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The best and most iconic drinking songs ever made

From Snoop Dogg's Gin & Juice to a Brecht-Weill Alabama Song that has outlasted nearly every bar it was written for, the ten greatest drinking songs ever made

Music and drinking have always shared an obvious kinship in popular culture, since both tend to show up together at parties, bars, and late-night gatherings where people want to loosen up and stop thinking so hard about anything else. Songwriters across nearly every genre have leaned into that connection directly, building entire tracks around named cocktails, hangover mornings, or the particular kind of quiet courage a stiff drink provides after a long, difficult day. Some approach the subject with pure celebration, while others use alcohol as a lens for examining heartbreak, boredom, or plain old bad decisions made late into the night, long after everyone should have called it quits and gone home.

This range shows up clearly across the genre’s most enduring entries, spanning smooth jazz standards through punk anthems built to offend, hip-hop tracks naming actual brands, and folk ballads steeped in melancholy. Some songs earned their own reputation through sheer catchiness, turning a simple drink order into an instantly memorable hook, while others build lasting appeal through darker, far more reflective songwriting about what alcohol actually does to a person over time. Decades of musical history sit within this list, proving the subject never really goes out of style, no matter which era a listener prefers or which genre they naturally gravitate toward.

The songs below all appear in Time Out, covering the top 10 entries from a much larger overall ranking of the 50 best drinking songs ever written and recorded. Each entry below covers the artist, the song’s angle on drinking, the qualities that earned it a spot near the top of this list, and the broader historical context of its original release and lasting cultural reputation.

1. Gin & Juice puts a cocktail recipe in its title

Snoop Dogg released “Gin & Juice” in 1994 as part of his debut album, delivering what became one of the first mainstream rap songs to build an actual drink recipe directly into its own title. This choice gave the track an instantly memorable hook well beyond typical party-song lyrics, since listeners could picture the exact combination being described instead of a vague reference to drinking in general.

The song’s laid-back West Coast production matches its casual, unhurried subject matter, letting Snoop’s relaxed vocal delivery carry the track without ever feeling rushed or overly aggressive. This easygoing energy helped distinguish the song from more confrontational rap tracks of the same era, offering listeners a mellower alternative within a genre often associated with much harder-edged subject matter.

Period-specific slang scattered throughout the lyrics lends “Gin & Juice” a distinct time-capsule quality decades after its original release, capturing a very particular moment in West Coast hip-hop culture and vocabulary. Younger listeners discovering the track today often need context for some of the older slang, even while the song’s central hook remains instantly recognizable regardless of a listener’s familiarity with 1990s slang.

The track’s music video and continued live performances throughout Snoop’s career have kept the song culturally present well beyond typical album-cycle relevance, since it remains a staple of his festival sets decades after its original release. This staying power speaks to the strength of the hook itself, since plenty of period-specific rap singles from the same era have largely faded from active rotation.

“Gin & Juice” earns its spot on this list by proving a drink order could become one of hip-hop’s most enduringly quotable hooks, recognizable even to people who’ve never actually heard the full song.

The track’s arrangement stays relatively sparse throughout, letting London’s phrasing carry most of the emotional weight without competing instrumental flourishes crowding the mix. This restraint has helped the recording age particularly well, since the production never anchors the song to one specific era of jazz vocal recording techniques.

2. Make It Another Old-Fashioned Please pours on the jazz

Julie London delivers a definitive vocal jazz interpretation of this Cole Porter composition, bringing a smooth, whiskey-smooth quality to her delivery that matches the cocktail described in the song’s title. London’s voice carries genuine warmth throughout the track, treating the song’s underlying themes of heartbreak and disillusionment with far more grace than open despair.

This vocal restraint lends the track considerable sophistication beyond typical torch-song conventions, since London never oversells the emotional content, even though the lyrics describe someone drinking specifically to cope with romantic disappointment. Few vocalists manage to sound this composed while singing about real heartbreak, treating the cocktail almost as a character in the song’s brief narrative.

Cole Porter’s original composition already carried considerable sophistication before London’s interpretation, reflecting his own reputation for witty, elegantly constructed songwriting throughout the mid-20th century American songbook. London’s own vocal approach elevated the material further, cementing her own reputation as one of the era’s most technically accomplished jazz vocalists working within the classic American standards tradition.

Modern bartenders and cocktail enthusiasts still occasionally cite the song when discussing the Old Fashioned’s cultural staying power, treating London’s recording as something close to an unofficial anthem for the drink itself. This crossover between music and cocktail culture gives the track ongoing relevance well beyond typical jazz vocal circles.

“Make It Another Old-Fashioned Please” earns its spot on this list by proving a drinking song could carry real emotional complexity without ever raising its voice above a smooth,........

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