“You Can’t Hurry Ribs” And Other Great Food Tunes You Can Burn

Here’s a playlist of BBQ, food, drinking, and related tunes for playing while cooking. Burn them and play them on the road while you’re lookin’ for that great little rib shack. Feel free to click to download “You Can’t Hurry Ribs“, my theme song sung by my niece Natalie Longo to the tune of “You Can’t Hurry Love” by Diana Ross. Just click the button below

You Can’t Hurry Ribs

Below are some of our favorite food tunes. Special thanks to the readers who have suggested additions to the list and offered wise cracks. Add yours to the comments section below. Red links take you to iTunes where you can listen to the tune and then buy it if you wish. Alas, many of the links are broken right now. Seems like Apple has moved them. Sigh.

But First, The BBQ Song

Here’s a great song that does a pretty good job of describing the regional styles of BBQ by Rhett & Link (Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal), a North Carolina-based comedy duo.

Smoker By Brandon Kinney

This guy loves his, um, cooker.

Struttin with some barbecue

Click here for the good story behind Louis Armstrong’s famous “Struttin’ with Some Barbecue“.

A

• Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens – BB King
• All That Meat & No Potatoes – Fats Waller (not really about a meal. Louis Armstrong does a nice version, too.)
• Angelina – Louis Prima

B

• Bar-B-Q – Wendy Ren
• Barbecue – Duke Tumatoe
• Barbecue – Robert Earl Keen
• Barbecue Bess – Lucille Bogan
• Barbecue Shoes – BBQ Pitt Boys
• Banana Pancakes – Jack Johnson
• Beans and Cornbread – Louis Jordan
• Beer! – PsychoStick
• Beer Can Chicken – Kenny Chesney
• Big Rock Candy Mountain, Harry McMlintock
• Birthday Cake, Cibo Matto
• Breakfast – Newsboys
• Breakfast in America – Supertramp
• Brown Sugar – The Rolling Stones
• Burger Man – ZZ Top

C

• Call Any Vegetable – The Mothers of Invention
• Camembert Electrique – Gong
• Candy – Big Maybelle
• Candy Everybody Wants – 10,000 Maniacs
• Caramel – Suzanne Vega
• Caviar and Chitlins – the Atomic Fireballs
• Champagne Supernova – Oasis
• Cheeseburger in Paradise – Jimmy Buffett
• Cheese Cake – Dexter Gordon
• Chewy, Chewy – Ohio Express
• A Chicken Ain’t Nothin’ But a Bird – Cab Calloway
• Chicken Cordon Blues – Steve Goodman
• Chicken Fried – Zac Brown Band
• Chicken Heads – James Cotton Band
• Chicken Shack Boogie – Lionel Hampton & His Sextet
• Chicken Soup With Rice – Carole King
• Chitlins Con Carne – Kenny Burrell
• Chocolate -The Chenille Sisters
• Chocolate Chip – Miles Davis
• Chocolate Pork Chop Man – Pete “Guitar” Lewis
• Choux Pastry Heart – Corinne Bailey Rae
• The Closer to the Bone (The Sweeter Is the Meat) – Louis Prima
• Coconut – Harry Nilsson
• Cold Turkey – John Lennon (not really about food)
• Come On In My Kitchen – Robert Johnson (not really about food)
• Cookin’ – Jogando Capoiera / Cookin’ – Beatfanatic
• Crackerman – Stone Temple Pilots

D

• Dinner Bell – They Might Be Giants
• Dixie Fried – The Kentucky Headhunters
• (Do the) Mashed Potatoes – James Brown
• Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee – Stick McGhee

E

• Eat Steak – The Reverend Horton Heat
• Eat to the Beat – Blondie
• Eating Greens – Michael Tilson Thomas
• Eggplant – Michael Franks
• Eggs and Sausage (In a Cadillac With Susan Michelson), Tom Waits
• Englishman In New York – The Police (like my toast done on one side)
• Everybody Eats When They Come to My House – Cab Calloway
• Everytime I Eat Vegetables It Makes Me Think of You – Ramones

F

• Finger Lickin’ Good – Charlie Musselwhite (ok, not quite food)
• Food, Glorious Food – Laurence Jeffcoate
• Food Innuendo Guy – Adam Sandler
• Fried Bananas – Benny Golson
• Fried Bananas – Dexter Gordon
• Fried Chicken – Ice T
• Fried Chicken and Coffee – Nashville Pussy
• Fried Chicken and Gasoline – Southern Culture on the Skids
• Fried Neck Bones and Some Homefries – Willie Bobo
• Frim Fram Sauce – Diana Krall
• Frim Fram Sauce – Nat King Cole
• Funky Hot Grits – Rufus Thomas

G

• Green Onions – Booker T & The MGs
• Greasy Greens – Pucho and His Latin Soul Brothers
• Grits Ain’t Groceries – Little Milton

