The Top 40 Drug Songs

There’s an array of colors, shapes and forms in the list below of the Top 40 Drug Songs, just as it is with the substances themselves.

You’ll find celebrations, experimental insights and cautionary tales from the dark side in the dozens of tracks, selected by the UCR staff, that cover decades and genres. Cannabis, cocaine, heroin, LSD and all sorts of pills that can alter your size are here; some songs are about certain drugs and even name-check them in their titles, others were written and recorded under the influence.

From music’s biggest names to acts that barely dented the mainstream, drugs have been a popular subject dating back to jazz recordings of the early 20th century. These are mind-altering songs, but personal experience and participation aren’t necessarily required to enjoy.

40. Peter Tosh, “Legalize It” (From Legalize It, 1976)

Peter Tosh was an original member of the Wailers, performing with Bob Marley for more than a decade before pursuing his own career in the mid-1970s. He led his debut solo album, 1976’s Legalize It, with the title track, a call for the legalization of marijuana and his opinion on the local police force’s related crackdowns. To the surprise of no one, “Legalize It” was banned in Jamaica. No matter — the song and LP made him a star.

 

39. Lynyrd Skynyrd, “The Needle and the Spoon” (From Second Helping, 1974)

Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s second album is best known for “Sweet Home Alabama,” but buried near the end of the second side is the band’s first-person account of a heroin addict coming to terms with his illness. “I’ve been feeling so sick inside / Got to get better, Lord, before I die,” sings Ronnie Van Zant, the song’s cowriter with guitarist Allen Collins. No stranger to antidrug songs, the group penned “That Smell” a few years later.

 

38. Steppenwolf, “The Pusher” (From Steppenwolf, 1968)

Written by country singer-songwriter Hoyt Axton in 1963 but made popular by Steppenwolf more than five years later in the movie Easy Rider, “The Pusher” is a damning critique of a merciless heroin dealer: “God damn the pusher man.” The song appeared on Steppenwolf’s self-titled 1968 debut but wasn’t released as a single until the following year, after Easy Rider became a culture-moving success.

 

37. John Prine, “Sam Stone” (From John Prine, 1971)

John Prine‘s harrowing tale of a Vietnam veteran returning home to the States with an unshakable heroin addiction reflected the plight of many soldiers coming back from a “conflict overseas” that was still leading evening news broadcasts when the song was released in 1971. “There’s a hole in Daddy’s arm where all the money goes,” Prine sings, vividly recounting a heartbreaking portrait of an all-too-real casualty of war.

 

36. The Beatles, “Got to Get You Into My Life” (From Revolver, 1966)

The Beatles were deep into their experimental period — personally and professionally — when Paul McCartney penned “Got to Get You Into My Life” for the group’s most adventurous album at that point. Like other songs on Revolver, this one nodded toward their interest in drugs, particularly LSD and marijuana. McCartney has admitted that the upbeat, horn-driven soul pastiche was “an ode to pot.”

 

35. Ringo Starr, “No No Song” (From Goodnight Vienna, 1974)

Written by Hoyt Axton, who also composed the Steppenwolf anti-heroin song “The Pusher,” “No No Song” became Ringo Starr‘s seventh (and final) Top 10 solo hit when released as a single in 1975. The former Beatle sings about turning down weed, coke and whiskey, adding he doesn’t consume them “no more.” Ironically, Starr wouldn’t get sober until 1988; that’s drinking buddy Harry Nilsson on backing vocals.

 

READ MORE: Top 35 Opening Songs on Debut Albums

 

34. Tom Petty, “You Don’t Know How It Feels” (From Wildflowers, 1994)

When Tom Petty prepared his second solo album in the early ’90s, with producer Rick Rubin behind the boards, he had so much material that the pair proposed a double album. The label balked, and Wildflowers was released as a 62-minute LP in 1994 (an expanded version, Wildflowers & All the Rest, was issued in 2020, with many of the missing tracks). “You Don’t Know How It Feels” rolls with the changes, joint in hand.

