Why It Matters

All this talk about unhappy people growling like bears got me thinking about bear songs.

I don’t mean songs for hairy gay guys, although come to think of it that would probably make a pretty interesting playlist, nor do I mean songs about being bare, which is a list that demands video accompaniment.

So I went through my stacks and found a handful of bear songs. If I overlooked your favorite, please don’t growl at me.

“Dancing Bear,” The Mamas and the Papas. Listening to John Phillips these days feels a bit like rocking to Gary Glitter, but this is in my stacks so there you go. Just pretend you don’t know any of that creepy stuff about Papa John and enjoy the song.

“(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear,” Elvis Presley. Come on, you knew this one would be on here.

“Cold Bear,” The Gaturs. Funky!

“Bear Attack,” Mad Anthony.

“Polar Bear,” The Charlatans UK.

“Running Bear,” Johnny Preston.

“The Bear,” The Tragically Hip.

“Bears,” Zebra. Get out your headbands and parachute pants and let’s do this thing.

There you have it — eight tracks about bears. What did I miss? I’m listening.

 

***SUPER FUZZY BONUS TRACK***

“Cache Cache,” Pete Townshend. Later recorded by The Who, but Pete’s demo from Scoop is my favorite version.