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If you liked the first song, just wait 'til you hear part 2.

When a band releases a song that could be considered a direct or spiritual sequel to a previous song of theirs. The song is usually in the same key as the original, and may borrow lyrics or music from it.

Compare Answer Song, where one artist does this in response to another's song.


Examples:

  • blink-182:
    • "Anthem Part Two", released on 2001's Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, is this to "Anthem" from 1999's Enema of the State, sharing the topic of rebellion. Whereas "Anthem" is about a teenager's hatred for their oppressive parents, "Anthem Part Two" is a Protest Song against the manners of governmental, corporate and societal authorities.
    • Averted with "Anthem Part 3" from 2023's One More Time..., which, despite its title, has differently-themed lyrics to "Anthem" and "Anthem Part Two" (namely, about a person moving on from a regretful past, and encouraging a partner who had experienced the same thing as them to follow their lead).
  • The Pointer Sisters' 1984 song, "Jump", seems to be a follow-up to their 1982 "I'm So Excited", which in turn seems to be a follow-up to their 1981 "Slow Hand". "Slow Hand" is a slow, romantic hit and a country/soul/R&B crossover. "I'm So Excited" is much more of a dance and post disco hit with a fast pace, in contrast to the former. The lyrics seem to reference the slow hand the singer wanted from a lover, with the line "And if you move real slow, I'll let it go". "Jump" had yet a faster pace and doesn't seem to reference "Slow Hand". It references "I'm So Excited" with the line "You're so excited I can feel you getting higher". So there is what seems a continuum and a transition from slow to fast, seems to suggest a transition in the relationship from one level to the next.
  • Before becoming a solo act in the mid-80s, Ray Parker Jr. did this for Raydio, the R&B group he was then fronting. Raydio's two biggest hits, both written by Parker, were "Jack and Jill" (#8 Hot 100, #5 R&B in 1978) and "A Woman Needs Love (Just Like You Do)" (#4 Hot 100, #1 R&B in 1981). In the earlier song, Parker portrays "Jack" as well-intentioned but neglected by "Jill", leading him to sneak away for some side action. The later song was written from the perspective of the original "Jill":
    By the time poor Jack returned up the hill
    Somebody else had been loving Jill
  • James Blunt's songs "You're Beautiful" and "Cold" are both in the same key of E-flat major. "Cold" shows James Blunt retrieving many of the items he lost in "You're Beautiful", and is set at sea like how "You're Beautiful" ended.
  • Metallica:
    • The so-called "Unforgiven Trilogy" consists of "The Unforgiven" from 1991's Metallica, "The Unforgiven II" from 1997's ReLoad, and "The Unforgiven III" from 2008's Death Magnetic. The original and "II" share a horn intro and some lyrics. "III" has neither, but it's still easy to see the connection.
    • "Lux Æterna" from 72 Seasons can be viewed as something of a successor to "Hit the Lights" from Kill 'Em All. The song's name means "Eternal Light" in Latin, and both songs are short, punk-y affairs with a very similar structure and tempo.
    • Also from 72 Seasons is "Sleepwalk My Life Away" to "Enter Sandman" from Metallica, which shares much of the latter song's rhythm, melodies and lyrical themes.
  • Thrice had "The Melting Point of Wax", sung from Icarus's perspective. Then they released "Daedalus", which is the same story, except from Daedalus's point of view. "Daedalus" was written after Dustin Kensrue, the lead singer/songwriter had children, and his view of the Icarus myth changed with it. Both songs represent different stages of the band: "The Melting Point of Wax" represents when you're young and think you can do anything and live forever. "Daedalus" represents when you're a father and will do anything to protect your kids.
  • More than 25 years after Enigma's debut single "Sadeness (Part I)"note  became a worldwide hit, the project included "Sadeness (Part II)" on its 2016 album The Fall of a Rebel Angel. The original track "questions" the sexual desires of Marquis de Sade, while the sequel depicts a male protagonist wandering through an imaginary town and encountering a priestess whose god is Sade.
  • Megadeth has "Hangar 18" followed up by "Return to Hangar", the continuation/sequel of the story in the song.
  • Chris Rock and LilJon made a sequel to "Get Low" called "Get Lower" on Chris Rock's 2005 album Never Scared.
  • Symphony X: ''The Accolade'' follows the story of a crusader, and it is ''AWESOME!!!'' Accolade II follows his son. In keeping with the nature of the genre, multiple themes from the original surface again.
  • Marilyn Manson's concept albums obviously follow this, but there's also "Coma Black" for "Coma White", although, because they're part of the triptych, which is listened to in opposite order of release, "Coma White" is this for "Coma Black".
  • Slipknot has "Vermilion" and "Vermilion Part 2", both from the album Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). The first song is typical Slipknot fare, while the second is a mellow acoustic reprise that plays later in the album's tracklist.
  • Dream Theater has Metropolis, Pt. I: The Miracle and the Sleeper, and Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory. The second song is notable for lasting a whole album which is separated into twelve tracks, 9 "scenes," and two acts.
    • "The Mirror" is seen as a prequel to the Twelve-Step Suite, and in Systematic Chaos you have "In The Presence of Enemies" I and II.
  • tool:
    • The triple song set of "Disposition", "Reflection" and "Triad" on the album Lateralus was originally intended to be one very long song. Due to its unwieldy length even by Tool's standards, the band was forced to split it into three individual songs, with each acting as an introduction, middle, and ending for a very metaphor-heavy narrative.
