Popular songs that also teach history?

Post date: 2022-06-22 12:16:03

I'm looking for popular songs that relate events or profile people from history in a straightforward, informative way. Can you help me add to this weird playlist?

I have two examples of what I'm looking for:

- Rasputin by Boney M: Profiles the historical Russian figure.
- Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot: Explains the circumstances of the boat's sinking.

Some specific criteria:
- People/events should be actual historical events – so "Boy named Sue" (and a lot of other songs that tell tall tales) wouldn't apply.
- The more concrete/straightforward the relating of the events, the better. So abstract/allusive songs that are about a particular person or event but do not actually explain what happened are less useful. The more 'educational' the song is about the person/event, the better.
- The songs should be relatively popular – deep cuts are less helpful than things that people would have a chance of knowing.
- Accuracy as a whole is ideal, but this is flexible given the necessities these being pop songs. So if there are a lack of contemporary primary sources showing that Rasputin could dance the kazachok really wunderbar, that's not a huge deal.

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