35 Purrfect Songs About Cats to Lighten Up Your Day

After dogs, cats are the second most popular pet species in the world. Many of us share our homes and lives with felines, and such is our connection with them, that they have not only assimilated into our daily lives but have become part of every parlance.

We let the cat out of the bag when we give away a secret, but not if the cat has got our tongue, which means we stay silent on a particular topic. We take cat naps, protect our homes from cat burglars, and our work from copycats. Even financiers know to keep one eye open for a dead cat bounce. As well as idioms, we also reference cats in songs, and composers in every genre of music have written songs about cats.

Below are 35 of the best songs about cats ever made, and there are sure to be some you’ve heard as well as a few hidden gems you’ve yet to discover.

 

The 35 Best Songs About Cats

1. 50 Something Cats

Deadmau5 is well known for his progressive house music, but it might be a surprise that many of his songs are written or inspired by his love of cats. Although, with a name like Deadmau5, maybe not. 50 Something Cats is typical of Deadmau5’s style and samples cat noises throughout.

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2. All Dead, All Dead

All Dead, All Dead was released by iconic British rock band, Queen, in 1977. The somber-sounding song was guitarist Brian May’s first piano ballad and was actually inspired by the passing of his pet cat.

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3. Bring In The Katz

Bring in the Katz isn’t strictly about feline cats. Katz refers to a particular sound and the term bring in the Katz is the drop of the beat. The song was released in 2012 and is a club classic that should get the dance floor going.

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4. Cat On Tin Roof

Cat on a hot tin roof is a phrase used to refer to somebody who is extremely nervous, as a cat would be in that situation. Cat On Tin Roof is a bass-heavy track from Blonde Redhead’s Barragan album, released in 2014.

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5. Cat People (Putting Out Fire)

Cat People (Putting Out Fire) is a 1982 track written by David Bowie and used as the title song for the erotic horror film Cat People. The film itself is about a family of people that turn into panthers and Bowie’s track became his biggest selling single since Golden Years in 1976.

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6. Cool Cat

Written by John Deacon and Freddie Mercury, Cool Cat was a track on the maligned Hot Space album. It is generally claimed to be the worst Queen album, but Cool Cat has seen a surge in popularity thanks to its use in Amazon Prime’s Tache. The song is notable for being one of only four Queen tracks never performed live by the band and for the fact that only Mercury and Deacon feature. Mercury performed the electronic piano parts and Deacon recorded all other instrumental work.

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7. Cool for Cats

Cool for Cats, by British band Squeeze, references the 1950s series of the same name and is a love song, of sorts. Lyricist Chris Difford claims that he wrote the lyrics to the song while watching Benny Hill.

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8. Everybody Wants To Be a Cat

It was inevitable that a list of songs about cats would feature tracks from the Disney movie The Aristocats, and Everybody Wants To Be a Cat is one of the most famous. The jazz-inspired track is a great singalong remembered fondly by kids of the 1970s.

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9. Gato

Cats have been domesticated for thousands of years, so it’s hardly surprising that they have been the muse of classical composers as well as modern artists. In 1943, Alberto Ginastera composed a suite of five songs with the final song entitled Gato, meaning cat, with the lyrics referring to a mischievous feline.

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10. I Taut I Taw a Puddy Tat

I Taut I Taw a Puddy Tat was performed by Mel Blanc, who also voiced the cartoon characters Tweety Pie and Sylvester the Cat. The song was officially released in 1950 and the official version is 4 minutes long.

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11. Invitation To the Jellicle Ball

If you’re looking for music inspired by our feline friends, the musical Cats is the best place to start and is unsurprisingly packed with relevant tracks. Invitation To the Jellicle Ball uses the poetry of T.S. Elliot with music composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and introduces each of the Jellicle cats in the story.

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12. Kitty

Kitty is an unusual take on the human-feline relationship, released by Presidents of the United States Of America. The song is about a person trying to give affection to a feral cat and how the cat turns on the person.

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13. Leave My Kitten Alone

Leave My Kitten Alone was a song by Little Willie John, Titus Turner, and James McDougal that features a lot of meowing. The song was later recorded by The Beatles, with the intention of it being included in the Beatles For Sale album, but it wasn’t used. The Beatles’ cover was finally released in 1994.

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14. Macavity: The Mystery Cat

Macavity: The Mystery Cat is another from the Cats musical and is about Macavity, the only villainous cat in the musical. Macavity was modeled on Moriarty, the antagonist from Sherlock Holmes stories.

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15. Magical Mr. Mistoffelees

In Cats, the Magical Mr. Mistoffelees is a cat with magical powers who has not yet mastered those powers. The cat in question is a tuxedo cat and the song builds to a crescendo several times throughout.

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16. Meow

Meow, by Anamanaguchi, is a kitsch dance track that uses a vocal meow throughout the entire track, giving it its name. In fact, the whole of the lyrics for this song consists of repetitive meows.

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17. Mirror Maru

Mirror Maru is a chilled song by Cashmere Cat and based on the Internet sensation, Maru, who is a sizable tabby cat. The song is used in the video game GTA V, where it is played on the Worldwide FM radio station, where you may have heard it.

