Last Updated on January 8, 2026 by Christian Adams
The moon is one of the more popular themes in popular music. Songs about the moon (or moon-adjacent) are not quite in the “love” category of blanket coverage, but significantly more popular than, say, songs about Chicago or Japan, or even cats and dogs.
The moon is a popular subject because it sounds good to the ear, is easy to sing, and rhymes well with other words of the same quality. By several rough and unreliable estimates, there are more than 750 songs about the moon (or moon-related) in the canon of indie and mainstream rock music—and that’s just the ones that show up in an AI-powered scrape of Wikipedia, which, by the way, is the unreliable part of the count.
But that’s enough about how the sausage is made, for now.
Songs About the Moon
You’re going to be pleasantly surprised or vaguely disappointed if you arrive at this post expecting to see a rundown of the classics like “Bad Moon Rising”. The list contains a few iconic songs like “Blue Moon”, but it’s not the “Blue Moon” you’re thinking of. And that’s the excitement of spending way too much time on a listicle.
Each of these tracks has something unique or special that transcends the moon in June rhyme scheme, although, spoiler alert, we’ve got that one covered.
Moonlight Drive – The Doors
According to Ray Manzarek, it’s the first song ever composed by Jim Morrison, who wrote the lyrics on a rooftop in Venice Beach (without accompaniment). Manzarek suggested they form a band after hearing Morrison sing the lines, “Let’s swim to the moon, let’s climb through the tide, penetrate the evening that the city sleeps to hide.”
Released in 1967 on the Doors’ second album, Strange Days, the song alludes to suicide by drowning. Their debut album is peerless, but Strange Days will always be my favorite.
I’m really proud of our second record [Strange Days] because … It tells a story. It’s a whole effort. Someday will get the recognition it deserves. You know? I don’t think many people were aware of what we were doing.
–Jim Morrison, in a 1970 interview with Downbeat Magazine
Underwater Moonlight – The Soft Boys
You’ll hear echoes of Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, the Byrds, and the Kinks. Underwater Moonlight (1980) was basically ignored critically and commercially, and the band broke up a few months after its release. Retrospectively, the album is considered a neo-psychedelic classic, and the Soft Boys were influential to a number of bands, especially R.E.M. The album is included in Robert Dimery’s 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Pink Moon – Walt Mink
Nick Drake is alright. His music exists in what I call “The Aretha Zone” of enjoyment. I can take about 20 minutes of Aretha Franklin before I get antsy and need to hear something else.
Notwithstanding the Nick Drake tribute album(s), several interesting and/or amazing cover versions of “Pink Moon” have been recorded by Walt Mink, Sufjan Stevens, Meshell Ndegeocello, Valerie June, Sebadoh, Black Mesa, and Hanson—you read that correctly. Hanson’s version appears on the 20th anniversary deluxe edition of their 2004 album, Underneath, and it’s not bad. I mean, they sing it real nice and purty and everything.
Anyway, it came down to Sebadoh vs. Walt Mink for my favorite versions, and Walt Mink won because I remember hearing it on Miss Happiness in 1992–’93-ish and thinking, That’s fuckin’ bold, man. It made me laugh out loud because soooo many indie rock scenesters were precious about Nick Drake.
Sebadoh’s version offers an equally endearing but more raw, lo-fi take on the track. It might be sacrilegious to Nick Drake fans, but I’ll take either version above the original.
Pink Moon – Sebadoh
Moonlight Sonata – Various Artists
After compiling a master list of songs about the moon, one composition kept nagging at me, appearing on the list several times: obscure cover versions of Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”. None of the bands were familiar, but all came from the most likely genres—hard rock and especially progressive metal.
As l listened to Kristina Schiano and Cole Rolland, I guess “listened” is a stretch, as I grimaced in pain as they massacred the song, I kept thinking, “What would LVB think about this shit? Would he even recognize the jam? Would he even know what ‘Moonlight Sonata’ means?”
Beethoven completed the work we call “Moonlight Sonata” in 1801 and published it in 1802 under the formal title Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2, Quasi una fantasia (meaning “sonata in the manner of a fantasy”). The nickname “moonlight” originated in 1832, five years after Beethoven’s death, when the German music critic and poet Ludwig Rellstab wrote that the first movement reminded him of the effect of moonlight shining upon Lake Lucerne. The name has been used ever since. So, no, Beethoven probably wouldn’t recognize the cut.
