News of The World - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• The News is mentioned in George Orwell's novel Animal Farm (1945).
• On The Beatles' album, Abbey Road (1969), John Lennon sings, on the song "Polythene Pam", "She's the kind of a girl that makes the News of the World, yes you could say she was attractively built."
• In 1977, British rock group Queen released the album News of the World, taking its name from the tabloid. The album was an international hit and went four times platinum in the United States and twice platinum in the United Kingdom.
• In 1978, British new wave group The Jam recorded the song "News of the World", which had the lines "Don't believe it all. Find out for yourself. Check before you spread. News of the World" which was then adapted for the panel show Mock the Week.
• In the 1981 film by John Landis, An American Werewolf in London, the protagonist David Kessler (played by David Naughton) watches a News of the World television ad, while in Nurse Alex's apartment.
• In 1983, English-American rock group The Pretenders, released their song "Back on the Chain Gang", featuring the lyrics "The phone, TV and the News of the World got into the house like a pigeon from hell..." Written by the group's singer, Chrissie Hynde, the song was about the band's experience of losing their guitarist, James Honeyman-Scott, to a drug overdose, and these lines were in reference to the surviving members' inability to escape the story at the time.
• In 1983, British band The Smiths wrote a song "This Night Has Opened My Eyes" which contains the lyric "Wrap her up in the News Of The World / Dump her on a doorstep, girl".