Bucks, moolah, dough, bread, bones, clams, dosh, green. Money has many names, it stands for freedom, success, power, and much more. Here is our playlist of the best songs about money for a swinging and rockin' start to the new year.
Artists from all over the world and from a wide variety of musical genres have sung about money, prosperity, wealth, financial markets, and also everyday problems of employees, for ages. Songs often describe far better what we think and feel than mere words. Whether you want or need money, work for it or cheat, win it or lose it, money moves us all.
From the countless songs about money and wealth, we have compiled 23 of the best songs for the new year that motivate, inspire, stir up, or at least awaken fond memories. In doing so, finews.com dug deep into the box and unearthed not only world stars, evergreens, and unknown Youtubers.
1. Barrett Strong – Money (That’s What I Want)
A classic from the legendary Motown Records studio, then known as Tamla Labels. The original version was written by Barrett Strong, and the message of the song, that you only want money for fun, reverberates to this day, in countless movies and cover versions.
2. Remy – Regulate (FTX Parody)
Crypto, the money of the future? Well, 2022 turned out to be more like a complete disaster. Now that crypto prices have plummeted, FTX has gone under and many a fraud has been exposed, US regulators are going full throttle on crypto. A parody of the crypto speculation mania and the regulatory offensive around the FTX fiasco.
3. Jessie J – Price Tag ft. B.o.B
Life isn't all about glamour, money, fame, and fortune. British singer and rapper Jessie J tells us that we put a price tag on everything and often forget what's important.
4. Dolly Parton – 9 to 5
Long before the term ESG appeared in the financial world, Dolly Parton was visiting women's everyday workplaces. Both the song and the film are named after a nonprofit organization that works to improve the treatment of women in the workplace. What a way to make a livin'.
5. Gwen Stefani – Rich Girl (Official Music Video) ft. Eve
A rewrite of «If I Were A Rich Man» from the musical «Anatevka» with some textual differences from the original. Stefani's rich girl has far more exquisite tastes: she wants to buy a Hollywood mansion and clean out the Vivienne Westwood store.
6. Rage Against The Machine – Sleep Now in the Fire
Legendary, timeless: «Rage Against The Machine» and documentary filmmaker Michael Moore teamed up for the «Sleep Now In The Fire» which was shot in front of the New York Stock Exchange nearly causing a riot on Wall Street. The police took Moore away in front of running cameras.
7. Asian Dub Foundation – Crash
After the stock market crash is before the stock market crash, and what many investors had to experience again since the outbreak of the Coronavirus. Asian Dub Foundation sang the song in 2000, the year when the tech bubble burst. Back then, the British band with preferences for dub, jungle, and drum & bass also experienced the consequences of the recession firsthand: «Boom and a gloom, recession it a loom / For de second time in ten years monies starting to get tight / Better take cover 'cause the crash is coming soon».
8. Frank Crumit – A Tale Of The Ticker (1929 Stock Market Song)
Everything is faster and different today, but in the end, the market mechanisms are almost identical. Published in 1929, the song appeared just a few months before the Wall Street crash in October. The lyrics highlighted the problems of the stock market and foreshadowed the devastating event that occurred shortly thereafter.
9. Gigi D'Agostino – Bla Bla Bla
What might be going through Credit Suisse CEO Ulrich Koerner's mind on his way to work? Life is not a pony farm, the financial market a shark tank? A classic from Switzerland's southern neighbor and a music video in the best style of the Italian animated series La Linea.
10. Donna Summer – She Works Hard for the Money
Arguably the best-known song of the disco queen and a tribute to all hard-working women everywhere. Summer got the idea for the song when she met a lady cleaning toilets in Los Angeles working two jobs to make ends meet.
11. Die Antwoord – Rich Bitch
The rap-rave band Die Antwoord from Cape Town likes to refer to themselves and their music as «Zef», a derogatory colloquial term for certain whites in South Africa. The celebration of ugliness and disturbing lyrics and videos are part of their program. The troupe around frontmen Yolandi Visser and Ninja came up from pretty far down to attain world fame. So when Visser poses as a «Rich Bitch», she also remembers that she used to be a «Poor Girl».
12. NotFinancialAdvice.Crypto – Welcome to the Stock Market!
Today we are inundated with streaming quotes and financial news on television, websites, radio, newspapers, and magazines. A parody of the noise of talking heads and financial gurus on American financial television. It seems that no one's tips are as off the mark as those of former hedge fund manager and current CNBC host Jim Cramer on his show «Mad Money».
13. Wu-Tang Clan – C.R.E.A.M.
The acronym stands for «Cash Rules Everything Around Me.» The song from the debut album «Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)» refers to poverty, a life of crime, and doing anything to get money to survive. Method Man, Raekwon, and Inspectah Deck tell their stories of survival, growing up in the slums, and dealing drugs on the street.
14. Udo Lindenberg – Club der Millionäre (Club of Millionaires)
Who hasn't dreamed of being a millionaire? For Udo Lindenberg and his Panic orchestra, wealth also brings doubts: «The only problem I'd have is: do the girls really like me or my money?»
15. Pink Floyd – Money
The more you have, the more temptations you face in life. Arguably one of Pink Floyd's most unique songs, punctuated onomatopoeically with cash register noises and coin jingling to underscore the message. I think I need a Lear jet.
16. James Brown - I've Got money
One of his lesser-known songs, but is considered a precursor to his funk style. The «Godfather of Soul» sings about having money but no love.
17. Abba – Money, Money, Money
Disco hit from Sweden. «Money, Money, Money» was the second worldwide hit of the pop band ABBA. The song describes the perspective of a young woman who wants a wealthy man to supplement her finances. It must be funny in the rich man's world.
18. Electric Light Orchestra – Easy Money
Even in the heyday of the Electric Light Orchestra in the late 1970s, probably only the most die-hard rock fans knew the band from the UK. Great rock'n roll about how some people never learn to quit when they've had enough.
19. AC/DC – Moneytalks
Money talks and money divides. AC/DC and Angus Young have little respect for guys in fine suits who smoke cigars and indulge in their luxurious lifestyles. A reckoning with all those who flaunt their wealth and have lost touch with reality.
20. Gunter Gabriel - Hey Boss, ich brauch mehr Geld
«Hey boss, I need more money...», Gunter Gabriel takes heart, a song for all «Schlager» (hits) fans. More acute than ever given the surge in inflation. Even the employees of the European Central Bank are now demanding more pay.
21. Dire Straits – Money for Nothing
A tongue-in-cheek song is about the excess of rock stars and the easy life they lead compared to «real» workers. Mark Knopfler wrote it after overhearing delivery men in a New York department store complaining about their jobs while watching MTV. In the financial markets, on the other hand, the turnaround in interest rates has ensured that money has value again. I want my MTV.
22. DJ Sol – Feel Alive
A bank CEO on the music charts? David Solomon, a.k.a. DJ D-Sol, has done that too. The acting CEO of American investment bank Goldman Sachs made it to #39 on Billboard's Dance/Mix Show Airplay Chart in 2019. With the track under his belt, it is not known if he was playing his hit when Corona standoff rules were flouted at a 2020 party in New York's ritzy Hamptons.
23. Die Prinzen – Millionär
This list would not be complete without the terrific hit by the Leipzig vocal ensemble Die Prinzen. Hardly any other song conveys as much joie de vivre and as much confidence in financial prosperity as «Millionär» (Millionaire) from 1991. With a nod and a wink, it acknowledges many things in life remain just a dream. For «Die Prinzen», who are still successful today, the title has paid off in every respect.