    • 10,000 Days has a two-parter consisting of "Wings for Marie (Pt. 1)" and "10,000 Days (Wings Pt. 2)".
  • Axel Rudi Pell:
    • They've done this with their album The Crest, which features a track called Dark Waves of the Sea (Oceans of Time Pt. II: The Dark Side), which is a sequel to their 1998 track, Oceans of Time. It has a similar, but more guitar-heavy chorus, and a similar solo section to the first song.
    • "World of Confusion (The Masquerade Ball Pt. II)" is the same for "The Masquerade Ball".
    • ARP often unintentionally does this as well. Seeing as how Axel writes all the band's music, riffs and solos are bound to crop up again occasionally. There's an insanely catchy riff that appears (with slight variations) on the tracks Wild Cat, Pay the Price, and Buried Alive. All these songs are years apart.
  • Helloween are very fond of this. Halloween, Keeper of the Seven Keys and King for a Thousand Years found on the albums Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt.1, Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt.2 and Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy respectively are all considered sequels. While Halloween doesn't share a plot with the other two songs, it's still considered part of the band's "Keeper Trilogy", being a 10+ minute long multi-part Epic. An orchestral medley of all three songs was made for the band's 2010 compilation album Unarmed. It's an interesting case in that King for a Thousand Years was released 17 years after Keeper.
    • The song Occasion Avenue could also be related to the "Keeper Trilogy". It doesn't share any lyrical themes or music, but it's a long, multi-part song that contains samples of the Trilogy.
  • Meat Loaf's album Bat Out of Hell had two sequels, though only Bat Out of Hell II was written entirely by original Bat songwriter Jim Steinman.
  • Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells II.
  • The Beatles:
    • "Glass Onion" could be seen as a sequel to "Strawberry Fields" and "I Am the Walrus"... or just a Mind Screw. It also references "Fool on the Hill", "Lady Madonna", "Fixing a Hole", "There's a Place", "I'm Looking Through You", and "Within You Without You",
    • Two of George Harrison's most popular Beatles songs were "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Here Comes The Sun". During his solo career he wrote and recorded "This Guitar (Can't Keep From Crying)" and "Here Comes The Moon".
  • Peter Schilling's "Major Tom" is an unofficial sequel to David Bowie's "Space Oddity", to which the official sequel would be "Ashes to Ashes".
  • Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue Got Married" was a sequel to "Peggy Sue", released posthumously.
  • "Judy's Turn to Cry" by Lesley Gore is a sequel to the same singer's "It's My Party".
  • The Charlie Daniels Band recorded a sequel to "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" called "The Devil Came Back to Georgia".
  • Britney Spears:
    • "Stronger" contains the line "My loneliness ain't killing me no more", a reference to "…Baby One More Time".
    • "Inside Out" also references the latter, asking her lover to "hit me one more time."
  • Eminem:
    • "Kim" was a prequel to "97 Bonnie and Clyde".
    • Eminem's guest verse on "Psycho" with 50 Cent is the aftermath of the events of "Music Box" from Relapse: Refill.
    • "Framed" from Revival is a sequel to "3 a.m." from Relapse, also referencing the events of the Relapse promotional freestyle "I'm Having A Relapse".
    • Many songs on The Marshall Mathers LP 2 are sequels to songs on the original The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show.
      • "Bad Guy" is a sequel to "Stan" but also an answer to "Kim" (it seems at first it's a song about murdering Kim, until The Reveal) and the hyperoffensive "Criminal" (quoting "I'm the bad guy who makes fun of people that die..."). "Parking Lot (skit)" is a direct continuation of the skit from "Criminal".
      • His father-hatred song "Rhyme or Reason", and his attempt to bury the hatchet with his mother, "Headlights", are both answers to "Cleanin' Out My Closet", an "I Hate" Song about his mother.
      • "So Much Better" uses a gloomy piano beat Sampled Up from "Criminal", and is an over-the-top angry Break-Up Song using lots of silly exte-e-e-e-e-e-nded melismatics, reminiscent of "Puke" from Encore.
      • In "Stronger Than I Was", he sings as both himself and as Kim, a Solo Duet referencing his Acting for Two on the original "Kim".
      • "So Far" amusingly switches the beat back to "I'm Back" and "The Real Slim Shady" in scenes showing kids influenced by his music tormenting him now.
      • Both "Legacy" and "So Far..." reference "The Way I Am" - "Legacy" is another emotional Sincerity Mode song using Constrained Writing (a restrictive meter on "The Way I Am", a limited palette of vowels in "Legacy") and "So Far..." opens with a scene of an irritating fan asking Eminem for an autograph while he's taking a shit, something that happens in "The Way I Am".
    • "Stepdad", in which a child Shady decides to get revenge on his abusive stepdad by killing him, might be a sequel to "Insane", in which a child Shady is repeatedly raped by his stepdad and has his mind broken by the trauma of it. It's debatable as Stepdad has a different characterisation in both songs — a child rapist in "Insane", a wife and child batterer in "Stepdad".
    • Revival ends with "Castle" and "Arose" — the former details Em's deteriorating mental health in light of his increasing fame while it's happening, ending on a recreation of his near-fatal overdose in 2007. The latter song details his near-death experience and catalogues what he believed would be his final thoughts before deciding he's not going to make the same mistakes he made in the past. From there, the song abruptly "reverses" and restores the beat of "Castle", where he finishes the song on a different path, instead flushing his pills down the toilet.
