Oh, also:
“New York Doll” by Robyn Hitchcock (about Arthur Kane) and “Johnny’s Gonna Die” by The Replacements (about Johnny Thunders).
The Replacements also did “Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out”, about their bass player, Tommy Stinson, but I don’t know if that counts.
Vincent by Don MacClean - Vincent Van Gogh
“Biko”, by Peter Gabriel. About Stephen Biko, the South African activist who died an early death, probably due to police beatings/torture.
Killing Me Softly with His Song–Roberta Flack about Don MacLean
John Lennon Died – The Cranberries
Not a problem. Also, a lot of people might get a bit confused from hearing Ringo sing it as part of the “Concert for George” they did a few years ago. I think more people have heard that than the original, and more people own it than own the album Ringo. I’m just a Ringo nerd.
There was also a song on one of the Mermaid Avenue discs about Joe DiMaggio. And I’m pretty sure that the song “Hesitating Beauty” is about Woody Guthrie’s wife.
Since two people have now mentioned Roberta Flack, and Killing Me Softly being about Don McLean, I thought I’d pop in with the following fun fact:
The song was written by tunesmiths Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, also responsible for many other classic tunes, including the theme song for “Love, American Style”.
And if we’re going to count Jesus songs as being about Jesus, we might as well count Ave Maria (in its endless iterations) as being about his mum.
Oh, and Bruce McCulloch’s song These Are the Daves I Know, is about all of the guys named Dave (or David) that Bruce knows in real life, including David Foley, better known as Mr. Boy in Sky High. 
Some of them are Davids, but most of them are Daves. They all have their own hands, but they come from different moms.
Lightfoot also wrote the meltingly beautiful “Your Love’s Return”–a tribute to Stephen Foster. “The Work Song” by fellow Canadians Kate & Ana McGarrigle honored the same songwriter.
Willis Alan Ramsey’s first & only album contains “The Boy From Oklahoma”–about Woody Guthrie. (It’s really a fine album–much easier to skip over “Muskrat Candlelight” on DVD than it was on the LP.)
Steve Earle also called on Woody in “Christmas in Washington.” “Fort Worth Blues”–also on El Corazón–honors Townes van Zandt.
Townes van Zandt write “Rex’s Blues” about Wrecks Bell. You can hear it on “Townes van Zandt: Live at the Old Quarter.” There’s a New Old Quarter, in Galveston. Wrecks is the Proprieter.
www.galvestontexas.com/oldquarter/
Tommy Tutone’s first top-40 song, Angel Say No, was written for a high school friend of my brother. It was barely in the top-40 (like number 38 or something), but still. It came out a couple years before 867-5309/ Jenny.
I say infinite amount, though less than songs about love (assuming unidentified objects of love don’t count as real).
Unless you’re looking at punk, in which case there are more songs about real people than songs about love.
It’s a common mistake, but Floyd Collins wasn’t a legendary spelunker. Well, I suppose he is due to the fact that he’s famous for dying in a cave. But the fact are that he was a property owner near Mammoth Cave, and was looking for a entrance to a cave from his property, so that he could make money on charging people admission to it.
Says Wiki:
He tried to crawl through an extremely narrow opening and got stuck; there was no cave-in. Rescue efforts were accompanied by a circus-like atmosphere above. He died without being rescued, and I think they left his body there.
Wait.
I just read the whole Wiki article. It’s a long weird tale, with his body being exhibted, stolen, re-interred. A good old-fashioned American tale of exploitation and deceit. 
Falco - Rock Me Amadeus
Falco - Rock Me Amadeus.
Stevie Wonder - Happy Birthday to Ya - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Headline News by Weird Al Yankovic (about the kid who got caned in Singapore, Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan, and the Bobbits)
My Baby’s In love With Eddie Vedder by Weird Al
Rock Me Amadeus by Falco
Dschinghis Khan by…Dschinghis Khan (about Genghis Khan)
All of Adam Sandler’s Chanukah songs.
The song that is most directly about Joe DiMaggio is Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio, written by Alan Courtney and Ben Homer, and performed by Les Brown.
Other songs about ballplayers:
Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball? , written by Buddy Johnson and performed by Count Basie.
Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song), performed by The Treniers and written by ???
Willie, Mickey and the Duke (Talkin’ Baseball), written and performed by Terry Cashman. Along with the players in the title, this one also mentions Bobby Thomson, Yogi Berra, Ted Kluszewski, Roy Campanella, Stan Musial, Bob Feller, Phil Rizzuto, Sal Maglie, Don Newcombe, Casey Stengel, Hank Aaron, Ralph Kiner, Eddie Gaedel, Ted Williams, Mel Parnell, George Brett, Bobby Bonds, Pete Rose, Rusty Staub, Grover Cleveland Alexander (and Ronald Reagan by implication), Reggie Jackson, Dan Quisenberry, Rod Carew, Gaylord Perry, Tom Seaver, Steve Garvey, Mike Schmidt and Vida Blue.
Van Lingle Mungo, written and performed by Dave Frishberg, is simply a list of the names of many ballplayers set to music.
I Love Mickey, performed by Teresa Brewer and Mickey Mantle, and written by ???
Slide, Kelly, Slide, written by John W. Kelly about the 19th century baseball star Mike “King” Kelly (no relation to the songwriter).
Isn’t Baby You’re a Rich Man about Brian Epstein? A lot of people swear that Lennon sings “Baby you’re a rich, fat Jew” near the end of it.
Okay, how 'bout Chuck Berry - Roll Over Beethoven.
[QUOTE=Suburban PlanktonLegend of a Mind by The Moody Blues, about Timothy Leary[/QUOTE]
Ironically enough, that is the song I am listening to, as I first open this thread…