Natalie Merchant
A spoken-sung interrogation of a former lover's new partner, built almost entirely out of pointed questions rather than…
jealousy and rivalry self-doubt after a breakup comparison and insecurity
Cream
This is Cream's electrified cover of a pre-war country blues (originally by Blind Joe Reynolds), turned into a slow-burning…
sexual jealousy infidelity folk wisdom/proverb
Muddy Waters
A slow, grinding blues in which Muddy Waters uses a strange, oversized cat as a comic stand-in for suspicion and sexual…
jealousy and suspicion infidelity domestic surveillance
Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke retells the classic American murder ballad about Frankie and Johnny, reworking the folk standard into a soul…
betrayal and jealousy infidelity folk balladry reimagined
The Animals
The Animals' version of this Screamin' Jay Hawkins standard turns a theatrical curse into a raw, garage-blues confession of…
obsessive love possessiveness jealousy
The Hollies
This is a cover of the Motown standard originally made famous by The Supremes, here rendered by The Hollies as part of a…
jealousy and possessiveness infidelity pleading and self-justification
Robert Johnson
Robert Johnson builds an entire song out of a single dirty joke, using a 1930s automobile as an extended stand-in for a woman's…
sexual jealousy infidelity and possession mechanical/automotive metaphor
My Morning Jacket
A hazy, reverb-soaked ballad built almost entirely from a handful of repeated questions and pleas, this song uses the sparest…
jealousy and suspicion infidelity or fear of it isolation and longing
Bee Gees
A disco-funk plea from a narrator stuck loving a partner who's cheating and staying anyway, caught between accusation and…
jealousy and infidelity codependency sexual desire vs self-respect
Ray LaMontagne
A spurned lover sketches a woman trapped in a stale domestic life and a faithless affair, while he himself can't let go of the…
infidelity and jealousy obsessive longing domestic decay
Camera Obscura
A touring musician tries to talk herself into emotional detachment from a partner who's drifted, only to have the song's own…
unrequited longing distance and touring life emotional self-deception
Steve Miller Band
This is a cover of an old blues standard about wanting a car, dressed up as a loose, groove-driven jam. Miller keeps the…
material desire masculine status infidelity and jealousy
Taj Mahal
This is Taj Mahal's rendition of a blues standard that traces back to Robert Johnson and was popularized by Elmore James, built…
infidelity and jealousy restlessness and travel contradictory resolve
Freddie King
A wry blues meditation on romantic powerlessness, where the narrator responds to his partner's open infidelity not with rage but…
infidelity emotional restraint masculine pride
Chaka Khan
A meditation on jealousy and reassurance, sung by a partner who has just been told about some flirtation or attention from an…
jealousy possessiveness self-assurance
Damien Rice
A quietly devastating account of mutual infidelity, where the narrator's own betrayal and his partner's are held up as mirror…
infidelity loneliness self-forgiveness vs resentment
Sebadoh
A confessional song about the damage careless speech does, sung by a narrator who admits to gossip, betrayal, and self-serving…
guilt and self-justification unreliable speech/gossip jealousy
Amy Winehouse
A confessional soul number in which the narrator catalogues her own infidelities and self-sabotage inside a volatile…
infidelity self-sabotage guilt and shame
The Roots
A slow-burning seduction track built around a repeated come-on hook, in which the narrator positions himself as a superior…
seduction and desire infidelity masculine competition
The Beach Boys
A jilted-then-vindicated narrator watches a woman he loves get mistreated by another man, and uses her heartbreak as an opening…
jealousy romantic rivalry self-vindication
Descendents
A brief, blunt hardcore-punk song in which the narrator waits out a romantic rival, convinced that patience and possessiveness…
jealousy possessiveness unrequited love
SZA
SZA turns a breakup confession into a deadpan murder fantasy, using the exaggerated violence of the title as a vehicle for…
obsessive love jealousy denial and self-deception
Mos Def
This is Mos Def's rendition of Chuck Berry's rock-and-roll foundational text, recorded for the Chess Records biopic soundtrack.…
infidelity and suspicion pursuit and competition American car culture
Hop Along
A fractured travelogue-as-breakup song, where surreal imagery of distant places and imagined infidelities stands in for…
jealousy and possessiveness self-deception distance and separation
Carly Simon
A woman confronts a partner who has just confessed some flirtation or infidelity, and instead of collapsing into jealousy she…
possessiveness disguised as devotion jealousy and self-assurance confession and its fallout
Japanese Breakfast
A bruised, self-aware account of wanting someone who has already made clear they want someone else, or something else entirely.…
unrequited desire self-loathing jealousy
Massive Attack
A hushed, circling meditation on romantic ambivalence, sung from the position of someone who claims to wish an ex-lover well…
ambivalence possessiveness disguised as tenderness jealousy
Chet Baker
This is Chet Baker's reading of Irving Berlin's 1924 standard, a spare lament built almost entirely around a single repeated…
separation and longing romantic insecurity jealousy
Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox's reading of this Screamin' Jay Hawkins standard, cut for her covers album Nostalgia, strips the song down to its…
possessive love jealousy desperation
Isaac Hayes
A slow-building soul narrative about a man torn between the stability of a wife waiting at home and an affair that has grown…
infidelity domestic stability vs desire guilt and indecision
J. Cole
A brash, hook-driven club track in which J. Cole boasts about sexual conquest and rising fame while a female voice in the chorus…
male bravado infidelity fame and status
A brief, wry blues complaint built around a single pun: a woman leaves her man for a bus driver, and the singer turns the man's…
infidelity sexual innuendo wounded pride
Boyz II Men
A smooth R&B confession of an affair with someone already committed to another person. The narrator is pulled between desire and…
infidelity secrecy desire vs. guilt
The Supremes
A woman lays out an ultimatum to a partner who has been cheating and lying, using the image of walking boots as both threat and…
infidelity female defiance revenge
Fugazi
A tense, elliptical piece built around the image of a man walking a psychological margin, caught between admiration and violence…
obsession and surveillance jealousy self-destruction
Ann Peebles
A stark relationship ultimatum built almost entirely on a single conditional refrain, this song treats mutual suspicion as a…
trust and suspicion jealousy relationship ultimatums
Tammy Wynette
A woman catalogs the material comforts a wealthy husband has given her -- satin sheets, a tailored Cadillac -- only to declare…
material wealth vs. emotional fulfillment infidelity female agency and dissatisfaction
Slowdive
A hazy account of a relationship winding down, where tenderness and resentment are hard to separate. The song relies on…
fading love resignation jealousy
Mariah Carey
A holiday novelty song that recasts Santa Claus as a matchmaker rather than a gift-giver, with the narrator petitioning him to…
romantic longing holiday nostalgia wish-fulfillment
Squeeze
Squeeze turn a wrong-number joke into a small comedy of anxious devotion, as a man keeps dialing an answering machine and slowly…
romantic obsession urban distance technology as barrier