  • An Orthodox Jewish band called Journeys had a song called "The Ninth Man" on their debut album in the '80s. Almost 20 years later, on Journeys IV, they had a sequel called "The Ninth Man II", which was from the point of view of the same characters... 20 years later.
  • R.E.M.: "Bad Day" is a sequel to their previous song, "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"; while it was written first, it wasn't released until 2003, long after "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" dropped in 1987.
  • George Formby did an entire series of songs about a Mr. Wu, which started with "Chinese Laundry Blues" and included "Mr. Wu's a Window Cleaner Now" (also a sequel to Formby's "When I'm Cleaning Windows"), "Mr. Wu's an Air Raid Warden Now" and "Mr. Wu's In the Air Force." (Listening to these all in a row is not recommended.)
  • Harry Chapin wrote the aptly-titled "Sequel" as one of these to "Taxi."
  • Red Hot Chili Peppers: "Dani California" to "Californication".
    • And in between those, Dani shows up in "By the Way".
    Dani the girl is
    Singing songs to me
    Beneath the marquee
    Overload
  • Linkara's History of Power Rangers videos mentioned that the Power Rangers Zeo theme is, appropriately enough, a sequel song to the theme of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, which includes some parts of the original.
  • Napoleon XIV: "They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha, Haa!" and "They're Coming to Get Me Again"
  • Kansas' "Icarus: Borne on Wings of Steel" was followed up years later by "Icarus II". Also, 'Carry On, Wayward Son' is a sequel to 'The Pinnacle', which was a sequel to 'Mysteries And Mayhem', though the latter two were originally meant to be one song.
  • Rush:
    • Their album A Farewell to Kings ended with the song "Cygnus X-I Part I" and began their next album, Hemispheres, with the followup "Cygnus X-I Part II".
    • Rush also has Fear parts I, II, III and IV, spread out over decades of albums, with the first three released in reverse order.
    • Two of their instrumentals: "Where's My Thing?" and "Leave That Thing Alone".
  • Tommy and Gina from Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" made a return appearance in "It's My Life". As well as the introduction.
  • Elton John recorded "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" in 1972, and "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters, Part 2" in 1988.
  • Jethro Tull followed "Christmas Song" in 1970 and "Another Christmas Song" in 1989.
  • The Ramones have "The Return of Jackie and Judy", a sequel to "Judy Is a Punk", and "This Ain't Havana", a sequel to "Havana Affair". And arguably "Cretin Family" also qualifies as a sequel/inversion of "We're a Happy Family" (that references the title of "Cretin Hop").
  • Ben Folds has "Fred Jones, Part 2", a sequel to his Ben Folds Five song "Cigarette" (which also had Fred Jones as a main character).
  • Mr. Bungle had "Sleep (Part II): Carry Stress in the Jaw" and "Sleep (Part III): Phlegmatics" on Disco Volante, leading fans to wonder where the hell "Sleep (Part I)" was: It turns out Trevor Dunn, who had written both songs, had retroactively decided that the earlier song "Slowly Growing Deaf" was part one. The three aren't directly connected, but share the theme of an illness affecting a specific body part.
  • Bobby "Boris" Pickett recorded several sequels to the novelty hit "Monster Mash", including "Monster Swim", "Sinister Stomp", and even "Monster's Holiday."
  • Ice-T's "Midnight" has a spoken intro that more or less sets it up as a sequel to his earlier song "6 'N The Mornin'". The very last line reveals that it's more of a prequel song though, since "6 'N The Mornin'" begins with police at the door at 6 A.M. and "Midnight" ends with the exact same situation.
  • Everything Else's "Fool" is the sequel to "If You Loved Her", which makes "If You Loved Her" a more depressing song.
  • Rihanna recorded "Love the Way You Lie Part 2" for her album "Loud". It's a sequel to Eminem's "Love the Way You Lie", which Rihanna sang the chorus of.
  • The Vines had "Autumn Shade" then "Autumn Shade II" followed by both "A.S. III" and "A.S.4 (Autumn Shade 4)" all on separate albums.
  • French singer Renaud has a song called "Les aventures de Gérard Lambert" (Gérard Lambert's adventures). It also has a later song, called "Le retour de Gérard Lambert" (Gérard Lambert returns). Of course, both songs share the main character. (In the first, he is trying to fix his bike, and in the second he is driving to meet a girl, only to find a transvestite. He ends both songs by hitting people.)
    • The same singer also has two songs, "Où c'est qu'j'ai mis mon flingue" (Where did I put my gun) and "J'ai retrouvé mon flingue" (I found my gun again) where he rants about various things and more various things in the sequel.
  • Rap group Atmosphere has a few:
    • The song "Millie Fell Off The Fire Escape" is a direct sequel to the song "Millie Pulled A Pistol On Santa" by De La Soul. The former pays homage to the latter by using the same backing music as a sample.
    • The song "Hair", in which rapper Slug details the story of a fan trying to seduce him at a bar. The song progresses through the night as Slug and the girl go back and forth, with the fan's advances eventually winning over Slug. They get into her car, and as they're driving to her place, the song abruptly ends with the following:
      Lyndale Avenue on the way to her place
      Her drunk ass turns to look at me and she says
      "You're so beautiful, from the hair to the soul
      I can't believe that I never met you before
      It feels like I've been waiting for you my whole life"
      She missed the red light, we hit a pick-up truck and we both died
    • This is followed up on a later album by a song called, appropriately enough, "Scalp". The narrator is asked by a shady friend to pick up a mysterious package at a warehouse and drop it off at another location. He gets into his car but has an internal struggle as to whether or not he should do such an obviously morally dubious thing. Deciding against his better judgement, he starts driving to the warehouse...
