Virginia Moon
by Foo Fighters (featuring Norah Jones)

Album: In Your Honor (2005)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This gentle acoustic song evokes a place of safety and comfort. Dave Grohl hasn't talked about the meaning, but his mom's name was Virginia and he was very fond of her, so she's likely the inspiration. In 2017 she published a book called From Cradle to Stage: Stories from the Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars. Virginia died in 2022 at 84.
  • The song features Norah Jones on piano and co-vocals. She recalled her contribution in a 2010 interview with Billboard magazine: "I've been a fan of Dave Grohl's for a long time. He called me and I thought, 'Am I finally gonna get to rock?' When he sent me the track it was this beautiful bossa nova ballad so it made sense that he called me - but I wasn't going to get to rock after all. The song has a complex chord progression and it took me a minute to fish around for the right harmony, but we found it together."
  • "Norah is positively the most talented musician I've ever been around in my life – and that's including some heavies," Grohl told Craig McLean of The Independent on Sunday about working with Jones on this track. "She was unbelievable. Perfect pitch, perfect time, perfect placement, perfect playing. We were absolutely stunned. She did two takes and that was it. In and out in an hour and a half. And she was sweet as sugar, man. Unassuming, modest and a good hang."
  • "Virginia Moon" is a track from In Your Honor, the 2005 double album by Foo Fighters. It appears on the second disc, which is made up entirely of acoustic songs.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Rufus Wainwright

Rufus WainwrightSongwriter Interviews

Rufus Wainwright on "Hallelujah," his album Unfollow The Rules, and getting into his "lyric trance" on 12-hour walks.

Jim McCarty of The Yardbirds

Jim McCarty of The YardbirdsSongwriter Interviews

The Yardbirds drummer explains how they created their sound and talks about working with their famous guitarists.

Penny Ford of Snap!

Penny Ford of Snap!Songwriter Interviews

The original voice of Snap! this story is filled with angry drag queens, video impersonators and Chaka Khan.

Little Big Town

Little Big TownSongwriter Interviews

"When seeds that you sow grow by the wicked moon/Be sure your sins will find you out/Your past will hunt you down and turn to tell on you."

Judas Priest

Judas PriestSongwriter Interviews

Rob Halford, Richie Faulkner and Glenn Tipton talk twin guitar harmonies and explain how they create songs in Judas Priest.

Church Lyrics

Church LyricsMusic Quiz

Here is the church, here is the steeple - see if you can identify these lyrics that reference church.