50 Best Rock Songs About Animals
Rock Songs That Mention Animals
There’s a weird charm in songs that lean into animals, whether they’re meant as symbols, jokes, or side characters that sneak into the lyrics. You hear a wolf howl tucked into a chorus or a bird wing its way through a guitar riff, and suddenly the track feels alive in a way it might not otherwise. Rock bands have always loved that trick, mixing the wild with distortion and making it feel half feral and half playful. Some of these songs aren’t even literally about animals, but they carry that energy, and it sticks.
What works so well is how messy the interpretations can be. A cat might be swagger, a dog might mean loyalty or chaos, and a snake might slither through a metaphor that bites harder than the actual reptile. That’s where the fun sits, in the way rock grabs something primal and builds a riff around it. There’s a whole history of pop, rock, country, and R&B songs that do this, but rock has a knack for making it sound like you’ve wandered into a zoo where the amps are turned up way too loud.
None of these tracks pretend to be cool or clever for the sake of it. They growl, chirp, or crawl into your head, and they stay there until you’re humming them without realizing. Some will make you laugh, some lean heavy, some tilt toward strange, but they all scratch the same itch. Here are the best rock songs with animal themes.
Top 10 Animal Rock Songs
1. 'Eye of the Tiger' by Survivor
2. 'White Rabbit' by Jefferson Airplane
3. 'Black Dog' by Led Zeppelin
4. 'A Horse with No Name' by America
5. 'Pigs (Three Different Ones)' by Pink Floyd
6. 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' by The Tokens
7. 'Free Bird' by Lynyrd Skynyrd
8. 'I Am the Walrus' by The Beatles
9. 'Barracuda' by Heart
10. 'Rocky Raccoon' by The Beatles
Popular Rock Songs about Creatures #11 to 20
11. 'Hungry Like the Wolf' by Duran Duran
12. 'Crocodile Rock' by Elton John
13. 'War Pigs' by Black Sabbath
14. 'Stray Cat Strut' by Stray Cats
15. 'Rock Lobster' by The B-52's
16. 'Cats in the Cradle' by Harry Chapin
17. 'Peace Frog' by The Doors
18. 'Of Wolf and Man' by Metallica
19. 'Hey Bulldog' by The Beatles
20. 'Animal' by Def Leppard
Well-Known Rock Songs with Animal Names #21 to 30
21. 'Monkey Wrench' by Foo Fighters
22. 'Howlin' for You' by The Black Keys
23. 'Boris the Spider' by The Who
24. 'Seagull' by Bad Company
25. 'Godzilla' by Blue Öyster Cult
26. 'Fly Like an Eagle' by Steve Miller Band
27. 'Dog Eat Dog' by AC/DC
28. 'Octopus's Garden' by The Beatles
29. 'Black Crow' by Joni Mitchell
30. 'Little Red Rooster' by Howlin' Wolf
Top Rated Rock Songs with Animal Themes #31 to 40
31. 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' by The Stooges
32. 'Spiders and Snakes' by Jim Stafford
33. 'And Your Bird Can Sing' by The Beatles
34. 'The Raven' by The Stranglers
35. 'Batdance' by Prince
36. 'Fox on the Run' by Sweet
37. 'Hair of the Dog' by Nazareth
38. 'The House of the Rising Sun' by The Animals
39. 'Black Cat' by Janet Jackson
40. 'Crazy Horses' by The Osmonds
Famous Rock Songs about Animals #41 to 50
41. 'Werewolves of London' by Warren Zevon
42. 'Every Dog Has Its Day' by Procol Harum
43. 'Ants Marching' by Dave Matthews Band
44. 'Animal I Have Become' by Three Days Grace
45. 'Cat Scratch Fever' by Ted Nugent
46. 'Gold Lion' by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
47. 'Dogs' by Pink Floyd
48. 'Golden Retriever' by Super Furry Animals
49. 'The Lobster' by The Flaming Lips
50. 'Wild Horses' by The Rolling Stones
© 2025 Carson McQueen
