# Songs That Mention a Famous Person But Are Not About That Person **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 26, 2013, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386 "2013-01-26T01:09:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/1 "2013-01-26T01:09:11Z")
I’ll open with two pair. Two contemporaries: **Train** ’s new song \*Mermaid \*contains the line: “To an island so remote, only Johnny Depp has ever been to it before.” _Tonight Tonight_ ( **Hot Chelle Rae** ) manages an impressive job of shoe horning “Zach Galifianakis” into a lyric. Doesn’t quite fit the rhyme scheme but really how many words are a true rhyme of “Galifianakis”? Two from the classic rock era: \*\*Jackson Browne’s \*\*_The Load-Out_ boasts his tour convoy -in addition to “8-track, cassette and stereo”- that they’ve got “Richard Pryor on the video.” And what I’d have to say is the most famous example is \*\*Simon and Garfunkel’s \*\*_Mrs. Robinson_ which features the eternal line: “Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.” (woo woo woo) Others? ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/2 "2013-01-26T01:18:30Z")
**Kraftwerk** ’s “Trans Europe Express” mentions Iggy Pop and David Bowie. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/3 "2013-01-26T01:18:33Z")
How about Simon and Garfunkel’s “A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I was Robert McNamara’d Into Submission)”? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/4 "2013-01-26T01:22:56Z")
Well, in George Harrison’s [Taxman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxman), the backing vocals mention: > [@](#): > > “Mr Wilson” and “Mr Heath,” suggested by Lennon, refer to Harold Wilson and Edward Heath, who were the leaders of the Labour Party and the Conservative Party, the two largest parties in British politics. The song is about taxes in general, not about these two individuals, so I suggest that counts. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/5 "2013-01-26T01:24:42Z")
Don Mclean’s classic \* American Pie\* mentions James Dean, Lenin, and The Byrds by name, and appears to contain oblique references to multiple other entities. And Lynyrd Skynyrd’s _Sweet Home Alabama_ mentions Neil Young…who should remember that I still don’t need him around anyhow. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/6 "2013-01-26T01:27:30Z")
Drops of Jupiter mentions Mozart 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/7 "2013-01-26T01:42:46Z")
Lucinda Williams mentions John Coltrane in _Righteously_. Alanna Miles mentions Jimmy Rogers in _Black Velvet_. Golden Earring mentions Brenda Lee in _Radar Love._ Lynyrd Skynyrd mentions Neil Young in _Sweet Home Alabama_. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/8 "2013-01-26T01:45:17Z")
Year of the Cat - Al Stewart: “On a morning from a Bogart movie” “You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre” Double whammy! ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/9 "2013-01-26T01:51:25Z")
Jim Croce, _You Don’t Mess Around With Jim_ You don’t tug on Superman’s cape You don’t spit into the wind You don’t pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger And you don’t mess around with Jim ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/10 "2013-01-26T01:57:16Z")
Nominated in our [“best songs of the 70’s”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=679806) thread, Tim Curry’s, “[I do the Rock](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUsQj_ha0zU)” mentions many famous people. If I listed them, it would probably be 25% of the song’s lyrics. I suppose “I do the Rock” deserve the nomination. I’m finding it - _STIMULATING!_ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/11 "2013-01-26T01:58:20Z")
Irving Berlin’s _Puttin’ on the Ritz_ mentions Gary Cooper Cole Porter’s _You’re the Top_ mentions many famous people of the day – Greta Garbo, Jimmy Durante, Lady Astor, Vincent Youmans, Mahatma Gandhi, Fred Astaire, Eugene O’Neill, and Mae West, as well as other famous figures. The Bonzo Dog Band’s _The Intro and the Outro_ introduces celebrities of the time like Charles De Gaulle, Eric Clapton, Val Dollican, Garner Ted Armstrong, Liberace, Sir Kenneth Clark, Robert Morley, Roy Rogers and several others. The song is an introduction to band, with the names supposedly band members. They also mention John Wayne in _11 Mustachioed Daughters._ _Smoke on the Water_ mentions Frank Zappa ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/12 "2013-01-26T01:59:31Z")
Here’s an oldie from the late '20s: _Teasin’ Brown Blues_ by Louis Lasky: “She got hair like Gloria Swanson and she walks just like Priscilla Dean, She’s the prettiest woman ol’ Louie has ever seen…” Everyone knows about Gloria Swanson of course, but Priscilla Dean faded away after movies became talkies. But Priscilla lived to be 91, dying in 1987, so there’s some consolation for being forgotten. Getting back to the song, I love an earlier verse in it that goes: “Don’t have to cook me no chicken 'cause your plain old neckbones will do, I’m gonna buy you some blackeyed peas mama, and try to get along with you…” I want more songs like that. ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/13 "2013-01-26T02:05:56Z")
she’s got Bette Davis eyes ---
**Author:** ![tomcar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tomcar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomcar)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/14 "2013-01-26T02:14:21Z")
Bob Dylan’s Thunder on the Mountain mentions Alicia Keys. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/15 "2013-01-26T02:14:53Z")
John Mellencamp’s _Jack and Diane_: \*Jacky sits back reflects his thoughts for the moment Scratches his head and does his best James Dean \* Jimmy Buffet’s _Pencil Thin Mustache_ has quite a few: \*Now they make new movies in old black and white… A two-tone Ricky Ricardo Jacket, and an autographed picture of Andy Divine. Oh I could be anyone I wanted to be, maybe suave Eryll Flynn or Chief of Arabee \* ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/16 "2013-01-26T02:19:46Z")
There’s the infamous Billy Joel song \*We Didn’t Start the Fire. \*These are just the proper names he spits out. Harry Truman Doris Day Johnnie Ray Walter Winchell Joe DiMaggio Joe McCarthy Richard Nixon Marilyn Monroe Rosenbergs Sugar Ray (Robinson, not Leonard) Brando Eisenhower Marciano Liberace Santayana Joseph Stalin Malenkov Nasser Prokofiev Rockefeller Campanella Roy Cohn Juan Peron Toscanini Einstein James Dean Davy Crockett, Peter Pan (these could be people or titles – what the hell, as long as they scanned) Elvis Presley Bardot Krushchev Princess Grace Pasternak Mickey Mantle Kerouac Chou En-Lai Charles de Gaulle Starkweather Buddy Holly Castro Syngman Rhee Kennedy Chubby Checker Hemingway Eichmann John Glenn Liston beats Patterson Pope Paul Malcolm X JFK ( cheating, since he already mentioned Kennedy) Ho Chi Minh Richard Nixon Begin Reagan Sally Ride Bernie Goetz ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/17 "2013-01-26T02:23:54Z")
“One Week” by Barenaked Ladies is full of them. Harrison Ford, Sting, Bert Kamphert, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/18 "2013-01-26T02:29:25Z")
Vogue. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/19 "2013-01-26T02:55:32Z")
Alice Cooper - Department of Youth “And who gave it to you? Donny Osmond! What!?!” Queen - Killer Queen “‘Let them eat cake’ she says Just like Marie Antoinette A built-in remedy For Kruschev and Kennedy” ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2013, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386/20 "2013-01-26T03:18:20Z")
Can’t believe it hasn’t been mention before this. [Life is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me) by Reunion](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16kh-AP4OCU) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-mention-a-famous-person-but-are-not-about-that-person/648386.md?page=2)