Over The Moon With The B-52's, Van Morrison, Thin Lizzy, Bowie, Elvis & More!

Over The Moon With The B-52's, Van Morrison, Thin Lizzy, Bowie, Elvis & More!

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moon landing songs
Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin on the Moon, July 1969 (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the lunar landing, we present some of our favourite songs about that fabulous orb. In pop as in poetry, the Moon is seen in a variety of ways; as a shiner of light, as a new height to reach, as a constant companion and trusted confidant,  as a symbol of loneliness and isolation, and as a dark and mysterious unknown. Flying to the Moon is analogous of euphoria; talking to the Moon meant you were probably in need of company. Of course, as rock'n'roll began in the 50s, which was the time not only the time when people started thinking seriously of space travel but also a time of cheesy B-grade science fiction films, rocking on the Moon meant getting real gone and way out. And as things moved into the late 60s and early 70s, when astrology and new age thinking started influencing rock, you could be a child of the Moon, meaning you were probably a bit of a hippy. (It also meant your moon sign had risen and you were perhaps more in touch with your darker and wilder nighttime side).  Given the worldwide excitement generated by the events of July 1969, it's surprising there are so few songs about the moon landing itself, but we have found one, surprisingly by an iconic jazz figure usually associated with an earlier era.

ILYOS wishes Apollo 11 a happy 50th, and we hope you enjoy our Moon tune selections.

Frank Sinatra – Fly Me to the Moon 

Originally recorded in 1954 by Kaye Ballard, Bart Howard's tune was made immortal by Frank Sinatra in 1964, three years after JFK set plans for the lunar landing in motion in 1961. The song, of course, became closely associated with all things Apollo and it equates flying to the Moon with playing among the stars, which suggests Mr. Howard had a lot to learn about astronomy.

The Police – Walking On The Moon

If flying to the Moon represents the euphoria of getting high with love, "Walking On The Moon" seems to suggest that the rapture can be maintained with a leisurely stroll once there. Which is in keeping with Sting's Tantric sexy ways I guess.  The "hope my legs don't break" line suggests the Sting likes it acrobatic too perhaps?

Van Morrison – Moon Dance

It kind of sounds like a pagan ritual, which would have been in keeping with the hippy times, but Van's a bit more old fashioned and really just wants to dance in the moonlight with his baby. And a make a bit of loving of course. The title track from Van’s classic third album, released in 1970.

Thin Lizzy – Dancing in the Moonlight

So this moon-dancing thing might be a bit of an Irish thing maybe, although in the context of this Lizzy tune the Moon becomes a spotlight in which our protagonist dances a single celebration of the joy of his love. A fab tune from the most moonstruck and romantic hard rock band ever, taken from their excellent Bad Reputation album.

Iron Maiden - Moonchild 

A nice heavy one from the Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son album, said to be based on the Aleister Crowley novel of the same name (according to Metal Hammer magazine).

Prince - Moonbeam Levels 

"Moonbeam Levels" is song recorded on 6 July 1982 at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California. It was released as the only previously-unreleased track on the first posthumous compilation of Prince's music, 4Ever. Even though it was recorded during the sessions for 1999, it was never placed on a configuration of that album. It was worked on further in June 1983 and later considered for inclusion on the aborted Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic album.

Neil Young - Harvest Moon

Using a moon motif, which Young has mentioned is very important to him. It is a tribute to his wife at the time, Pegi Young, and the two are dancing in a bar in the music video. Linda Ronstadt provides the backing vocals.

Don Henley – Talking to the Moon

So if talking to the Moon means you lack company, Don's spoken introduction here would suggest that life in small-town Texas is a lonely thing. Don would know – he grew up in the town of Gilmer, three and a half hours drive from NASA's Space Centre in Houston and still lived in Texas when Apollo 11 was launched.  The song was co-written with longtime Eagles associate JD Souther, who was also raised in Texas. 

Bruno Mars – Talking To The Moon

Seems like loneliness ain't just a Texan thing. Bruno included this ballad on his 2010 debut album Doo-Wops & Hooligans.  Entertainment Weekly said the song showed that "a malt-shop heart beats beneath [the album's] digital skin".

