chicago. There’s melancholy tinged with beauty throughout the words, which serve almost like an astrological awareness that there is always another perspective that can be reflected back to you about your situation.
Shadows all around you as you surface from the dark
Emerging from the gentle grip of night’s unfolding arms
Darkness, darkness everywhere, do you feel all alone?
The subtle grace of gravity, the heavy weight of stone
You don’t see what you possess, a beauty calm and clear
It floods the sky and blurs the darkness like a chandelier
All the light that you possess is skewed by lakes and seas
The shattered surface, so imperfect, is all that you believe
I will bring a mirror, so silver, so exact
So precise and so pristine, a perfect pane of glass
I will set the mirror up to face the blackened sky
You will see your beauty every moment that you rise
20. You and Me and the Moon | The Magnetic Fields
That almost manic mood that possesses everyone who is newly in love comes through everywhere in this indie rock track. Except that exuberance comes through as a threesome—you and me and the Moon.
21. Blue Moon | Elvis Presley
The more iconic “Blue Moon” song brings a subdued, soothing, put-it-on-repeat vibe to love and loss and longing.
22. Blue Moon of Kentucky | Elvis Presley
Completely the opposite of the more well-known “Blue Moon” by Presley, this track’s quick trajectory takes us from anticipation to disappointment in few words but an almost annoyingly upbeat vibe that was so characteristic of the Capricorn early in his career.
23. Stand By Me | Ben E. King
The strumming. The lyrics. The voice.
24. The Moon is Down | John Prine
There’s something that changes in a person after experiencing lyrics written by the late John Prine. It happens in that moment of reckoning when you understand that what seems like simple and silly rhyming actually betrays some unpretty truths about life and love. Prine is masterful at coaxing you into his world with ease and then letting that truth bomb hit you. He doesn’t deviate or disappoint with “The Moon is Down,” which features some stoic lyrics alongside soulful strumming. (Honorable mention to “Mexican Home,” also by Prine, for the line “And the moon is just holding its breath.”)
The stars in the skies
Fell out of her eyes
They shattered when they hit the ground
And now the moon is down
25. Song About the Moon | Paul Simon
The lyrics are simultaneously nonsensical and insightful—as the best ones always are. Essentially, Simon conveys “life happens.”
26. Child of the Moon | Rolling Stones
Let’s not analyze and simply acknowledge that if you like the Stones, you’re going to like this song.
27. Talking to the Moon | Bruno Mars
No, you’re not the only one who has quietly conversed with the Moon in the way Mars’ lyrics describe.
At night, when the stars light up my room
I sit by myself
Talking to the moon
Trying to get to you
28. Shame on the Moon | Bob Seger
Just going to drop these lyrics here…
Until you’ve been beside a man
You don’t know what he wants
You don’t know if he cries at night
You don’t know if he don’t
Where nothing comes easy, old nightmares are real
Until you’ve been beside a man
You don’t know how he feels
Once inside a woman’s heart
A man must keep his head
Heaven opens up the door
Where angels fear to tread
Some men go crazy, some men go slow
Some men go just where they want
Some men never go
Oh, blame it on midnight
Ooh, shame on the moon
29. Walking on the Moon | The Police
There’s no shortage of different stories about the origin of these lyrics. Not knowing which holds the truth may actually be of benefit so that you can interpret its meaning as you will rather than as you were told to. After all, truth, like gravity, can also be relative.
30. Fly Me to the Moon | Frank Sinatra
If you have yet to experience the classic crooned by Frank Sinatra and backed by a big band, cease whatever you are doing. The lyrics, written by Bart Howard, may just instill in you a reminder of what optimism (or just plain love) can do for a person’s mood.
31. What a Little Moonlight Can Do | Billie Holiday
Holiday may be the artist who’s (unofficially) recorded the most ditties about the Moon. Her characteristic lilt and loveliness as captured in this song reminds us countless others have similarly felt that thrill of what a little moonlight can do.
32. Moon Song | Phoebe Bridgers
If the emotion of somewhat hesitant awe could be captured in a song, it might be this slow, understated, lovely melody written by someone who clearly understood the assignment of love. “And if I could give you the Moon, I would give you the Moon.” Truth.
33. This is How We Walk on the Moon | Arthur Russell
Pitchfork described Russell’s life work as something along the lines of part disco and part experimental. That certainly comes through in this work with minimal lyrics and a distinct beat. Or should we say groove? Best appreciated late at night.
34. Moonglow | Various Artists
Simple and sweet, this song from 1933 is evocative of the romantic bewilderment that come with knowing you’ve found your person. The lyrics seem to attribute it, rather than blame it, on the Moon. It’s been recorded by many artists, among them Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Doris Day, Carly Simon, even a duet with Tony Bennett and K.D. Lang.
35. If Moon Was Cookie | Cookie Monster
The innocence that comes with childhood can be fanciful, silly, and wise all at once. In a Sesame Street skit that’s the prelude to the song, Cookie Monster explains “Me love to look out window at night. See all the pretty stars. Twinkle, twinkle. But you know what me like to look at best of all? The Moon.” You’re not alone in that.
RELATED: 37 Essential Quotes About the Moon That Could Change the Way You Experience Life
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