Blue Moon – Big Star
Let me be your one light
And if you’d like a true heart
Take the time to show you’re mine
And I’ll be a blue moon in the dark
It’s not the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart standard ballad first recorded by Ted Fio Rito with Muzzy Marcellino in 1934.
This “Blue Moon” is from Big Star’s aptly titled third album, Third (1978), later re-released as Third/Sister Lovers in 1985.
In 1974, Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens recorded a batch of starkly personal, often experimental, and haunting songs that were light-years from power pop. Four years later (and unbeknownst to Chilton), the record label released the set as a Big Star album.
“Blue Moon” is one of Chilton’s most beautiful moments.
Moonshake – Can
Why can’t we wait, stay where you haze
You feel the storm, stay where you haze
You’re waiting then to start on out
We can’t depend where we stay where you mind
From the 1973 album Future Days, “Moonshake” is one of a handful of Can songs in the same time zone as pop music, alongside tracks “Sing Swan Song” (from Ege Bamyasi (1973) and “She Brings the Rain”(from Soundtracks (1970)). At just over three minutes, “Moonshake” is a jubilant burst of rhythmic energy that stands out against the album’s otherwise sprawling, atmospheric soundscapes. With its straightforward, Krautrock “motorik” rhythm, it’s the most radio-friendly track the band had produced.
Future Days is the last Can album to feature vocalist Damo Suzuki, and marked a turning point toward a gentler, more ambient sound influenced by jazz and global rhythms.
Dancing with the Moonlit Knight – Genesis
The captain leads his dance right on through the night
Join the dance
Follow on! Till the grail sun sets in the mould
Follow on! Till the gold is cold
Dancing out with the Moonlit Knight
Knights of the Green Shield stamp and shout
Genesis’ fifth album, Selling England by the Pound (1973), is considered one of the landmark recordings in prime-time progressive rock.
The album opens with “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight”, an epic, eight-minute journey through an a cappella section, short piano pieces, electric jazz rock improvisations, and finally, a thundering, triumphant reprise that fades into a 12-string guitar outro. It covers every base from pastoral to bombastic. And I believe that right here, this song, is where people either get onboard with Genesis (and progressive rock in general) or they say, “Nope, that’s way too many notes,” and choogle their way back to Bad Company.
Silver Moon – Michael Nesmith & the First National Band
Michael Nesmith’s mom invented Liquid Paper. This song reminds me of Neil Diamond, Glen Campbell, and Three Dog Night, somehow.
Dancing in the Moonlight – Thin Lizzy
Some of you might be thinking of “Dancing in the Moonlight” by King Harvest, but I’m talking about “Dancing in the Moonlight (It’s Caught Me in Its Spotlight)” by Thin Lizzy. It appears on their 1977 album Bad Reputation and was also released as a single a few months before the album.
Moon Over Marin – Dead Kennedys
I squish dead fish between my toes
Try not to step on any bones
I turn around and I go home
I slip back through my basement door
Switch off all that I own below
Dive in my scalding wooden tub
My own beach at night
Bathe in my moonlight
There will always be a moon over Marin
Plastic Surgery Disasters (1982) is the second full-length album released by punk rock band Dead Kennedys. “Moon Over Marin” is a cynical commentary on environmental destruction, portraying it through the eyes of a wealthy, self-absorbed person in Marin County, California, who is more concerned with personal maintenance than with the looming ecological crisis.
Marin County, California, is the sixth-wealthiest county in the United States (by median household income, $142,019).1
The lyrics satirize the detachment of the rich from the problems affecting their environment, highlighting a person who, despite acknowledging the environmental danger (“The crowded future stings my eyes”), remains preoccupied with trivial matters like exercising and personal health. I think everybody knows somebody like this, certainly if you live in California.2
According to Jello Biafra, the band was heavily influenced by the Groundhogs, an obscure English blues rock band active in the mid-’70s.
