Nudist songs: A playlist

A deep dive into nudist-friendly tunes, from skinny-dipping ballads to songs recorded in the buff

The old saying is “sex and drugs and rock & roll,” but simple nudity also figures into it and not just for the sex bit. There are lots of nudist-friendly songs out there, a good number of which focus on nude swimming or skinny dipping, which is the way many folks are introduced to the clothes-free lifestyle.

This list is not all-inclusive, but it’s pretty deep. Songs that are about the more, shall we say, physical or intimate aspects of nudity are left off. Also, at the end is a list of songs that are not necessarily about nudity or nakedness, but were, nonetheless, recorded naked. It should also be noted that this list is in no particular order, although popular artists appear toward the top, with similarly titled tracks (“Naked,” “Nudity,” “Skinyydipping”, “Skinnydippin’”) all clumped together.

Embedded immediately below is the full playlist on Spotify. Feel free to save this playlist on your own Spotify account. Below the list, we have laid out each song alongside its title and description, if you’d prefer to go one by one. 🚀

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“Nightswimming” – R.E.M.

There seems to be some disagreement among R.E.M. members about this song. Michael Stipe, the band’s main lead singer and chief lyricist told Esquire magazine the song was originally called “Night Watchman.” However, Stipe was afraid the person the song was written about, an actual security guard hired by Stipe to guard the band’s offices, would file a lawsuit against the band.

Mike Mills, the band’s bassist and occasional lead singer, has said the song is based on true events from the group’s early days in Athens, Georgia. It was tradition, he noted, for the band and friends of the band. To go skinny dipping after the clubs closed in town. Stipe later said there were autobiographical bits on the song, but that most of it was made up.

Mills’ story sounds more plausible, given the next song on the list. 🚀

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“Theme for a Nude Beach” – B-52s

Fellow Athens band the B-52s recorded this track for their very fine 1985 album Bouncing off the Satellites. The gals in the band sing: “There is a sandbar in your mind,” later adding, “Together, we’ll go down to Nude Beach, together. We’ll stroll on the sand.” The subject comes up in at least one more of the band’s songs, 1989’s “Deadbeat Club,” in which the band sing about “skinny dipping in the moonlight” after crashing a party “down in Normaltown.” Their greatest hits package is called Nude on the Moon, after the 1961 nudist film of the same name. 🚀

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“Apeman” – The Kinks

Tired of the life in the city, singer and Kinks primary songwriter Ray Davies reasons we’re all simpler creatures and fancies heading off to the jungle. “Give me half a chance and I'd be taking off my clothes

and living in the jungle,” he sings. 🚀

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“Go Wild in the Country” – Bow Wow Wow 

The band best known for their cover of the 1965 Strangeloves’ track “I Want Candy” gained their first top-10 in the U.K. with this track. The subject, similarly covered by The Kinks (above) and later by Talking Heads (below), is about being naked in the great outdoors. 🚀

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“Totally Nude” – Talking Heads

The Talking Heads tackled a lot of subjects, and here they address the joys of nudity. Lead singer David Byrne sings: “I want you to know/ I hang around/Where the grass is greener/Totally naked, baby/Totally nude/'Cause if I want to/Who's gonna stop me?” The track is from the album Naked. Talking Heads chief Byrne also has a song called “Buck Naked” on the solo album he released year later.

However, Byrne isn’t a nudist or naturist. In interviews he  stated he simply liked the silliness of the words. 🚀

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“Prodigal Daughter” – LIGHTS

Canadian synth-pop queen LIGHTS has no problem with nudity, though she’s not activist or anything. In the song “Prodigal Daughter,” from her album PEP, she sings: “Now I'm making a living/Crashing the algorithm/Flip the pillow to the cool side/Love, magic, feminism/Finally found religion/Laying naked on the poolside.” 🚀

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“Rattlesnake” – St. Vincent. 

This song is based on a true story. According to St. Vincent (real name Annie Clarke), she was visiting a friend in Texas who owned a large ranch. She decided to take a walk around the property. "It was a beautiful day, and no one was around, so I thought, 'I'm going to take all my clothes off to fully experience this,’ she later told The Observer. “I was having this communion with nature when I saw this rattlesnake. I took off running.” 🚀

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“The Streak” – Ray Stevens

This song is the subject of another post. It, along with the 1964 film A Shot in the Dark, got eight-year-old me interested in nudism. If you think about it, steaking is more about exhibitionism than it is about simply enjoying nakedness. Nonetheless, running around naked, no matter the subtext, was very intriguing. 🚀

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“Skinny Dipping” – Sabrina Carpenter

America’s newest pop sweetheart, Sabrina Carpenter, tackles the subject of skinny dipping, but like Avril Lavigne (see below), Carpenter is singing in figurative terms. The song is about starting anew in a relationship. 🚀

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“Skinny Dipping”– Josh Savage

Like Ms. Carpenter, Savage is being metaphorical.  “Wash away our burdens/ Leave them all behind,” he sings. However, who’s to say you can’t accomplish that by actually skinny dipping? 🚀

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“Skinny Dipping” – Whitney Duncan

A pretty straight forward tune by country music chanteuse Whitney Duncan, who sings: “Took off our clothes and threw them in the bushes.” No metaphors here, just good clean Southern fun. 🚀

