The best moments in life are often accompanied by special music. For this reason, we sat down together and looked for the top 10 casino songs. Surely you will find one or the other playlist on this topic. However, we do not want to withhold our list from you, in which we have considered classics and newer songs. Have fun listening!
1. Elvis Presley – Viva Las Vegas
No list would be complete without this classic. The King of Pop loved to party and rarely said no to a good glass of whiskey. In this song from 1964, the city of Las Vegas is described with all its facets. Of course, you can win or lose at gambling, but still, this song makes you want to take a trip to a casino or maybe even to the shiny city.
2. Stevie Nicks – The Dealer
American singer Stevie Nicks found this song, which was written back in 1979 but never released, and then made it her own in 2014. What makes this lyric a bit different from the others on this list is the fact that it is portrayed from the perspective of the croupier. He describes himself as a card shark who uses perfidious tactics to keep the player at the table.
3. Sinatra – Luck be a Lady
Although this casino song came out in 1950, it was the cover version by Frank Sinatra in 1965 that became a popular hit. Here it is told from the point of view of a gambler trying to win a bet and then the chosen one of his heart at that. Frank Sinatra himself loved gambling and could be found regularly in Las Vegas casinos. In his song he assumes that you can have luck not only in gambling, but also in love.
4. Die Toten Hosen – Love Gambler
This song appeared in 1984 on the album Unter falscher Flagge and is about horse betting. Singer Campino tells here the story of Liebesspieler, a horse on which he bets all his money and at the same time also tries to impress his beloved. Unfortunately, the song does not end well for the narrator. Liebesspieler only comes second in a head-to-head race and the beloved turns the narrator down.
There is a rumor that Liebesspieler is a real horse at the racetrack in Düsseldorf. The band members have noticed that it almost always loses and at some point put money on it.
5. Kenny Rogers – The Gambler
This song is also a cover version. The original was written by Don Schnitz in 1976, but Kenny Rogers made it famous in 1978. In the song, we board a train on the way to nowhere. The narrator meets a gambler who, in return for a glass of whiskey and a cigar, gives him tips and advice on how to play poker. In the end, the player dies and the narrator finds an ace, which he keeps as a memento of the encounter.
6. Megadeth – Train of Consequence
If you are familiar with the metal genre, you have surely heard one or another song of this band. In 1994 they released “Train of Consequence”, a song that talks about the negative effects of gambling. Here, the narrator is a gambler who talks about how everyone just wants to borrow money from him and he doesn’t trust anyone anymore, especially not even himself. Although he has already lost his mind, there is no turning back for him, as he is already on the train of consequences.
7. ABBA – The winner takes it all
As in most of the other casino songs on this list, gambling is used to compare it to lovemaking. It goes similarly in this song by the Swedish global stars from 1980, in which a woman sings about her grief when she realizes that she has lost her husband to another woman. Poetically, she sings that she has played all her cards and can’t find an ace up her sleeve to save the relationship.
8. AC/DC – Sin City
The “city of vices” or the “sinful city” – there are many names by which Las Vegas is known. Even AC/DC could not help but create a song about the gambling metropolis. Here it goes very rocky and loud and overall we learn how great the desire to win brings a lot of people to Las Vegas.
9. Die Ärzte – Never again war, never again Las Vegas
With a lot of humor, the German band takes gambling on the chin in 1998. In this song, the narrator confesses how he woke up naked in the gutter after a rough night and lost all his money. He explains how he used to have a lot of success playing Monopoly and the lottery, until he went on to roulette and slowly ran towards his downfall. However, the music is kept relatively optimistic and as we know it no differently from the doctors, one should take the lyrics with a wink.
10 Motörhead – Aces of Spade
Our tenth hit on the list of the best casino songs goes full throttle once again. In 1980, this song about blackjack came out and a declaration of love to the ace of spades. The heavy metal band uses a lot of clichés, like the fact that the whole lyrics about gambling can be seen as an allegory to life. The singer of the band liked to gamble himself, but rather on slot machines.
