This is a list of songs recorded by The Pogues, an Anglo-Irish Celtic punk band. Most of the songs were composed by band members, especially lead singer Shane MacGowan, though the band's repertoire also includes renditions of folk songs from around the world, and especially from Ireland.
![]() | This list of songs or music-related items is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (October 2021) |
Song | Composer | Album | Time | Year | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
"5 Green Queens and Jean" | Jem Finer Shane MacGowan | Hell's Ditch | 2:35 | 1990 | [1] | |
"Amadie" | Andrew Ranken | Pogue Mahone | 1:54 | 1996 | [2] | |
"And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" | Eric Bogle | Rum Sodomy & the Lash | 8:10 | 1985 | [3] | |
"Anniversary" | Finer | Pogue Mahone | 4:05 | 1996 | [2] | |
"The Auld Triangle" | Brendan Behan Dominic Behan | Red Roses for Me | 4:20 | 1984 | Originally composed for Brendan Behan's The Quare Fellow | [4] |
"The Battle of Brisbane" | MacGowan | Red Roses for Me | 1:49 | 1984 | Instrumental | [4] |
"Billy's Bones" | MacGowan | Rum Sodomy & the Lash | 2:02 | 1985 | [3] | |
"Big City" | Darryl Hunt | Waiting for Herb | 2:41 | 1993 | [5] | |
"Blue Heaven" | Phil Chevron Hunt | Peace and Love | 3:36 | 1989 | [6] | |
"Boat Train" | MacGowan | Peace and Love | 2:40 | 1989 | [6] | |
"The Body of an American" | MacGowan | Poguetry in Motion | 3:05 | 1986 | [7] | |
"Bottle of Smoke" | Finer MacGowan | If I Should Fall from Grace with God | 2:47 | 1988 | [8] | |
"Boys from the County Hell" | MacGowan | Red Roses for Me | 2:56 | 1984 | [4] | |
"Bright Lights" | Finer | Pogue Mahone | 2:32 | 1996 | [2] | |
"The Broad Majestic Shannon" | MacGowan | If I Should Fall from Grace with God | 2:55 | 1988 | [8] | |
"Cotton Fields" | MacGowan | Peace and Love | 2:51 | 1989 | [6] | |
"Dark Streets of London" | MacGowan | Red Roses for Me | 3:33 | 1984 | [4] | |
"Dingle Regatta" | MacGowan | Red Roses for Me | 2:52 | 1984 | Instrumental | [4] |
"Dirty Old Town" | Ewan MacColl | Rum Sodomy & the Lash | 3:45 | 1985 | [3] | |
"Down All the Days" | MacGowan | Peace and Love | 3:45 | 1989 | [6] | |
"Down in the Ground Where the Dead Men Go" | MacGowan | Red Roses for Me | 3:30 | 1984 | [4] | |
"Drunken Boat" | James Fearnley | Waiting for Herb | 6:38 | 1993 | Partially adapted from "Le Bateau ivre" | [5] [9] |
"Fairytale of New York" | Finer MacGowan | If I Should Fall from Grace with God | 4:36 | 1988 | Featuring Kirsty MacColl | [8] |
"Fiesta" | Finer MacGowan | If I Should Fall from Grace with God | 4:13 | 1988 | [8] | |
"Four O'Clock in the Morning" | Ranken | Pogue Mahone | 3:14 | 1996 | [2] | |
"Gartloney Rats" | Terry Woods | Peace and Love | 2:32 | 1989 | [6] | |
"The Gentleman Soldier" | Traditional | Rum Sodomy & the Lash | 2:04 | 1985 | [3] | |
"The Ghost of a Smile" | MacGowan | Hell's Ditch | 2:58 | 1990 | [1] | |
"Girl from the Wadi Hammamat" | Finer Ranken | Waiting for Herb | 4:53 | 1993 | [5] | |
"Greenland Whale Fisheries" | Traditional | Red Roses for Me | 2:36 | 1984 | [4] | |
"Gridlock" | Finer Ranken | Peace and Love | 3:33 | 1989 | Instrumental | [6] |
"Haunted" | Sid and Nancy soundtrack | Waiting for Herb | 1986 | [5] | ||
"Haunting" | Woods | Waiting for Herb | 4:04 | 1993 | [5] | |
"Hell's Ditch" | Finer MacGowan | Hell's Ditch | 3:03 | 1990 | [1] | |
"Honky Tonk Women" | Mick Jagger Keith Richards | "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah" B-side | 2:55 | 1990 | ||
"How Come" | Ronnie Lane Kevin Westlake | Pogue Mahone | 2:50 | 1996 | [2] | |
"House of the Gods" | MacGowan | Hell's Ditch | 3:46 | 1990 | [1] | |
"If I Should Fall from Grace with God" | MacGowan | If I Should Fall from Grace with God | 2:20 | 1988 | [8] | |
