Pop Under The Big Top: Songs For The Circus

Tonight on Soundcheck, we meet Michael Picton, the composer behind the music that drives the new show from the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. And it got us thinking about how many pop songs are either about the circus or inspired by its themes and imagery. Some are pretty obvious -- hello, "Mr. Kite" or Britney Spears' "Circus" -- and some are pretty deep cuts. Regardless of whether you know them or not, you can read about our picks below the fold.

We also decided to put together a handy Spotify playlist with quite a few more circus-themed songs. But we also want to hear from you -- what songs did we forget to include? Do you have a favorite? Let us know!

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, "The Carny"

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released the epic song “The Carny” on their 1987 album Your Funeral, My Trial. It clocks in at nearly eight minutes, but the story inside the lyrics could inspire a feature-length film. After a carnival worker disappears mysteriously, his coworkers are left to deal with his sad pile of belongings. Spoiler alert: Things don’t end well for the carny’s horse, Sorrow. (Joel Meyer)

The Beatles, "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!"

By the time The Beatles had come to record its masterpiece Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the band had retreated from the stage and immersed themselves in one of the most ambitious concept records in rock music. The entire album is a psychedelic and imaginative collection of songs, all connected around the fictitious, circus-like band. While the idea is bookended with the song "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and its reprise, in the middle is "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!," an outright homage and recreation of carnival atmosphere. With lyrics that capture the imagery of a traveling carnival -- of trampolines and trapezes and lastly, a "hogshead of real fire" -- it's the vivid musical orchestration of "Mr. Kite" that paints the scenes in your mind. (Michael Katzif)

Smokey Robinson And The Miracles, "Tears Of A Clown"

"Ain’t too much sadder than the tears of a clown." Were any truer words ever sung? This Smokey Robinson and The Miracles tune (co-written with Stevie Wonder) became a hit for Motown after it climbed to the top of the charts in December 1970. “Don’t let my glad expression give you the wrong impression,” Robinson croons to his ex. “You’re gone and I’m hurting so bad / Like a clown I pretend to be glad.” There’s even a line about the Italian opera Pagliacci, in which an angry clown stabs his wife and her lover. Yikes. Note: the ubiquitous use of bassoon in this song serves as yet another glaring example of instrument stereotyping. (Katie Bishop)

The (English) Beat, "Tears Of A Clown"

"Tears Of A Clown," was such a massive hit in the U.S. and U.K. in 1970 that it's received more than a few treatments since, including this popular, uptempo 1979 ska version by The (English) Beat. The song features a circus-like calliope riff, some space echo and a beat you can dance to -- taking the song’s theory of entertainers hiding pain behind a pop exterior to the next level. (Gretta Cohn)

 

Three Dog Night, "The Show Must Go On"

This 1974 song begins with and later returns to a slow, almost mournful version of the familiar circus theme music (actually called “The Entry Of The Gladiators" by Julius Fučik), setting the stage for a bit of arena-size emoting from the band, as they bemoan the trials and travails of life on the road. It’s often mistakenly called “Must Let The Show Go On,” because that’s the line repeatedly sung in the chorus, and therein lies a bit of controversy. It was originally a Leo Sayer song, and Sayer -- who apparently used to perform the song dressed as Pierrot, the clown from the medieval Commedia Dell’Arte -- ended the song with “I won’t let the show go on.” He was reportedly not amused when Three Dog Night amended it to “I must let the show go on.” (John Schaefer)

 

Britney Spears, "Circus" 

Barnum & Bailey… and Britney. Following her highly publicized “breakdown” in 2007, the title of her 2008 album, Circus, seemed to take on an extra layer of meaning. Although she plays the role of an aggressive (and scantily clad) ringleader in the title track – with lines like “when I crack that whip, everybody gon’ trip just like a circus” – other parts of the sultry song sound a little less confident. “Spotlight on me and I’m ready to break,” she sings. Either way, the video makes it pretty clear this isn’t a spectacle you’d want to take the kiddos to. (Katie Bishop)

Tom Waits, "Circus"

In which rock’s one-man insane clown posse introduces us to Horse-Face Ethel, Yodelling Elaine The Queen Of The Air, and an orangutan named Tripod. “The music was like electric sugar,” Waits intones -- and no, I’m not just looking for an alternative to describe Waits’s singing voice: There really is no singing here. It’s spoken word set against a soundscape of, well, electric spun sugar, or cotton candy laced with LSD. Creepy even by Tom Waits standards. There, now you just have to listen. (John Schaefer)

Tim Buckley, "Carnival Song" / Todd Rundgren, "The Night The Carousel Burnt Down"

While both Tim Buckley's "Carnival Song" and Todd Rundgren's "The Night The Carousel Burnt Down" are not specifically about the circus, each conjures the scene surrounding the circus grounds. They remind me of the old-style traveling circuses with carnival rides, sounds swirling around your head as you stroll through the crowds. "Carnival Song" incorporates actual carnival sounds and melodies and a sense of world-weariness in his languid singing: "The circus burns in carnival flames, and for a while you won't know my name at all," he sings at one point. Meanwhile, Rundgren's song came a few years later, but with a more communal, "witnesses to an event" tone. Rundgren creates his carnival ambiance with musical instruments. Both are rather trippy-sounding, and coincidentally happen to be in the same key, but I think embody the spirit of the circus experience. (Irene Trudel)