Child of the Moon – The Rolling Stones
“Moonlight Mile” is one of the prettiest things the Stones ever recorded, right up there with “Fool to Cry”. But I remembered “Child of the Moon”, something of a hidden gem among Stones enthusiasts, bearing a modest resemblance to “Rain” by the Beatles.
Recorded in 1968, “Child of the Moon” was originally released as the B-side to the single “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and only appears on compilation albums (Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) and More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies).
Moon in June – Soft Machine
Nobody in the history of popular music had it better than progressive rock bands in the early 1970s. They could say to their record label guy, “Hey, listen, our next record is gonna be a double album, and it’s only four songs. One song per side. You cool with that, chief?” And the record label just said, “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Do your thing, sailor.”
You can blame it on Bob Dylan. If he hadn’t been allowed to release Blonde On Blonde (1966), the first double album, we probably wouldn’t have records like Tales of Topographic Oceans (1973) by Yes or Third (1970) by Soft Machine.
“Moon in June” is the last song with lyrics that Soft Machine recorded, marking a shift in the group’s sound from their psychedelic origins towards jazz rock and electronic music.
You got 19 minutes to spare? Have fun!
Message From the Moon – Guided by Voices
Guided by Voices has a discography that rivals Sun Ra with 45 studio albums and counting, not to mention EPs, split CDs, live albums, box sets, and compilation albums like Human Amusement at Hourly Rates (2003), one of my favorite best-of collections ever created.
Chain to the Moon – Guided by Voices
“Message from the Moon” was also recorded for Class Clown Spots a UFO (2012), their 17th album, but it’s really hard to find. “Chain to the Moon” made the final pressing.
In Walked the Moon – Guided by Voices
This cut is from Suitcase: Failed Experiments and Trashed Aircraft, a four-CD box set released in 2000. Named for the suitcase that Robert Pollard allegedly stored his hundreds of unreleased tapes, the set covers decades’ worth of material from throughout Guided by Voices’ recorded career.
Moonlight on Vermont – Captain Beefheart
Moonlight on Vermont affected everybody
Even Mrs. Wooten well as Little Nitty
Even lifebuoy floatin’
With his lil’ pistol showin’
‘n his lil’ pistol totin’
Well that goes t’ show you what uh moon can do
Trout Mask Replica (1969) is the standard by which almost all experimental rock music is judged, and its fearsome reputation as a challenging listen hasn’t faded with the passing of time or its influence.
Marquee Moon – Television
Life in the hive puckered up my night
A kiss of death, the embrace of life
Ooh, there I stand neath the Marquee Moon
Just waiting
Marquee Moon (1977) is the most one of the most influential records of the ’70s, and a cornerstone of alternative rock. It’s been said that anywhere you hear white people playing guitars, you’re hearing bits of Marquee Moon. The album heavily influenced the indie rock movement of the 1980s, touching grunge, new wave, punk, art-punk, and pop. Post-punk bands borrowed the album’s uncluttered production, introspective tone, and meticulously performed instrumentation.
The first half of this jam is stunning. You can bail out around the 6:00 mark. It’s just soloing and whatnot.
By the Light of a Magical Moon – T.Rex (aka Tyrannosaurus Rex)
I’m a gonna dance with my princess
By the light of the magical moon
I’m a gonna dance with my princess
By the light of the ma-magical moon
Historically, I’ve been dismissive and sometimes argumentative about the T. Rex and their artistry (or lack thereof). However, I must make an exception for A Beard of Stars (1970), the fourth studio album by English psychedelic folk band Tyrannosaurus Rex, and their last before changing their name to T. Rex. It’s the album where Marc Bolan goes electric, which will become a big deal in a few years.
Moon River – Morrissey
Two drifters off to see the world
There’s such a lot of world to see
We’re after the same rainbow’s end
Waiting round the bend
My huckleberry friend
Moon river and me
Hey Gemini, find the worst cover version of “Moon River” ever recorded. Something that will make me squirm every time I think of it.
Moonchild – King Crimson
“Moonchild” is the fourth track from King Crimson’s debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King (1969), an album viewed by many as the first genuine progressive rock recording.
