Les Brown wrote and recorded the song “Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio” in 1941. It was a smash hit in its day.
Joe DiMaggio also was mentioned in “Centerfield.”
Simon’s A Simple Desultory Phillipic and Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire have lots of names to mine. Several of them have already been in other songs here, so they are good to add to the list of most mentions.
“If you covered him with garbage, George Sanders would still have style…” (Kinks, “Celluloid Heroes”)
“She wants to be just like Zsa Zsa Gabor…” (Dion, “Donna the Prima Donna”)
She was also mentioned in “Jackie O” by John Mellencamp.
Good one!
There also was an opera about Jackie O
How about if one partner isn’t actually named?
“George Harrison of the Beatles” is mentioned in “Frank Mills” from Hair; while Patti Boyd Harrison was the real “Layla.”
In the world of country:
Trisha Yearwood’s “For a While” says…
“Late at night, I write my own movie
And I am the star when I close my eyes
Except I look like Julia Roberts
And you’re just the poor jerk that I walk on by.”
Meanwhile, Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “I Feel Lucky” says…
“Dwight Yoakam’s in the corner, trying to catch my eye
***Lyle Lovett’s ***right beside me with his hand upon my thigh.”
Bobby Darin was mentioned in the Righteous Brothers’ “Rock and Roll Heaven.”
“Bobby gave us Mack the Knife- look out, he’s back in town.”
His former wife Sandra Dee was not only mentioned in a popular song, but was the title character to Rizzo’s big number in “Grease.”
“Look at me, I’m Sandra Dee, lousy with virginity…”
The first one mentions Phil Spector. Eddie Money’s song “Take Me Home Tonight” mentions Ronnie Spector (“just like Ronnie said”).
She’s also mentioned in the B52s’ “52 Girls”
That song also mentions Mickey Rooney, while Alain Souchon had a song “La Beauté d’Ava Gardner”.
I can think of one that name-checks Courtney Love (“You Get What You Give” by The New Radicals), but none that mention Kurt Cobain (although “My Hero” and “Friend of a Friend” are reputedly about him).
Sheryl Crow mentions Kurt Cobain in her song ‘Maybe Angels’
“She knows Jesus, John Lennon and Cobain personally…”