“The Ballad of Mott the Hoople” by Mott the Hoople name checks every member of the band except vocalist Ian Hunter.
Manfred Mann’s “5-4-3-2-1” places the band in historical situations:
The Trojans waited at the gate for weeks (5- 4-3-2-1)
In a wooden horse to the city they sneaked (5-4-3-2-1)
Who let them in? Was it the Greeks? (5-4-3-2-1)
Uh-uh, it was the Manfreds!
I guess “Do the Freddie” by Freddie & the Dreamers is about as self-referential as you can get… did that one get mentioned yet?
From Motley Crue’s “Bad Boy Boogie”:
“Better lock up your daughter when the Motley’s hit the road”
Or from “Girls Girls Girls”, the spoken bit:
“Hey, Tommy!”
“What, Vince?”
A partial one, from ZZ Top’s “Party On The Patio”:
“Billy G. was passed out underneath the sink”
How about Scatman (Ski Ba Bop Ba Dop Bop) by Scatman John?
Honorable mention for “Thats not my name” by The Ting Tings
He does refer to himself in the song, though:
“Behind these shades,
The visions fade,
As I learn a thing or two,
Ah, but if I had my time again,
You all know just what I’d do.”
The Clash’s Mick Jones was a massive Mott fan in his youth,which helps to explain why The Clash duplicated Mott’s habit of writing self-mythologising songs about their own band. It was a passing of the torch among two great English bands of the 1970s.
After taking about 15 years off, ELO returned in 2001 with a new album, Zoom. By that point, the band was pretty much just Jeff Lynne, with a bit of help from some session musicians.
On one song, “Easy Money”, the singer (Jeff Lynne) calls out to the guitarist (Jeff Lynne), with “Take it, Jeff”, before the guitar solo (it’s at about 1:28).