10 songs about revenge: From Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran to John Lennon and Lily Allen

As Swift revisits her 2008 split from Joe Jonas in new track ‘Mr Perfectly Fine’, we reveal 10 petty pop songs from some of the world’s biggest music stars

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  Taylor Swift: Where to start with the Queen of Revenge Pop? There’s ‘Bad Blood’ about her fall-out with former friend Katy Perry, ‘Dear John’ about her ex John Mayer, and ‘We Are Never Getting Back Together’ about her actor ex, Jake Gyllenhaal. But perhaps she said it best in ‘Better Than Revenge’ on 2010’s ‘Speak Now’ album, which was purported to be about actress Camilla Belle, who dated Joe Jonas after Swift. 'She should keep in mind, There is nothing I do better than revenge,' sings the multi-Grammy winner. AFP

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  Marvin Gaye: Following an acrimonious marriage split, in 1977, the soul singer’s lawyer cut a deal whereby Gaye would give half the percentage of album royalties from his next album to his estranged wife Anna Gordy Gaye. The result was the double album, 'Here, My Dear', which featured tracks such as ‘Anger’, ‘Is That Enough’ and ‘You Can Leave, but It's Going to Cost You’. Getty Images

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  Justin Timberlake: The former boyband member has made a veritable career out of revenge songs concerning his famous ex, Britney Spears, and the Tennessee native has been called to account recently for having launched his career off the break-up. Songs about Spears include ‘Cry Me a River’ and ‘Last Night’, while ‘What Goes Around … Comes Around’ was penned for his best friend, Trace Ayala, after his split from ‘24’ actress Elisha Cuthbert. AFP

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  Carly Simon: One of the most famous revenge tracks of all time is Simon’s enduring 1972 hit ‘You’re So Vain’. Mick Jagger sang back-up on the song and it was rumoured for a while that he was the vain man in question. For years, fans speculated it was about Simon’s actor ex, Warren Beatty, and she later confirmed that the second chorus – 'But you gave away the things you loved, and one of them was me' – was about the ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ star. AFP

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  Alanis Morrissette: ‘You Oughta Know’, from the Canadian singer’s 1995 album ‘Jagged Little Pill’, remains one of the most famous wronged-lover clap-backs in pop history. The 46-year-old has never said who inspired the lyrics 'And I'm here, to remind you, of the mess you left when you went away', but in 2019 she did reveal on ‘Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen’: 'I am intrigued at the thought - or at the fact - that more than one person has taken credit for it. I don't know if you want to take credit for being the person I wrote ‘You Oughta Know’ about.' AFP

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  John Lennon: The bitter break-up of The Beatles’ songwriting duo John Lennon and Paul McCartney, when Lennon left the Fab Four in September 1969, led to an ongoing feud between the former close friends. Lennon released ‘How Do You Sleep?’ from 1971’s ‘Imagine’ album, featuring the lyrics: 'The only thing you done was yesterday, and since you're gone you're just another day', a reference to their hit song, ‘Yesterday’. Lennon said he wrote the song after being angered by what he perceived as 'messages' aimed at him in McCartney’s post-Beatles album, ‘Ram’. Courtesy CBS

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  Lily Allen: The title of the song might seem cheerful, but the British pop star’s hit ‘Smile’, which featured the lyrics 'At first, when I see you cry, yeah, it makes me smile', reflected far from positively on its subject. Written about her DJ ex-boyfriend Lester Lloyd, Allen told ‘The Sun’: 'This guy had taken up so much of my time and my emotions that the words just came pouring out. It was never going to be a sugar-sweet love song because by that time I was over him and felt a slight desire to get revenge through a song.' AFP

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  Miranda Lambert: The country music star has a whole host of revenge tracks in her back catalogue, but ‘Got My Name Changed Back’ is the hit which made the most headlines. Released three years after her 2015 split from ex-husband, fellow country star Blake Shelton, Lambert alludes to infidelity and sings: 'I don't wanna be a Missus on paper no more, I got my name changed back.' AFP

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  Ed Sheeran: The prolific songwriter’s 2014 hit ‘Don’t’ is allegedly about his ex, fellow pop star Ellie Goulding, who he briefly dated in in 2013. Specifically, it’s about her alleged fling with One Direction’s Niall Horan. 'Wish I'd have written it down, the way that things played out, When she was kissing him, how I was confused about,' Sheeran wrote, later insisting 'everyone knows' who the song was about. 'I did go on a few dates with Niall, but I was never in a relationship with Ed,' Goulding told ‘Elle UK’. 'I have absolutely no idea where that came from and why it was turned into such a big thing.' FilmMagic

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  Bob Dylan: Not all revenge tracks need to be about lost love or friendships gone awry, as Bob Dylan proved. On his 1965 track ‘Positively 4th Street’, Dylan railed against members of New York’s Greenwich Village folk scene – Fourth Street is in Greenwich Village – who had branded him a traitor for abandoning his folk roots in favour of rock. 'You’ve got a lotta nerve to say you are my friend,' he wrote. 'I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes, you’d know what a drag it is to see you.' WireImage

Revenge might be a dish best served cold, but when you’re an international pop star, there’s no harm in serving it up with a side order of “number one platinum-selling hit”, either.

Having moved away from sharing so much about her life in her songs, Taylor Swift's release last week of Mr Perfectly Fine, about her 2008 break-up from Joe Jonas was, as she admitted on Twitter, a throwback to her old self who eviscerated in song anyone who had wronged her – without naming names, of course.

Perfected in recent years by Swift and her particular brand of autobiographical songwriting, singers have long put the focus of their ire in their lyrical crosshairs to produce revenge songs about lost love, broken hearts and traitorous friends that have made for some pop masterpieces over the years.

Before Swift, the likes of Bob Dylan, soul singer Marvin Gaye and John Lennon were airing their grievances in public, with the latter's former Beatles' bandmate, Paul McCartney, the focus of finely crafted digs.

In country music, Miranda Lambert has made a career out of tales of love gone wrong and men she's kicked to the curb, while in pop, Justin Timberlake built his entire career on songs based on his break-up from Britney Spears.

Scroll through the gallery for 10 famous revenge tracks and the stories behind the lyrical tongue-lashings …