      I started talking to the image in the mirror
      I said, "You should go back in and explain
      Sonny will understand, everything will be fine
      Sean, calm down, get a grip, you're trippin"
      I shook myself and put the key in the ignition
      "Stop being a bitch now, man up"
      Rollin' down 26 with thoughts of handcuffs
  • Rapper and singer Dessa had a song called "Mineshaft" that was about a painful breakup. On a later album, she released a song called "Mineshaft 2", set sometime afterwards as the ex-boyfriend calls her in an attempt to get back together.
    • "Mineshaft"
    I've been here before, and I know where it goes
    It goes down...
    • "Mineshaft 2"
    You've already been here before
    You already know where it goes
    You chose this, you know its supposed to be over
  • Rapper Sage Francis has a series of songs detailing the aftermath of a painful breakup. Each song features the same lyrical structure, but the individual words changed to reflect the mod. The first, called "The Write", finds Sage sad and heartbroke. The second song, called "Rewrite", show Sage angry at the ex-girlfriend, calling her a bitch, with the mood of the track scornful and defiant. The final and third song, fittingly called "Threewrite", is much more peaceful, with Sage finally coming to terms with what happened and finally moving on.
  • After "Minnie the Moocher" became his Signature Song, Cab Calloway wrote a series of songs about Minnie and her boyfriend Smokey Joe.
  • a-ha's "The Sun Always Shines on TV" video is a sequel to the "Take on Me" video, and begins with Morten Harket's character leaving his love interest and returning to animated comic form.
  • Funker Vogt's "Tragic Hero" had two sequels, "Fallen Hero" and "Arising Hero".
  • Queens of the Stone Age's "Mosquito Song" was the closing track to Songs for the Deaf, and contained the lyric "Lullabies to paralyze". Their next album was Lullabies to Paralyze, as a Continuity Nod.
  • Future Perfect: "Solitary Star" is the follow-on to "Queen of the Dance Floor" from the same album (Dirty Little Secrets), as evident by the callbacks in the lyrics. On their second album, Escape, "Paradise" is about escapism through sex, bondage, drugs, etc., while the title track, which directly follows it, is about coming to grips with reality.
  • Ayla - "Ayla Part II" (there isn't a part 3, that's a Misattributed Song)
  • Erasure's "Always", to "Sometimes".
  • BT's "Godspeed" is a spiritual successor to "Flaming June", and "Suddenly" has a similar melody to "Love Comes Again", one of his collaborations with DJ Tiesto.
  • "Stormy Skies", by Paul van Dyk & Wayne Jackson, is this to "The Other Side", their previous collaboration, which was a tribute to the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami; "Stormy Skies" may be about Hurricane Katrina or some other disastrous storm.
  • They Might Be Giants did a series of songs based around a titular "Hotel Detective". The first, "(She Was a) Hotel Detective" being on their debut album. The second off an EP released shortly before their fifth album, called "She Was A Hotel Detective" (no parentheses). The latest from their podcast album was called "(She Was a) Hotel Detective in the Future"! They also released a sequel to the song "Why Does the Sun Shine?" called "Why Does the Sun Really Shine?" The former is a cover of a song from 1959; the latter corrects the scientific errors in the former.
  • Hank Williams Jr.'s "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" follows from his earlier "All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down".
  • Clint Black: "No Time to Kill" is basically a sequel to "Killin' Time".
  • "Boogie Bam Dance" by the Caramella Girls, formerly Caramell, is the sequel to "Caramelldansen".
  • Cascada: "Wouldn't It Be Good" to "Everytime We Touch", "Ready For Love" to "Miracle", "Runaway" to "Bad Boy", and "Sinner on the Dance Floor" to "Evacuate the Dance Floor".
  • Aerosmith wrote "Rats in the Cellar" to be the Rocks counterpart of "Toys in the Attic", from their previous album Toys in the Attic.
  • Coldplay have Life in Technicolor and then Life in Technicolor II on the following album. The sequel is an extended version with lyrics of the first, which is an instrumental.
  • DJ Shog's "Another World" has the spiritual sequel "Live 4 Music", as well as the official sequel "Another World Part II".
  • Kevin Matisyn did this between two separate bands. Evans Blue's 2007 album had the song "Kiss the Flag", a song about a fallen soldier. In 2010, Parabelle (Matisyn's new band after parting ways with Evans Blue) released the song "Kiss the Flag: The Widow"
  • Iron Maiden
    • "Charlotte The Harlot" on their first album was followed by "22 Acacia Avenue", a Darker and Edgier take on the same character. Charlotte shows up again in "From Here to Eternity", this time as a motorcycle enthusiast. Or just interested in a guy on a bike.
    • "Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger" is seen as the sequel to "Prowler". Whilst "Prowler" is from a pervert's point of view, "Don't Look..." is from his victim's.
  • Ministry have "TV Song", "TV II", "TV III", "WTV", and "Side Fx Include Mikey's Middle Finger (TV 4)" note . "TV II" is just a re-recording of "TV Song", but the rest are all separate songs that are connected by very fast, Hardcore Punk-like tempos, Spoken Word in Music in the form of samples from television, and frequent use of Stop and Go.
    • Their 1992 single "NWO" had a sequel in 2004's "No W" - the titles are close anagrams of each other, and while "NWO" was a Protest Song about President George H.W. Bush, "No W" was one about George W. Bush.