"I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day" | Traditional | Rum Sodomy & the Lash | 2:55 | 1985 | [3] | |
"The Irish Rover" | Traditional | Single | 3:39 | 1987 | Collaboration with The Dubliners | |
"Jack's Heroes" | Spider Stacy | "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah" B-side | 3:05 | 1990 | Collaboration with the Dubliners in support of the Irish national football team | |
"Jesse James" | Traditional | Rum Sodomy & the Lash | 2:58 | 1985 | [3] | |
"Kitty" | Traditional | Red Roses for Me | 4:23 | 1984 | [4] | |
"The Limerick Rake" | Traditional | "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah" B-side | 3:10 | 1990 | ||
"Living in a World Without Her" | Hunt James McNally | Pogue Mahone | 3:20 | 1996 | [2] | |
"London Girl" | MacGowan | Poguetry in Motion | 3:05 | 1986 | [7] | |
"London You're a Lady" | MacGowan | Peace and Love | 2:56 | 1989 | [6] | |
"Lorca's Novena" | Finer MacGowan | Hell's Ditch | 4:40 | 1990 | [1] | |
"Lorelei" | Chevron | Peace and Love | 3:33 | 1989 | [6] | |
"Love You 'Till the End" | Hunt | Pogue Mahone | 4:35 | 1996 | [2] | |
"Lullaby of London" | MacGowan | If I Should Fall from Grace with God | 3:32 | 1988 | [8] | |
"Maggie May" | Martin Quittenton Rod Stewart | |||||
"Maidrin Rua" | Traditional | Hell's Ditch | 1:47 | 1990 | Instrumental | [1] |
"Medley: The Recruiting Sergeant/ The Rocky Road to Dublin/The Galway Races" | Traditional | If I Should Fall from Grace with God | 4:03 | 1988 | [8] | |
"Metropolis" | Finer | If I Should Fall from Grace with God | 2:50 | 1988 | Instrumental | [8] |
"Misty Morning, Albert Bridge" | Finer | Peace and Love | 3:01 | 1989 | [6] | |
"Modern World" | Hunt | Waiting for Herb | 3:55 | 1993 | [5] | |
"Mountain Dew" | Edward Harrigan | 2:19 | Collaboration with the Dubliners | |||
"My Baby's Gone" | Finer Ranken | Waiting for Herb | 2:24 | 1993 | [5] | |
"Navigator" | Philip Gaston | Rum Sodomy & the Lash | 4:12 | 1985 | [3] | |
"Night Train to Lorca" | Finer | Peace and Love | 3:29 | 1989 | [6] | |
"The Old Main Drag" | MacGowan | Rum Sodomy & the Lash | 3:19 | 1985 | [3] | |
"Once Upon a Time" | Finer | Waiting for Herb | 3:55 | 1993 | [5] | |
"Oretown" | Finer | Pogue Mahone | 3:50 | 1996 | [2] | |
"Pachinko" | Finer | Waiting for Herb | 3:09 | 1993 | [5] | |
"A Pair of Brown Eyes" | MacGowan | Rum Sodomy & the Lash | 4:54 | 1985 | [3] | |
"The Parting Glass" | Traditional | Single | 2:14 | 1985 | [3] | |
"Planxty Noel Hill" | Finer | Poguetry in Motion | 3:12 | 1986 | Instrumental | [7] |
"Pont Mirabeau" | Finer | Pogue Mahone | 3:31 | 1996 | Partially adapted from the poem of the same name by Guillaume Apollinaire | [2] [10] |
"Poor Paddy" | Traditional | Red Roses for Me | 3:09 | 1984 | [4] | |
"Rain Street" | MacGowan | Hell's Ditch | 4:00 | 1990 | [1] | |
"Rainbow Man" | Woods | Hell's Ditch | 2:46 | 1990 | [1] | |
"Rainy Night in Soho" | MacGowan | Poguetry in Motion | 5:36 | 1986 | [7] | |
"Sally MacLennane" | MacGowan | Rum Sodomy & the Lash | 2:43 | 1985 | [3] | |
"Sayonara" | MacGowan | Hell's Ditch | 3:07 | 1990 | [1] | |
"Sea Shanty" | MacGowan | Red Roses for Me | 2:24 | 1984 | [4] | |
"The Sick Bed of Cúchulainn" | MacGowan | Rum Sodomy & the Lash | 2:59 | 1985 | [3] | |
"Sit Down by the Fire" | MacGowan | If I Should Fall from Grace with God | 2:18 | 1988 | [8] | |
"Sitting on Top of the World" | Fearnley Finer Woods | Waiting for Herb | 3:37 | 1993 | [5] | |
"Six to Go" | Woods | Hell's Ditch | 2:58 | 1990 | [1] | |
"Small Hours" | Finer | Waiting for Herb | 4:31 | 1993 | [5] | |
"Smell of Petroleum" | Finer | Waiting for Herb | 3:13 | 1993 | [5] | |
"South Australia" | Traditional | Waiting for Herb | 3:27 | 1993 | [8] | |
