Songs About Sleep: The 15 Best of All Time
- Posted on April 27, 2019
- Articles
- By Neil Hedley
Here's a terrific argument-starter: What are the all-time best songs about sleep?
We've compiled our own list; truthfully, this list started as "The Top Ten Songs About Sleep", but we quickly realized that a list of only ten would leave out some amazing music.
The list is completely arbitrary; some made their place on the list based on personal preference. And when we couldn't decide, we used the Pop music charts to break ties. There are some classics that we left out, like "Dream On" by Aerosmith, because while it is a song about dreaming, it doesn't make a list of songs about sleep because the idea of sleeping is nowhere to be found in the entire song.
Of course, your own input is welcome in the Comments section below. Share links or video if you can!
Without further ado (and in reverse order - countdown style), here are The 15 Best Songs About Sleep:
15. You Can Sleep While I Drive - Melissa Etheridge
As with so much music from Melissa Etheridge, this one's ripped right out of the pages of her memory, according to the passage in her autobiography, The Truth Is... where she talks about the song being a recollection of a road trip with a former lover, and an attempt to rekindle the freedom of those days. The perfect start to any list of songs about sleep, from Melissa's second album, Brave And Crazy.
14. I Don't Like To Sleep Alone - Paul Anka (feat. Odia Coates)
Odia Coates came along at a time when it had been a decade since Paul Anka's last hit to crack the Top 25. Together they recorded three duets that were Top Ten hits, including the questionable "(You're) Havin' My Baby". This was the third of those three. It peaked at #8 in Billboard magazine and was a #1 hit in Anka's native Canada, so it's kind of impossible to ignore.
13. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead - Bon Jovi
A concert staple since its introduction in 1992, this one actually saw bigger success outside of North America, where it barely cracked the Hot 100 chart in Billboard magazine. But in the UK, it kept alive a streak of 28 consecutive Top 40 hits for the band - "Sleep When I'm Dead" peaked on the UK charts at #17, their 13th straight chart hit.
And yes, that IS Jim Morrison's grave at the 1:07 mark of the video.
12. Talking In Your Sleep - The Romantics
This is one of two songs in our list that bear the same title. Frankly, this song ranks lower because it lacks the lyrical heft of the other. It did, however, perform better on the charts (you may remember the part where we said the list was arbitrary). This was a #1 hit in Canada, and a Top Five hit in America and Sweden, with a pretty respectable chart showing in Australia, South Africa, Belgium and Germany, among others.
11. Golden Slumbers - The Beatles
There are those who will tell you this was the song that sparked their interest in The Beatles. Still others tell stories of it being among the songs they sang as lullabies to their children. Recorded together for Abbey Road with "Carry That Weight", the songs has its roots in a comedy from the early 1600s by Thomas Dekker. John Lennon is nowhere to be found on this song, and in some ways that's fitting - it's widely seen as a McCartney masterpiece, even though it clocks in at only a minute and a half.