  • Christian singer Kenny Marks wrote a song called "The Party's Over", chronicling how Johnny and Jeannie hooked up at a party, she got pregnant, and he split. A sequel, called "Next Time You See Johnny" was written later telling about the girl, now a single mother, listening to her child praying for his daddy, and ends with Jeannie reprising the chorus in her own prayer, forgiving her baby-daddy.
  • Big Dipper followed up "Guitar Named Desire" with "Guitar Named Desire: The Animated Sequel" 25 years later. The original "Guitar Named Desire" was a mostly-instrumental Single Stanza Song, whereas "The Animated Sequel" uses a slight variation on the same music but adds more lyrics, giving it proper verses and choruses.
  • Welcome 2 My Nightmare is an entire sequel album for Alice Cooper's solo debut album Welcome To My Nightmare, but really, the intro song "I Am Made of You" is the only track to really display that fact. Musically, that is. The piano line driving the song is the same line used in "Steven" from the original album, showing how Steven has been able to get over his previous nightmare and effectively linking the two albums. It doesn't help that the nightmares begin again...
  • "Valkyrie" by The Cruxshadows appears to be a spiritual sequel to their signature song "Winterborn"; both have similar song structures and lyrics pertaining to Heroic Sacrifice. Likewise, "Singularities" sounds like this to "Quicksilver".
  • Lady Gaga's "Judas", to "Bad Romance".
  • Chuck Berry did sequels for "Johnny B. Goode" ("Bye Bye Johnny") and "Memphis" ("Little Marie").
  • The Bellamy Brothers made three rewrites/sequels their 1985 hit "Old Hippie", about a former hippie facing the mid-80s life and starting to clean himself up. First was "Old Hippie (The Sequel)" in 1995, where he's now married and has a family. A year later was "Old Hippie Christmas", an obviously holiday-themed version. Finally, in 2007, they did "Old Hippie III", where said hippie is converted to Christianity.
  • Mitch Benn's "Knut Saga", four topical songs on The Now Show about a polar bear in Berlin Zoo. The first, "The Baby Bear Must Die!" in 2007, was about the controversy following the bear cub's birth, with some saying he shouldn't have been raised by humans after being rejected by his mothernote . The second, "Knut Isn't Cute Any More" the following year, was about a report that interest in the bear was dropping as he reached adolescence. In 2008 he composed the Power Ballad "Goodbye Knut", based on reports that Knut would be moved to another zoo, and following the bear's death in 2011 he wrote the "Candle in the Wind" parody "Panda in Berlin" (yes, he acknowledges that in the song).
  • Austra's "What We Done", to "The Future". "She saw the future, and it was dark".
  • Nieminen & Litmanen had "Leo Jokela" on their debut album and "Leo Jokela Rides Again" on the second.
  • Galaxy Hunter's "When I Close My Eyes", to "Thousand Miles Away". Both are Love Nostalgia Songs, and the later song has a Title Drop Call-Back to the first.
  • Most of mind.in.a.box's songs are direct (plot) sequels to previous songs, as all but one of their albums forms one cohesive plot. "Tape Evidence" is a prequel song, combining beats and snippets of lyrics from later songs in the album, but only when Black is dreaming or listening to a tape he found on his doorstep. Additionally, every album besides the New Sound Album R.E.T.R.O ties into a Cyberpunk plot. Stylistic sequel songs include "I Love 64", to "8 Bits", both from the R.E.T.R.O album. In turn, those have a sequel on Revelations titled "Unknown", also using a synthetic female voice, "Whatever Mattered" has the follow-up "Second Reality", and "Control" appears to be a spiritual successor to their version of Chris Hülsbeck's "Shades".
  • (Former) MOD artist Markus "Captain" Kaarlonen's "Beyond Music" appears to be one to "Space Debris".
  • Bjorn "Dr. Awesome" Lynne's "Bridge to the Universe, Part 2" and "Part 3".
  • The Pretty Reckless follows up "Going Down" from their debut album with "Going To Hell", the title song of their second one. It features the same protagonist confessing to the same priest.
  • About four decades after Insterburg & Co.'s iconic song "Ich liebte ein Mädchen", in which the singer was supposedly involved with girls all over the world, Fettes Brot made what they call a "continuation" titled "Für immer immer". It is not a Cover Version as they only kept the concept and generic lines.
  • Doug Burr has "Chief of Police in Chicago" and "You've Been a Suspect All Your Life". Both are set in a near-future where genetic science is advanced enough to predict future behavior (or so the politicians claim). In the first song, the Police Chief tells a mother that her son tested positive for the gene indicating criminal behavior. In the second song, the mother gets sick of the constant police surveillance of her son, so she takes the boy and runs away to start a new life elsewhere.
  • Anathallo has four tracks on their album Floating World with the prefix "Hanasakajiji". Taken together, they're a slightly anachronic retelling of the Japanese myth "Old Man Cherry-Blossom".
  • The Moody Blues' 1988 song "I Know You're Out There Somewhere" (from Sur La Mer) was a sequel to their 1986 hit song "Your Wildest Dreams"; the music video for the aforementioned song continued where "Your Wildest Dreams" left off.
  • Wooden Toaster's infamous MLP fan song "Rainbow Factory", which inspired a Dark Fic of the same name, has two sequels; "Awoken" by Wooden Toaster himself with H8_Seed, and "Pegasus Device" by SlyphStorm, which references both of its predecessors at the end.
  • Evening Star's "One Day I Will Fly", a Lonely Piano Piece about Scootaloo's (currently) unattainable dream of flight, has a sequel titled "First Flight", where she finally accomplishes it.
