Ladybugs (or ladybirds as they’re known in the UK) are nature’s symbol of wishing, good luck, fortune and happiness.
As a creature that blossoms during the spring and summer months, the ladybug is often thought to bring blessings of new life and transformative beginnings, like a pretty and positive omen which encourages you to spring-clean your life and embrace the freedom and opportunities rife within the first warm months of the year.
We’ve avoided the masses of cloying nursery rhymes and children’s songs which swarm the concept of ‘songs about ladybugs,’ to showcase only the most inspired music, as distinctive and alluring as the little creatures themselves.
Songs About Ladybugs
1. Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood – Lady Bird
Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood’s 1968 hit Lady Bird cleverly splits its lyrics between the male and female characters to mimic a conversation about the instinctive nature of love which ties all of Earth’s creatures together.
Nancy Sinatra plays the role of the ladybug, free-flying in the autumn skies above her lover who has left her. Lee Hazelwood’s character beckons from the soil, “Ladybird, come on down, I’m here waiting on the ground, ladybird I’ll treat you good, ladybird I wish you would, pretty ladybird.”
Their track meanwhile conjures imagery of nature’s changing seasons which command the life and death of the insect world, to reflect inevitable changing tides of human love;
“Winter lives in my heart, in the times we’re apart, summer sings a song or two, when he says, ‘I love you true,’ I’m his ladybird.”
2. Chet Baker – Lady Bird
Lady Bird is one of the most prominent jazz pieces of the 20th century, composed by pianist Tadd Dameron in 1939, and has since been performed by innumerable musicians across the decades, including our pick, Chet Baker.
Lady Bird was ground-breaking at the time of its original release in 1948 because of the unique turnaround technique planted firmly within its composition.
This technique has since become so synchronised within the jazz genre that it has earned its own idiom named after its creator – the Tadd Dameron turnaround.
For anyone interested in music theory: the Dameron turnaround, in this example, is heard in the progression Cm7 – Eb7 – Abm7 – Db7. See if you can spot this now-common technique within its debut demonstration!
3. NewDad – Ladybird
NewDad’s indie rock song Ladybird floats in the hazy nostalgia of the grungey 90s/00s era. Their lyrics deal with the soul-crushing fear of losing an absent lover forever, as they can’t be pinned down into place;
“I don’t want to worry about if you’re okay or if you made it home… I can’t sleep at night, I wish I could shut it off but something just doesn’t feel right.”
NewDad’s colourfully unhappy sound is dotted with the longing to spread your little wings and fly far away from the anxiety brought on by a boyfriend who suspiciously fails to text you back.
4. Ryokuoushoku Shakai – Ladybug
Japan’s Ryokuoushoku Shakai’s track Ladybug is a fast-paced piece hosting a flock of genre fusions, and weaving threads of latin, jazz, rock music and more together like a daisy chain.
Their track even houses a melodica, bestowing a wistful, scenic atmosphere as that of the iconic Howl’s Moving Castle soundtrack, contrasted by smatterings of gritty slap bass, all instruments which blossom and decay in their prominence to make way for the next seamless wave of inspiration.
Ladybug is packed with captivating musical complexity and oddities of sound, merging to create the most unique form of pop music when sewn together in Ryokuoushoku Shakai’s naturally artistic style.
5. Jon Brion – Lady Bird
Jon Brion’s theme tune to the 2017 coming of age film, ‘Lady Bird,’ captures a daydream of being a tiny beast crawling beneath the huge, overtowering natural world.
Its sound holds the lushness of thick summer grasses within its cyclical orchestral movements, conjuring the wistful feeling of venturing through winding forests and open fields.
Its mellotron intro is reminiscent of the warm countryside atmosphere, highlighted by a hypnotic, almost disorientating circus-like hook which cascades like scattering raindrops.
This is a theme tune for anyone overwhelmed by the wonder of Earth’s harmonious green scenery and its limitless potential for evolution and discovery.
6. Natalie Merchant – Ladybird
Natalie Merchant’s Ladybird draws upon the feminine aspects of the creature to reflect the pain of a woman; a mother’s instinctive nature to stay bound to her family despite feeling hopelessly trapped within the life she’s created.
Merchant ties her lyrics to the burdens of motherhood in a way which transcends the species of earth, “So many little ones, so many mouths, you’ve got a lot to feed and you know you don’t know how, making the best of it, somehow you’re making do,” while singing to any flightless lady who dreams of journeying freespiritedly to wherever the spring airs take them, “You don’t know how to leave and you don’t know where to fly… when you gonna spread your wings and fly? When you gonna fly away?”
7. Em Beihold – Numb Little Bug
Numb Little Bug is multicoloured with vivid teen moodiness and disappointment at life. Em Beihold uses the bug concept to belittle herself, mimicking the feeling of being an insignificant speck upon the planet rather than a functioning human.
She paints her lyrics with depressive anecdotes against a soundscape contrastingly brimming with life and energy, capturing the cuteness of a small yet vivacious ladybug in equilibrium with its perceived insignificance in the world. This is a song for anyone sick of getting trodden on.
8. Vanessa Rubin – Lady Bird
Vanessa Rubin’s rendition of the Tadd Dameron jazz classic, Lady Bird, flourishes with vocals as fresh as the early spring, auburned with the free and fiery hues of a ladybugs flocking wings.
The lyrics of this clear-skied version are blanketed in the longing to fly with a ladybird, or to find peace and boundless love with a partner rather than be bound to the soil with them.
This newer cover is spotted with scat singing and the instinctive, uplifting clarity of the new-born, blooming months which breed love and ladybugs across the planet.
9. Jannabi – Ladybird (레이디버드)
Ladybird by Korea’s progressive pop band, Jannabi, has a slight Beatles vibe to its blue-skied atmosphere. It encompasses the sun-blessed new beginnings of delicate spring months.
Scattered amongst its lyrics is a simple phrase which holds the pure beauty of being within the song’s heartwarmingly minimalistic sense of poetry and harmony, “Sweet, sweet life.”
Jannabi’s song is beautifully melodic and instantly transports you to a peaceful, earthy place away from the clamouring noises of the city.