"Streams of Whiskey" | MacGowan | Red Roses for Me | 2:23 | 1984 | [4] | |
"Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six" | MacGowan Woods | If I Should Fall from Grace with God | 4:39 | 1988 | [8] | |
"Summer in Siam" | MacGowan | Hell's Ditch | 4:06 | 1990 | [1] | |
"The Sun and the Moon" | James Clarke Stacy | Pogue Mahone | 3:21 | 1996 | [2] | |
"Sunny Side of the Street" | Finer MacGowan | Hell's Ditch | 2:44 | 1990 | [1] | |
"Thousands Are Sailing" | Chevron | If I Should Fall from Grace with God | 5:28 | 1988 | [8] | |
"Tombstone" | Finer | Peace and Love | 2:57 | 1989 | [6] | |
"Tosspint" | Finer | Pogue Mahone | 3:31 | 1996 | [2] | |
"Transmetropolitan" | MacGowan | Red Roses for Me | 4:15 | 1984 | [4] | |
"Tuesday Morning" | Stacy | Waiting for Herb | 3:30 | 1993 | [5] | |
"Turkish Song of the Damned" | Finer MacGowan | If I Should Fall from Grace with God | 3:27 | 1988 | [8] | |
"USA" | MacGowan | Peace and Love | 4:52 | 1989 | [6] | |
"The Wake of the Medusa" | Finer | Hell's Ditch | 3:04 | 1990 | [1] | |
"Waxie's Dargle" | Traditional | Red Roses for Me | 1:53 | 1984 | [4] | |
"When the Ship Comes In" | Bob Dylan | Pogue Mahone | 3:13 | 1996 | [2] | |
"Where the Love's Been Gone" | Ranken Steven Skull | Pogue Mahone | 3:50 | 1996 | [2] | |
"White City" | MacGowan | Peace and Love | 2:31 | 1989 | [6] | |
"Wild Cats of Kilkenny" | Finer MacGowan | Rum Sodomy & the Lash | 2:48 | 1985 | Instrumental | [3] |
"Worms" | Traditional | If I Should Fall from Grace with God | 1:01 | 1988 | [8] | |
"Smell of Petroleum" | Finer | Waiting for Herb | 3:13 | 1993 | [5] | |
"Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah" | MacGowan | Single | 3:16 | 1988 | [6] | |
"Young Ned Of The Hill" | Terry Woods, Ron Kavana | Peace and Love | 2:45 | 1989 | [6] | |
The Pogues were an English or Anglo-Irish Celtic punk band fronted by Shane MacGowan and others, founded in Kings Cross, London in 1982, as "Pogue Mahone" – the anglicisation of the Irish Gaelic póg mo thóin, meaning "kiss my arse". The band reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s, recording several hit albums and singles. MacGowan left the band in 1991 owing to drinking problems, but the band continued – first with Joe Strummer and then with Spider Stacy on vocals – before breaking up in 1996. The Pogues re-formed in late 2001, and played regularly across the UK and Ireland and on the US East Coast, until dissolving again in 2014. The group did not record any new material during this second incarnation.
Rum Sodomy & the Lash is the second studio album by the London-based folk punk band The Pogues, released on 5 August 1985. The album reached number 13 in the UK charts. The track "A Pair of Brown Eyes", based on an older Irish tune, reached number 72 in the UK singles chart. "The Old Main Drag" later appeared on the soundtrack to the film My Own Private Idaho.
If I Should Fall from Grace with God is the third studio album by Irish folk-punk band The Pogues, released on 18 January 1988. Released in the wake of their biggest hit single, "Fairytale of New York", If I Should Fall from Grace with God also became the band's best-selling album, peaking at number 3 in the UK Album Charts and reaching the top ten in several other countries.
"Fairytale of New York" is a song written by Jem Finer and Shane MacGowan and recorded by their band the Pogues, featuring singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl on vocals. The song is an Irish folk-style ballad and was written as a duet, with the Pogues' singer MacGowan taking the role of the male character and MacColl the female character. It was originally released as a single on 23 November 1987 and later featured on the Pogues' 1988 album If I Should Fall from Grace with God.
