The best songs inspired by literature according to The Guardian, from Brontë to Ballard, from Orwell to Okri

While Kate Bush's “Wuthering Heights” gets a fresh boost thanks to the new film adaptation by Emerald Fennell, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi (with music by Charlie XCX), the British newspaper The Guardian has published an intriguing ranking dedicated to what it considers the best pop-rock songs inspired by literature. “We explore the surprising, subversive and sensuous ways in which prose fiction has influenced pop”, the authoritative UK publication writes in its introduction.

Here, then, is the ranking of the 20 best songs inspired by literature, "from Brontë to Ballard, from Orwell to Okri", according to the Guardian (full feature here).

20. Katy Perry – Firework (2010) – Inspired by "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac

19. Japanese Breakfast – Magic Mountain (2025) – Inspired by "The Magic Mountain" by Thomas Mann

18. Bomb the Bass – Bug Powder Dust (1994) – Inspired by "Naked Lunch" by William S. Burroughs

17. Taylor Swift – The Bolter (2024) – Inspired by Nancy Mitford's novels (recurring character "The Bolter")

16. Killer Mike – Willie Burke Sherwood (2012) – Inspired by "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding

15. The Cure – Charlotte Sometimes (1981) – Inspired by “Charlotte Sometimes” by Penelope Farmer

14. Black Star – Thieves in the Night (1998) – Inspired by “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison

13. Nirvana – Scentless Apprentice (1993) – Inspired by “Perfume” by Patrick Süskind

12. Radiohead – Street Spirit (Fade Out) (1995) – Inspired by “The Famished Road” by Ben Okri

11. Rosalía – Pienso en Tu Mirá (2018) – Inspired by “Flamenca” (13th-century Occitan novel)

10. David Bowie – We Are the Dead (1974) – Inspired by “Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell

9. The Normal – Warm Leatherette (1978) – Inspired by “Crash” by J.G. Ballard

8. Kendrick Lamar – King Kunta (2015) – Inspired by “Roots” by Alex Haley; references to “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison and “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe

7. Magazine – A Song From Under the Floorboards (1980) – Inspired by “Notes from Underground” by Fyodor Dostoevsky

6. Kate Bush – The Sensual World (1989) – Inspired by James Joyce's “Ulysses”

5. Joni Mitchell – Both Sides Now (1969) – Inspired by “Henderson the Rain King” by Saul Bellow

4. Jefferson Airplane – White Rabbit (1967) – Inspired by “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll

3. Joy Division – Dead Souls (1980) – Inspired by “Dead Souls” by Nikolai Gogol

2. The Velvet Underground – Venus in Furs (1967) – Inspired by “Venus in Furs” by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

1. The Rolling Stones – Sympathy for the Devil (1968) – Inspired by “The Master and Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov

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