We all know songs like “Red Red Wine” by UB40 and “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” by Billy Joel. That led me to wonder how many other wine songs there are.
51 wine songs that I found on Google
A Google Search for Wine Songs
When I did a search on Google, a list of 51 songs came up. The oldest was “Stewball” by Peter, Paul and Mary in 1963. A bunch had wine or related words in the title. Here are some of those:
- “Strawberry Wine” by Deana Carter
- “Alligator Wine” by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
- “Lilac Wine” by Nina Simone
- “Summer Wine” by Nancy Sinatra
- “Old Red Wine” by The Who
- “Whiskey to Wine” by Garth Brooks
- “Elderberry Wine” by Elton John
- “Champagne Supernova” by Oasis
- “A Steel Guitar and a Glass of Wine” by Paul Anka
- “Cherry Wine” by Hozier
- “Tiny Bubbles” by Don Ho
- “Cheap Wine” by Cold Chisel
- “I Drink Wine” by Adele
Twelve of the songs didn’t mention wine in the title. Here are some of those:
- “For the First Time” by The Script
- “Ironic” by Alanis Morissette
- “It Was a Very Good Year” by Frank Sinatra
I’m embarrassed to say that, with a few exceptions, I had never heard of any of these songs (or the singers). How about you?
Additional Searches
Since there have to be plenty of songs written about wine earlier than 1963, I did a little more searching.
WineIntro provided a list of songs with wine in their lyrics but not in their titles:
- “A Taste of Honey” by Tom Jones: “…honey, much sweeter than wine.”
- “All Along the Watchtower” by Bob Dylan: “Businessmen, they drink my wine, ploughmen dig my earth”
— Is this a good thing, if businessmen drink your wine?” - “Best of My Love” by The Eagles: “wasting our time on cheap talk and wine, left us so little to give.”
- “Big Shot” by Billy Joel: “You had the Dom Perignon in your hand and the spoon up your nose”
- “Big Spender” by Peggy Lee: “So let me get right to the point. I don’t pop my cork for every guy I see.
Hey, big spender! Spend a little time with me!” - “Greatest Story Ever Told” by The Grateful Dead: “I asked him for water, he poured me some wine.
We finished off the bottle and broke into mine.” - “Hotel California” by The Eagles: “Please bring me my wine, he said ‘We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969′”
- “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night: “Jeremiah was a bull frog. Was a good friend of mine. Never understood a single word he said, but he always had some mighty fine wine.”
Unraveling Wine has 70+ wine songs that include the lyrics! Spinditty has links to the YouTube videos of a bunch of wine songs.
The Oldest Song I Found
This song isn’t the oldest, but it’s pretty darn croony: “The Days of Wine and Roses” by Bobby Darin. It’s from 1963 just like the Peter, Paul and Mary song I mentioned earlier.
Bobby Darin sinking “The Days of Wine and Roses”
The oldest wine song I could find was “Drinkin’ Wine Spoo-Dee-O-Dee” by Stick McGhee and J. Mayo Williams, written in 1949, and later picked up by Jerry Lee Lewis. You’ll be happy to know that spoo-dee-o-dee is a drink that has a layer of Port on the bottom, then a layer of (cheap) bourbon, finished on the top by another layer of Port. Ready to try some?
Please share your favorite wine songs with us here.
Cheers!