  • Basshunter 's "Elinor" seems to be a sequel to "Boten Anna", at least spiritually.
  • Harry Dacre followed up his timeless classic "Daisy Bell (A Bicycle Built For Two)" with the less popular "Fare Thee Well, Daisy Bell", in which Daisy and the narrator have split up, leaving the narrator a broken man. It turns out she wasn't as keen on the tandem bike as he was.
  • Jimmy Dean's "Big Bad John" has a much less well-known sequel, "The Cajun Queen", in which the miner who pulled a Heroic Sacrifice at the end of the first song is resurrected and reunited with his lover.
  • Booker T & the MG's instrumental single "Green Onions" turned out to be a huge hit, so they quickly threw together an album to capitalize on it. One of the album tracks was the very similar-sounding "Mo' Onions".
  • The entire "Cry Baby" album by Melanie Martinez is a Concept Album, but two songs are direct sequels to others:
    • "Dollhouse" is about her dysfunctional family and "Sippy Cup" is about her mother snapping and murdering her cheating husband.
    • "Tag You're It" is about Cry Baby being kidnapped while "Milk and Cookies" is about her murdering her kidnapper.
  • Jean-Michel Jarre's 1997 album Oxygène 7-13 is a sequel album to Oxygène from 20 years prior. In turn, those were followed by Oxygène 3 in 2016. Likewise Équinoxe(1978) has the sequel Équinoxe Infinity(2018).
  • Gym Class Heroes have done this a bunch of times. First, the entire album The Papercut Chronicles II is a sequel to their earlier album The Papercut Chronicles. More specifically, the song “Kid Nothing And The Never-Ending Naked Nightmare” off the second Papercuts album can be seen as a sequel to “Nothing Boy Vs The Echo Factor” from the first one. Then we have “Wejusfreestylin'” and “Wejustfreestylin Pt. 2” off their first and second albums respectively, which are both Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Finally, throughout the album As Cruel As School Children, there are three tracks called “Sloppy Love Jingle, Pt. 1”, “Sloppy Love Jingle, Pt. 2”, and “Sloppy Love Jingle, Pt. 3”, which form a single continuous story when listened together.
  • Issues has a very weird variation of this. There are two songs called "Tears on the Runway", both of them feature female singer Nylo and are labeled Part 1 and Part 2. However, Part 2 was released before Part 1. Not only that, but Part 1 isn't officially an Issues song, but rather it's on frontman Tyler Carter's solo EP, released nearly a year later. This caused a lot of confusion, to say the least.
  • CHVRCHES's "Afterglow", the closing track of Every Open Eye, follows on from the earlier track "Leave a Trace", reprising that song's title lyric in the first and third verses.
  • Parodied by Homestar Runner in Marzipan's Answering Machine 17, where Strong Bad considers doing a half-assed follow-up to his number one jam "Everybody to the Limit" called "Lets Fhqwhgads Again".
  • The Bobettes' 1957 hit "Mr. Lee" was about a student having a crush on her high school teacher. In their 1960 sequel "I Shot Mr. Lee", the narrator (who may or may not be the same person from the first song) shoots Mr. Lee dead for cheating on her... and both songs are set to the same cheerful melody. Apparently the group got sick of hearing Answer Songs to their biggest hit and figured they'd try to put a stop to it by killing off the character.
  • Thomas Dolby's 1982 song "Europa and the Pirate Twins", a ditty purportedly about lost love in the wake of World War II, received a sequel 10 years later in "Eastern Bloc (Sequel to Europa and the Pirate Twins)", which has more of an end of the Cold War setting, and sure enough, namedrops Europa in its chorus and borrows both lyrics and some musical cues from the earlier song.
  • The Drifters followed up their classic 1964 hit "Under the Boardwalk" with a lesser-known single called "I've Got Sand in My Shoes", which has the same rhythm and instrumentation, and even reprises the earlier song's falsetto "down by the sea" vocal hook. Lyrically, it describes the end of summer at the same beachfront park referenced in "Boardwalk".
  • HoneyWorks' Break-Up Song, "Nakimushi Kareshi", is followed by "Suki Kirai" (in which the guy finds new love), and followed up again with "Hajimari no Sayonara" (girl misses guy and wants to get back to him, only to find that he's gotten a new girlfriend).
  • Eartha Kitt's classic 1953 Christmas novelty song "Santa Baby" was followed up a year later with the much-lesser-known "This Year's Santa Baby", in which the singer bemoans the condition of the previous year's goodies and asks Santa for a new batch.
  • Michael Jackson's "Heal the World" (1991) was a follow up to the 1985 charity supergroup song "We Are the World", which he co-wrote. Then there was "We Are the World 25 for Haiti", which posthumously featured him.
  • Janet Jackson's "Runaway" (1995) sounds like a sequel to "Escapade" (1989).
  • According to Jimmy Buffett, Frankie and Lola Dupree — the main characters in his song "Frankie and Lola" — a married couple who are trying to rebuild their marriage — are the same mutually cheating couple from his earlier song "Who's the Blonde Stranger". While he never wrote a third song revealing whether their attempt to fix their marriage worked, Buffett likes to say that he's "hopeful that love conquers all."
  • Information Society's "Walking Away" is this to "Running". In the latter, the singer's character believed that love would someday lead him and his romantic interest back together, while in the former, he has given up and moved on, hence the title.
