Unexpected musical partnerships that rocked the charts
The old saying is true: life inspires art. And so does death. Sometimes, the darkest side of humanity inspires beautiful creations, such as incredible songs. Indeed, many music artists have written songs based on gruesome true crime stories. Some have written them from a narrative viewpoint, others from the perspective of the victim, and still others take us inside the mind of the criminal.
Intrigued? Browse through this gallery and discover fascinating songs based on the worst of crimes.
This song is based on the 1967 case of John Artis and boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, who were wrongly convicted of murder and spent almost 20 years behind bars.
'Nebraska,' which is also the title of The Boss' 1982 studio album, is about Charles Starkweather and Carli Ann Fugate, who murdered 11 people in 1958. It is sung from the perspective of the murderer on the electric chair.
The iconic 'Zombie' by the Irish rock band is about the 1993 Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombing in Warrington, England. The terror attack killed two children.
The famous Nirvana song is not quite about a parrot. Instead, it's about the Green River Killer. 'Polly' is about one of serial killer Gary Ridgway's victims: a teenage girl he abducted and abused in 1987.
Eminem raps this tune from the perspective of mass murderer Stephen Paddock, who killed 58 people at the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas in 2017.
The late rapper was inspired to write this song after reading the story of a 12-year-old girl who threw her newborn baby into a trash compactor. The baby miraculously survived.
'Jeremy' is one of the singles of Pearl Jam's debut album 'Ten.' It's about a high school student named Jeremy Wade Delle, who shot himself in front of his class.
Morrisey's band released this song in 1984. It's about the Moors murders carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley around Manchester, England, between 1963 and 1965.
This track off Prince's 'Controversy' album from 1981 touches on a number of crimes that took place in Atlanta, Georgia, between 1979 and 1981, namely several child murders. Prince also makes reference to the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan and the killing of John Lennon.
The song is about a hate crime. It's based on the murder of a gay man Stewart's former keyboardist knew.
The song is about the murder of a Confederate soldier named Tom Dula who was accused of murdering a woman named Laura Foster.
The then-rapper Mark "Marky Mark" Wahlberg and his crew wrote 'Wildside' about two real crimes in Boston. The song touches on a man who kills his pregnant wife, and tries to blame it on a black man to get the insurance money. The other story was one was about 12-year-old Tiffany Moore, who was killed in a drive-by shooting.
This Tom Waits song is about the 1997 murder of Georgia Lee Moses, a 12-year-old black girl in Petaluma, California.
This song by The Killers is about Luke Mitchell, who stabbed his 14-year-old girlfriend Jodi Jones to death in Dalkeith, Scotland, in 2003. The song is written from Jones' mother's perspective.
This song is about the murder of American alpine ski racer Spider Sabich, who was murdered by his girlfriend, French singer Claudine Longet.
The title is pretty self-explanatory. It's about the death of John Lennon. "I Just Shot John Lennon" is reportedly what his killer, Mark David Chapman, said when he was asked if he knew what he had done.
This song is about murderer Ed Gein, aka the Butcher of Plainfield, who used parts of the human body to create pieces of furniture and a variety of other objects.
This Misfits song is about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.
This Elvis Costello song is based on the story of Derek William Bentley, a British man who was hung for the murder of a policeman named Sidney Miles. Though his underage accomplice, Christopher Craig, was the one who killed the cop.
This song is about a stampede that killed 73 people, known as the Italian Hall disaster of 1913. Mostly striking mine workers and their families were killed.
The song is about serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who killed at least 33 boys and young men in the 1970s.
This song by The Killers is said to be about the murder of Jennifer Levin, also known as "the Preppy Murder," in 1986.
This song is about the American criminal folk hero Lee Shelton. He is said to have murdered Billy Lyons on Christmas 1895 after he disrespected him in a St. Louis saloon over a hat.
Like the tune from Lloyd Price, this song by the English punk rockers is also about Stagger Lee and Billy Lyons.
This Boomtown Rats' hit is based on the infamous Cleveland Elementary school shooting. The tragedy took place in 1979 and was carried out by 16-year-old Brenda Spencer, who said she did it because she didn't like Mondays.
The punk rockers wrote this song based on the infamous serial killer David Berkowitz, better known as the Son of Sam.
This song is about Charles Whitman, also known as the "Texas Tower Sniper," who killed at least 16 people, including his wife and mother.
The song is about the shooting of three college students in Tucson, Arizona, by drug dealers. Two of them died. The band's guitarist, Buck Dharma, knew one of the boys personally.
Sources: (Mental Floss) (Ranker) (BuzzFeed) (Paste Magazine)
See also: Books that inspired real-life crimes
Songs you didn't know are based on true crime
From serial killers to terror attacks
MUSIC Dark songs
The old saying is true: life inspires art. And so does death. Sometimes, the darkest side of humanity inspires beautiful creations, such as incredible songs. Indeed, many music artists have written songs based on gruesome true crime stories. Some have written them from a narrative viewpoint, others from the perspective of the victim, and still others take us inside the mind of the criminal.
Intrigued? Browse through this gallery and discover fascinating songs based on the worst of crimes.