When potatoes irreverently appear in music, they often symbolise someone who’s rather unimpressive, plain or dim.
The obscure potato sub-genre is a goldmine of eccentric music, each hit carrying a curiously wild and untamed shape, mirroring how a veg grower has no idea what on Earth they’re about to dig up.
Whether you’re cooking up a sweet potato dish or taking out your frustration at air-headed political leaders, our list of songs about potatoes crosses the genres and covers it all.
Songs About Potatoes
1. Joe Satriani – The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing
Opening our list is Joe Satriani’s melodic heavy metal instrumental, The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing.
This track is a fine blend of glam rock, psychedelia and searing heavy metal, swapping a vocalist for Satriani’s lead guitar, its lush tones voiced with the virtuosic expression of a singer and utterly distracting from the complete lack of lyrics.
The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing is a shamefully obscure track, absorbed in a pure, star-studded 80s energy.
2. Melanie Martinez – Mrs. Potato Head
Melanie Martinez’ 2016 pop single, Mrs. Potato Head, uses its title to illustrate the vapid, vain and self-deprecating aspects of plastic surgery.
Melanie centres her dream-stained track in the concept that plastic surgery doesn’t equate to beauty, whilst highlighting that plastic aesthetics are a mere fabrication – a pointless ideal to aim for;
“Hey girl, if you wanna feel sexual, you can always call up a professional, they stick pins in you like a vegetable … Mrs. Potato Head, tell me, is it true that pain is beauty? Does a new face come with a warranty? Will a pretty face make it better?.”
Melanie weaves another potato lyric into her second verse, amplifying her point with artful irony; “If you want a little more confidence, potatoes turn to french fries, yeah it’s common sense.”
3. Dee Dee Sharp – Mashed Potato Time
Dee Dee Sharp’s 1962 release, Mashed Potato Time, is a sunshiney doo-wop pop song, medleying between the subject of mashed potatoes and postmen.
This was the track that inspired the Halloween anthem, Monster Mash – it’s writer parodying a number of Mashed Potato Time’s quirks, from its lifted chord progression to backing vocals.
That’s not the only layer of musical history woven into this track. Dee Dee Sharp interestingly draws her harmony and lyrical fragments from the 1961 track, Please Mr. Postman, covered most famously by The Beatles in 1963, whilst embedding references to the original ‘61 track such as, “The day they did it to Please Mr. Postman, (mashed potato) wait a minute, wait a minute (mashed potato) deliver the letter).”
The compelling energy of Dee Dee’s in-between hit doubtlessly dusted its inspiration upon The Beatles’ version the following year, whilst creating a time-capsule track showcasing the very best of vintage pop.
4. Ray Charles ft. James Taylor – Sweet Potato Pie
Ray Charles & James Taylor’s soul track, Sweet Potato Pie, is anchored in the captivating comparison of idyllic love to sweet potato pie.
This feel-good retro track has a masterful jazzy harmony, detailed with brass sections, guitar solos and stunning lyrical phrases such as, “Softer than a lullaby, deeper than the midnight sky, soulful as a baby’s cry, my sweet potato pie.”
With a contagiously uplifting energy, Sweet Potato Pie is an anthem for anyone celebrating that fresh feeling of new-found love;
“Oh Lord, I feel fine today, I’m walking on cloud nine today, I’m over that line today, happiness is finally mine today, I guess I’m just a lucky guy, and I’m prepared to tell you why, it’s strictly on account of my sweet potato pie.”
5. Louis Armstrong – Potato Head Blues
This 1927 composition by Louis Armstrong is amongst his earliest and most favoured works within the realms of true jazz and blues.
Today, the ‘What A Wonderful World’ singer is celebrated for his remarkable vocal style and collabs with fellow jazz sensations like Ella Fitzgerald. But younger listeners might be surprised to learn that Louis was a world class trumpeter before his ‘pop’ hits.
Potato Head Blues is the epitome of Louis’ true compositional genius; a blissfully vintage instrumental track laced with golden harmonies and a wholesome, warming ambience.
6. Shinyrib – Sweet Potato
Shinyribs’ track, Sweet Potato, draws flickers of inspiration from the genres of country, blues and R&B, creating a compellingly fresh sound crowned by a beautifully long and atmospheric instrumental.
It’s hard to decipher what most of Shinyrib’s psychedelic-style lyrics allude to exactly, but their sweet potato metaphor is clear; “Baby, I’m a lover, not a hater, lay down for me, sweet potato.”
7. Washboard Sam – Diggin’ My Potatoes
This old-school blues track is an obscure anthem for gardeners, hiding a double meaning in its strange lyrical content.
Whilst Diggin’ My Potatoes’ title line, “digging my potatoes, tramping on my vine,” may be a clear-cut reference to pests and troublemakers, Washboard Sam textures his lyrics with the tale of a cheating farmer’s wife, “Now she powdered her face, wet her wavy hair, caught a taxicab, she’s out across town somewhere. you know she’s digging my potatoes, tramping on my vine … Said my vine’s all green, potatoes solid red, never found a bruised one, till I caught them in my bed.”
With an abundance of vegetable references threaded through this track, this song is the perfect farmer’s metaphor for either heartbreak or loss of harvest, set to an upbeat, country-style harmony.
8. Jay Foreman – Potato
Jay Foreman’s satirical stand-up track, Potato, irreverently imagines the UK government led by a potato. This irresistibly absurd track is doused in ironic British humour, Jay taking a characterful actor’s approach to present his quirky concepts;
“If a potato got into government, the world would change, and if that potato became Prime Minister, it would be more strange, it would be horrible. Prime Minister’s Questions, the Leader of the Opposition asks what the Prime Minister’s going to do, slow zoom in on the potato.”
Whilst comparing the PM to a lifeless, bland vegetable, Potato is a stunning mockery of the buffoonery headlining the political circus, its underlying sentiment translating to any country with airheads for figureheads.