Money Song

"I'm a greenback collector

I'm a paper bill inspector

I'm a savage for that cabbage

Man, to me it's golden nectar!

Pour that filthy lucre on me

spread those lovin' germs upon me

money money money money money!!"

- Stan Freberg, "Money"

Silly Love Songs make big profits for the music industry. But the prime movers and shakers in other industries know that the three little words that make the world go round are not "I love you," but "money, money, money." So why not sing the latter refrain?

""Money, so they say/Is the root of all evil today./But if you ask for a rise, it's no surprise that they're/Giving none away.""
 * "the money song" from Avenue Q
 * "Money Song" from episode 29 of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
 * "Money, Money" from the movie Cabaret. This replaced the Money Song from the original stage version, "Sitting Pretty."
 * Also known as "Money (Makes the World Go 'Round)".
 * "Money, Money, Money" from Mamma Mia, and, by extension, the ABBA album from which the song was plucked.
 * The musical Chess has a song from the game's sponsors: "We've a franchise worth exploiting, and we will - when it comes to merchandising, we could kill!"
 * "Can You Use Any Money Today?" from Call Me Madam.
 * "Money, Money, Money (Venice Gambling Scene)" from Candide.
 * "The Sound Of Money" from I Can Get It For You Wholesale.
 * Spinal Tap's "Gimme Some Money," though it's more of a money-themed Anti-Love Song.
 * "Money Money" by the Grateful Dead.
 * "Money" by Pink Floyd.

""I'll just sit and grin, the money will roll right in.""
 * Considering that The Dark Side of the Moon is an album about madness, "Money" is a satirical song, though it's easy to take the song at face value. "Have a Cigar," from Wish You Were Here, is similar--"We're just knocked out/We heard about the sellout/You gotta get another one out/You owe it to the people/We're so happy we can hardly count." Also, "(pay) rise" is the British equivalent of a "raise."
 * "Money Talks" by ACDC.
 * There's also "Money Made", which is more critical.
 * "Money Talks" by The Alan Parsons Project. (Totally different song, same title.)
 * "(For the Love of) Money" by the O'Jays
 * Depends on whether you're listening to the chorus or the Lyrics.
 * Regardless, it gets used as effectively this in movies quite a bit.
 * As used in the page quote, the humorist Stan Freberg (evidently) wrote "Money"; whoever originally wrote it, it was memorably performed by Doctor Teeth on an episode of The Muppet Show.
 * Inversion: George Harrison's cynical The Beatles song "Taxman", depicting the malicious ways in which people are robbed of their money.
 * And a subversion by the same band: "Can't Buy Me Love."
 * Then again, there's their version of "Money (That's What I Want").
 * "Baby You're a Rich Man" sort of straddles the line with this one.
 * "You Never Give Me Your Money". Not sure where it falls on the straight/played with/subversion/inversion chart; its message about money seems to be "it's complicated".
 * Also subverted with Funkadelic's "Funky Dollar Bill", which lambasts materialism.
 * Also brutally subverted (if not even outright deconstructed) with the entirety of Swans album that is entitled Greed.
 * As well as most songs on its (slightly) more melodic companion, Holy Money.
 * Cream's "N.S.U.", more commonly known as "Money, Nothing Funny".
 * The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's "Money Rock'n'Roll".
 * There is a song in Avenue Q that is, quite literally, called "The Money Song" (though it's actually about encouraging people to donate to charity, rather than boasting about how wealthy they are).
 * A twist on this: Shania Twain's "Ka-ching!".
 * Barrett Strong's song "Money (That's What I Want)", which has been covered by a variety of bands including (but not limited to) The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Dave Matthews Band, Boyz II Men, the Blues Brothers, Hanson, and Josie and the Pussy Cats!
 * Pick a top ten rap song. Any top ten rap song.
 * Cash Rules Everything Around Me, CREAM get the money, dollar dollar bills yo...
 * "Easy Money" by King Crimson which seems to be an ironizes around the idea that all prog-rockers are money grubbing snobs. It's particulary ironic, considering that King Crimson were one of the bands who actually popularized prog-rock.
 * "Money By the Pound" in Pete's Dragon. A catchy little ditty about chopping up a dragon to sell its parts for cold hard cash.
 * "The Money Rings Out Like Freedom" from Coco.
 * "The Money Will Roll Right In", by punk rockers Fang. Covered Up by Nirvana at the '92 Reading Festival.