 

33. The Black Crowes, “She Talks to Angels” (From Shake Your Money Maker, 1990)

The fourth single from the Black Crowes‘ debut album, Shake Your Money Maker, appears during the back half of the record, offering a pause in the band’s swaggering, R&B-infused roots rock. The acoustic come-down reflects the subject of “She’s Talk to Angels,” a paean to a heroin-addicted woman singer Chris Robinson knew from Atlanta. It’s a sad, despairing look at a life drained of purpose.

 

32. Tom Petty, “Girl on LSD” (From 1994 single)

A throwaway from the Wildflowers sessions, and originally the B-side of another Tom Petty song with a casual reference to a drug, the cannabis-promoting “You Don’t Know How It Feels,” the subject of “Girl on LSD” doesn’t limit her drug consumption to lysergic acid diethylamide. Over several verses, Petty runs down the woman’s menu: marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, crystal meth, glue, heroin, beer and, um, coffee. Whew.

 

31. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” (From Greatest Hits, 1993)

Before he fired up a joint in “You Don’t Know How It Feels” and scrolled through a pharmaceutical’s worth of intoxicants in “Girl on LSD,” Tom Petty was more coy about “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”‘s subject. Anyone familiar with music history — from the Beatles’ “What’s the New Mary Jane” to Rick James’ “Mary Jane” — knows “Mary Jane” is slang for marijuana, but Petty and band members were mum on the song’s meaning.

 

30. Steve Miller Band, “The Joker” (From The Joker, 1973)

Steve Miller‘s No. 1 single, eight years and albums into his band’s career, borrows from the past, including the Clovers’ 1954 doo-wop gem “Lovey Dovey” and references to his own “Space Cowboy,” “Gangster of Love” and “Enter Maurice.” But it’s in “The Joker”‘s chorus — “I’m a joker, I’m a smoker, I’m a midnight toker” — where Miller reveals his true nature. Laid-back and mellow, the song’s easy groove provides a leisurely buzz.

 

29. Jackson Browne, “Cocaine” (From Running on Empty, 1977)

Jackson Browne‘s life-on-the-road live album, no doubt, was inspired and fueled by various substances to fight long nights and boredom. Written by South Carolina bluesman Reverend Gary Davis, with additional lyrics by Browne and Glenn Frey, “Cocaine” sounds more laid back than expected within the context, given the drug’s reputation. Recorded in room 124 of a Holiday Inn in Edwardsville, Illinois.

 

28. Curtis Mayfield, “Pusherman” (From Super Fly, 1972)

Like Steppenwolf’s “The Pusher,” Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusherman” points the finger at the drug dealer as a destroyer of dreams and souls. Taken from Mayfield’s soundtrack to the 1972 blaxploitation film Super Fly, the song wastes little time dispensing with the goods: “Want some coke? Have some weed / You know me, I’m your friend.” The movie details a dealer’s final score and the tragic consequences for those involved.

 

27. David Bowie, “Ashes to Ashes” (From Scary Monsters [And Super Creeps], 1980)

The sequel to David Bowie‘s breakthrough “Space Oddity” picks up the story of Major Tom, still stranded in space and now addicted to heroin. Partly reflective of Bowie’s own problems with addiction during the last part of the ’70s, “Ashes to Ashes” quickly shot to No. 1 in the U.K. and became one of his fastest-selling singles as Bowie rebooted himself and his music at the top of the ’80s. Musical dissonance adds to the tangle.

 

26. The Doors, “Light My Fire” (From The Doors, 1967)

A bastion of 1960s rock, the Doors‘ “Light My Fire” got lots of uptight people upset with its not-so-hidden references to sex and drugs. The line that caused most of the panic — “Girl, we couldn’t get much higher” — set off a series of similar tracks that celebrated the new freedoms that marked the beginning of a new era. Jim Morrison‘s decision not to alter the lyrics for a performance on The Ed Sullivan Show resulted in a TV ban.

