Songs with the name Arthur

Few first names have anchored such sharply different records. Christopher Cross made his 1981 "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" a breezy, soft-rock gem, all polished piano, saxophone and a chorus that feels like a slow drive at dusk. The name belongs to a lovable, aimless rich man, and the song promises that getting lost between the moon and New York City is really the best that you can do. Rick Wakeman's 1975 "Arthur" is the opposite of breezy: a sprawling progressive-rock suite built on synthesizers and classically turned motifs, with the name evoking a mythic king rather than a cocktail-party drifter.

The Kinks reached the name first. Their 1969 "Arthur" is the bones of a concept record about a British everyman facing postwar dreams and disappointment, and the sound is sturdy, nostalgic rock-and-roll shot through with Ray Davies's tender satire. The name does heavy lifting in all three songs, but each time it points somewhere new: a comic film character, a legendary monarch, an ordinary working life.