Songs About Being Led On
1. ‘So In Love’ by Orchestral Manoeuvres in The Dark
The single version of this track sold an impressive 50,000 copies. This is all the more miraculous when you know the band was going to drop this song from the album entirely.
‘So In Love’ became the first single released from OMD’s 1985 album called ‘Crush’. The album was as successful as the single hitting the top thirty in both the US and the UK.
A consummately crafted song within the 80s electronic music genre, it quickly became a favourite amongst the DJs of the time. The song invites us to reflect on the difficult fact that the person you thought you knew and fell in love with might not be who you originally saw.
Loaded with emotions and feelings about relationship problems, this is no track of adoration but one of bitterness and loss.
2. ‘Don’t Lead Me On’ by Neil Sedaka
Neil Sedaka is one of the vintage artists included in this list. He is a legend and still performing at the fine age of 89. During his career, Sedaka achieved a string of hit songs that shot him to fame in the late fifties and early sixties.
These included ‘Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen’, and ‘Calendar Girl’ to name but two of these.
This track was released in the late fifties and has appeared on numerous compilations of Sedaka’s work. It is written in a typical 50s do-wop style, complete with a generous string arrangement.
The gently swinging 12/8 rhythm supports the sad tone of the song. The singer asks that the person he is in love with doesn’t just take him for granted and break his heart.
If it isn’t true love, he asks, then leaves him be to find someone who does love him. A wonderfully nostalgic and innocent song that brings a breath of fresh air to current times.
3. ‘Stuck In A Song’ by Cadet
As far as I can discover, Cadet has only released two albums, ‘The Observatory’ and ‘Cadet’. ‘Cadet’ was produced in 2001, with the latter arriving on the air the following year. ‘Stuck In A Song’ is track seven on ‘The Observatory’.
If these are their only albums, then it’s a great shame, as these rockers wrote some noteworthy tracks. They are an American band from Oregon, and this track contains many characteristics that attract fans of the genre. The instrumental writing and performing are effortlessly delivered, topped with memorable melodies.
‘Stuck in A Song’ is the seventh track on the second album. The lyrics are carefully crafted and delivered in this rock ballad. Here, the singer asks that the person he is enamoured by is honest with him and lets him go if they can’t love him back.
‘Don’t lead me on’ is the tagline in the song, but the line that lasts for me is ‘Don’t try to keep me if I can’t keep you’. It brings a slightly new flavour to the theme of this group of tracks.
4. ‘Maggie May’ by Rod Stewart
You might not know that Rod Stewart wasn’t only a first-class singer, but he was also a songwriter. ‘Maggie May’ was co-written with rock guitarist Martin Quittenton. This song featured on Rod’s 1971 album titled ‘Every Picture Tells a Story’.
For me, what makes this song particularly appealing is that it is taken from Rod Stewart’s experience of love with an older woman. As it transpires, this woman was, according to Rod, the first one he had had sex with, and it left quite an impression on him.
Perhaps to protect the true identity of his ex-lover, or maybe he just forgot, Maggie May is the name of a prostitute from an old folk song from Liverpool.
Like many of Rod’s songs, this one went to number one in 1971 and remained happily there for nearly five weeks. One appealing instrumental touch on this track is the addition of a mandolin. On the recording, this was masterfully played by Ray Jackson.
5. ‘There is no Arizona’ by Jamie O’Neal
Jamie O’Neal is a Country singer and songwriter born in Australia. ‘The is no Arizona’ was a song co-written by O’Neal and Lisa Drew, and Shayne Smith. Released in the year 2000, this was the initial single from her album titled ‘Shiver’ which enjoyed significant success on the Country billboards.
In true Country fashion, this song has a brilliant narrative. A woman is left behind by a man she loves who tells her he’ll send for her once he has settled down in Arizona. But, as the song’s title suggests, she’s been lied to, and he will never make that call.
What makes this track remarkable is that the title comes from a Stephen King book called ‘Dolores Claiborne’. This book was developed into a movie in 1992 when O’Neal saw it, she was moved by it, and the title stuck.
All the more incredible is that Stephen King is a fan of O’Neal’s, and after his assistant saw her perform this song, he sent her a signed copy of his book.
6. ‘FU’ by Miley Cyrus ft French Montana
In 2013, this song was a collaboration between Cyrus and rapper French Montana. It heralds Cyrus’s fourth album titled ‘Bangerz’.
Despite some critics drawing parallels between this song and Amy Winehouse’s work, it received a good collection of reviews and just made it into the chart 100s. Stylistically the track has overtones of both EDM and Dubstep with a gently underlying pulse.
Perhaps in a less than subtle manner, the title of this song comprehensively illustrates the singer’s feelings towards the ex-lover who led her on and then cheated on her.
She was sure he would be her one true love, but he broke her heart. All she now has left for the cheat is two letters.
7. ‘Grenade’ by Bruno Mars
Given that this song came from Brun Mars’s debut album, its success is extraordinary. Mars released his first studio album in 2010 with the title ‘Doo-Wops and Hooligans’. Many considered the track to be amongst the best on this album.
In 2011 it is thought to have sold a massive 10.2 million copies making it the second highest-selling single of that year. Despite a formulaic style of writing, the track has appeal and is a collaboration between Mars and several other producers and writers.
Lyrically it is a familiar story of one-sided love, with Mars trying his best to be with a girl who is not interested in him. The lyrics tell just how far he is prepared to go to prove his love for the girl. “I’ll go as far as putting a bullet in my brain for you…”
The production and performance are outstanding. Mars delivers the song with such passion he is utterly convincing. ‘Jangle-Pop’, has been the way the style of the track is described with a sideways glance toward the 1960s.
If you haven’t seen the accompanying video, it’s on an equal footing to the song itself in terms of ingenuity.
8. ‘If I Were a Boy’ by Beyoncé
Whilst there is little doubt that Beyoncé’s performance of this song made it the hit it is, she did not write it. Songwriter BC Jean was the composer and initial artist to record the track.
Jean’s record company did not accept the song, and it was only when Beyoncé purchased the rights to the song that Jean knew her instincts about the track were right.
The angle on human relationships in this song is unique. You can hear in the chorus how different things would be if the singer were a boy, not a girl. The track laments and chastises men for their treatment of their female partners, claiming that if she were a boy, she’d be a better man.
The verses show the inequalities that can be apparent between men and women with the numerous ways men can behave and have it accepted, but not women. In this way, perhaps, the song tells us how we allow ourselves to be led on by outdated and unfair conventions.
It was late in 2008 when this song hit the charts. It became a pivotal track on Beyonce’s thirteenth studio album ‘I Am … Sasha Fierce’.
9. ‘I’m Not The Only One’ by Sam Smith
Smith has described this track as “complex in its simplicity”. When you hear the first few bars, you have an idea why he describes the track this way, as the repeating piano chords underpin the entire song.
Where the complexity perhaps arrives is in the gradual layering of the arrangement, which gathers depth as the emotional content rises. The feel is alarmingly relaxed, juxtaposing the fraught subject matter of the song.
It is sung from the woman’s point of view. She is caught in a relationship with a man she loves, but a man she knows is cheating on her. Every day she hurts from the betrayal, yet she chooses to stay with him even though he is leading her on.
Smith felt strongly about this song which is based on marriage both writers were party to and felt was seriously wrong. How could she just accept the situation and carry on, Smith wondered?
Smith’s album ‘In The Lonely Hour’ released in 2014, was composed by Smith and collaborator Jimmy Napes. Stylistically the song is a pleasant fusion of soul, gospel, and pop that achieved success in the charts globally, assuring Smith a place in music.