Repeated titles aren’t surprising, considering how many songs are written about the same topic. Imagine the limited number of language options songwriters have to express the human condition while also keeping the tune catchy.
Sure, there are a lot of words, but the ones that sound good in a melody, the universal ones everyone understands, are the reasons why you have multiple songs called “Jump,” “Money,” “The Greatest,” “Surrender,” “Shout,” and “Gloria.” So the list below highlights songs with the same name but also looks at the fascinating threads connecting them beyond their titles.
Track One directly references its inspiration—a guitar legend, a video game for wanna-be guitar legends, and the Prince of Darkness. And the second entry is a one-word title comprised of differing views—moving on versus wishing you could stay.
Finally, the last same-name song arrived only days apart—an alternative rock coincidence. While both bands evolved, one of them abandoned their early sound entirely.
So I turned myself to face me
But I’ve never caught a glimpse.
“Bark at the Moon” by Ozzy Osbourne and MJ Lenderman
In 1983, guitarist Jake E. Lee replaced Randy Rhoads, who had died a year earlier in a plane crash at age 25. Playing under the giant shadow of a heavy metal genius, Lee emerged with his signature riff. On the title track to Ozzy Osbourne’s third studio album, Osbourne writes of a ghastly figure who terrorizes a town over Lee’s sinister riff.
That riff is why MJ Lenderman wrote his own song called “Bark at the Moon.” In Lenderman’s tune, the 25-year-old sings about playing Osbourne’s werewolf hit on Guitar Hero. Imagine the teen anxiety of trying to conquer Lee’s riff, the colored frets catching fire with each successful lick. The screen, a kaleidoscope of graphics and virtual rock stars and you’re just hanging on for dear life. And that’s before the impossible guitar solo. Lenderman utters a werewolf A-woo / Bark at the moon before his song enters a seven-minute noise jam.
“Changes” by David Bowie and Black Sabbath
“Changes” opens David Bowie’s 1971 album Hunky Dory. Though it wasn’t a hit then, it came to define Bowie. It’s an art-pop manifesto, and Bowie’s pre-glam declaration vividly materialized the following year with his alter ego Ziggy Stardust. Like his fictional androgynous rock star, categories, genres, labels, or boxing in wouldn’t work on Bowie.
In 1972, Black Sabbath released a piano ballad called “Changes.” Inspired by drummer Bill Ward’s failing marriage, Ozzy Osbourne sings wistfully of a lost lover. However, Bowie’s is an anti-nostalgia song. Blurred lines, evolving, try to keep up. He’s got to get out of here. But Osbourne wishes he could go back. For Black Sabbath, it’s a different kind of gloom from the pioneers of heavy metal.
“Creep” by Radiohead and Stone Temple Pilots
The BBC thought Radiohead’s “Creep” was too depressing to play in 1992. A DJ in Israel did not, and eventually, the single became a ’90s anthem. Though Radiohead quickly ran away from “Creep,” its success offered the freedom to experiment on albums like OK Computer and Kid A. Thom Yorke referenced “Creep” disparagingly in “My Iron Lung,” and already by album two, Radiohead had become something very different. Still, the Oxford, England, band found success with a song that fit the era’s alt-rock zeitgeist.
Stone Temple Pilots arrived on the grunge scene from San Diego, riding a wave of major labels signing rock acts with Eddie Vedder-ish vocals. San Diego might seem too sunny for downer-rock, but Stone Temple Pilots sounded enough like grunge for mega-hits like “Plush” and “Creep” to become MTV and rock radio staples.
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Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for ABA
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