H

• Half Caf-Decaf – Debbie Davis (right, I know, coffee)
• Hard Candy – Counting Crows
• Hold Tight (Want Some Sea Food Mama) – The Andrews Sisters
• Honey – Moby
• House of Blue Lights – Asleep At the Wheel
• Hot Barbecue – Brother Jack McDuff

I

• Ice Cream Man – Van Halen
• I Heard the Voice of the Porkchop – Greg and Jere Canote
• I Like Food – Descendents
• I Want a Hot Dog for my Roll – Helen Yorke
• Ice Cream – Sarah McLachlann
• It’s Hard to Kiss the Lips At Night That Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long – The Notorious Cherry Bombs

J

• Jambalaya – Hank Williams
• Jambalaya (On the Bayou) – Fats Domino
• Jambalaya (Charanga Version) – K-Paz De La Sierra
• Jelly Roll – Charles Mingus

K

• Know Your Chicken, Cibo Matto

L

• Lemon – U2
• The Lemon Song – Led Zeppelin (ok, just pretend it really is about lemons)
• Lips Like Sugar – Echo & the Bunnymen
• Lunchbox – Marilyn Manson

M

• MacArthur Park – Richard Harris (he left the cake out in the rain…)
• Malted Milk – Eric Clapton
• Mama Bake a Pie (Daddy Kill a Chicken) – Tom T. Hall
• Maximum Consumption – The Kinks
• Mayonnaise – Smashing Pumpkins
• Memphis Soul Stew – King Curtis
• Memphis Women & Chicken – Dan Penn
• Mexican Radio – Wall of Voodoo (I wish I was in Tijuana, eating barbecued iguana)
• Milkshake – Kelis
• Miss Otis Regrets (She’s Unable to Lunch Today) – Ella Fitzgerald

O

• One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer – George Thoroughgood
• One Meatball – Ry Cooder
• One Meatball – Josh White

P

• Pass That Bottle – The Devil’s Daughters
• Peace Love & Barbecue – Marcia Ball
• Pecan Pie – Golden Smog
• Piece of Pie – Stone Temple Pilots
• Plant a Radish – From The Fantasticks music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones
• Poke Chop Sandwich – ZZ Top
• Polk Salad Annie – Tony Joe White
• Pork Roll Egg and Cheese – Ween
• Pork Store – The Booglerizers
• Pulling Mussels (From the Shell) – Squeeze

Q

• Quiche Lorraine, The B-52’s

R

• Raspberry Beret – Prince
• Recipe For Love – Harry Connick, Jr.
• Red Hot Chicken – Wet Willie
• Red Pepper Blues – Art Pepper
• Red, Red Wine – Neil Diamond
• Ribs and Hot Sauce – Lionel Hampton
• Ribs and Whiskey – Widespread Panic
• Rib Shack Boogie – Steve Guyge
• Rock N Roll McDonald’s – Wesley Willis
• Rum and Coca-Cola – The Andrews Sisters

S

• Saturday Night Fish Fry – B.B. King
• Saturday Night Fish Fry – Louis Jordan
• Savoy Truffle – The Beatles
• Scenes from an Italian Restaurant – Billy Joel
• Shade and Honey – Sparklehorse
• Sing for Your Supper – The Mamas & The Papas
• Sinkin’ Soon – Norah Jones (the oyster crackers on the soup)
• Skin and Bones – The Kinks
• Smokestack Lightning – Howlin Wolf
• Sno-Cone – The J. Geils Band
• Soul Sauce (Guachi Guaro) – Cal Tjader
• Spaghetti – Shel Silverstein
• Strawberry Fields Forever – The Beatles
• Struttin’ With Some Barbecue – Louis Armstrong
• Sugar Magnolia – The Grateful Dead
• Sugar Mountain – Neil Young
• Sugar Never Tasted So Good – The White Stripes
• Suzanne – Leonard Cohen (line: And she feeds you tea & oranges that come all the way from China)

T

• That’s Amore – Dean Martin (When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie…)
• The Trout Quintet – The Schubert Ensemble
• Too Much Barbeque – Big Twist & the Mellow Fellows
• Tupelo Honey – Van Morrison

V

• Vegematic – Steve Goodman
• Vegetables – The Beach Boys

W

• Watermelon Man – Jimmy Smith
• Whipped Cream – Herb Alpert & the Tijuanna Brass
• Wild Honey – U2

Y

• Your Greens Give Me the Blues – Rev. Billy C. Wirtz
• You’re My Meat – Joe Jackson
• Yummy, Yummy, Yummy – Ohio Express

Not on iTunes at this time (11/30/2022)

• Blessing of the Pork – Billy Ray Mangham
• A Fridge Full of Food – The Nancy Drews
• Fried Chicken – Rufus Thomas