OT Storytelling Songs

To me, country music is where the best story songs live. "Coward of the County" will always be one of my favorites, but Kenny Rogers has several other excellent ones ("Lucille", "The Gambler", "The Greatest"...)

@ABM mentioned "Operator", but I always liked "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" and "You Don't Mess Around with Jim".

"Goodbye Earl" is always fun, as is "Papa loved Mama". Some are inspiring, like Martine McBride's "Independence Day". Then as @crandc mentioned, many are heartbreaking, like "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and "Whiskey Lullaby", or one of my favorite tear-jerkers, Rascal Flatts' "Skin (Sarabeth)"--if you've never heard that song, listen to it right now.

 

Song remixed into a story song because of suggestion by Portland radio station.

"Hey Pretty" is a song by singer-songwriter Poe. The song in its original version, on her 2000 album Haunted, was a sultry pop rant of a woman seeking sexual satisfaction on any grounds possible. It was remade with most of her vocals eliminated and replaced with a reading by her brother, author Mark Z. Danielewski, from his hit book House of Leaves. This new version became a moderate radio hit.

Getting "Hey Pretty" on the radio was a challenge in 2001 as alternative radio was playing few female-led acts in the post-Lilith Fair backlash.[1] In an interview with MTV, Poe explained the way in which the Drive-By Remix came about: "Radio was not interested. I called a few program directors, and they [said], 'We really love the record, but we're just not playing women.' This one [program director] in Portland, Oregon [94.7 KNRK's Mark Hamilton], said, 'My station is basically in the same boat. Do some crazy mix that you think will fit this format, and I'll play it once.' I go home, and I'm like, 'They're not playing women? Fine, I've got a brother.' So I called my brother, and I'm like, 'You gotta come over and read a piece of your book in this song.'... (The DJ) played it and got inundated with phone calls. By the end of the week he had played it 25 times, which wouldn't have meant all that much because it's a small station in Portland. But the next week, KROQ in Los Angeles had it. ..."[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hey_Pretty

 

And the best story song of all time...

 

Also, when I was in college, we had to do a group project on poetry; I decided that story songs about parenting would be a good medium for us, so we reconstituted "Butterfly Kisses", "There Goes My Life", and "In My Daughter's Eyes" for a 10-minute presentation that made people cry. It was pretty awesome. I wish "Dance With Cinderella" had existed at that time, and I would've added that one in as well. Anyway, those are four more pretty great story songs, especially for anyone who has daughters.