What are the top 10 narrative songs in pop history?

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
A Day in the Life

“Tweeter and the Monkey Man” by The Traveling Wilburys

NIck Cave and The Bad Seeds: (I’ll love you) Till The End Of the World
The Cure: How Beautiful You Are
Charlie Daniel’s Band: Devil Went Down to Georgia

Im going to have to second tinyfaery wiht devil went down to georgia

“Devil” has to be #1 and “Tweeter” is a definite top ten, maybe top 3. You guys nailed those two.

“Cats in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin might be #2.

What was Chapins other big hit, “Taxi” something?

Some off the top (though some are more poetry than narrative):

Thriller (Micheal Jackson/Quincy Jones)
Sympathy for the Devil (The Roling Stones)
Hotel California (The Eagles)
Horse With No Name (America)
The Boxer (Simon & Garfunkel)
The Hurricane (Bob Dylan)
Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin)
Paul Revere (The Beastie Boys)
A Day in the Life (The Beatles)
50 Ways to Leave Your Lover (Paul Simon)
Jet Airliner (Steve Miler Band)
Fast Car (Tracy Chapman)

Edit: Sorry I listed more than 10-iPhone sucks for proofing.

@sndfreQ: excellent list!

“Me and Bobbie McGee” Janis Joplin

Jim Croce had some good ones, perhaps “Operator”

The Boxer definitely. My fave S&G song.

Coat of Many Colors – Dolly Parton
You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me, Lucille – Kenny Rogers
Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town – Kenny Rogers
Patches (I’m Dependin on You, Son) – Clarence Carter
Ode to Billy Joe – Bobbie Gentry
Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts – Bob Dylan
The Boxer – Paul Simon
Only a Dream in Rio – James Taylor
Miss Otis Regrets – Libby Titus
America – Paul Simon

“Roland the Headless Thompson gunner” or “Excitable boy” by Warren Zevon

“Into the Great Wide Open” by Tom Petty

Oh, susan! My first thought was Miss Otis Regrets—and you beat me to it!

Okay, don’t think me weird but these two ‘Mellow Gold’ hits are also in my mind:

Leader of the Band
and
Same Old Lang Syne
both by Dan Fogelberg (what a loss :( RIP Dan)...

also “1952 vincent black lightning” by Richard Thompson.

I would have to agree that The Boxer is number one. Maybe The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot is somewhere up there?

The only other songs I can think of are cheesy; One Tin Soldier (Billy Jack is one my favorite movies EVER) by Skeeter Davis and Indiana Wants Me by R. Dean Taylor.

Here are a couple other great ones, Lodi by Credence Clearwater Revival, It Never Rains in Southern California by Albert Hammond, Maxwell Silver Hammer by The Beatles, Mack the Knife by Bobby Darrin.

Did I miss it or has no one mentioned “Bye Bye Miss American Pie?”

La Mar by The Beautiful Girls

@Sueanne: I was about to. American Pie by Don McLean.

Also: Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. does this count?

oops, mine’s not exactly pop, sorry. I knew there was a reason I hadn’t answered this question yet…

Alice’s Restaurant; Arlo Guthrie.

how about R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet?

Harry Chapin’s “30,000 pounds of bananas” is kinda fun. Don Mclean’s “The Grave”.

“Smackwater Jack” by Carole King

What about Taylor Swift
what are some of her songs?

Marty Robbins – El Paso.