10 Best Drinking Songs

June 11, 2024

10 Best Drinking Songs

The top charts songs have all types of tracks: love songs, breakup ballads, coming-of-age cuts and more. But there is another theme that’s had its fair share on the top charts, and it’s one that’s sure to get people pumped: songs about alcohol.

Whether artists are using liquor as a metaphor for something else (love, mostly) or just flat-out throwing a few back for the heck of it, boozy tunes have been charting for decades.

So, turn up the music and if you do drink, drink responsibly, of course.

1. ‘Gin & Juice’ by Snoop Dogg
This was the first rap song to provide high-school parties with a cocktail recipe right in the title. Well, juice can be expensive. But ‘Gin & Gatorade’ just doesn’t have the same mellifluousness

2. ‘Make It Another Old-Fashioned, please’, by Julie London
With a voice as smooth as the whiskey she's singing about, vintage torch singer Julie London makes an Old Fashioned the only cocktail worth ordering with her silky take on this Cole Porter classic. ‘Make it for one who's due to join the disillusion crew/Make it for one of love's new refugees,’ she croons – though she doesn’t sound too upset about her lovelorn situation.

3. ‘Streams of Whiskey’ by The Pogues
In one of the folk-punk outfits peppiest (or at least whistle-iest) hits, Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan spins a yarn about a dream he had (presumably not while sober) of walking hand in hand with Irish poet Brendan Behan and learning of an afterlife where the brown stuff flows in rivers.

4. ‘Doses and Mimosas’ by Cherub
‘Doses and Mimosas’ is one of those silly, catchy tunes that sort of sounds like it should be in a car advert, but you love it anyway. In true 2013 fashion, the ‘Cherub’ duo uploaded this track to YouTube only to become a viral sensation in just one week, garnering one and a half million views and a deal with Columbia records.

5. ‘Lilac Wine’ by Nina Simone
Originally penned in 1950 for a theatre revue, ‘Lilac Wine’ has been covered by such greats as Eartha Kitt, Jeff Buckley and, er, Miley Cyrus. But only the High Priestess of Soul is able to give this moody ode to infatuation the drama and chill its lyrics and melody beg for. In her 1966 interpretation, her voice prowls around the song’s deliciously dark lyrics like a cat, and for the listener, intoxication is inevitable.

6. ‘Brass Monkey’ by Beastie Boys
It’s an obvious observation, but this song came out before the Internet. Which means that – like tens of thousands 1986, was unable to immediately figure out what the hell the B Boys were whine-shouting about. A Brass Monkey was a sort of malt liquor.

7. ‘Whiskey River’ by Willie Nelson
Some consideration was given to ‘I Gotta Get Drunk,’ a 1970 Willie tune covered wonderfully by Phosphorescent in 2009. But that was the short-haired, clean-shaven Willie. We went with this classic - Shotgun Willie, from the dawn of his stoner-cowboy era. Even though it was written by Johnny Bush, the song belongs to Willie, as essential to him as long braids and a bandanna.

8. ‘Sippin’ on Some Syrup’ by Three 6 Mafia
Cough medicine plus Sprite, plus Jolly Ranchers. When you’re broke, you have to get creative with your addictions. Anything can become a habit. As Pimp C proclaimed in this song in 2000: ‘We eat so many shrimps, I’ve got iodine poisoning.’ Memphis hip-hop troupe go on to win an Oscar in 2006, for ‘It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp’

9. ‘Friends in Low Places’ by Garth Brooks
You can’t help but sing along with the common people at the local watering hole when the jukebox starts playing Garth Brooks’s 1990 ode to drinking the blues away. You’ll suddenly find yourself line dancing with folks you’ve never met and seeing if your vocal register can go to those low places in the song’s signature chorus. And, of course, there will be plenty of whiskey and beer flowing.

10. ‘Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down’ by Kris Kristofferson
Most of the songs on this list celebrate nights of debauchery, but only Kris Kristofferson thought to pour one out for the blurry morning after. The country troubadour’s ode to morning beers, sleepy city sidewalks, fried-chicken envy and pounding headaches is one of the loveliest country tunes ever. Kristofferson’s song is a quiet, reflective number that pops with descriptive poetry and introspection. Now somebody makes this man’s wish come true and get him stoned.