Songs like "I'm Every Woman" by Whitney Houston...at the very end of the song she says "Chaka Khan!" giving a shot out to the original artist of the song. Or "Boys of Summer" by Don Henley, towards the middle of the song he says "...I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac.." paying homage to the Grateful Dead, which Don Henley admitted being a fan of!
What are some other examples?
Tom Petty in Running Down A Dream, Me and Del were singing Little Runaway
Self - Trunk full of amps. The shout out to Glenn Danzig always makes me smile
Taylor Swift gave a shout out to Janet Jackson in her song "Snow on the beach" when she says "Now I'm all for you like Janet, can this be a real thing can it?"
Teenage Dirtbag - 2 tickets to Iron Maiden
Come on Eileen - poor old Johnny Ray
Let’s dance to Joy Division - Wombats. It’s not very subtle but it’s definitely a shout out
The Decemberists made a sharp turn from their quirky folky story-driven music and did a song called "Once In My Life" that for 95% of the song tries to use only two lines: "For once in my life, can just something go right? I've been waiting all my life."
Their goal was to build an entire song using just those lines and use different music and vocal arrangements around it to make a complete song. I think it works really well, personally, but it's not for everyone.
Anyways, at the very end of the song he throws in the lines "Lay us down, Beside the river, Face down, Beside the river" which is the same line, sung basically the same way, as in the end of Yo La Tengo's "Barnaby Hardly Working"
Edit: reading through other comments I realize I didn't understand the assignment lol, I'll leave this up even though this wasn't what you were asking for.
Cake has songs called "Frank Sinatra" and "Meanwhile Rick James."
Arthur Conley throws the "Spotlight on Lou Rawls, Sam & Dave, Wilson Picket, Otis Redding, and James Brown" in his song Sweet Music.
Funkadelic gets at everybody in Let's Take It to the Stage. Earth, Hot Air and No Fire. Slick and the Family Brick. The Godfather. Fool and the Gang.
The Avalanches also have a song called Frankie Sinatra.
Genius of Love by the Tom Tom Club has the part where they say “James Brown” all funky.
That song also mentions Bootsy Collins and Sly and Robbie from memory - I think there might be more, too.
Pavement - Stereo and Range Life
There will be much better examples but I get a kick out of the 5 Seconds of Summer song "End Up Here" where the singer hooks up with a pretty girl because she liked his Cobain shirt.
Little River Band's Reminiscing mentions "the Porter tune Night and Day." Both classics now, from different eras.
Edit: another one. Bowie's Life on Mars? has the line "look at those cavemen go," echoing the line "look at that caveman go" in the Hollywood Argyles' Alley-Oop.
In Cheap Trick’s Taxman, Mr. Thief is the line, Like The Beatles, he ain’t human.
I don't know about subtle but:
You don't have to call me Waylon Jennings And you don't have to call me Charlie Pride And you don't have to call me Merle Haggard anymore Even though you're on my fighting' side
All the Young Dudes by Bowie/Mott the Hoople has three in one song. T Rex, the Beatles and the Stones.
Bugpowder Dust by Bomb the Bass has a ton of shout outs/references to other artists, some subtle, some overt. Also heaps of movie and television references.
The Beatles, Men at Work, Led Zeppellin, The Doors and heaps more.
Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple describes a Mothers of Invention (“Frank Zappa and the Mothers”) concert gone awry (the club, that was next to a lake, caught fire—hence the smoke on the water).
A casino I think. But yeah this was the one that sprang to mind for me as well.
Neil Young "Bandit" off Greendale, he namedrops and pursosefully misquotes Bob Dylan.
The way ODB subtly weaves [shoutouts](https://youtu.be/6ItoVPAlHHU ?t=02m05s) into his work is masterclass.
Smithereens Behind A Wall Of Sleep: She stood just like Bill Wyman, now I am her biggest fan.
Chris Young ‘Raised In Country’
We’re an American Band drops Freddy King
Tift Merritt - Mixtape (Mazzy Star and Donovan)
The Boys of Summer by The Ataris gives a shout out to Black Flag.
While I'm thinking about the master of Jazz Kenny G, his version of Luis Armstrong's Wonderful World is no doubt a shout-out to Louis Armstrong.
Red Hot Chili Peppers = Good Time Boys and Poster Child
Rhcp - californication "cobain can you hear the spheres"
justaBB6 t1_j6lfdlt wrote
Sorry for the Reddit essay, I’ve just always wanted to make this connection.
I like to read the Boys of Summer example a little deeper than that. Beyond being a just Dead shoutout, it depicts the passage of time by putting the idea of youthful counterculture onto the image of someone that’s gotten older and successful enough to afford an expensive car.
It’s framing the Dead as almost post-countercultural; much like the relationship with the girl in the song, it’s an example of something Don enjoyed in his youth that he looks back on fondly but has since slipped through his fingers with time. The Dead were still around, of course, but they meant something different now. A certain Steely Dan lyric comes to mind, but I digress.
I say all this to say, when the Ataris did their cover of the Don Henley song in ‘03, a time where old Cadillacs are mostly either collector cars hoarded by old money or complete rat traps that reek of dying exceptionalism, and pop-punk was fully mainstream and far removed from the hardcore ‘80s punk scene, their decision to instead shout out the foundational SoCal hardcore outfit with “Black Flag sticker on a Cadillac” is just perfectly fitting to me.
Being a pop-punk band they almost certainly just wanted to do a Black Flag shout-out for the clout but all of the external circumstance coming together so beautifully is what makes it my favorite example.
TL;DR the Ataris changed “Deadhead” to “Black Flag” in their “Boys of Summer” cover and seemingly by complete accident it’s the most thematically perfect reference they could’ve made
Completely unrelated, but Soulwax’s cover of Daft Punk’s “Teachers” is also like 4D chess levels of referencing