Ten Songs that Mention Horse in the Title

While reading an article about Barack Obama's inaugeration, my eighth grade daughter had a question about one particular sentence. The story mentioned that four years ago not many people knew about the Illinois senator, virtually making him a dark horse. My daughter asked me what that term meant.

I explained the concept to her, and the George Harrison song of that name came to mind. I then pondered other titles that included the word horse. Here are my favorite ten.

10. "A Girl and Her Horse" by Carbon Leaf: The relatively unknown band has quietly put out some good pop songs, and this is one of its best. The songwriting here is as rich as the rest of the Love Loss Hope Repeat album.

9. "A Horse with No Name" by America: While it is certainly not the best song by the folkish soft- rock band from the 70s, the imagery alone is good enough to earn it a spot in this list.

8. "Heavy Horses" by Jethro Tull: The title track from an underrated album makes a statement about the finiteness of technology. Ian Anderson, backed by the typical Tull flute and electric guitars, promises that the strength of horses will be necessary again someday.

7. "Flying Red Horse" by John Gorka: The talented folk singer imagines a red horse from a gasoline sign suddenly breaks free and streaks through the sky. Gorka, always fond of plays on words, swears the story is true because he "heard it right from her mouth."

6. "(Get Off Your) High Horse" by Oasis: This song is one of the high points on the most recent Oasis effort, Dig Out Your Soul. Noel Gallagher didn't use many words, but brother Liam's voice snarls the lyrics with sincere contempt.

5. "Wild Horses" by The Rolling Stones: The slow love song from Sticky Fingers shows the tender side of Mick Jagger. This was his most sincere delivery until "Angie" appeared on Goatshead Soup a few years later.

4. "Black Horse and Cherry Tree" by K.T. Tunstall: This acoustic pop song is famous for its "Woo-hoo-oo, Wo-hoo-oo" backing vocal between lines. The feature that insures its longevity is the choppy acoustic guitar.

3. "One Horse Town" by The Thrills: The band's So Much for the City was pretty much unnoticed by the radio stations, but it offered many good pop nuggets like this one. The lyrics are filled with regrets of settling down among the in-laws.

2. "King Horse" by Elvis Costello: Cleverly written during the peak of Costello's career, this tune from Get Happy is filled with great plays on words and Steve Nieve's frolicking keyboard work.

1. "Mine's Not a High Horse" by The Shins: I think the lyrics are about a guy trying to end a relationship, but it doesn't really matter. The words are gorgeously ambiguous, and the album Chutes Too Narrow was the best to emerge from any indie rock group.