My Top Ten Rollercoaster Songs

Following on from my Fairground Top Tens, Adrian requested "a Ronan Keating-free Rollercoaster Top Ten" over on Facebook. Well, I'm always happy to oblige... though I have a curious love/hate relationship with Ronan's biggest hit as it was written by former New Radicals man Gregg Alexander, and if he'd bothered to record it himself I can't help thinking I'd have liked it a lot more.

Adrian suggested both Fly by Moxy Früvous and Eleanor, Put Your Boots On by Franz Ferdinand, two excellent songs that both mention rollercoasters in the lyrics (see also Everyday by Buddy Holly)... but I decided to restrict myself to songs with titular rollercoasters (there were plenty to choose from).

So strap yourself in... and get ready for the ride of your life!  



10. Sleeper - Rollercoaster

From the final Sleeper album, the one so few people bought, I can't find this song anywhere online. A shame, because it's a cute little indie pop song which Louise & co. always excelled at.

9. The Whitest Boy Alive - Rollercoaster Ride

King of Convenience Erlend Øye's other band.

8. Helen Love - Rollercoasting

What if the Ramones were girls?

7. M Ward - Rollercoaster

The less perky Him to Zooey Deschanel's She goes on an unbelievable ride and gets some heavy metal dreams.

6. Machine Gun Fellatio - Rollercoaster

Thanks to Deano for pointing me in the direction of these mental Aussies. If the band name alone doesn't get them points, the video throws in the kitchen sink.

5. The Jesus & Mary Chain - Rollercoaster

Any theme park worth its salt should have a Jesus & Mary Chain Rollercoaster. That would be one hell of a ride.

4. Belle & Sebastian - The Rollercoaster Ride

If you were to remove your clothes d'you think the singer would notice?

There's not many bands who could deliver a line like that and make it heartbreaking.

3. Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers - Roller Coaster by the Sea

Jonathan is feeling bad.

Jonathan goes on a rollercoaster.

Jonathan gets knocked out of his head.

2. Stephen Duffy & The Lilac Time - The Rollercoaster Song

Sadly, I can only find a 30 second clip of this wonderful song online, but that's still enough to fall in love with....

I had a friend who treated love
Like a luxury development
On the other side of town
And one day his girl got up
And left and slammed the door
And his fine walls came falling down

But don't be blue, he built a fairground there
For you and I to ride

One of Adrian's biggest problems with that Ronan Keating song was the creakingly obvious metaphor of life being a rollercoaster. Here, Mr. Duffy has a similar go, calling love a rollercoaster... yet it's much, much sweeter. Conclusive proof that there are no bad metaphors, just metaphors used badly.

Or something.

1. The Ohio Players - Love Rollercoaster

There's a gruesome urban legend that the background scream around about the 2 1/2 minute mark in this song actually came from a woman being murdered in the studio during the recording. (Was it the engineer's girlfriend?) It's utter bogwash, of course, but you could believe just about anything when it comes to The Ohio Players. Those guys were mental.

Covered more recently by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers... but that wasn't a patch on the original.





As requested, ten rollercoaster songs and not a Ronan in sight. Any other scream-worthy suggestions?