UPDATE: In honor of National Coloring Book Day and National Crayon Day, we asked our listeners for classic rock songs that make great crayon colors. The answers were above and beyond anything I could have thought of alone.

Classic Rock Colors: Paint vs Crayons

My daughter and her husband recently bought a house. They’re going nuts with paint colors. I know that excitement. When my family was living in Maryland, we rented a condo for 11 years. WHITE WALLS.

I had enough of white walls after 11 years and I went color crazy when we moved back to Michigan. I had an orange kitchen and a yellow entryway. Every room was a color other than white.

Now our house is pretty neutral in color, but with my daughter’s living room being painted “Plumville,” it started me thinking about songs that make great crayon colors (or paint).

My first thought was “Purple Haze.”  I love this color name but I would probably not paint any rooms in my house purple.  I would, however, want it in my crayon box.

Picking Colors Was a Group Effort

I LOVE asking your opinions on social media.  I recently asked, “What classic rock songs could also be a crayon color?”  The answers were AMAZING.

People didn’t just answer with song titles that had a color in them (not that I don’t love those answers too).  They got CREATIVE.

One of my favorite submissions was “Night Moves.”  I would 100% paint a room in “Night Moves.”  What I loved about this response was that it didn’t have a color word in it… it was more about the FEELS.  I picture a smokey gray, personally, but it’s totally open to your interpretation. 

Thanks to everyone who helped make this list! Teamwork really does make the dream work.

24 Classic Rock Songs That Make Great Crayon Colors

• Mellow Yellow

  I love this color because I love the idea of my home being zen. My home is not zen, nor Mellow Yellow, but I do love the idea of it. Look at Donovan working on Over Easy and in my future home. BTW, this will be overlapping throughout. I asked for crayon colors, but the idea of being able to paint my house in the color of songs is too great to pass up.
  

• Green Onion

  Booker T & The MG’s bringing the rockabilly to our 24-pack of crayons.  I feel like the green might be too much for paint, but ya never know.

• Brown Sugar

  This Rolling Stones classic pairing of extremely serious lyrics mixed with a snappy, happy upbeat arrangement makes Brown Sugar that crayon (or paint color) that has deep meaning but also likes to dance.
  

• Touch of Grey

  This Grateful Dead song is about aging gracefully. How can this NOT be an instant classic in our 24-pack? “Touch of Gray” is an actual paint color by Benjamin Moore! IDK how copyrights work on this sort of thing, but I have a feeling Benjamin is not sending Benjamins to the band for use of this color name.
  

• Rocky Mountain Way

  I love this suggestion because of its creativity.  There is no clear color word in the title, but you get a picture in your mind.  I would think that Joe Walsh’s “Rocky Mountain Way” is a warm brown color, but a cool gray could work too.  It’s all in our own personal perception.
  

• Red Rain

  I love the name as a color, but in an interview with Mojo Magazine, Gabriel talked about the song originating from a dream. “The sea was being parted by two walls. There were these glass-like figures that would screw themselves into each wall, fill up with red blood and then be lowered across the sand, as it were to the next wall, where they’d unload the blood on the other side. I used to have these extremely vivid dreams that scared the hell out of me.”

  I always thought the song was pretty soothing, but that dream… that’s not soothing.

• Yellow Ledbetter

  The name of the song has been the subject of numerous different theories. I tribute to Blues legend, Huddy Ledbetter, a spin-off an age-old tongue-twister, “Yellow better, red better.” Truth be known, Eddie Vedder named it after a friend, Tim Ledbetter. I still love the ambiguity that surrounds it. One of these yellow hues has to be a great “Yellow Ledbetter.”
  

• Midnight Blue

  DEFINITELY has the potential for being a great crayon color.  Lou Gramm explained the song in an interview with Songfacts. Cherry red is “everything going as best as it can,” while midnight blue is “dark and mysterious.”
  

• Back in Black

  NO crayon box could be complete without “Back in Black.” I think it would also make for a wonderful nail polish name. “Back in black, I hit the sack. I’ve been too long, I’m glad to be back.” This crayon has attitude for days.
  