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18. Mungojerrie And Rumpleteazer

Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer are criminal, but ultimately good, cats from the Cats musical and this song is about the two of them and their antics. It’s an upbeat song that matches the quirky and lively characters.

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19. My Cat’s Name Is Maceo

The title of My Cat’s Name Is Maceo gives a good indication of what this song is about. It is a tribute to Jane’s Addiction’s frontman Perry Farrel’s cat. The cat was named Maceo after saxophonist Maceo Parker. The band later convinced Parker to play saxophone on the track.

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20. Pads, Paws and Claws

Pads, Paws, and Claws was written by Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney. The song does reference cats and, in particular, their pads, paws, and claws, and the song was inspired by a children’s book that Costello had read in a junk shop.

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21. Pet Me Poppa

Pet Me, Poppa is a song from Guys and Dolls. However, the song did not feature in the original stage version of the show but was used to replace a Bushel and a Peck for the movie version. The track is a swing number and is somewhat suggestive.

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22. Phenomenal Cat

On the face of it, Phenomenal Cat is a song about a cool cat that spends its days hanging out in a tree. But it is actually about how all people have the potential to be incredible and unleash the cat inside them.

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23. Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat

Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat is another title with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and based on the poems of T.S. Elliot, written for the Cats musical. Skimbleshanks is a well-organized perfectionist of a cat.

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24. Smelly Cat

Smelly Cat was performed by Phoebe Buffay in the sitcom Friends. It was first performed in the second series and, as well as being performed by Lisa Kudrow, it has been sung or co-sung by Chrissie Hynde, Lady Gaga, and, most recently, Taylor Swift.

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25. Stray Cat Strut

The Stray Cats were an American rockabilly band that was originally known as the Tom Cats. Singer Brian Setzer cited the orange and black cat sticker on his guitar and Top Cat as being the main influences behind the song’s lyrics.

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26. The Lion Sleeps Tonight

The Lion Sleeps Tonight was recorded in 1961 by The Tokens, although it is perhaps best known for featuring in The Lion King. The title was based on Mbube, a song by Solomon Linda. Mbube means Lion in Zulu.

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27. The Love Cats

The Love Cats, by The Cure, is a more whimsical and fun-sounding song by the band that was known for their moody melancholy. However, while the song initially sounds to be a song about the joys of being in love, some have said that it points to the difficulties of being in love and growing up.

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28. The Minister’s Cat

The Musical Scrooge was a musical movie based on Charles Dickens’s Scrooge character from A Christmas Carol. The song is a popular Victorian parlor game, called the Minister’s Cat, where everybody sits around in a circle. Players take turns to describe the cat with a single word beginning with the letter A. When a player fails to come up with an adjective or repeats one, they are out and the next person starts with the letter B. The game continues until there is only one person left.

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29. The Old Gumbie Cat

Yet another track from Cats, The Old Gumbie Cat is about the eponymous Old Gumbie Cat, who trains roaches to dance and teaches mice to crochet. Her actions prevent the cockroaches from ruining food and mice from being destructive.

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30. The Owl and the Pussy Cat

The Owl and the Pussy Cat was originally a poem by Edward Lear, and in 1961, composer Igor Stravinsky took that poem and set it to music. Stravinsky wasn’t the only composer to work with the poem with John Rutter also using Lear’s work.

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31. The Rum Tum Tugger

The Rum Tum Tugger is one of the more peculiar numbers from Cats, being about a cat that is always in heat and gyrates at female cats whenever he sees them. Cats are well known for being prolific breeders, so it is only fitting that a musical about felines would include some reference to this habit.

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32. The Siamese Cat Song

Lady and the Tramp is a Disney animated film about two dogs but the Siamese Cat Song is perhaps one of the best-known tracks from the film. It is sung by Si and Am, two Siamese cats, and is quite hypnotic.

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33. Thomas O’Malley Cat

The Thomas O’Malley Cat song is from The Aristocats and is sung by Thomas O’Malley when he first enters the film. Thomas O’Malley is an alley cat who has wanderlust and enjoys living outdoors.

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34. Three Cool Cats

The original Three Cool Cats was recorded by The Coasters in 1958, the song was used by The Beatles when auditioning for Decca Records in 1962. They failed the audition but did later record the song in 1962.

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35. What’s New Pussycat?

What’s New Pussycat? Isn’t really about cats but a new love, and it helped propel Tom Jones to stardom. With that said, while the track did reach number 3 in the U.S., it only managed to reach number 11 in the UK. It was written for the Woody Allen film of the same name and was actually penned by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

Conclusion

There have been lots of songs inspired by cats or at least featuring our domesticated feline friends. Many are analogous, rather than literal songs about cats, but there are also some written to celebrate the lives of pet cats and the relationships they have with their humans.

Also see:

• Best Songs About Dogs: Tributes to Our Four-Legged Best Friends
• Jazzy and Cool Musician Cat Names: Names You Can Groove To

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Featured Image Credit: Erickson Stock, Shutterstock