Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and she has a linky on her page for everyone participating this week. I can’t wait to see what everyone did for this week, as it’s an “audio freebie.” Anything to do with audio – audio books, music, etc. I don’t listen to audio books – I can’t pay attention to them – but I do listen to a lot of music. So I’m doing ten songs inspired by books, or that remind me, personally, of books. (Usually because they featured heavily in the soundtrack of a movie adaptation or something.)

We’re going to start with songs inspired by books. Some are obvious, some less so.

Elton John’s Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road was obviously inspired by The Wizard of Oz. It’s also just a lovely song.

Katy Perry’s Firework was actually inspired by Kerouac’s On The Road! There was apparently a passage referring to people that are buzzing and fizzing and full of life and like fireworks.

Another one I just discovered was It’s All Coming Back To Me Now (recorded by Celine Dion and later by Meatloaf) was inspired by Wuthering Heights. I haven’t actually read Wuthering Heights. But I love that song, so maybe I should!

Phil Collins’ Take Me Home was inspired by One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, another one I never would have guessed.

Muse’s Resistance (the entire album!) was actually inspired by 1984 – specifically, about how loving who you want to love is an act of resistance on its own, which is a very GLBT+ theme.

S. J. Tucker is a favorite artist of mine, and she has several songs inspired by books, but the most well-known book she was inspired by is probably Peter Pan, which inspired her Wendy Trilogy.

Branching into songs that simply remind me of books, the first one is Regina Spektor’s The Call, which always reminds me of The Chronicles of Narnia, I think because it was on the Prince Caspian soundtrack. It always makes me think of the Pevensies leaving Narnia but promising they’ll come back if called. I just love the song in general.

I don’t know that I could write this without including Misty Mountains and I See Fire from The Hobbit! Both songs are absolutely excellent, whether they’re the originals, or Peter Hollens’ covers, which I’m linking here because more people need to follow Peter (And Tim Foust). They’re both awesome.

And the last spot on my list has to go to #1 Crush by Garbage. It was on the soundtrack to Romeo + Juliet, the movie that took Romeo and Juliet, set it in modern times, but kept that Shakespearean language and cast Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo and Claire Danes as Juliet. I’m honestly torn on the movie itself, but the song? The song is ABSOLUTELY Romeo & Juliet.