• Purple Haze

  “Purple Haze” all in my crayon.  “Lately, things don’t seem the same.”  Jimi said the song was about a dream he had.  He was walking under the sea and surrounded by a “purple haze.” Also… aliens.
  

• Mr. Blue Sky

  I don’t know if I could actually color with a “Mr. Blue Sky” crayon because I would love it too much.  I would want to keep it perfect, but I would also consider it a quintessential part of my box of 24.
  

• Raspberry Beret

  Prince had such a gift for painting a picture with his lyrics.  I totally would have loved to have found a raspberry beret in a second-hand store, but sadly, I never did. A crayon the color of “Raspberry Beret” would make any picture more vivid.
  

• Tangerine

  Tangerine is LITERALLY a color (and a fruit), but to have tangerine in my box of 24-song crayons would be very special.  A Led Zeppelin influenced “Tangerine” would make the crayon a cut above the rest.  Also, I’m not ruling out Tangerine as a paint color on an accent wall.
  

• Hazy Shade of Winter

  To me, the “Hazy Shade of Winter” is that crappy snowbank at the end of winter. I mean this with no disrespect to the magnificent lyrics of Simon & Garfunkel. A song about reaching a point later in life where you realize that while you were searching for perfection, you missed so much. The song was then covered by The Bangles in the ’80s which is a bit ironic given the song’s content. Having said that both versions are cool to be in my crayon box.

  If you’d like a gallon of “Hazy Shade of Winter” mineral paint, it’s going to run you $120 per gallon.

  Hazy Shade of Winter (23)

  Premium Interior Mineral Paint for Walls and Ceilings. All Paint is Non-Toxic, Zero-VOC, Breathable, Mold Resistant, Non-Flammable, Single-Coat Finish, No Primer Required, and provides Color that Lasts for 25+ Years. Functional Wellness Pigments include: clear quartz, hematite, goethite and/or chromite.

• Red Barchetta

  Red Barchetta is an intense song. Rush’s song tells a story and so should the color.
  

• Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road

  For those times when you’re off to see the wizard…

  

  Emerald City is certainly magical, but the journey along the yellow brick road is half the experience.

• Green River

  John Fogerty has said of the song, “The actual specific reference, Green River, I got from a soda pop-syrup label. You used to be able to go into a soda fountain, and they had these bottles of flavored syrup. My flavor was called Green River. It was green, lime flavored, and they would empty some out over some ice and pour some of that soda water on it, and you had yourself a Green River.”
  

• Orange Crush

  This song is NOT about pop/soda. Although there is an Orange Crush beverage, Michael Stipe wrote this song about something very different: Agent Orange. He wrote in Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011: “[The song is] a composite and fictional narrative in the first person, drawn from different stories I heard growing up around Army bases. This song is about the Vietnam War and the impact on soldiers returning to a country that wrongly blamed them for the war.” Stipe’s father served in Vietnam in the helicopter corps.

• Amber

  Who is the woman this song is about? Nick Hexum of 311 “will neither confirm nor deny.” Amber is the color of your energy and a crayon color for our box of 24.
  

• White Rabbit

  Grace Slick noticed a lot of children’s stories revolved around mind-altering substances and she decided to write a song about it. This shade of white should still have a touch of darkness to it.
  

• Tequila Sunrise

  This is what my tequila sunrise looks like. The Eagles may have a different version and you another, but Tequila Sunrise is definitely a color I want in my box of crayons.
  

• Paint It Black

  For when you want complete coverage… paint it black.
  

• Lemon

  Lemon is one of my favorites in the crayon box. Double bubble: LZ “Lemon Song” and U2 “Lemon.” The colors that give you an idea of what they are without being direct are so amazing.
  

• Night Moves

  “Night Moves” was suggested by Dean on FB. I saved this color for last because I mentioned it in the beginning and I thought it was a really cool ending for our box of 24 crayons. The song speaks of endings. As I said, my Night Moves is a smokey gray… what’s yours?  Thanks for checking out my 24 songs that make great crayon colors!
  

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