Boxing Songs

Boxing Day isn’t about boxing. It’s about putting things in boxes—post-Christmas gifts for the household staff.

1. Tim Vine, “Box Song.” “I used to have a box and I didn’t know what to do.”

2. The Lonely Island with Justin Timberlake, “Dick in a Box.” Won the Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.

3. Orchestral Manoevres in the Dark, “Pandora’s Box.” About Louise Brooks, who played Lulu the silent film classic Pandora’s Box in 1929 and later wrote the extraordinary memoir Lulu in Hollywood. “And all the stars you kissed/Could never ease the pain/And if the face has changed/The grace remains and you’re still the same.”

4. Pete Seeger, “Little Boxes.” Suburban sprawl anthem penned by Seeger’s pal Malvina Reynolds. A ‘60s protest song now recognized as the theme from Weeds.

5. The Archies, “You Know I Love You.” It was a cardboard record which you snipped off the back of a cereal box. A “full fidelity” EP, actually, with this song, “Archie’s Party,” “Nursery Rhymes” and the #1 hit “Jingle Jangle.”

6. Peter Frampton, “Show Me the Way.” Popularized the talk box.

7. The Who, “Squeeze Box.”

8. The Monkees, “P.O. Box 9847.”

9. Genesis, “The Musical Box.” From Nursery Cryme.

10. Muhammad Ali, “Black Superman.” OK, one boxing-as-sport song. This here’s the story of Cassius Clay.