Waxing Lyrical / Literature

• This is a generalized trope in the work of Stephen King. Along with epigraphs it's the reason why most of his books have song rights information on the copyright page.
• In the Arthur C. Clarke/Stephen Baxter book The Light Of Other Days, about a society where privacy is becoming obsolete, a girl is seen wearing a T-shirt with the words 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town'. The protagonist doesn't know what it means, but she explains it to him later in case the reader didn't catch it: "He sees you when you're sleeping..."
• In "Cold Snap", the advent of a prehistoric elemental ice being results in the surrounding countryside being plunged into freezing weather even though it's the middle of summer. The scene is described with a quotation from the Christmas carol "In the Bleak Midwinter":
  Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone... snow had fallen, snow had fallen, snow on snow.
• Discworld:
  • Hogfather has some fun with the lyrics of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town": Quoth the Raven tells Susan "You'd better watch out"; Death, in his role as Hogfather, is able to ensure some kids see him, because I know when they are peeping, and he asks if checking the list twice is sufficient. In the same book, the magical and dizzyingly fast sleigh ride prompts Albert to mutter sarcastically "Oh, what fun."
  • Soul Music is absolutely loaded with musical references, such as Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler telling some would-be musicians "So you want to be a Music With Rocks In It Star? Then listen now to what I say..."
  • In Thud!, Fred Colon comments on the trouble in Koom Valley with the immortal question "War, Nobby, huh. What is it good for"? Nobby Nobbs proceeds to try and come up with an answer.
  • In Lords and Ladies, Ridcully claims he's not fit to jump off Lancre Bridge like he was in his youth, saying "I was young and foolish then". Granny Weatherwax retorts "Well? You're old and foolish now."
  • In The Last Continent, Ridcully's reaction to stormclouds finally arriving in the Disc's Fantasy Counterpart Culture Australia is "Can you hear that thunder? We'd better take cover." In the same book, Fair Go Dibbler's list of people he doesn't want to send back where they came from includes "me mate Duncan, 'cos Duncan's me mate".
• Doctor Who Expanded Universe
  • In the Past Doctor Adventures novel The Eleventh Tiger, the Doctor and his companions are staying at a 19th century gongfu school. (Note that Ian and Barbara are from ten years before the song came out, but the Doctor clearly recognizes the accidental reference):
    [Ian:] "One minute those kids are just running around chaotically, but the next minute they're all focused, and everyone's kung-fu fighting."
    "Those kids are as fast as lightning," Barbara added.
    The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Are they indeed? And was it, perchance, dear boy, a little bit frightening? Hmm?"
  • In the Fifth/Seventh team-up Cold Fusion, Chris Cwej is posing as an Australian, and describes living in a close-knit community in a sunny suburb, where everyone pops in and out of each others' houses, before concluding "With a little understanding, you can find the perfect blend and that's when good neighbours become good friends". Real Australian Tegan doesn't get the reference, having come from a time before Neighbours began, but does spot he's talking nonsense.
  • And in the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel Camera Obscura, the Doctor quotes "All Along the Watchtower" while trying to escape a creepy Eldritch Location with a man who literally stole his heart:
    "'There must be some way out of here,' said the joker to the thief."
  • Sabbath (the aforementioned thief) has his own moment of doing this, for no particular reason at all: he's usually The Stoic, and he's from the 18th century. But he gets into an alarmingly perky and cheerful mood and starts quoting from The Wizard of Oz.
    "'Because,' said Sabbath. 'Because because because because because. Because of the wonderful things I does.'"
  • The New Series Adventures novel Silhouette has a brief Call-Back to the The Lion King moment in "The Christmas Invasion" (below). The Twelfth Doctor is trying to convince a Human Weapon Emotion Bomb to amplify the positive emotions surrounding him, rather than the negative ones, and asks "Can you feel the love tonight?" He breaks off for a moment, then decides that wherever it came from, it works.
  • In the Doctor Who New Adventures novel Love and War by Paul Cornell, when Benny asks Ace how she met the Doctor, Ace accurately describes her initial situation in "Dragonfire" as "I was working as a waitress is a cocktail bar..."
• Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency has a scene involving a horse in a bathroom.
  "A horse?" he said again.
  "Yes, it is," said the Professor. "Wait—" he motioned to Richard, who was about to go out again and investigate— "let it be. It won't be long."
  Richard stared in disbelief. "You say there's a horse in your bathroom, and all you can do is stand there naming Beatles songs?"
• The Book Of Awesome: The final two paragraphs of "Taking your shoes off on a long car ride" match the lyrics of Buddy Holly's Rollercoaster.
• The Dresden Files:
  • In Ghost Story, Dresden tries to console Molly by saying "for everything there is a season", but Molly cuts him off by telling him to stop quoting the Bible at her. Harry counters he was actually quoting the song Turn! Turn! Turn! (admittedly the latter is based on the former).
  • In another book he makes Toot-Toot a Major General in order to psych him up. The little faerie can't believe it and asks for confirmations. Harry replies, "Yes, yes, a Major General."
• Near the start of Whispers Underground, during a murder investigation, DI Stephanopoulos comments "Well, our victim had a thirst for knowledge. He was a student at St Martin's College."
• Whateley Universe: From Imp 4: A Teacher’s Tail (Part 1), when her narration is discussing her neighbor, the Imp starts singing the opening song for Mister Rogers' Neighborhood:
  "It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor," I began singing, only to make Maria stop and stare at me. After a few more lines, I flashed her a broad grin and asked, “Won’t you be my neighbor?”
• In the Angels of Music novella The Mark of Kane, when Mrs Elizabeth Eynsford-Hill and Mme Gilberte Lachaille accost Charles Foster Kane to stop him leaving his own party, Eliza suggests that they could dance all night, Gigi that they could drink champagne like it's just been invented, referencing "I Could Have Danced All Night" and "The Night They Invented Champagne" from their respective musicals.
• Colony Mars has Gizmo tell Mia Sorelli “it is time to leave the capsule, if you dare”
• Bill from I Think I Love You writes Petra a love letter consisting of David Cassidy lyrics.
• In Evidence of Things Not Seen, Frank asks his wife Stella if she would like to swing on a star and carry moonbeams home in a jar.
• In the Czech book Saturnin, this trope is used to a timelessly humorous effect with a poem rather than a song, when a remark concerning Milouš's whereabouts triggers Saturnin quoting a famous Czech poem probably every Czech schoolchild is forced to read at some point.
• In Anansi Boys, Spider takes the place of Fat Charlie at his job for the day - Graham Coates attempts to fire him with a rote speech full of aphorisms and is thrown off when Spider starts rattling off cliches back at him. One of Spider's responses is "life is a rock, but the radio rolled me", which was the title of a 1974 single by One-Hit Wonder Reunion.

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