I was driving at lunch today, flipping channels on the radio. On two separate oldies stations, they played overlapping selections of Donovan's "Sunshine Superman". It got me wondering just how many songs there are that reference Superman and his cast of characters. Off the top of my head I've come up with these:

"Sunshine Superman" by Donovan
"Superman [It's Not Easy]" by Five For Fighting
"Kryptonite" by Three Doors Down
"You Don't Mess Around With Jim" by Jim Croce
"Jimmy Olsen's Blues" by Spin Doctors
"(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman" by The Kinks

Can anyone else name some that aren't themes to the various Superman TV shows and movies?

Eminem had a song called Superman. Not sure if its actually about Supes or even if its worth listening to.

"Kal-El" by Trusty (Dischord Records - Home of Fugazi)
"Collect From Clark Kent" by Braid (Polyvinyl Records)

Scubs mentions Superman on their opening song.

By Crash Test Dummies. Best Superman song this side of John Williams.

The Eminem song was crap, as was the rest of Mr. Mathers' third album (barring White America and Without Me).

Superman never made any money savin' the world from Soloman Grundy. And sometimes I despair the world will never see another man like him.

I forget the title, but there is that great "I am, I am, I am Superman" song by REM.

R.E.M. did a remake of a song by The Clique called "Superman" as a hidden bonus track on LIFE'S RICH PAGEANT.

A Google search revealed this page, which may be useful:

http://www.supermancollectors.com/superplanet/part13.html

Brendan Howard

Superman's Dead and Man of Steel by Our Lady Peace. I don't remember if they reference any of comics other than the song titles.

X-Ray Spex by The Lillingtons
Boulevard Bulldog by Boris the Sprinkler
Land of Confusion by Genesis

PS: Not Superman, but possibly my favourite superhero lyric of all time: "Jesus was a black man! Jesus was Batman! Nonononono...that was Bruce Wayne!"-Black Grape- Heroes Runner up: "I've got Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler too, waiting there for me. Yes, I do. I do."-weezer- In The Garage

XTC offer both "Brainiac's Daughter" and "That's Really Super, Supergirl". Both really fun songs, too.

"Waitin' for a Superman" by the Flaming Lips

"Resignation Superman" by Big Head Todd and The Monsters

"Black Superman" by Above the Law

"Superman" by the Kinks

"Silvergun Superman" by the Stone Temple Pilots

peace.

bryan carney
http://www.bryancarney.com

Barbra Streisand had an album and a song entitled "Superman."

thomas

check out http://home.alltel.net/tfmoudry for a website about nothing

Remember that novelty song from the seventies "Muhammad Ali". He was referred to as the "black Superman" in that.

Stephen

there's the Five for Fighting song as well...

there are several Superman related songs sleeping in a folder on my hard drive jsut waiting for such a time as i have enough to make a couple of theme cd's!

dan

---------------
"Don't get too excited. Maybe you're not invited to my Action/Adventure dreams."
--Andrew Bird, "Action/Adventure"

There is also the musical "It's A Bird. It's A Plane. It's Superman."

Mike

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else."- Teddy Roosevelt

I wonder what it's like to be a superhero. I wonder where I'd go if I got fly around downtown. From some other planet I'd get this high from a yellow sun.

Matchbox 20 - Real World.

'Superman's Daughter" by Sawyer Brown

The theme from the TV show "Scrubs" is "I'm No Superman".

Who can forget Laurie Anderson's "O Superman":

ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah

Here come the planes.


(And I just happen to have XTC's "Brainiac's Daughter" playing right now!)

Found another one listening to John Mayer's "Room For Squares" I bought a couple of weeks ago.. "83" contains lines...

I wish I was 6 again
Oh make me a red cape
I wanna be Superman

There's a great Pittsburgh-based singer/songwriter named Paul Tabachneck who has a song called "(I Hate You) Superman."

And while we're at it, there used to be a lesbian punk band in Pittsburgh called Kitty Pryde and the Shadowcats that played out a lot in the late '90s/early '00s.