Updated June 11, 2019 2.2K votes 659 voters 77.1K views
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Vote up the songs you'll never hear the same way again.
Songs about sex are just about as old as music itself, and songs about losing your virginity are as important a part of the pop canon as any other. While the hidden messages in some of the songs on this list are pretty obvious, others are pretty clock and dagger, and are songs you probably hear on a daily basis and have not given much thought to otherwise. Until now.
Sex sells, and the music industry has always been aware of this, even if the messages are sometimes hidden—or presented more subtly—in an attempt to get around media censoring. Sometimes it works, and sometimes the songwriter still manages to court controversy. Nevertheless, the losing of one's virginity is a relatable fact of life for many people, and that is what pop music is all about—describing an experience shared by the masses and presenting it as art. Do any of these conjure up memories of YOUR first time?
As everyone knows, Taylor Swift pretty much takes events from her life and turns them into songs (which can be a bad or good thing, depending on how you look it) and a friend's loss of her virginity has also been fodder for Swift's hit-making abilities. On her 2009 album, Fearless, Swift tells the story of a high-school friend, Abigail, who was immediately blown off by the boy to whom she lost her virginity:
And Abigail gave everything she had To a boy who changed his mind And we both cried.
Abigail is Swift's real-life BFF, Abigail Anderson, and the pop idol was even a bridesmaid at her wedding.
Bob Seger's mega-hit, "Night Moves," refers to a young couple "out in the back seat of my (Seger's) '60 Chevy....workin' on mysteries without any clues"—you can pretty much surmise what's happening from that.
Although American Graffiti inspired the tune, Seger has explained in past interviews that "Night Moves" is somewhat autobiographical. During his teen years in Ann Arbor, MI, he met a slightly older woman whose husband was in the military. She and Seger had a brief fling, but when her husband returned, she ended the relationship and the broken-hearted musician wrote this song as an ode to the woman and the memory.
Come out Virginia, don’t let me wait You Catholic girls start much too late Aw, but sooner or later it comes down to fate I might as well be the one.
Like "Night Moves," "Only The Good Die Young" has its roots in reality. Virginia Callahan was once the object of Joel's unrequited affections during his days as a teen in Levittown, Long Island. “One of the first gigs I ever played with my high-school band the Echoes, this girl that I had a crush on was looking at me—Virginia. I thought, ‘This is so cool.’ I was completely hooked. There was no way I was going to do anything else but be a musician.”
The song was criticized by several Catholic officials when it came out in 1978, but as Joel later explained, "the point of the song wasn’t so much anti-Catholic as [it was] pro-lust."
Originally written by Four Seasons member Bob Gaudio as a celebration of the end of Prohibition (in December 1933), the song took on a whole new life when it was updated to reflect Gaudio's loss of virginity to and courtship of his wife, Judy Parker. Frankie Valli has also admitted that the song was "about losing your cherry" and it was eventually banned on some conservative radio stations for its sexual overtones after it was re-released in 1975.
My first time, hard to explain Rush of blood, oh, and a little bit of pain On a cloudy day, it's more common than you think He's my first mistake.
With lyrics this obvious, it's hard not to see "White Houses" as an ode to lost innocence. Vanessa Carlton said this single off her second album, 2004's Harmonium, is about a "rite of passage...it's about jealousy, it's about losing your virginity, it's about living on your own. It's a story that most people can relate to... It's really the journey of one girl and her perception of her environment and how she starts out as a wide-eyed person, but everyone gets hardened by life, but not necessarily to the point where you can't feel anymore."
Though it sounds tame by today's standards, the song "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" was considered quite risque when it was first released, and was even banned by some radio DJs. Written by Carole King and performed by The Shirelles in 1960, it tells the tale of a young girl who is about to give herself to her guy and is unsure of what will happen after she does:
Tonight with words unspoken You say that I'm the only one But will my heart be broken When the night meets the morning sun? I'd like to know that your love Is love I can be sure of So tell me now and I won't ask again.
Carole Kings has recently confirmed this fact on her Facebook page, and said she was "proud" of the song. Rightfully so!
