Musical performers often use emotional or real life experiences when seeking inspiration to write a hit song. With this in mind, it’s easy to see why there are so many songs about love, whether it is a love lost, love gained or the typical country western song about a love that has done gone bad. And when a love does go bad, the song is about the beers you down to drown your sorrow.

But some musicians are inspired by other subjects than love, or beer for that matter. It is these musicians who choose to break the mold if you will, they choose to sing about subjects one might not expect to hear in a song. For example, Donna Summer once sang about leaving a cake out in the rain, Nirvana sang about deodorant and Bob Dylan sang about, well, we aren’t really sure what Bob Dylan sings about as nobody can understand his lyrics.

There is one subject matter among many songs that gets little attention. Many creative musicians choose to create creative songs with coffee as the subject matter, or, at least songs with a line or two about coffee. Clearly, it is these talented musicians who depend on their morning cup of coffee for inspiration. We suspect they don’t buy canned coffee, but instead order bulk coffee beans as the quality is far superior. Let’s take a closer look at these coffee songs.

Black Coffee

Black coffee is a song written by Paul Francis Webster and Sonny Burke and published in 1948. The song has been covered by numerous performers including Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald. Actually, this is a really popular song that has been covered by a slew of familiar names including Ray Charles, The Pointer Sisters, Sinead O’Connor, Bobby Darin and k.d. lang.

The song was a favorite of Polish Nobel Prize laureate Wislawa Szymborska who desired it be performed at her funeral.

Black Coffee in Bed

No list of coffee songs is complete without mentioning Black Coffee in Bed by Squeeze. The song was inspired by a notebook with a coffee stain on it, which represents loss and regret.

The Coffee Song

The Coffee Song was written by Dick Miles and Bob Hilliard and is a novelty song about Brazil’s coffee surplus. The song claims that there are no other beverages available and that even a politician’s daughter was fined for drinking water. The song was first recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1946.

You’re So Vain

You’re So Vain is a song written and performed by Carly Simon and is a critical profile of a self-absorbed lover who is so vain they probably think the song was written about them. It’s not really a song about coffee, but includes the famous phrase, “I had dreams there were clouds in my coffee,” whatever that means. The true mystery of the song is who is the subject matter. It has been speculated that the song is about David Bowie, Cat Stevens or maybe even David Cassidy.

And there you have it, a fine list of coffee songs you can listen to while sipping your favorite beverage.