Songs

Food songs are almost never really about food. Some songs mention food in the title or in passing in the lyrics, but it is not important to the whole work. Others have more food references but the song is really about something else. Only a few songs are about food as food. In a new twist on the subject, beginning in the twentieth century, songs have been used to sell food in the form of radio and television jingles.

Americans had songs and nursery rhymes with mentions of food before there was an America. “Hot Cross Buns,” “The Muffin Man,” and “Pease Porridge Hot” are nursery rhymes that still survive. Humpty Dumpty was an egg.