Songs About Oral

Pop has been singing about this in code for decades, in both directions. Some of the code was not very hard to crack.

Entries
13
Category
Music
Updated
  1. A red vintage microphone under a spotlight beside a phone with a heart

    13. Throat Baby (Go Baby)

    BRS Kash · 2020

    An Atlanta rapper's track that blew up online before radio figured out what to do with it, then came back as a remix with DaBaby and City Girls. Twenty-four years after Akinyele, still no metaphor required.

  2. Red and white lollipops bursting out of a gift box

    12. Lolly

    Maejor Ali feat. Juicy J and Justin Bieber · 2013

    Five years after Lollipop, the same candy metaphor was back on the radio, this time with Juicy J and a 19-year-old Justin Bieber aboard. The candy did not get any subtler. The headlines did get louder.

  3. A red popsicle melting onto a white plate

    11. Put It in Your Mouth

    Akinyele · 1996

    No candy, no whistles, no metaphor. Akinyele took the subtext everyone else was dancing around and made it the title. It's crude, it's catchy, and thirty years later it's still the bluntest record on this list.

  4. An elevator panel with a single red down-arrow button

    10. Down on Me

    Jeremih feat. 50 Cent · 2010

    Jeremih's falsetto makes the request sound almost polite, which is the trick. 50 Cent drops in for a verse five years after Candy Shop, just to confirm he never really left the topic.

  5. A bone and a red dog bowl in front of a guitar and an amp

    09. Givin the Dog a Bone

    AC/DC · 1980

    Widely read as exactly what you think; the band has never spelled it out. It sits on Back in Black, a tribute album to Bon Scott, who had just died, which tells you AC/DC grieved the only way they knew: loud and filthy.

  6. A red whistle on a lanyard with sound waves

    08. Whistle

    Flo Rida · 2012

    A No. 1 hit built on a whistled hook and one extremely obvious metaphor. Radio played it all summer. Grandparents whistled along in grocery stores. Nobody in charge of anything said a word.

  7. A chef hat, a mixing bowl and two red-wrapped chocolates beside a tipped salt shaker

    07. Chocolate Salty Balls

    Chef (Isaac Hayes) · 1998

    Chef from South Park sings a recipe, and it is not a recipe. Released as a single in 1998, it went to No. 1 in the UK. The man who gave us Shaft delivering it completely straight is the entire joke, and it lands every time.

  8. A church kneeler with a red rosary before rows of red candles

    06. Like a Prayer

    Madonna · 1989

    Officially about faith. The kneeling line has been read the other way since the week it came out, and Madonna, who understands exactly how a double meaning sells, has never seemed bothered. Pepsi dropped her over the video, not the lyric.

  9. A candy counter with glass jars, one of red candies open, beside a snake-charmer basket

    05. Candy Shop

    50 Cent feat. Olivia · 2005

    Nine weeks at No. 1, a Scott Storch beat that sounds like a snake charmer at a strip club, and the flimsiest candy metaphor in pop. The innuendo was never the point of mystery. The point was that it worked on everyone anyway.

  10. A speaker stack with a checklist pinned to it, palms and a red sun behind

    04. My Neck, My Back (Lick It)

    Khia · 2002

    Instructions so specific they read like a manual, delivered over a Miami-bass beat that has never left a party playlist since. No candy, no subtext, just a checklist. It made Khia a one-name legend.

  11. A giant red swirl lollipop under a spotlight

    03. Lollipop

    Lil Wayne feat. Static Major · 2008

    Five weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 while being about exactly what it sounds like. Auto-Tune and a candy metaphor any kid could repeat and no adult wanted to explain. Static Major, who co-wrote it and sings the hook, died weeks before it came out.

  12. A disco ball over a roller rink with a red candy wrapper ribbon

    02. Blow

    Beyoncé · 2013

    From the album Beyoncé dropped overnight with no warning in 2013. Pharrell and Timbaland built a roller-rink funk track around it, and the candy metaphors point the other direction this time. A grown, gleeful flip of everything else on this list.

  13. A white electric guitar on black satin with a red rose across the strings

    01. Head

    Prince · 1980

    The least subtle track on Dirty Mind, the album that turned Prince into a cult hero and a censor's headache at the same time. A bride on her way to her wedding, a rubbery synth bass, no metaphors at all. He was 22 and already a step ahead of everybody.

Honorable mentions

  • A strand of pearls on black velvet beside a red guitar pick, desert horizon behind

    Pearl Necklace

    ZZ Top · 1981

    About a neighboring act rather than this one. Close enough for a mention, and the guitar tone alone earns it.

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