Television  - Marquee Moon

Marquee Moon was met with widespread acclaim and Television's innovative post-punk instrumentation on the album strongly influenced the new wave and indie rock movements of the 1980s.

The Marcels – Blue Moon / Elvis Presley – Blue Moon

And speaking of Doo-Wop, the popular 1930's Rogers & Hart ballad "Blue Moon" was turned into a Doo-wop classic by the Marcels in 1961. We also love Elvis' appropriately other-worldly version from 1954.

Elvis Presley - Blue Moon of Kentucky

Elvis had a thing for blue moons as well as blue suede shoes it would seem. He recorded this just months before he recorded the Rogers & Hart tune; indeed it was the flipside of his very first single "That's Alright Mama". (And he would later record a song called "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold".) This one was originally a bluegrass tune by Bill Monroe & The Bluegrass Boys before Elvis rocked it up. Obviously, if the Moon can represent loneliness, then a blue one is going to be even sadder, and Elvis liked sad songs. Oh, and a "blue moon" is an actual phenomenon, but it's all too confusing and silly to explain here. 

The Cramps – Rock On The Moon

The Cramps were no doubt familiar with both the Marcels' and Elvis' "Blue Moon", but they obsessed with the more way out sounds of the 50s and 60s and loved Z-grade movies. All of which conspired to inspire their absolutely crazed and trashy take on rockabilly, of which "Rock On the Moon" – a cover of a 1958 rockabilly obscurity by one Jimmy Stewart -  from their classic debut album Songs The Lord Taught Us, is a prime example.

Motley Crue  - First Band on the Moon

Trashy in a different way, the Crue showed some sort of dumb genius when they came up with this one on their 2000 album New Tattoo. "That's one small step for man/One giant leap backwards for mankind" indeed!

Tom Waits – Drunk on the Moon

Nikki Sixx and his pals could identify with this one no doubt, on a couple of levels. The title presents a pretty fun concept, but the song is more poetic and sees the Moon perhaps as an overseer of the nighttime world. From Tom's classic 1974 album The Heart of Saturday Night.

Sherbet – Silvery Moon

More talking to the Moon. In fact, in this one, Daz actually asks the Moon for some advice, which is pretty weird. Still, a pretty tune and one of Sherbet's most memorable early hits.

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Bad Moon Rising

The Moon as portend for trouble and misery. John Fogerty took the widespread late 60s interest in astrology to warn of dark days coming in the wake of the Vietnam War and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy amongst other things.  

David Bowie - Space Oddity

OK so it doesn't have the word 'Moon' i the title but there is no doubt this song is deeply connected to the Moon expedition 50 years ago. So much so in fact that NASA are screening a new music video on July 20 to commemorate the significance of the song. 

The Rolling Stones – Child of the Moon

A non-LP B-side to one of the greatest non-LP A-sides ever, "Jumpin' Jack Flash", "Child of the Moon" came out a year or so before the Lunar landing and certainly related more to the hippy kids than it did the suits and buzzcuts at NASA. Of course, it's the Stones, so it touches on the darker aspects – the "Child of The Moon" here feels like an innocent about to be taken advantage of.  

Fleetwood Mac – Sisters of the Moon

More darkness, Stevie's ode to a witchy friend comes across as cautionary and troubled; similar in fact to her more famous witch warning "Rhiannon", which is much darker than it appears on the surface. “Sisters of the Moon” was the fourth single from Tusk

The B-52's – There's A Moon in the Sky (Called The Moon)

Throwing poetic hogwash out the window, here's some more lyrical brilliance from the album that gave us "It wasn't a rock / It was a rock lobster". Cheesy 50s sci-fi movie soundtracks were obviously an influence on these guys too – Kate Pierson sounds she was taught to sing by a Theremin - and this one spells out the space influence clearly.

Duke Ellington – Moon Maiden

Here's our one song actually written with the Moon landing in mind. Duke Ellington was one of the giants of jazz, and one of the giants of music in the 20th Century. The moon landing came late in his career, five years before his passing, and for a man born at the end of the 19th Century, it must've seemed all the more remarkable. Ellington composed the piece – his first and last publicly performed piece as a vocalist  - having been commissioned by ABC-TV to come up with a piece that would be played to the nation as part of the network's Moon landing coverage. 

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