 

25. Grateful Dead, “Casey Jones” (From Workingman’s Dead, 1970)

The real-life Casey Jones was a 19th-century train engineer who was killed when the locomotive he was operating crashed into a freight train at a Mississippi station. He was already the subject of a folk song when the Grateful Dead (who occasionally performed “The Ballad of Casey Jones” live) wrote their 1970 song about Jones’ exploits, blaming the fatal accident on the engineer’s cocaine intake and his need for speed.

 

24. Brewer & Shipley, “One Toke Over the Line” (From Tarkio, 1970)

Not quite one-hit wonders — they had two other Top 100 songs within a year of their only Top 10 — Mike Brewer and Tom Shipley conceived “One Toke Over the Line” during a night of heavy weed consumption. Brewer came up with the track’s title and the key line on the spot; “I liked the way that sounded, and so I wrote a song around it,” he later recalled. The result was a stoner anthem for the ages.

 

23. Ace Frehley, “Ozone” (From Ace Frehley, 1978)

When Kiss released four simultaneous solo albums in 1978, at the height of their fame, few expected guitarist Ace Frehley to have a breakout. Though Gene Simmons‘ offering charted four places higher, it was Frehley who had the only hit single of the quartet, a cover of glam rocker Hello’s “New York Groove” that made it to No. 13. “Ozone,” written by Frehley, celebrates his rock-star lifestyle: “I’m the kind of guy who likes feelin’ high.”

 

READ MORE: 40 Artists Who Challenged Fans With Unconventional Records

 

22. Black Sabbath, “Snowblind” (From Vol. 4, 1972)

Black Sabbath‘s fourth album was buried in mountains of cocaine, from its muddled sound — the band produced itself for the first time — to delays and problems in the recording because of the band’s near-crippling drug use at the time. Side Two opener “Snowblind” is Vol. 4‘s most undisguised reference to coke, which got a liner-note thank-you. The band wanted to call the album Snowblind; the label said no.

 

21. Funkadelic, “Maggot Brain” (From Maggot Brain, 1971)

George Clinton came up with the concept of “Maggot Brain” while on LSD, telling guitarist Eddie Hazel to play “like his mother had died.” The result is a 10-minute tour de force for Hazel, who wrings a multitude of emotions from his instrument, from a mournful wallow to painful exorcism to fatigued acceptance. The track is the centerpiece of Funkadelic‘s third LP, a psychedelic shock to various systems.

 

20. The Velvet Underground, “Heroin” (From The Velvet Underground & Nico, 1967)

Nobody was writing songs like Lou Reed in 1967. Others rode the peace train, as Reed surveyed the New York City streets and the darkness barely hiding in the corners. The Velvet Underground‘s debut is populated with drug addicts, dealers, prostitutes and people clinging to decaying lives. The Velvet Underground & Nico‘s seven-minute centerpiece, “Heroin,” details the rush of the drug in a spiraling cacophony.

 

19. Grateful Dead, “Dark Star” (From 1968 single)

Released between their first and second LPs, “Dark Star” has taken on nearly mythical status within the Grateful Dead canon since its debut in 1968. The studio single, running under three minutes, was merely a launching point for one of the band’s greatest pieces and a showcase of many legendary live performances. Even in its embryonic form, “Dark Star” remains an experimental marvel, at once exploratory and hallucinogenic.

 

18. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, “Cold Turkey” (From 1969 single)

John Lennon and Yoko Ono were fighting their addictions to heroin when he wrote “Cold Turkey” in 1969 during the making of the Beatles’ Abbey Road. He proposed the song for the album, but it was turned down, so it became Lennon’s second solo single (following “Give Peace a Chance” a few months earlier) instead. Eric Clapton guests, adding stinging guitar stabs to an already primal vocal performance from Lennon.

