William Shakespeare’s timeless narratives of ambition, madness, love, and betrayal have long been a wellspring of inspiration for musicians eager to channel the Bard’s genius through song. The most recent spectacle is Taylor Swift’s 'Fate of Ophelia' that succinctly honors one of Shakespeare’s most tragic figures, but is it the sole one in history to do so? Is saving Ophelia the only parameter of thematic complexity and lyrical poetry that inspiration from Shakespeare's work can extend to? The history of musicality seems to say otherwise. 

When crowns crumble and courtiers turn, the throne becomes a stage for Shakespeare’s darkest tragedies. And like a trusty melodic-messenger, Elton John warns kings to trust no one, because even the closest friends might sharpen the knife. 

Elton John’s haunting 'The King Must Die' from his landmark 1970 album, 'Elton John' is a majestic ode to the vulnerability of power and the tragic downfall of kings, a theme Shakespeare immortalized in Hamlet, King Lear, and Julius Caesar. The lyric, “No man’s a jester playing Shakespeare ’round your throne room floor”, serves as a portrait to his timeless role as the observer of royal folly and tragedy in being betrayed betrayed by those closest to the king with the lines "And sooner or later/ Everybody’s kingdom must end/ ...afraid your courtiers/ Cannot be called best friends."

These words echo the tragic betrayals of Shakespeare’s kings: Claudius undermining King Hamlet, and King Lear’s daughters tearing apart his reign. The song touches on Julius Caesar’s political intrigue as well, underscoring how power, like a fragile kingdom, can collapse overnight. Elton John and lyricist Bernie Taupin channel Shakespeare’s dramatic exploration of ambition and human frailty with poetic elegance, ensuring listeners cannot miss that this tale of power and decay belongs to the Bard’s kingdom, just as they cannot Taylor Swift's track that only dips a toe into Ophelia's pond. 

'I Am The Walrus' from The Beatles' 'Magical Mystery Tour' (1967), plays like a riddle wrapped in a mystery. Much like Shakespeare’s complex use of language and character in King Lear and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Beatles’ surreal landmark in this track, through strange phrases like “I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus, goo goo g’joob”, but this is absolutely not what is Shakespearean about the song. It is the famous incorporation of the audio from a BBC radio broadcast of King Lear in its final moments, directly fusing Shakespeare’s world with modern psychedelia.

John Lennon’s absurdist lyricism mirrors the playful yet poignant chaos Shakespeare conjured on stage. The shifting tempo and kaleidoscopic imagery reflect the Bard’s masterful juggling of madness and wisdom, illusion and reality. This song invites listeners into a Shakespearean carnival where nothing is quite what it seems, with the lines "Slave/ Thou hast slain me..." through to "Sit you down, Father, rest you", sharply surpassing Taylor Swift’s straightforward homage by fully embracing Shakespeare’s enigmatic theatricality.

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Love doomed by fate never sounded as hauntingly beautiful as Thom Yorke's narrative crooning of star-crossed lovers sneaking out before their worlds implode, straight from one of Shakespeare’s most twisted, heartbreaking romantic tragedies.

Thom Yorke’s solemn whisper in Radiohead’s 'Exit Music (For a Film)' from Radiohead's 1997 LP 'Ok Computer' brings to haunting life the doomed lovers of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Written expressly for Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film adaptation, the song captures Juliet and Romeo’s desperate, secretive departure from their fractured world with lines like: "Pack and get dressed/ Before your father hears us."

The fatalistic tension punctuates the song’s unfolding tragedy. The bitterly ironic hope embedded in “We hope that you choke” encapsulates the despair, betrayal, and inescapable fate Shakespeare’s lovers face. Radiohead’s sparse, chilling arrangement provides a mood of melancholic resignation far richer in emotional breadth than Taylor Swift’s Shakespearean rendition that turns Ophelia's tragic narrative into modern sorrow with the flashy new 'The Life of a Showgirl'.

2Pac’s 'Something Wicked' from his 1991 album, '2Pacalypse Now' borrows the ominous phrase “Something wicked this way comes” from the witches’ prophecy in Shakespeare’s dark tragedy, Macbeth. The line foreshadows dread and bloodshed, perfectly mirrored in 2Pac’s exploration of violence and moral decay: “I’m bringing something wicked, something wicked”.

By drawing from this well-known Shakespearean line, 2Pac parallels the descent into chaos and betrayal found in Macbeth and incorporates themes of terror, fate, and ambition. With raw lyrics and pulsing beats, the track becomes a modern-day Shakespearean tragedy, where crime and personal torment unfold amid societal collapse, adding a profound layer that Taylor Swift’s version of Ophelia might have dodged pursuing so fully, despite blurring the lines between cinema and music. 

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When madness and love intertwine, even the gentlest heart can shatter like glass if a melodiously quivering voice captures the tragic echo of Hamlet’s desperate princess, whose pain is just as haunting today in the 21st century as it was on Shakespeare’s stage in the 1600s.

“Oh, Ophelia, you’ve been on my mind, girl, like a drug” might sound as joyful as a drum, but on hindsight, it evokes the haunting, addictive nature of fame and the heartbreak that Ophelia suffers. The Lumineers track from 2016's 'Cleopatra' captures her descent into madness and despair, themes central to her story in the play. While more straightforward and less symbolically, politically, or existentially layered than the other compositions, 'Ophelia' humanizes her vulnerability, mirroring the personal pain Shakespeare penned. The Lumineers’ track is a tender portrait of loss and emotional fragility, making her timeless story accessible to a new generation.

Through these songs, Shakespeare’s psychological insight, tragic grandeur, and poetic craftsmanship live on in ways more compelling than Taylor Swift's 'Fate of Ophelia'. Swift's version is one that whisks the story into a mere "calling on the megaphone" to match her own glittering gift-box of a world in 'The Life of a Showgirl', inspired by her days spent onstage with The Eras Tour and other secrets decoded through the album's visuals. The lyrics of the older, more layered and surreal musical experiments quote or allude poignantly to Shakespearean text so vividly that even a layman might be compelled to stop laying and stand up thinking.

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Are there more contenders to 'The Fate of Ophelia' that you can count? Let us know in the comments below!