""We've got to have...MONEEEEYY....""
 * Two Brazilian comedic examples (that even use English in the lyrics): "Mim quer tocar", Ultraje a Rigor ("Me want to play/Me love to get the money (the money!)") and "1406", Mamonas Assassinas ("Money, o que é good nós num have/se nós havasse nós num tava aqui workando/o nosso work é playá").
 * Related to money: "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend", from the stage and film musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
 * On that note, Diamonds Are Forever is a spectacular, Fetish Fuel-errific ode to girl's best friend.
 * Neil Diamond's "Cherry, Cherry", was originally titled "Money, Money" before Executive Meddling made him change it -- to one of his biggest hits of all time.
 * Tom and Jerry: The Movie has one sung by Aunt Figg and the lawyer Mr. Lickboot, called "(Money Is Such) A Beautiful Word"

""I've got a dollar, I've got a dollar, I've got a dollar, hey hey hey hey...""
 * The alternate lyrics for "My bonnie is over the ocean"
 * A silly little improvised song in the film version of The Little Rascals

"Oh Kathy, Oh Alison, Oh Phillipa, Oh Sue
 * Some Professional Wrestling stars have had 'rich X' gimmicks, but I don't remember anyone other than Ted DiBiase ('But I'm the Million Dollar Man/ And you WILL be bought!') and Shane McMahon ('Here comes the money!') going that far.
 * Donald Trump also used a money song as entrance music when he did storys in WWE
 * Let's not forget Discworld's Dwarves "Gold, Gold, Gold, Gold." Of course, most dwarf songs are about gold anyway.
 * One must also not forget, however, that Discworld Dwarves do not love gold. They just say that to get it into bed.
 * The Gamma Ray song "Money" starts as an argument/temptation dealing with whether or not selling out is worth it and ends as a celebration of money.
 * Bacilos' "Mi primer millón".
 * Now-defunct Polish band Republika once published a song with a refrain that translates "This song was written only for money".
 * "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits.
 * Michael Jackson's "Money" (from HIStory) is another subversion that decries greed. Perhaps not surprisingly, this was written after he was first accused of child molestation, which he claimed was an extortion attempt on him.
 * "Avarice" by Disturbed. Another song maligning greed, including the line "Avarice will kill you in time."
 * From Mary Poppins, the song about investing tuppence: "Fidelity Fiduciary Bank".
 * Puff Daddy's "It's All About The Benjamins". For those of us here in Rest Of World, a Benjamin (named after the guy printed on it) is a US$100 bill.
 * Randy Newman's "It's Money That I Love" and "It's Money That Matters."
 * "Take the Money and Run" from Teachers Pet.
 * Gold Rush from IIDX GOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLD!. Engrishy lyrics here.
 * "Gold" from Repo! The Genetic Opera.
 * "Christmas Ca$h" by Fred.
 * "Money Comes From Heaven" by The Mystic Knights Of The Oingo Boingo.
 * "Head like a Hole" by Nine Inch Nails is basically a comparison between mankind's devotion to God and Money.
 * Beautiful South's "Song for Whoever" is a money song disguised as a Silly Love Song, a Take That for the pop music industry.

