I couldn't sleep the other night. In order not to hyper focus on the need to fall asleep, I decided to think of as many songs with colors in their names as I could. Almost immediately, I realized I needed ground rules. For example, I decided that I would only count songs with the name of a color, not the name of a shade. Therefore, "Red, Red Wine" and "White Christmas " were in; "Raspberry Beret" and "Ebony and Ivory" were out.

Next I had to decide what to do about songs that had color words in their title, but not used as a color. For example, "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" has the word brown in its title, yes, but it's used as a name, not as a color. The color that challenged in this regard the most, of course, was blue. Mississippi John Hurt's "Chicken Blues" uses 'blue' as a musical style, "Blue Christmas" uses it as an emotion, and "Don't it Make My Brown Eyes Blue" uses it as a color, but symbolically as an emotion. About at this point I realized I was too into this, and this silly little game was becoming counterproductive in helping to induce sleep. I'd keep it simple. Colors as names would be fine, and blue would be acceptable in all songs except when it was clearly referring to the musical style. "I Guess That's Why They Call it the Blues" was, therefore, out, but the more ambiguous "Song Sung Blue" was in. What can I say, I always preferred Neil Diamond to Elton John. There's just too many blues songs that have the word blues in the title.

I realize if the task was to come up with as long a list as possible, I could have found out in seconds on the internet. But my task was to keep my mind just busy enough not to stress about being awake at 2:00 AM, but not so active that it added to the problem.

With that in mind, what follows is my list, as best as I can remember it:

BLACK:
Back in Black
Black is Black
Black or White
Black and White in a Gray World
Blackbird
Black Day in July
Black Water
Black is the Color of My True Loves Hair (not to be confused with Donovan's"Colors")


WHITE:
Black or White
Black and White in a Gray World
White Christmas
White Wedding
Knights in White Satin
White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation


RED:
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Little Red Corvette
Red, Red Wine
Red Roses for a Blue Lady
Lady in Red
Red River Valley
Roses are Red
Snoopy vs. the Red Baron
99 Red Balloons

PURPLE:
Purple Haze
Purple Rain
One Eyed, One Horned Flying Purple People Eater

GREEN:
Green River
Green Eyed Lady
Green Grow the Lilacs in the Park
Green Green Grass of Home
Greenin' Up Real Good
It's Not Easy Being Green
Bitter Green
Green Tambourine
Ballad of the Green Beret

YELLOW:
Mellow Yellow
Yellow Submarine
Itsy Bitsy, Teeny Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini
Yellow Rose of Texas
Follow the Yellow Brick Road
Good-Bye, Yellow Brick Road
Ballad of the Yellow Beret
Big Yellow Taxi

BROWN:
Brown Sugar
Don't it Make my Brown Eyes Blue
My Brown Eyed Girl
Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown
Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter
Charlie Brown

GOLD:
Sister Golden Hair
Golden Vanity
Silver and Gold

SILVER:
Silver and Gold
Silver Bells

GREY:
Black and White in a Gray World
A Touch of Gray
Even a Grey Day

PINK:
Pink Cadillac
Little Pink Houses
White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation

BLUE:
Forever in Blue Jeans
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
Don't it Make my Brown Eyes Blue
Song Sung Blue
Ode to Big Blue
Love is Blue
Red Roses for a Blue Lady
Blue Suede Shoes
Blue Christmas
The Blue Danube
Blue Kentucky Girl
Cerulean Blue
It's All Over Now,Baby Blue
Blue on Blue
Devil With a Blue Dress On
Tangled Up in Blue

ORANGE:
I got nothing

Of course, this is by no means an exhaustive list, and it clearly reflects my generation and tastes, but it served its purpose.
Now I'm sleepy;
good-night.