 

17. Led Zeppelin, “Misty Mountain Hop” (From Led Zeppelin IV, 1971)

Inspired by a 1968 pot bust at London’s Hyde Park during a rally to legalize the drug, “Misty Mountain Hop” connects modern-day hippies and Tolkien’s Middle-earth (not the first time marijuana and Hobbits shared a kinship). Robert Plant unfurls his freak flag in one of his most florid peace-and-love songs as his Led Zeppelin bandmates rumble around him; he continued to perform it at his solo shows after the group broke up.

 

16. The Velvet Underground, “I’m Waiting for the Man” (From The Velvet Underground & Nico, 1967)

Few songs in the mid-’60s, even during the celebrated Summer of Love, explicitly recounted the scoring of drugs on random street corners. Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground broke fresh ground throughout their epochal debut album, singing about the instant pleasure of a heroin fix and the thrill of a sadomasochistic relationship. “I’m Waiting for the Man” details the long wait for a dealer to hook up an addicted client.

 

15. Billy Joel, “Captain Jack” (From Piano Man, 1973)

Billy Joel conceived “Captain Jack” while writing songs for his debut album in 1971 and got around to recording it for his second LP, the career-boosting Piano Man, in 1973. The singer and songwriter came up with the idea while gazing outside his Long Island apartment, spying local suburban teens entering the nearby housing project for drugs. Captain Jack was the heroin dealer there, a slice of life from the future Grammy winner.

 

14. Bob Dylan, “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” (From Blonde on Blonde, 1966)

“Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” is an incongruous start to Bob Dylan‘s 1966 masterpiece Blonde on Blonde. The double album is filled with some of his greatest love songs (“I Want You”), surrealist twists of phrases (“Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again”) and sprawling set pieces (“Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands”). But it opens with a tossed-off studio jam that implores, “Everybody must get stoned.”

 

13. Eric Clapton, “Cocaine” (From Slowhand, 1977)

J.J. Cale was long a favorite of Eric Clapton, who covered Cale’s “After Midnight” on his 1970 solo debut and later made an album with the Oklahoma-born singer and songwriter (2006’s The Road to Escondido) and a tribute LP following Cale’s death in 2014. But Clapton’s best-known appreciation, “Cocaine,” arrived a year after Cale’s version appeared on his 1976 album, Troubadour. Antidrug, but often misinterpreted.

 

12. The Rolling Stones, “Mother’s Little Helper” (From 1966 single)

With its references to a “little yellow pill” that helps housewives “on her way, gets her through her busy day,” the Rolling Stones played both observers and commentators to the mid-’60s middle-class trend of Valium and other depressant drugs in 1966’s “Mother’s Little Helper.” The band doesn’t judge, though there is a degree of caution near the song’s end, when warnings of an overdose materialize.

 

11. The Byrds, “Eight Miles High” (From Fifth Dimension, 1966)

Supposedly written about the Byrds‘ flight to London for a European tour in 1965, “Eight Miles High” was later admitted, by at least two of its three songwriters, to be about their drug use. The song, a mix of John Coltrane-influenced jazz and Ravi Shankar‘s sitar playing, became a pioneer of the evolving psychedelic scene. It was promptly banned by radio programmers, who deduced that “Eight Miles High” wasn’t about air travel.

 

10. Guns N’ Roses, “Mr. Brownstone” (From Appetite for Destruction, 1987) 

Guns N’ Roses guitarists Slash and Izzy Stradlin wrote “Mr. Brownstone” about their increasingly damaging heroin addictions: “I used to do a little, but a little wouldn’t do it, so the little got more and more.” It was the first song written for the band’s debut album, Appetite for Destruction, after they were signed to Geffen. The popular “Mr. Brownstone” remained in concert set lists, even after the two guitar players got clean.

 

9. The Beach Boys, “Good Vibrations” (From 1966 single)

Brian Wilson was into LSD experimentation when he pieced together “Good Vibrations” during the creation of his eventually aborted Smile project. Coming off the Beach Boys‘ summer masterpiece Pet Sounds, Wilson spent hours in the studio constructing the three-and-a-half-minute masterwork from various session takes and equal inspiration from Phil Spector and recreational drugs. The result was his group’s biggest hit.