  • Assemblage 23's "Afterglow" (not to be confused with the aforementioned CHVRCHES song), the first proper song on Endure, is a follow-up to "Smoke", the opener of Compass. Both songs are about The End of the World as We Know It, likely from nuclear war judging by the lyrics.
  • The 1975's album I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it opens with a song, also called "The 1975", that serves as a direct sequel to the song of the same name on their self-titled debut; both songs open with a chord that gradually gets louder, but the song on I like it when you sleep is more anthemic, reflecting the sound of the album overall compared to the first.
  • Sting's "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" was written because Sting was creeped out by the size of the Misaimed Fandom who thought that the Stalker with a Crush lyrics of "Every Breath You Take", his earlier hit single with The Police, were romantic.
  • Ayria's "You're So Vacant" seems to be a sequel song to "All That Glitters".
  • Former Weather Girl Martha Wash teamed up with Ru Paul for "It's Raining Men: The Sequel" in 1997.
  • Laserdance's "Break Through", from 1995's The Guardian of Forever, is apparently a sequel to their 1984 single "Goody's Return".
  • Sesame Street did this a couple of times:
    • The song "I in the Sky (Capital I)", sung by Steve Zuckerman, was followed up with "The Lonely n (Lowercase N)" by the same singer, which has a nearly identical verse melody.
    • "It Sure Is Hot! (¡Hace Calor!)" involved a random muppet talking about the weather as way to break the ice (no pun intended) with a Spanish-speaking neighbor. A few years later, the very similar-sounding "Hace Frio!" came out, which involves Telly finding himself in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood on a particularly cold day.
  • Penguin Cafe Orchestra's debut album included "From The Colonies" and "Milk". Eight years later, their third album Broadcasting From Home contained the sequels "Another One From the Colonies" and "More Milk".
  • Veruca Salt's biggest hit "Seether" describes "the seether" as a sort of Jekyll & Hyde aspect of a particular woman's personality. Their later song "Volcano Girls" includes a stanza referring back to the song and includes the "extra clue" that "the seether's Louise," referring to the band's co-lead vocalist and guitarist Louise Post.
  • BTS, being rather fond of tying their music to a larger narrative, are prone to this.
    • There's "We are B.P.B”" (made pre-debut, in 2010, when RM was the only member along with other two trainees who later left) and "We Are Bulletproof pt. 2" (the better known one, released in 2 Cool 4 Skool). "We are B.P.B”" was reworked and re-released as "We Are Bulletproof pt. 1" on Soundcloud in 2015, now featuring all the members.
    • Also "Airplane" (from J-Hope's solo mixtape) and "Airplane pt. 2" (from BTS' LOVE YOURSELF: Tear album), with pt. 2 even featuring a verse from pt. 1. Hope World also has a track named "Piece of Peace pt.1", though whether it'll actually have a sequel is yet to be seen.
    • The person of "I'm Fine" is the same person from "Save Me", but after going through the Character Development seen in the LOVE YOURSELF series; it features the latter's main melody in reverse, an inverted order of the rap parts, and inverted themes in the lyrics (with the lyrics in RM's verses even being an ambigram to his part in "Save Me"). While "Save Me" is about depending emotionally of someone else's love, "I'm Fine" is about finally learning to gain independence and being unafraid to let go.
    • They also have a history of sequel Concept Albums (the School Trilogy, the The Most Beautiful Moment in Life series, and the LOVE YOURSELF Series). When put all together, their discography can be read as a larger Coming of Age Story.
    • "Boy With Luv" is this to "Boy In Luv" - the stark difference in both sound and representation of love and gender roles is meant as a demonstration of the evolution and maturity of BTS as a group and as people.
  • Jimmie Rodgers: Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas) was followed up by 12 other Blue Yodel records.
  • HIM: "Don't Close Your Heart" to "Join Me in Death"; the former is sung by someone trying to save whoever sang the latter.
  • Futurecop!s 2017 concept album Return to Alvograth is the sequel to their 2009 debut EP The Unicorn and the Lost City of Alvograth.
  • Juno Reactor followed up "Pistolero", the opener to their 2001 album Shango, with "Return of the Pistolero" on The Mutant Theatre in 2018.
  • Rebecca Black followed up her infamous "Friday" with "Saturday".
  • According to Word of God (songwriter Dennis Linde), the eponymous "Earl" in The Chicks' "Goodbye Earl" is the same Earl featured in Sammy Kershaw's 1993 hit "Queen of My Double Wide Trailer".
  • Roxi Drive's "Lost In the Game", on Electric Heart, appears to be a narrative sequel to "Behind the Mask" from her first album, Strangers of the Night.
  • Charli XCX has tackled this a few times:
    • From her album Charli, the song "1999" is a straightforward and nostalgic pop tune dedicated to The '90s, while "2099" is a far more chaotic, avant-garde interpretation of what she believes will be pop music's distant future.
    • The song "Click" from Charli is a Boastful Rap of Charli and her clique of friends who she raps along with, including featured artists Kim Petras and Tommy Cash. The following album, how i'm feeling now (produced during and is about quarantine life during the COVID Pandemic), features the song "c2.0", is a solo track where Charli reminisces over her clique and missing them.
  • NINA's "The Calm Before the Storm" is thematically a sequel to "Beyond Memory", using the same key, tempo, and chord progression, as well as reprising the lyric "I surrender".
  • Sade: The 1985 music video for "The Sweetest Taboo" has Sade in a studio, reminiscing over a lost relationship (and its courtship and happier times together) while recording in the studio with her band. The 1986 video for "Is It a Crime?" begins in the same studio, and shows the man in the relationship (who also lives in New York) racing to get to her studio as further clarification of their relationship is revealed (he was verbally and physically abusive towards her). Both videos use one of the same sets, and the same actor for the boyfriend in the relationship.
