Songs with the name Lisa

Few names have worked their way into as many different corners of the songbook. Nat King Cole's "Mona Lisa" is the granddaddy of them: a lush, slow, orchestral ballad delivered in his famously smooth baritone, romantic and slightly mysterious, and it remains one of the definitive pop crooner records of its era. Lil Wayne and Kendrick Lamar's "Mona Lisa," nearly seventy years later, is a different animal entirely — a long, cinematic piece of rap storytelling from Tha Carter V in which the painting's name frames a twisting tale of deception, with Kendrick playing his part as a character actor over a moody beat. Britney Spears also has a "Mona Lisa," a track from her Circus era that treats the name as a metaphor for a woman scrutinized and misunderstood.

The Velvet Underground's "Lisa Says" is Lou Reed at his most tender and offhand, a fragile live staple of the band's 1969 period where the girl's name sits at the centre of a shy, drawled confession. Dave Edmunds' "Sweet Little Lisa" rides the rockabilly revival he championed, all twanging guitar and bar-room bounce. And Walk the Moon's "Lisa Baby" is bright, punchy indie-pop from the same album that made them famous — short, fizzy and danceable. Six songs, six moods, one name running through all of them.