Oscar Wilde Songs

SONGS LITERALLY TITLED "OSCAR WILDE" OR WITH HIS NAME IN THE TITLE

  • "Oscar Wilde" — Company of Thieves (2009, from the album Ordinary Riches) — indie rock
  • "Oscar Wilde Gets Out" — Elton John (2013, from The Diving Board) — inspired by The Ballad of Reading Gaol
  • "Wilde About Boys" — Jonathan King (1971) — pop song playing on the Wilde name
  • "Oscar Wilde" — Eric Woolfson (from his solo catalog)
  • "Oscar Wilde" — The Willowz
  • "Oscar Wilde" — Mike Flowers Pops
  • "Oscar Wilde" — various independent/unsigned artists on Spotify and Bandcamp (numerous)

SONGS DIRECTLY ABOUT WILDE'S LIFE OR IMPRISONMENT

  • "Oscar Wilde Gets Out" — Elton John (2013) — inspired by The Ballad of Reading Gaol; this was the first track Elton recorded for The Diving Board after Bernie Taupin gave him the lyrics
  • "We Love You" — The Rolling Stones (1967) — the promotional film was based on The Trials of Oscar Wilde, with Mick Jagger as Wilde and Marianne Faithfull as Bosie
  • "Broken Love Song" — Pete Doherty (2009, Grace/Wastelands) — quotes a stanza from The Ballad of Reading Gaol
  • "Nothing to Say: A Suite of Breathless Motion Dedicated to Oscar Wilde" — Peter Brötzmann (1996) — avant-garde jazz suite explicitly dedicated to Wilde

SONGS DIRECTLY INSPIRED BY WILDE'S QUOTES OR PHILOSOPHY

  • "True Friends" — Bring Me the Horizon (2015) — the chorus line comes directly from an Oscar Wilde quote
  • "Resist" — Rush — the line "I can resist everything except temptation" is a direct quote from Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan
  • "Oscar Wilde" — Company of Thieves (2009) — the album title Ordinary Riches was also inspired by Wilde, taken from his essay The Soul of Man Under Socialism

SONGS BASED ON THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

  • "Dark Entries" — Bauhaus (1980) — tells the story of Dorian Gray, the title character of Wilde's only novel
  • "A Picture of Dorian Gray" — Television Personalities (1981, ...And Don't the Kids Just Love It) — covered by The Futureheads on their 2003 EP 1-2-3-Nul!
  • "The Picture of Dorian Gray" — Nirvana (UK, prog band) (1981 single)
  • "The Picture of Dorian Gray" — Cherry Five
  • "Ballad of Dorian Gray" — Michael Peter Smith
  • "Dorian" — Demons & Wizards (2005, Touched by the Crimson King)
  • "Dorian Gray" — William Control (2010, from the album Noir)
  • "I Have Seen My Soul" — Pyogenesis (2017, A Kingdom to Disappear) — gothic metal, based on the novel
  • "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" — Pagan Altar (2017, A Room of Shadows) — doom metal, inspired by the novel
  • "So Light is Her Footfall" — Air — the song title was lifted directly from Wilde's short story The Canterville Ghost
  • "Portrait" — Alt-J — inspired by Dorian Gray
  • "The Ocean" — U2 — Dorian Gray is mentioned in the lyrics
  • "Tears and Rain" — James Blunt (2003, Back to Bedlam) — features the line referencing Dorian Gray
  • "Narcissist" — The Libertines (2004) — includes the line "Wouldn't it be nice to be Dorian Gray, just for a day"
  • "Sing for the Day" — Styx — references the character with the line "ageless and timeless as Dorian Gray"
  • "Scream" — Kill Hannah (2006, Until There's Nothing Left of Us) — includes a reference to Sibyl Vane from the novel

SONGS BASED ON SALOMÉ

  • "Salome" — Stormwitch (2004, Witchcraft) — directly inspired by Wilde's eroticized interpretation of the Salomé story
  • "Morgana" — Lord Vampyr (2005, De Vampyrica Philosophia) — opens with lines from Wilde's poem Quia Multum Amavi
  • Various opera and classical settings of Salomé by Richard Strauss (1905), Antoine Mariotte (1908), and others

SONGS BASED ON THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL

  • "Oscar Wilde Gets Out" — Elton John (2013)
  • "Broken Love Song" — Pete Doherty (2009)
  • "Poisoned Youth" — England (band) (1977, Garden Shed) — progressive rock, from the album Garden Shed
  • Various classical art song settings by composers including Jacques Ibert (ballet)

SONGS BASED ON WILDE'S FAIRY TALES

  • "The Canterville Ghost" — Edenbridge (2004, Shine) — symphonic metal retelling of Wilde's ghost story
  • "Nachtigall und Rose" — Saltatio Mortis (2011) — medieval metal retelling of The Nightingale and the Rose
  • "Vincent" — Don McLean — references Wilde's story The Nightingale and the Rose with the line about a silver thorn and a bloody rose
  • "The Nightingale and the Rose" — Aziza Mustafa Zadeh (jazz/classical crossover)
  • "Deja Vu Ain't What It Used To Be" — Skyclad (2000, Folkemon) — folk metal, incorporates Wilde's unpublished student verse Tristitiae
  • "Il Principe felice" — Renzo Bossi (classical, Op. 52) — based on The Happy Prince
  • "The Selfish Giant" — various composers and artists including a full children's musical

SONGS BY MORRISSEY (HEAVILY WILDE-INFLUENCED)

Morrissey has cited Wilde as his single greatest influence. While his songs don't always explicitly name Wilde, the following are the most directly Wilde-inspired:

  • "Cemetery Gates" — The Smiths (1986) — directly name-checks Wilde in the lyrics
  • "The Importance of Being Morrissey" — (documentary title referencing Wilde's play)
  • Morrissey's entire aesthetic, lyrical voice, and wit are considered a direct extension of Wilde's legacy, running through virtually his entire catalog with The Smiths and as a solo artist

CLASSICAL SONG CYCLES SETTING WILDE'S ACTUAL POEMS TO MUSIC

  • Wilde Songs (16-poem song cycle) — Michael Linton — for bass-baritone and piano, setting poems including Santa Decca, Requiescat, La Fuite de la Lune, Quia Multum Amavi, Phèdre, Silentium Amoris, In the Forest, Theocritus, Easter Day, Le Jardin des Tuileries, and others
  • Songs on Poems of Wilde — Thomas Pasatieri
  • Songs on Poems of Wilde — Ned Rorem
  • "Symphony in Yellow" suite — Jim Parker
  • Various settings of Requiescat — multiple classical composers
  • "La Fuite de la Lune" — various composers
  • "Les Ballons" — various composers
  • "Le Panneau" — various composers

MUSICALS WITH ORIGINAL SONGS ABOUT/BY WILDE

  • Ernest in Love (musical adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest) — original songs including "A Handbag Is Not a Proper Mother," "Metaphorically Speaking," and "The Muffin Song"
  • Dorian (musical) — various productions with original scores
  • Gross Indecency (stage musical/play with songs)
  • Oscar (musical) — various productions

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