10 Creepy Myths Surrounding Popular Songs

Show-businesses is positively rife with tall tales of studio hauntings, cursed actors and roles that cause considerable harm to those who undertake them. The music industry is no different. As a medium often steered by those with either a lofty imagination or a taste for hard drugs, music is home to bizarre urban legends of its own, some of which are more interesting than the singers and songs they accompany.

Thanks to strained relationships with government bodies, concerned parent groups and censorship activists, rock & roll and everything in between has often struggled to gain the trust of the public, and various bands and singers have occasionally seen their otherwise good(ish) names besmirched by false rumours and myths that still persist to this day.

In other cases, the artists themselves have drummed up hyperbolic claims pertaining to the unholy or unnatural properties of their songs, claims that have then taken on a life of their own.

From Faustian tales of Devilish deals to tragically ironic car crashes and back-masked subliminal messages, some of history’s timeless tunes have been followed by downright spooky legends.

They aren’t all true, but their mere existence is enough to give you pause, the next time you go to hit ‘play’…

There are plenty of stories within the music industry revolving around the devil, particularly the idea that Satan is willing to bestow unholy musical talent upon anyone willing to sell him their soul. One particularly famous example of this is the case of Robert Johnson, the legendary blues musicians who allegedly bartered his soul at a Mississippi crossroads in order to gain his musical abilities.

Naturally, people have looked to Johnson’s seminal ‘Cross Road Blues’ as indication that there’s truth to the story, and many believe the song to be cursed. The track itself contains no such reference to Faustian legend or a satanic exchange, and is predominantly about asking forgiveness from God. But later covers of the song have perpetuated the idea that it possesses uncanny attributes.

Eric Clapton recorded perhaps the most well-known version of Cross Road Blues (simply titles ‘Crossroads’), and both The Allman Brothers Band & Lynyrd Skynyrd released covers of their own.

What links these three artists? They all experienced traumatic bereavements, either involving loved ones (Clapton’s son) or band members (Lynyrd Skynyrd vocalist Ronnie Van Zant died in a car crash a year after recording Crossroads) following their covers.