Caitlín "Cait" O'Riordan is a Nigerian-born British musician of Irish and Scottish descent. She played bass guitar for the Irish punk/folk band the Pogues from 1983 to 1986. She later played with Elvis Costello as well as several other projects. She goes by the name Rocky O'Riordan on social media and for her Sirius-XM radio show, "The Rocky O'Riordan Show".
Folk punk is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was popularized in the early 1980s by the Pogues in Ireland, and by Violent Femmes in the United States. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in that decade. In more recent years, its subgenres Celtic punk and Gypsy punk have experienced some commercial success.
Waiting for Herb is the sixth studio album by the Pogues, released in 1993, and their first without lead singer Shane MacGowan.
"Le Bateau ivre" is a 100-line verse-poem written in 1871 by Arthur Rimbaud. The poem describes the drifting and sinking of a boat lost at sea in a fragmented first-person narrative saturated with vivid imagery and symbolism.
Peter Richard "Spider" Stacy is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and actor. He is best known for playing tin whistle and sometimes singing for The Pogues.
The Mahones are a Canadian Irish punk band, formed on St. Patrick's Day in 1990, in Kingston, Ontario.
"The Parting Glass" is a Scottish traditional song, often sung at the end of a gathering of friends. It has also long been sung in Ireland, enjoying considerable popularity to this day and strongly influencing the style in which it is often now sung. It was purportedly the most popular parting song sung in Scotland before Robert Burns wrote "Auld Lang Syne".
"The Wild Colonial Boy" is a traditional anonymous Irish-Australian ballad which tells the story of a bushranger in early colonial Australia who dies during a gunfight with local police. Versions of the ballad give different names for the bushranger involved: some based on real individuals and some apparently fictional. A common theme is romanticisation of the bushranger's battle against colonial authority. The ballad's popularity over time has encouraged numerous re-recordings by twentieth century artists.
Pogue Mahone is the seventh and final studio album by The Pogues, released in 1996. The title is a variant of the Irish phrase póg mo thóin, meaning "kiss my arse", from which the band's name is derived. It was the band's second studio album recorded after the departure of Shane MacGowan, and features Spider Stacy in the role of lead singer.
"Sally MacLennane" was the second single by The Pogues to make the UK Top 100, reaching number 54. The song was composed by Shane MacGowan and featured on the band's second album, Rum Sodomy & the Lash. It is one of the best known Pogues songs and has been included in all set lists by the reformed Pogues.
"Jack's Heroes" was a single released by The Pogues & The Dubliners in 1990, composed by tin whistle player Spider Stacy about the Republic of Ireland football squad, then managed by Jack Charlton. The song is to the tune of "The Wild Colonial Boy", a traditional Irish-Australian ballad. The video featured the two bands playing against each other in a football match. The single charted in Ireland at Number 4 and in the UK Top 100 at Number 63.
"Once Upon a Time" is a song by The Pogues released as a single in 1993 from their sixth album, Waiting for Herb. The song was the band's last single to chart in the UK, making number 66, before the band broke up in 1996 following the release of their seventh and final album, Pogue Mahone. The song was composed by Banjo player Jem Finer.
Poguetry in Motion is an EP by The Pogues, released on Stiff Records in the UK on 24 February 1986, and in the US & Canada on MCA Records. It was the band's first single to make the UK Top 40, peaking at number 29 and the first Pogues recording to feature Philip Chevron and Terry Woods.
"Thousands Are Sailing" is a song by The Pogues, released in 1988. The song is an Irish folk style ballad, written by Phil Chevron, and featured on The Pogues' album If I Should Fall from Grace with God.
Garbo is a 1992 Australian comedy film directed by Ron Cobb. It was written by the Australian comedians Neill Gladwin and Steve Kearney with Patrick Cook from a story by Hugh Rule. Max Cullen, Moya O'Sullivan and Imogen Annesley also star. Filmed in Melbourne, the story focuses on two Australian garbagemen who have to compete with a new corporate outfit which also has ambitions to redevelop parts of the suburb in which they work. The film's engagement with the simpler pleasures of community life reflects the work of Jacques Tati, who both Gladwin and Kearney admired.
The Pogues were an English or Anglo-Irish Celtic punk band fronted by Shane MacGowan and others, founded in Kings Cross, London in 1982, as "Pogue Mahone" – the anglicisation of the Irish Gaelic póg mo thóin, meaning "kiss my arse". The band reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s, recording several hit albums and singles. MacGowan left the band in 1991 owing to drinking problems, but the band continued – first with Joe Strummer and then with Spider Stacy on vocals – before breaking up in 1996. The Pogues re-formed in late 2001, and played regularly across the UK and Ireland and on the US East Coast, until dissolving again in 2014. The group did not record any new material during this second incarnation.