I forgot…Confucius is also mentioned in “Coffee Shop.”
There’s the Rush song “Tom Sawyer,” if fictional people count, too. Don’t think that’s been mentioned yet.
There was a pop song called “High Above Me” a couple years ago. I forget the artist. It has the lines, “she’s so high above me, like Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, or Aphrodite.
“She likes me for me…Not because I hang with Leonardo or that guy who played in Fargo I think his name is Steve…”
-Blessid Union of Souls “Hey Leonardo (She Likes Me For Me)”
“Winona Ryder
drinks Manischewitz wine
then spins a dreidel
with Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein
…
Lenny Kravitz is half Jewish
Courtney Love is half too
put them together
what a funky bad-ass Jew
…
We got Harvey Keitel
and flash dancer Jennifer Beals
Yasmine Bleeth from Baywatch is Jewish
and yes her boobs are real
…
Bob Dylan was born a Jew
then he wasn’t but now he’s back
Mary Tyler Moore’s husband is Jewish
cuz we’re pretty good in the sack…”
-Adam Sandler “The Chanukah Song Pt. 2”
You get the idea… 
Bob Dylan is the king of real-life references in his songs - just a few here.
From Desolation Row, mentioned (although mis-identified) by S. Mussberger on page 1 of the thread: Bette Davis, Cain and Abel, Good Samaritan, Noah, Einstein, Nero, Ezra Pound, and T. S. Eliot.
From As I went Out One Morning, Tom Paine.
From Dignity, Prince Phillip.
From Only a Pawn in Their Game: Medgar Evers.
From Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again: Shakespeare.
From Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues: Hitler, Sherlock Holmes, Betsy Ross, Eisenhower, Lincoln, Jefferson and that Roosevelt guy, and George Lincoln Rockwell.
From Talkin’ World War III Blues: Abraham Lincoln, Adam & Eve.
From Tombstone Blues: Paul Revere, Belle Starr, Jack the Ripper, John the Baptist, the Commander in Chief, Galileo, Delilah, Cecil B. DeMille, Ma Rainey, and Beethoven.
From You Ain’t Going Nowhere, Genghis Khan.
From You’re Gonna Make me Lonesome When You Go: Verlaine and Rimbaud.
That reminds me of another Bob Dylan one, Enginerd. Queen Mary, from “Just Like a Woman.”
“Californication” by Red Hot Chili Peppers mentions Kurt Cobain.
“Aenema” by Tool mentions L. Ron Hubbard and is based on a stand-up routine by Bill Hicks.
“Achy Breaky Song” by Weird Al Yankovic mentions Donny and Marie Osmond, Barry Manilow, Vanilla Ice, Debbie Boone, Zamfir, Tiffany, ABBA, Slim Whitman and The Bee Gees to name a few.
Weird Al also gave us “Stuck in a Closet With Vanna White,” “Syndicated, Inc.” which mentions Oprah and Regis and Kathie Lee, “Everything You Know is Wrong,” which namedrops Jamie “Klinger” Farr and Colonel Sanders, and “Smells Like Nirvana,” which includes Madonna and Nirvana.
Winona (Ryder) - by Matthew Sweet
Some from Joni Mitchell:
Beethoven - “Judgement of the Moon and Stars (Ludwig’s Tune)”
David Geffen - “Free Man in Paris”
Amelia Earhart - “Amelia”
Furry Lewis - “Furry Sings the Blues”
From Tom Petty’s “Jammin’ Me”:
Take back Vanessa Redgrave
Take back Joe Piscopo
Take back Eddie Murphy
Give 'em all some place to go
Take back your Iranian torture
And the apple in young Steve’s eye
A few I haven’t seen mentioned:
They Might Be Giants names the dBs and Young Fresh Fellows in “Twisting” (Flood).
The Butthole Surfers have a song called “Christina” about Christina Applegate. At the end, it mentions “a girl named Ellen,” which I think is a reference to Ellen DeGeneres.
Pavement has a song called “The Unseen Power of the Picket Fence” that’s all about R.E.M.
“Kung Fu” by Ash mentions Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.
“29 X The Pain” by the Wildhearts mentions loads of bands who influenced them- Cheap Trick, Ramones, Beatles, KISS, Starz, Pink Floyd, B.O.C., Big Black, Twisted Sister, SLF, The Rolling Stones, Queen (“Sheer Heart Attack”), the Clash (“I hear that London call”), Replacements, Husker Du, Jason and the Scorchers, and the Sex Pistols. The original studio version ends with the line “I’m gonna miss Kurt Cobain” which was replaced with “Where the hell is Ritchie James?” (the missing guitarist for Manic Street Preachers) for subsequent live outings.
And would “88 Lines About 44 Women” count?
Here are about 100 new references (some of the celebrities and tunes have been mentioned previously, but not in any of these specific combinations):
Woodrow Wilson, in Veracruz, by Warren Zevon.
Um, isn’t that a cover? The original version says “Deadhead sticker on a cadillac…” It’s by Don Henley, apparently. I’m not sure if that inanity completely cancels out the points the Ataris got for naming a song “San Dimas High School Football Rules” or not. Anyways, if we are including band names too we’d be here all day so I’m pretty sure we’re not.
Thursday has a song called “Ian Curtis” about the Joy Division singer who hung himself. He’s also actually mentioned in the song. “We heard Ian Curtis kill himself again in your bed.”
NOFX’s Mattersville has the lines “At the end of my cul de sac, Davey Havok’s house is painted black.” They also mention a few other names, but I have no idea who they are, so some other NOFX fan can enlighten us if they like.
Did’nt read the whole thread so forgive me if this has already been mentioned
MOLLY HATCHET- “Gator Country” mentions
Lynard Skynard
Charlie Daniels
Mashall Tucker
Elvin Bishop
And don’t forget Chicago - from the 10th album, a minor hit called Harry Truman.
Apologies if it’s been mentioned already.
“Claude Rains was the invisible man”…
“Leo G. Carrol was over a barrel”…
“And I really got hot when I saw Janet Scott
Fight Triffiids…”
- Science Fiction Double Feature
You have to listen carefully to hear the following at the end of Enya’s “Orinoco Flow”:
We can steer, we can near
with Rob Dickins at the wheel,
We can sigh, say goodbye
Ross and his dependencies
Rob Dickins and a Ross were part of the production team of Enya’s second album. (Sorry, no further details… I think my then-teenaged daughter sold it to a used-record store.)
Haven’t read the whole thing, but here’s a couple from the Dickies(again?)
Stuck in a Pagoda with Tricia Toyota (watching Abe Vigoda)
Stuck Inside a Condo with Marlon Brando