Surely Elvis Presley must make the list:
Elvis Is Everywhere - Mojo Nixon
Black Velvet - Alannah Myles
The King Is Gone (So Are You) - George Jones
Sean - The Proclaimers (“Sean, I’d say the best one came from Tupelo Mississippi…”)
Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis) - Cowboy Junkies
Epitaph - Blue Mountain
The King Is Gone - Ronnie McDowell
…just to name a few
(Or is Elvis a “historical figure” within the OP’s meaning?)
[QUOTE=spoke-]
Surely Elvis Presley must make the list:
[/QUOTE]
Also, Walking in Memphis - Marc Cohn
[QUOTE=Billdo]
Also, Walking in Memphis - Marc Cohn
[/QUOTE]
Add Graceland by Paul Simon - he uses Graceland as an almost-mythical place where he can lay his burden down or something - but whatever the reason, Elvis is at the center of it…
[QUOTE=Darryl Lict]
I was just thinking that Marilyn Monroe must have inspired a few. Of course, there is Candle in the Wind by Elton John.
I cheated and looked her up on Wiki. Oddly enough, the punk band The Misfits named their band after Marilyn’s last completed movie The Misfits. They wrote “Who Killed Marilyn?” about Marilyn Monroe’s death. Wiki also claims that she is is the title character “Miss American Pie” in the Don McClean song “American Pie”. This seems strange to me. This site claims Miss American Pie is rock and roll music. Don McLean dated a Miss America candidate during the pageant, supposedly.
There’s a bunch of other references, but I don’t know the songs so I ain’t counting them.
[/QUOTE]
I recall a scene from Mondo New York with a female punk-rocker singing a song about Marilyn Monroe, but I’m don’t know whether it’s the Misfits song to which you refer.
Question: Would Beethoven’s Immortal Beloved (link to very thin Wikipedia entry) count? Didn’t he write some of his works for, or inspired by, her?
Erykah Badu is the inspiration for 2 classic rap songs: OutKast’s “Ms. Jackson” and Common’s “The Light.” Andre 3000 and Common both dated her.
Jesus Christ.
What do I win? 
A lifetime’s supply of Christian rock and “inspirational” CDs. Enjoy your prize, Mr. Smart Guy.
I guess “Mama” might be too generic.
[QUOTE=Krokodil]
I guess “Mama” might be too generic.
[/QUOTE]
As would “baby.”
Boiled in Lead has a Song, Hard Times, that is, for the most part, about the assassination of McKinley. That’s one for him.
Jesse James
Does Santa count? Satan?
Jimi Hendrix
[QUOTE=RealityChuck]
In a sense, many of Benjamen Britten’s operas were inspired by his partner, Peter Pears. Britten made sure there was a major part for Pears to sing.
[/QUOTE]
Could the same be said about Kurt Weill and his great love, Lotte Lenya? I mean, I’m not sure when he was and wasn’t singing about her, but he wrote a lot of music that she was famous for singing…
[QUOTE=pepperlandgirl]
And John Lennon . . . I], Paul Simon’s The Late Great Johnny Ace . . .
[/QUOTE]
Not to downplay John Lennon, but per Paul Simon in a couple of documentaries, Johnny Ace was a singer from a time before the Beatles. Per wiki: Johnny Ace (June 9, 1929 – December 25, 1954), born John Marshall Alexander, Jr. . .
[QUOTE=spoke-]
Surely Elvis Presley must make the list:
Elvis Is Everywhere - Mojo Nixon
Black Velvet - Alannah Myles
The King Is Gone (So Are You) - George Jones
Sean - The Proclaimers (“Sean, I’d say the best one came from Tupelo Mississippi…”)
Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis) - Cowboy Junkies
Epitaph - Blue Mountain
The King Is Gone - Ronnie McDowell
…just to name a few
(Or is Elvis a “historical figure” within the OP’s meaning?)
[/QUOTE]
And Velvet Elvis, by Weird Al Yankovich.
[QUOTE=Yllaria]
Not to downplay John Lennon, but per Paul Simon in a couple of documentaries, Johnny Ace was a singer from a time before the Beatles. Per wiki: Johnny Ace (June 9, 1929 – December 25, 1954), born John Marshall Alexander, Jr. . .
[/QUOTE]
Ahh. The wiki for the song indicates it’s about both Johnny Ace and John Lennon. That’s why I mentioned it.
[QUOTE=JohnT]
Jesus Christ.
What do I win? 
[/QUOTE]
Damn it! You beat me to it.
[QUOTE=pepperlandgirl]
Ahh. The wiki for the song indicates it’s about both Johnny Ace and John Lennon. That’s why I mentioned it.
[/QUOTE]
Gotcha. That fits. He did say, in at least one documentary, that he was using Johnny Ace as a metaphor for John Kennedy, John Lennon, and, by extension, all of the other public deaths that he experienced after that first one.
Thanks for the additional link.
[QUOTE=JohnT]
Jesus Christ.
What do I win?
[/QUOTE]
Nothing! I mentioned the big guy in the OP.
[QUOTE=Askance]
In the same line, John Lennon wrote a number of songs about Yoko Ono:
Woman
Oh Yoko
Jealous Guy
The Ballad of John and Yoko
Oh MY Love
and no doubt others I’ve missed.
[/QUOTE]
Barenaked Ladies wrote a song: Be My Yoko Ono, and there are a few Yoko-related verses in Magical Misery Tour (profanity, thus NSFW: http:// www.youtube.com /watch?v=7qrMEEN6WxM)
Not a woman or man, but Eros seems to being well for himself.