My Top Ten Peach Songs

What could be more wholesome than a nice juicy peach? Unless you're a songwriter...

(Special mention to Peaches, Peaches & Herb and The Moldy Peaches.)

Be warned: not all the peaches in this list will be fruit of the prunus persica tree. Some peaches may have an alternative meaning... remember Nicolas Cage's first time in Wild At Heart? 


10. Smog - Peach Pit

Speaking of which, Bill Callahan does a pretty good job of soundtracking that scene in one minute twenty three seconds of sleaze right here.

9. Beck - Peaches & Cream

There was a time when Beck wanted to be Prince. Here he is making garbagemen scream. My favourite lyric from this song...

You look good in that sweater

And that aluminum crutch
I'm gonna let you down easy
I've got a delicate touch 

Give him a break - aluminium wouldn't have scanned.

8. Rufus Wainwright - Peach Trees

Rufus proves that peaches don't have to be synonymous with rumpy-pumpy: they can also symbolise true love...

7. Merle Haggard - Peach Picking Time Down In Georgia

Merle (extra points for having a first name like Merle) Haggard (extra points for having a surname like Haggard) takes a tour of the southern United States at harvest time... with added self-pity.

When it's peach-picking time in Georgia
Apple-picking time in Tennessee
Cotton-picking time in Mississippi
Everybody picks on me!

6. Handsome Family - Fallen Peaches

Finally got round to watching the first series of True Detective over Christmas. Very happy to see T. Bone Burnett chose a Handsome Family song as the show's theme tune. Experts at the fine art of murder balladry, this one would fit in very well on that show too...

Ahead of me ran Jackson
Who took a bullet to the chest
And beneath the swaying peaches
Jackson slowly bled to death

5. Eels - Peach Blossom

A very sexy song - and video - without any innuendo whatsoever. E really is just opening the window to smell the peach blossom.

4. The Front Bottoms - Peach

With a band called The Front Bottoms, you're probably expecting pure filth from this track. But this is pretty much a love song... albeit one that goes a little vampiric halfway through.

3. The Stranglers - Peaches

In which Hugh Cornwell pops down his local beach to perv it up. Banned by the BBC in the same summer as The Sex Pistols were getting up all our safety-pinned noses with God Save The Queen, it's been claimed that the innuendo of Peaches was a savage critique of macho mores. Which is kind of like having your peach-melba and eating it.

2. Prince - Peach

At least with Prince you don't have to wonder if there's any innuendo going on... the purple one doesn't believe in innuendo. As ever, he's about as subtle as a giraffe.

Her hotpants can't hide her cheeks...

And yet, because it's so very, very funky, we let him get away with it.

1. Presidents of the United States of America - Peaches

The great thing about the Presidents' Peach song is that there's no metaphor here at all (I don't think): this is purely a song about peaches. Except the President of the Presidents, lead singer Chris Ballew, seems a little unclear about where peaches actually come from (i.e. someone puts them in that can, Chris). Worth watching the whole video as the band inexplicably get attacked by ninjas about two-thirds of the way through. When has that ever happened in a Coldplay video?





Which one is your peach cobbler?