Oxazoles have been known to participate as azadiene components in Diels–Alder reactions with olefinic dienophiles to give pyridine derivatives.  The intramolecular versions exploiting oxazoles tethered to olefins have emerged as powerful strategies to synthesize annulated pyridines.  In this article, the use of intramolecular oxazole–olefin Diels–Alder reactions for total syntheses of several natural products or their synthetic approaches is described.