  • Dr. Elmo's Christmas song "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" had a few: "Grandpa's Gonna Sue the Pants off of Santa" (where a vengeful Grandpa takes the incident to court), "Grandma's Spending Christmas with the Superstars" (which describes Grandma celebrating Christmas with deceased celebrities in Heaven) and "Don't Make Me Play That Grandma Song Again" (where the singer complains about his distaste for the original song and how much money it is making Dr. Elmo).
  • Barry Louis Polisar's "With a Giggle and a Hug and a Tickle and a Kiss" is a direct continuation to "You're As Sweet as Sugar on a Stick", and the opening verse of the former actually uses the exact same words as the closing verse of the latter:
    I never thought I'd fall again least not like this
    With a giggle and a hug and a tickle and a kiss
    It's hard to think I'd let myself be captured by your charms
    In the middle of a snowstorm I'm melting in your arms
  • ABC released the sequel album The Lexicon of Love II in 2016, 34 years after the original The Lexicon of Love.
  • C. W. McCall followed up his 1975 novelty trucker anthem "Convoy" with the comparatively obscure "Round the World with the Rubber Duck" the next year. The song picks up directly after its predecessor as Rubber Duck's convoy finds itself surrounded by "bears" (police) on the Atlantic coast, but takes a sharp turn into Denser and Wackier territory when, with the help of the "friends of Jesus" and their micro-bus, the convoy literally drives across the ocean and tours Eurasia, starting with England and continuing on through Germany, the Soviet Union, and Japan. Each country gets its own (self-consciously corny) Brief Accent Imitation.
  • Post-hardcore group Dance Gavin Dance has a number of song series, including "The Robot with Human Hair", "Strawberry Swisher", and "Burning Down the Nicotine Armoire". According to the members themselves, the series are largely connected by musical elements rather than lyrical ones, although there are some lyrical ties (e.g. the "HEY!"s at the beginning of a section, which are found throughout the Strawberry Swisher series).
  • Rod Stewart's "You Wear It Well" is a Spiritual Sequel rather than direct sequel to his earlier hit "Maggie May". In addition to sharing a similar musical structure and tone, both can be listened as Book Ends to one another; the earlier song is about a man denouncing his lover and all the ways she's toxic for him and deciding to leave her once and for all, whereas the other is about a man writing a letter to an old ex-partner reminiscing on their relationship and coming to realise that he's still in love with her.
  • Billy Ward and his Dominoes have "Sixty Minute Man", which is about Lovin' Dan, a man capable of pleasuring a woman for sixty minutes straight. It has a sequel, "Can't Do Sixty No More", which reuses the same melody: this time, however, Lovin' Dan has been through a Heroic RRoD after finding a woman who can surpass his sexual prowess.
  • DECO*27's "Android Girl" is a sequel to his previous song, "Two Breaths Walking." Both songs feature the Vocaloid Hatsune Miku as the singer and focus on the unstable relationship between a young man and a young woman (who is an actual android depending on your interpretation). While "Two Breaths Walking" focuses on the first steps of their relationship and the start of the problems that form between them, "Android Girl" focuses on the climax of their problems and the strong emotions they both feel as a result. "Android Girl" ends with the boy looking back on the start of their romance and reminiscing about better times.
  • Dixie Flatline's "Answer" serves as a sequel to his previous song "Just Be Friends." Both feature the Vocaloid Megurine Luka both as the singer and main character of the songs. "Just Be Friends" sees Luka break up with her lover after realizing their relationship isn't going where they want it to go, and it would be better if they were just friends. "Answer" takes place years after the events of "Just Be Friends" and shows how Luka has moved on but still holds her former boyfriend in a special place in her heart. Luka is seen donning the white dress she wore in the music video for "Just Be Friends" multiple times during the music video for "Answer," and she even starts whistling the main melody of "Just Be Friends" during the end of "Answer."
  • Gerard Joling's "Spanish Heart" continues the musical motif and Break-Up Song narrative of "Ticket to the Tropics" from the preceding album. Notably, the Epic Instrumental Opener of the former stylistically mirrors the instrumental coda of the latter.
  • "Lovers in the Night" by Maddy Layne is thematically a sequel to "Shadows in the Night" by fellow Hi-NRG Attack-produced Eurobeat project Princess F.
  • "Scream 2" by RedHook is, as the title indicates, a sequel, specifically to "Cure 4 Psycho". As the Youtube description states:
    Scream 2 is the next chapter in a painfully relatable horror story for anyone who has survived narcissistic abuse. It's about the aftermath of escaping the narcissist. Once you remove their power, they may continue trying to hurt you by whatever means remain available to them: vindictive mind games, smear campaigns, sending flying monkeys to do their bidding, weaponising your trauma against you. This is a song about refusing to let them draw more blood. And, unlike the Scream 2 movie franchise, there will be no further sequels. This ends here!
  • Allan Sherman recorded "Return to Camp Granada", a sequel to his classic "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter from Camp)".
  • Grimes has "World Princess" and "World Princess part II." Despite the titles, the two songs are very different sonically.
  • Tennis' "Matrimony" and "Matrimony II." The first is about the duo's wedding day, the second is reflecting on their wedding day years after the fact.

 
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Baked Potato II

George Dawes performs a follow-up song to Baked Potato.

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