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“Skinny Dipping in the Deep End” – Zak Waters

A dance pop number that describes the wild goings-on at a house party, where the singer enjoys the pool au natural. 🚀

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“Skinny Dippin’” – Eden’s Edge

Country folk love stripping off and jumping in pond, pool, or swimming hole. Just ask Whitney Duncan, a few songs up, or this band, If you’re from the country you’ve done this, and if you’re not from the country you’re going to want to do it, the band tells us in this song. 🚀

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“Skinny Dippin’”– Crushed Out

A nice rock-a-billy tune about swimming in the buff. “Let’s go out tonight, skinny dippin’ in the pale moonlight.” The singer also asks why some of his friends don’t want to join in. 🚀

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“Skinny Dip”– Young Thieves

In this fine indie rock track, singer Alexandra Amor invites the listener to skinny dip with her, yet in the video the band are splashing about a lake in swimming attire. Look, you don’t have to show anything if you don’t want to, Young Thieves, but don’t undercut your message. 🚀

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“Skinny Dippin’” – Robert Parker

An oldie but a goody as they say. In this track from the 1960s, Parker sings about skinny dipping in “in our old creek bed” and to “shake it as you please.” 🚀

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“Naked”– Avril Lavigne

No stranger to provocative songs, Toronto’s Avril Lavigne takes the metaphorical route here, singing about being so comfortable with her significant other that she feels completely at ease. 🚀

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“Naked in the Pool” - Lights Out

A nice little punk tune that clocks in at 1:19. Short but sweet, it covers the subject well. 🚀

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“Naked Kids” – Grouplove 

The kids in this song are actually adolescents. Grouplove, best known for their songs “Tongue Tied” and “Itchin’ on a Photograph,” here sing about driving down to the beach with a bunch of friends and “skinny dipping underneath the sea.” 🚀

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“Nudity” – Pat Appleton

This big band-sounding number has an interesting message: Show off but don’t exaggerate, and you’ll come out o.k” 🚀

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“Nxde” - (G)I-dle

Not sure why the song title is stylized with an “X,” but this ditty from the K-pop world appears to be about a film actor appearing nude in a scene and telling the audience there isn’t anything intimate or sexual about it. A commentary, it seems, on how some folks automatically equate nudity with sex, even when there’s no connection at all. 🚀

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“Great Strings” – Holger

This track is by a Brazilian rock band. It isn’t, though, about nudity or nakedness, but the video sure is. A jazzy number, the video shows young people, male and female, enjoying the clothes-free life in the jungles and beaches of their homeland. 🚀

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“Birthday Suit” – Hey Steve

This is an indie pop song that also reminds us we were born naked. The singer tells us he’s been running around that way since he was two-years-old and invites others to do the same. 🚀

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“My Birthday Suit” – Three Makeout Party

Another song that’s short and to the point, as the singer states being in her birthday suit makes her proud, and asks: “How do you like me in my birthday suit?” 🚀

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Songs performed naked

“Somebody” – Depeche Mode

For years, it was strongly rumored in the Depeche Mode fandom that chief songwriter, and occasional vocalist, Martin Gore sang the vocal for “Somebody,” from 1984’s Some Great Reward, whilst completely nude. Proof finally surfaced early in the 2000s when someone posted two photos from that recording session on Tumblr. 🚀

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“She Bop,” “I Drove All Night”– Cyndi Lauper

“She Bop” is not so much about nudity as it is about a particular, solitary activity that is often enjoyed naked. For that reason, it doesn’t really fit the spirit of the list, but is included because Lauper did record the song nude. 🚀

 Also, in the video for her 1989 hit “I Drove All Night” (US #6, UK #7, Canada #8), Ms. Lauper sings while film footage of a 1940s-era sedan is projected onto her naked body, as she sits strategically curled up in front of a white screen. 🚀

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“Eternal Flame” – The Bangles

Susanna Hoffs sang this band’s biggest hit naked; the result of a prank by the album’s producer. As she later told the Irish Times: “Davitt (Sigerson) had recently produced Olivia Newton-John and pranked me by telling me she did her best vocals in the nude. I imagined it would feel like skinny-dipping — vulnerable yet freeing — and I decided to try it. Nobody could see me; there was a baffle in front of me and it was dark. After the first song went so well, I became superstitious about it, like in sports where you have to have your rabbit’s foot and ended up compelled to skinny-dip my way through most of the album, including ‘Eternal Flame.’”

Oddly, there was a kernel of truth to Sigerson’s wind-up. The late Olivia Newton-John did enjoy sunbathing naked. In 2019, Empire Magazine asked her about the last time she was naked outdoors. “Where we live is very private,” she told the reporter. “We’ve had lots of rain lately, so if the sun comes out, I will strip off and jump out. That would be in the last couple of weeks.” 🚀

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In addition to Ms. Lauper, Ms. Hoffs, and Mr. Gore, other artists who have recorded, at least occasionally in the nude, include U2, Crowded House, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. The latter once performed live with only socks covering their privates. Canada’s Bare Naked Ladies, in an apparent move to honor their name, reportedly record at least one song per album in the buff. 🪐