Cheaters getting a taste of their own medicine

July 22, 2016 9:48 AM

I'm trying to put together a playlist of songs where cheaters get cheated on. I've got two by Denise LaSalle ("Your Husband Is Cheating On Us" and "Paper Thin"), plus "Who's Making Love" by Johnnie Taylor and "I Was Checking Out She Was Checkin In" by Don Covey. Any suggestions for more like this? What I've got is all R&B, because those are the songs that came to mind. I'm open to any genre that fits the theme.
posted by layceepee to Media & Arts (34 answers total)

Here's a twofer: Creep by TLC(1994) was recently covered by My Robot Friend(2015)
posted by contraption at 9:56 AM on July 22, 2016

"Escape" (The Piña Colada Song) is a classic about this, though one view is that it's about an almost-cheater who discovers his partner is also a (possibly) almost-cheater.
posted by ubiquity at 9:58 AM on July 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin' by Journey
Part-Time Lover by Stevie Wonder
posted by Boogiechild at 10:03 AM on July 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

White Liar by Miranda Lambert
posted by incountrysleep at 10:06 AM on July 22, 2016 [3 favorites]

Country music is GREAT for this.

Brooks & Dunn, "She's Not the Cheating Kind"
Alan Jackson, "Who's Cheating Who"
Miranda Lambert, "White Liar"
posted by nicebookrack at 10:16 AM on July 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

Angel in your arms this morning

The multi part Trapped in the closet
posted by Michele in California at 10:17 AM on July 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

Take a Letter, Maria.
posted by DanSachs at 10:18 AM on July 22, 2016

In That's The Way the Girls Are From Texas, the cheater gets his in the end.
posted by brookeb at 10:19 AM on July 22, 2016

Stevie Wonder, Part-Time Lover ("I have something that I must tell/ last night someone rang our doorbell/ and it was not you, my part-time lover/ And then a man called our exchange/ and didn't want to leave his name/ Two can play the game of part-time lover")
posted by praemunire at 10:25 AM on July 22, 2016

Shame and Scandal in the Family is about this, but it's played for laughs.
posted by aperturescientist at 10:25 AM on July 22, 2016

Supersuckers - Pretty Fucked Up
posted by misteraitch at 10:36 AM on July 22, 2016

Beyoncé - Sorry
Lady Gaga - Telephone
posted by LaunchBox at 10:44 AM on July 22, 2016

Nancy Sinatra- These Boots are Made for Walkin'

(You keep playin' where you shouldn't be playin', and you keep thinkin' that you'll never get burned. Ha! I just got me a brand new box of matches, and what he knows you ain't had time to learn.)
posted by FencingGal at 10:57 AM on July 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

Fishin' Blues (as done here by Taj Mahal)
posted by meinvt at 10:58 AM on July 22, 2016

Andy Shauf - Wendell Walker
posted by jamaal at 11:06 AM on July 22, 2016

Emmylou Harris - I'll Go Stepping Too
posted by radiomayonnaise at 11:09 AM on July 22, 2016

Nancy Sinatra- These Boots are Made for Walkin'
The video is exquisite.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 11:21 AM on July 22, 2016

Jon Cleary "Cheating on You"

"my slice on the side's been eating the forbidden fruit"

genius
posted by Cosine at 11:23 AM on July 22, 2016

I think you could also put Loretta Lynn's "The Pill" in this category.

Interesting historical note per Wikipedia: a number of rural physicians congratulated Lynn on the song, saying it had done more to highlight the availability of birth control than all the literature they'd released. It was an extremely controversial song when it was released in 1975. A lot of radio stations wouldn't play it.
posted by FencingGal at 11:26 AM on July 22, 2016 [3 favorites]

The Human League - Human
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:21 PM on July 22, 2016

Adele's "Rumor Has It" counts, I think. The end lyric, "Rumor has it I'm the one you're leaving her for" suggests that the subject of the song cheated on Adele first, and is now cheating on his new girlfriend with Adele!
posted by Hermione Granger at 12:27 PM on July 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

Don't Think of Me by Dido, although it's not completely clear if the guy if the new woman who cheats on Dido's ex was someone he cheated on Dido with first.
posted by LoonyLovegood at 12:28 PM on July 22, 2016

Frankie Lymon - Goody Goody
posted by Lluvia at 12:30 PM on July 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

While You're Cheating On Me (I'm praying for you), by the Louvin Brothers: "you reap what you sow, I know/ those words are so true/ for when you were faithful to me/ I cheated on you."
posted by teponaztli at 12:38 PM on July 22, 2016

Depending on how you read it, Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad by Tammy Wynette. (At the very least she's saying that her husband likes party girls, so she's gonna be a party girl. But she may well be saying that he's been skanking it up, so she's gonna start skanking it up too.)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 12:39 PM on July 22, 2016

Harry Chapin, 'My Old Lady'. Bonus helping of 70s gender politics where the (male) cheater told, hey baby, don't be so uptight...

She says that she still loves me
She says that last night was no big deal
She says, "Why can't a woman play the same damn game
And act out what she feels?"

posted by Catseye at 1:01 PM on July 22, 2016

The Beautiful South-A Little Time ?
posted by fullerine at 1:45 PM on July 22, 2016 [1 favorite]

Kandi - Pants on Fire.
posted by ClarissaWAM at 1:47 PM on July 22, 2016

Sonia Dada, "I'm Gone"

I was not home
And you weren't alone
And that made us just about even
But I threw the first stone
posted by Flannery Culp at 2:12 PM on July 22, 2016

Always the Last to Know by Del Amitri
posted by 4ster at 4:14 PM on July 22, 2016

Denise Lasalle -- Your Husband is cheatin' on us.
posted by djinn dandy at 4:29 PM on July 22, 2016

Who Walks in When I Walk Out (that version has a bit of an intro, give it a little bit)
posted by fings at 7:53 PM on July 22, 2016

What Goes Around Comes Around, by Justin Timberlake.
posted by mysterious_stranger at 4:14 AM on July 23, 2016

Smoke of a distant fire - Sanford Townsend Band
posted by charris5005 at 7:24 AM on July 23, 2016