You made me so much money, I wrote this song for you"

"Boy you aint impressin' me/With your jewelry, your designer clothes"
 * "The Money Song (Funny What Money Can Do)," written by Harold Rome for a musical that failed to reach Broadway.
 * "This is the Life", by Weird Al.
 * "The Big Money", by Rush.
 * "Silver and Gold" from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is about the uselessness of money (it was The Sixties), and although it completely misses the point of the gold standard, it's still a nice song.
 * In Beethoven's opera Fidelio, old jail-warden Rocco advises Fidelio (whom he expects to be his son-in-law) that marriage does not work without money, in the aria "Hat man nicht auch Gold beineben" ("If you don't have money on the side").
 * "The Money Song" by King Norman from The Groovenians
 * "I Wanna Be Rich" by Calloway.
 * Ted DiBiase, being the WWF's "Million Dollar Man", naturally had one of these as his entrance theme. When his son, Ted Jr., came into WWE, he naturally got one of his own, "Priceless".
 * Then he joined Legacy and dropped it. Once Legacy broke up, he got another one "I Come From Money".
 * In "Shitloads of Money," Liz Phair foreshadowed her shift from indie darling to mainstream wannabe by declaring, "It's nice to be liked/But it's better by far to get paid."
 * Lady Gaga has "Money Honey". And "The Fame". And "Beautiful Dirty Rich".
 * Actually The Fame is about becoming famous and Gaga stated that Beautiful Dirty Rich is about self-discovery.
 * And "Money Honey", if one listens to the lyrics, is about how even though he's rich and that's nice, it's not why she cares about him. Lady Gaga likes playing with this trope?
 * Cash Machine by Hard-Fi
 * "Selling Out" by Tom Lehrer.
 * "Lottery Agent's Tango" from Der Silbersee.
 * "Mony, Mony" by Tommy James and the Shondells (and later Covered Up by Billy Idol), and, of course, "Weird Al" Yankovic's parody titled "Alimony" (though this one is more about not having money anymore).
 * "Gold" by the Sugarcubes
 * "Love Your Money" by Daisy Chainsaw
 * "The Gold Diggers' Song (We're In The Money)" from Gold Diggers of 1933.
 * Instrumental versions of this song have been used ad nauseum to represent the sudden and unexpected receipt of riches -- in several Looney Tunes cartoons, and on the stock market reports on NPR whenever the Dow Jones Industrial Average goes up.
 * "Gold!" from Stephen Sondheim's Road Show.
 * "Mine, Mine, Mine" from the Pocahontas film.
 * Gimme gimme some of that vampire money!
 * "Money Changes Everything", kind of a subversion by Cyndi Lauper.
 * "Sell Out With Me" by Reel Big Fish
 * "Opportunities" by Pet Shop Boys("You got the brawn/I've got the brains/Let's make lots of money.")
 * The "Loadsamoney" sketch/music video/character by Harry Enfield.
 * Space's song "Money", which seems to be about a relationship where one person spent so long just buying their partner's affections that they forgot to be... well, affectionate.
 * "Not That Kinda Girl" is a Subversion by Jojo saying she is unimpressed with the money a guy is throwing at her.

"It doesn't matter that your car is fly
 * "Baby It's You" explicitly states how she's not into rich guys...

And your rims are spinning on the side and

It doesn't matter where we go tonight

Cause if I'm with you I'll be alright."

"What do you buy yourself when you're the man,
 * The B-52's' "Legal Tender", specifically about the joys of running a counterfeit operation.
 * "Too Much Money" by Mitch Benn, originally from the Crimes Against Music episode about rockstar excess.

Who has two or three of everything?

My accountant swindled six million quid from me,

And I never noticed a thing.

I've got mansions all over the world,

Some in places I've never been.

I gave millions to charity,

Now my disgusting wealth is merely obscene."


 * This Vocaloid song by KAITO: "I'm the master of the court. I want money more than justice." The song is supposed to be a representation of the sin of greed, so it's a given. He goes so far as to tell the Master of the Hellish Yard, "I'll never hand over my money to the likes of you."