Bite Podcast’s Edible Playlist

The best songs to listen to when you’re cooking or eating

South_agency/Getty

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

So many beloved musicians make food their central subject at some point: “My baby likes buttered popcorn,” crooned The Supremes; “I’m gonna keep well my vegetables,” The Beach Boys intoned; Carole King kept warm, “While slippin on the slidin’ ice,” sipping on “hot chicken soup with rice.” The rumba master Ramón “Mongo” Santamaría scored a hit in the 1960s by covering a jubilant ode to the “Watermelon Man.”

As a companion to Bite podcast’s special music edition, we rounded up some of our favorite victual melodies, by artists ranging from The Beatles to The Carolina Chocolate Drops. (Which classics did we miss? Let us know in the comments or on Facebook, and we’ll keep adding some more until the end of the month.)

Hip-hop artist Chingo Bling sings the glories of tamales in “Masa and da Flour,” Gustavo Arellano points out on our latest episode of Bite. “When it comes to food and song, Mexicans are very good at the humorous aspects of it,” Arellano argues: 

Bite is Mother Jones’ podcast for people who think hard about their food. Listen to all our episodes here, or subscribe in iTunes or Stitcher or via RSS.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate