Songs with the name Sam

The saddest Sam here is John Prine's. "Sam Stone," from his 1971 debut album, is a folk-country story song about a veteran who comes home from war with a heroin habit, sung in a plain, almost gentle voice that makes the ruin land harder. Johnny Cash's "Sam Hall," from 1965, works the name at the opposite end of the mood: a rowdy, traditional hanging-ballad about a bitter outlaw snarling at his judges, delivered with growls and laughter over a galloping beat.

Olivia Newton-John's "Sam" (1977) is a soft, aching ballad about a woman drawn to a man named Sam while belonging to someone else — plush mid-seventies production, her voice floating over strings. Cliff Richard's "Goodbye Sam, Hello Samantha" (1970) is pure bubblegum-era fun, a chirpy pop single about a friend who comes back transformed, the name change doing the work of the joke.

The darker corners: Elliott Smith's "Son of Sam," from 2000, pairs a bright, layered pop arrangement with unsettling lyrics about compulsive darkness — sweetness and dread in the same breath. The Dead Boys got there first in 1978 with a snarling punk version full of Stooges-style menace. And Brother Ali's "Uncle Sam Goddamn" (2007) puts the name to work as political satire: a fiery, horn-laced hip-hop indictment of the country the name stands for, delivered with righteous, old-school heat.