I like King Crimson a lot. I’m a big fan of the classic line-up (1969–’74) and some of the stuff with Adrian Belew. I routinely listen to select King Crimson records on purpose. However, I’m not a cult member, so to speak.
“Moonchild” is a perfect example of why critics say King Crimson (and progressive rock) is an overrated, pretentious bore. And they’re fuckin’ right, man. The first two minutes of “Moonchild” are promising, lovely, even, but it descends into six minutes of what they called “improvisation,” but it’s nonsense sound, like a room full of guys who are afraid to play anything. It’s not even noodling. Jesus Christ, they make the Grateful Dead sound like Dream Theater.
New Moon on Monday – Duran Duran
I light my torch
And wave it for the new moon on Monday
And a fire dance through the night
I stayed the cold day
With a lonely satellite
I was a big fan when “New Moon on Monday” was released as the second single from the third studio album, Seven and the Ragged Tiger (1983), and saw them on this tour at the Rosemont Horizon. But something always bothered me about this track. The chorus is fantastic, but it doesn’t sound right, like it doesn’t belong with the verses. Sour is the word.
Key changes happen in pop-rock songs all the time, so we’re used to hearing half-step key changes on the last verse of Cheap Trick’s “Surrender” and the outro chorus of “Penny Lane” by the Beatles. Never mind every Whitney Houston song. But the “New Moon on Monday” conundrum stuck with me for many years, until one day in 2015, I pulled up the guitar chords and—pow—the modulation was right there.
The song is in G major, so they’re playing an A minor chord (Am) in the verse but switch to an A major (A) in the chorus. And it happens really fast, twice, on the words “Monday” and “cold day.” This is generally not how modulations work. They’re supposed to set you up for something higher. But in the middle of this mid-tempo new wave song? Sour.
And it got me thinking, what are some of the really cool modulations in great songs?
Interesting Modulations in Pop Music
| Song | Artist | Key Change | Modulation |
| Livin’ on a Prayer | Bon Jovi | Em>F#m | Whole Step Up (Tone) |
| I Will Always Love You | Whitney Houston | B>C | Half Step Up (Semi-Tone) |
| Layla | Derek and the Dominos | Dm>Cm | Whole Step Down (Tone) (in the coda) |
| My Heart Will Go On | Céline Dion | E>F | Half Step Up (Semi-Tone) |
| Love on Top | Beyoncé | F#>A | Multiple Half-Steps Up (3 Total) |
| Penny Lane | The Beatles | B>C | Half Step Up (Verse to Chorus) |
| Sweet Caroline | Neil Diamond | D>E | Whole Step Up (Tone) |
| God Only Knows | The Beach Boys | A>Bb | Half Step Up (During the Coda) |
| Surrender | Cheap Trick | G>Ab | Half Step Up (Semi-Tone) (Final Verse) |
The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress – Joe Cocker
See her as she flies
Golden sails across the sky
Close enough to touch
But careful if you try
Though she looks as warm as gold
The moon’s a harsh mistress
The moon can be so cold
This gorgeous Jimmy Webb song is an oft-recorded standard but never charted as a single. Webb appropriated the title from the 1966 science fiction novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein. It’s most closely associated with Glen Campbell, and has been covered by Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Linda Ronstadt, and Joe Cocker, the first to record the song in 1974.
Various instrumental versions have also been recorded, including on the album Beyond the Missouri Sky (Short Stories) (1997) by Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny, which won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group.
The song is commonly played in the key of G. The song structure consists of three seven-line verses and a two-line coda. The first two verses have a rhyme scheme of AABACDC. The third verse modulates three half steps from G to B flat.
Moonage Daydream – David Bowie (Arnold Corns version)
Keep your ‘lectric eye on me, babe
Put your ray gun to my head
Press your space face close to mine, love
Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah!
Before he created the Ziggy Stardust persona, Bowie formed a short-lived side project called Arnold Corns in 1971, inspired by the Pink Floyd song “Arnold Layne”.
The band’s first single, “Moonage Daydream” / “Hang On to Yourself”, was released on B&C Records in May 1971. Both these songs later reappeared on Ziggy Stardust in new versions with updated lyrics. The song directly introduces the character Ziggy Stardust, who describes himself as a bisexual alien rock superstar who will save the Earth from the impending disaster described in the opening track “Five Years”.