 

READ MORE: Top 30 Punk Rock Songs of the ’70s

 

8. The Allman Brothers Band, “Midnight Rider” (From Idlewild South, 1970)

Gregg Allman wrote “Midnight Rider” for his band’s second album under the influence of a copious amount of weed. So much cannabis was consumed during the song’s construction that its outlaw tale of a man on the run took on an exhausted pace by the time it was recorded. The Allman Brothers Band‘s Idlewild South version became a fan favorite, but it was Allman’s solo take that was a Top 20 hit in 1973.

 

7. Fleetwood Mac, “Gold Dust Woman” (From Rumours, 1977)

Demoed early during Rumours‘ recording sessions, Stevie Nicks‘ “Gold Dust Woman” started life as a folk song, at one point running more than eight minutes, before it took on darker and more sinister tones. As much about Nicks’ deteriorating relationship with Fleetwood Mac bandmate Lindsey Buckingham as it is about cocaine’s prevalence in the mid- to late ’70s, the song today reads like a haunting requiem for a soul-dead era.

 

6. Neil Young, “The Needle and the Damage Done” (From Harvest, 1972)

Neil Young was already writing songs for his addicted friend, Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten, cautioning the dangers of increased heroin use, before Whitten died in 1972. A half-year earlier, Young released “The Needle and the Damage Done” on his only No. 1 album, Harvest. The following year, Young recorded Tonight’s the Night, an album-length eulogy to Whitten and others that wasn’t released until 1975.

 

5. Jefferson Airplane, “White Rabbit” (From Surrealistic Pillow, 1967)

Part Alice in Wonderland fantasy, part Summer of Love drug fantasia, Jefferson Airplane‘s “White Rabbit” remains a cornerstone track of the era and genre. Grace Slick wrote and performed the song with her former band, the Great Society, but it was the Airplane’s Top 10 hit version from 1967 that secured the song’s reputation as a period about pills that make one large or small, and some that don’t do anything at all.

 

4. The Beatles, “Tomorrow Never Knows” (From Revolver, 1966)

The sound of an acid trip, summarized in three minutes of reversed studio tapes, exotic instruments and lines borrowed from The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Beatles’ Revolver-closing “Tomorrow Never Knows” not only ushered in a new era for rock bands moving forward, but it also closed a chapter in the group’s acclaimed history. Inspired by LSD, the song is the journey.

 

3. The Beatles, “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” (From Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967)

John Lennon repeatedly stated that “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” despite its LSD imagery and possible title reference, had nothing to do with the mind-altering drug. Instead, Lennon claimed the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band highlight was based on a drawing made by his young son, Julian, of a classmate. Either way, the stream-of-consciousness wordplay and hazy vocal sounds like the outline of a trip.

 

2. Black Sabbath, “Sweet Leaf” (From Master of Reality, 1971)

Released a year before the coke-influenced Vol. 4, Black Sabbath’s third album starts with a cough from guitarist Tony Iommi, who was sharing a joint with singer Ozzy Osbourne during recording. Master of Reality is blanketed beneath a cloud of pot smoke; “Sweet Leaf” is both the LP’s fitting introduction and its main statement of purpose. Stoner rock begins here, in all of its lumbering, downtuned glory.

 

1. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, “Purple Haze” (From 1967 single)

“Purple haze all around / Don’t know if I’m coming up or down.” While Jimi Hendrix never confirmed that “Purple Haze” was specifically about drugs — he said it was a love song — lines like the preceding one and a collage of sounds that replicate a mind altered by various substances, it didn’t take long for the track to become an integral part of psychedelic culture, to the point where mere mention of its title has come to represent the entire scene. Structured atop a basic blues foundation and filtered through hoops-jumping guitars, Hendrix’s aw-shucks delivery and plenty of volume, “Purple Haze” bridges the first and last parts of the ’60s, a handoff from one generation to the next. Along with several other revolutionary works from this musically rich period, the song is undoubtedly a central milestone in rock history. Now excuse us while we kiss the sky …