Songs With Cowbell

Ten records that took a hunk of farm equipment and made it the lead instrument.

Entries
10
Category
Music
Updated
  1. A cowbell hanging from a cypress branch over a misty swamp at dusk, a hound dog's paw prints in the mud below.

    10. Born on the Bayou

    Creedence Clearwater Revival · 1969

    John Fogerty wrote a swamp-childhood anthem without having lived in the South, and the cowbell sells the humidity. It was the B-side of Proud Mary and opened their Woodstock set. Fogerty grew up in El Cerrito, California. The bayou is a state of mind.

  2. A cowbell on a stool beside a white Stratocaster and a paisley scarf in a cramped 1966 London studio.

    09. Stone Free

    The Jimi Hendrix Experience · 1966

    Hendrix's first original for the Experience, written because Chas Chandler wanted him earning publishing money. It was cut in about an hour as the B-side to Hey Joe, with Mitch Mitchell overdubbing quarter-note cowbell. Even the cowbell sounded busy.

  3. A cowbell on an office desk beside a punch clock, a calendar, and a briefcase by the door at quitting time.

    08. Working for the Weekend

    Loverboy · 1981

    Matt Frenette, who co-wrote it, opens with three cowbell hits before the band piles in. Only No. 29 on the Hot 100, but it has outlived the chart in Zoolander, Click and an SNL Chippendales sketch. It was always a song about Friday at 4:59.

  4. Two cowbells hanging like a pendulum in front of a melting grandfather clock in a psychedelic swirl of color.

    07. Time Has Come Today

    The Chambers Brothers · 1967

    Two cowbells struck alternately make the tick-tock, then the reverb and tempo changes melt the clock. The LP version runs 11 minutes. It peaked at No. 11 in 1968, and every 'Vietnam montage' music supervisor has kept it on speed dial since.

  5. A cowbell and a coiled talk-box tube on a bar top beside a shot glass and a sleeping dog's collar.

    06. Hair of the Dog

    Nazareth · 1975

    Darrell Sweet's cowbell drives the whole thing while Dan McCafferty sings through a talk box and growls a title that is a pun you can't say on the radio. Guns N' Roses covered it in 1993. The cowbell part did not need updating.

  6. A cowbell resting on a stack of gold-colored vinyl records inside a tour bus, a road map of America taped to the window.

    05. We're an American Band

    Grand Funk Railroad · 1973

    Drummer Don Brewer wrote it, sang it and played the cowbell, which is called owning the song. Todd Rundgren produced, it became the band's first No. 1, and early pressings came on gold-colored vinyl in case anyone missed the point.

  7. A chrome cowbell on the dashboard of a candy-paint lowrider, hydraulics lifting the front end on a sunny boulevard.

    04. Low Rider

    War · 1975

    Papa Dee Allen's cowbell starts it and B.B. Dickerson's bass carries it to No. 1 R&B and No. 7 pop. It then scored Up in Smoke, Dazed and Confused, the George Lopez theme and a Marmite campaign. The cowbell has worked steadier than most actors.

  8. A cowbell clamped to a drum kit on the deck of a paddle steamer on a muddy river at sunset.

    03. Mississippi Queen

    Mountain · 1970

    Corky Laing counts it off on the cowbell alone, then never puts it down. Leslie West said that was just how Corky counted songs in, and they cut it in a couple of takes. No. 21 on the Hot 100, and the most efficient count-in in rock.

  9. Two stacked cowbells on a producer's mixing desk next to a half-empty whiskey glass in a smoky 1969 studio.

    02. Honky Tonk Women

    The Rolling Stones · 1969

    It opens not on a Keith riff but on a cowbell, played by producer Jimmy Miller, not Charlie Watts. Then it went to No. 1 in the US and UK. The best-paid percussionist on the record was the guy who was supposed to be in the control room.

  10. A single dented cowbell and a drumstick resting on a studio stool, a scythe leaning in the corner and moonlight through the control-room glass.

    01. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

    Blue Öyster Cult · 1976

    Buck Dharma wrote it, it peaked at No. 12, and it is the band's biggest US hit. Producer David Lucas, Albert Bouchard and Eric Bloom have all been credited with the cowbell. Fifty years on, nobody will admit to the most famous four seconds of their lives.

Honorable mentions

  • A gleaming cowbell on a velvet pedestal under a spotlight in an empty recording booth, a tight shirt draped over the stool.

    More Cowbell

    Saturday Night Live · 2000

    Will Ferrell wrote it after fixating on the Reaper record; Christopher Walken plays producer Bruce Dickinson, named after a real Columbia manager, not the producer. Gene Frenkle is fictional. Fans have still offered the band condolences on his death.

Dishonorable mentions

  • A cowbell sitting in a puddle of hairspray beside an aerosol can and a bandana on a glossy stage.

    We're an American Band (Poison)

    Poison · 2006

    Cut new for a 20th-anniversary hits album, with a video, by a band from Pennsylvania that had been covering everyone. The compilation went to No. 17. The cowbell survived the trip; the point of a song about being on tour in 1973 did not.

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