The original version had a different arrangement, but melodically the same as the Ziggy version, and a slightly different chorus.
Trinkets Pale of Moon – The Mars Volta
And with these trinkets pale of moon
Senescent charms become a
Bludgeon of wrinkles when I nurse your tired heart
For every time you hear the strain
Of lullabies collapsing
Walk towards the echo, let it hold you trembling
Such a weird band. For the record, ‘senescent’ means “growing old or aging.”
The Moonbeam Song – Nilsson
One of the most heartbreakingly beautiful songs by an artist who made a career out of beautiful songs. “The Moonbeam Song” was originally released on his 1971 album, Nilsson Schmilsson, his most commercially successful work, producing three of his best-known songs: “Without You”, “Coconut”, and “Jump Into the Fire”. The song is not as frequently covered as some of Nilsson’s other major hits (like “One” or “Everybody’s Talkin'”).
Extra Credit
Brain Damage / Eclipse – Stardeath and White Dwarfs
This trippy version is from Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing The Dark Side of the Moon (2009), a complete track-for-track tribute to Pink Floyd’s seminal 1973 album Dark Side of the Moon, by the psychedelic rock group the Flaming Lips with the band Stardeath and White Dwarfs (featuring Wayne Coyne’s nephew, Dennis Coyne), and features singer Henry Rollins recreating the original album’s interview samples. Peaches recreated Clare Torry’s vocal segment of “The Great Gig in the Sky”.
Song About the Moon – Paul Simon
If you want to write a song about the moon
Walk along the craters in the afternoon
When the shadows are deep and the light is alien
And gravity leaps like a knife off the pavement
And you want to write a song about the moon
You want to write a spiritual tune
Na na na na na na
Yeah yeah yeah
Presto, a song about the moon
Leave it to Paul Simon. I love the man’s music. He’s the only artist in my world who can write a song about the moon that’s about writing a song about the moon. But my favorite moment comes at the third verse when Simon sings, “Hey, songwriter! If you want to write a song about a face, think about a photograph.” Sage advice, sir.
This cut comes from Simon’s sixth solo album, Hearts and Bones (1983), which was critically acclaimed but lacked a hit single. “Song About the Moon” was released as the B-side to “Think Too Much”, which didn’t even chart.
The album was written and recorded following the S&G Concert in Central Park in 1981, and the world tour of 1982–83. Some of the songs to be included on Hearts and Bones were previewed on tour, and Garfunkel worked on some of the songs with Simon in the studio. The finished product was intended to be a S&G album. Ultimately, Garfunkel left the project, and none of his contributions were included in the final mix.
The experience ensured that another S&G would never happen.
The Night of the Purple Moon – Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Infinity Arkestra
Just another day in the park for Sun Ra and any number of his 100 albums or whatever the number.
The Killing Moon – Echo & the Bunnymen
As a kid who had boots on the ground during the mid-1980s, Echo & the Bunnymen could have been bigger than the Cure. Easily. But they were doomed by a consistent lack of humor and self-awareness. Song for song, Ian McCollaugh might have been an equal songwriter, but he was too brooding and dour, taking himself seriously.
Robert Smith took the piss out of himself at every opportunity and gave us gems like “The Catepillar”. The Cure was funny, in its own way. Everybody loved the goth shit in 1984, ’85, you know, but it didn’t last. Echo & the Bunnymen failed the levity test of American audiences with “The Killing Moon”. It’s a nice song, but the average listener didn’t want several albums of the identical vibe.
Moon Song – America
A deep cut from Homecoming (1972), the second studio album by America, which peaked at number 9 on Billboard’s Pop Albums Chart and was certified platinum within a year. Riding the buzz of “Horse With No Name,” the band took a more pronounced electric guitar and keyboard approach than on their first album. Homecoming helped continue the band’s success and included one of their biggest hits, “Ventura Highway”.
- https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/rankings-and-ratings/15-wealthiest-counties-in-the-us/ ↩︎
- I lived in San Francisco for a decade and still maintain an address in California. I knew shitloads of people like this, many from Marin County. ↩︎
