Songs with the name Michael

The name Michael has a way of anchoring very different kinds of songs. In Joni Mitchell's "Michael from Mountains," the name belongs to a child glimpsed through a tender, acoustic portrait from the late 1960s folk tradition, all fingerpicked guitar and clear, breathy melody. Franz Ferdinand's 2004 "Michael" is something else entirely: a taut, wired post-punk track driven by jagged guitar and a relentless disco-rock beat, where the name is half-shouted, caught up in the track's restless energy.

Then there are the Michaels built around specific scenes. "Michael Praytor" by Ben Folds Five sits in the band's 2012 piano-rock mode, finding a wandering acquaintance at a school reunion and treating him with both bemusement and affection. "Michael and Heather at the Baggage Claim," from Fountains of Wayne in 2007, is warmer still—a character study of a tired couple navigating an airport, wrapped in the band's usual jangle and wry sympathy. Cash Cash's 2011 "Michael Jackson" turns the name into something more abstract: a sleek, pulsing dance record that uses the iconic full name as a hook rather than a character study, all bright synths and momentum.