← Behind The Song: Classic Rock Chronicles
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- [00:00]
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- [00:53]
Janda
Welcome to the behind the Song podcast, taking you deeper into classic rock's most timeless tunes. Here's your host, Janda.
- [01:02]
I'm Janda back for another bonus episode of the behind the Song podcast. Now in this episode, I was inspired to create a list of some of the classic rock songs with women's names as their title or I songs about a woman. Outright. There are so many. This is just a few of them, but some really good and interesting ones. So let's jump right in with the Beatles, a song written by McCartney from Rubber Soul. Michelle.
- [01:33]
Roger Waters
Michelle.
- [01:38]
Janda
Paul McCarney doesn't speak French. He asks his friend to give him a French name and something that rhymed with that name. The that he could use to build off of for the song. So his friend said michel and my bell. So that's basically the genesis of this song. It's not about any one particular person that Paul McCartney knew or a love interest or anything like that. It just sounded good in two languages, you know, put together and built off of. One of the cool things about this song is that when Paul McCartney sings the French lines, they literally translate to words that go very well together. It's just a lyrical composition based on stuff that would sound good with this melody that Paul McCartney had in his head. But since Rubber Soul, every single girl ever named Michelle has had this song sung to her at some point. So there you go. A timeless, timeless tune. And then there's Cecilia by Simon and Garafunkel. What a great song. The result of a late night party where they were all kind of banging around on a piano and that's what they kind of came up with. Interestingly, Cecilia is the patron saint of music. And that fits. When you think about the lyrics of Cecilia, it's the trials and tribulations of being a musician. When Paul Simon sang the line making love in the afternoon that was incredibly risque for the time. When this song came out in like 70. There was a little bit of wringing of hands over that particular line. But the song went all the way to number four on the chart and that was it as far as Simon and Garfunkel were concerned. Their last album, what a brilliant album. Bridge Over Troubled Water and the song Cecil Celia. And then who could forget the beautiful Sarah Smile by Holland Oates. Absolutely Blue Eyed Soul at its finest. From the hall and Oates self titled album in 76, well before they became a huge, huge popular band in the 80s. This was in their New York City 70s days when they came up with this one. And Sarah was written about Daryl Hall's girlfriend Sarah Allen, who is a star stewardess. They went on to have like a 30 year relationship. And then back to a song that isn't about a real person. Kind of a sleeper hit from Marshall Crenshaw from the self titled album. Marianne.
- [04:18]
Roger Waters
Marianne. Marianne.
- [04:24]
Janda
Marianne was not about one specific person. Marshall Crenshaw just said, hey, you know, this sounds great. I can sing these lyrics and it fits the mood of this thing that I have in my head. Great harmonies in that song, but not about a real person. Vera, however, by Pink Floyd from the Wall is absolutely about a person. That's about Vera Lin, who famously sang the song, you know, someday we'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when. And that was very popular at the end of World War II, when the older generation were coming back from the war.
- [05:07]
Roger Waters
We meet again.
- [05:12]
Janda
Don'T know where. And you can really hear that ache in Roger Waters voice when he sings it. It's one of the shortest songs about a woman or about anyone. It only clocks in at like a minute and a half. But he really does pile some real emotion into the song. Vera. Pink Floyd, the Wall. That's. That's Roger Waters doing right there. I got a couple on my list from the Allman Brothers. Let's talk about them back to back. Jessica from Brothers and sisters in 73, that's Dickey Betts at his most righteous best. You don't have lyrics in this song, but you can kind of picture Jessica just from the guitar work. And that is amazing. Kind of a free spirited person. Jessica was about Dickey Betts daughter. And that's the beauty of music right there. You paint your own picture. Yeah. Jessica from Brothers and Sisters is one of the songs from the Allman Brothers Band with a girl's name. And then of course you have Melissa.
- [06:25]
Roger Waters
Sweet Melissa.
- [06:28]
Janda
Melissa's from the album Prior, Eat a peach, released in 72. Greg Allman wrote that one, and the story goes that he went through like 300 attempts at writing a song before he ever landed on this one, a song that he thought was good enough to contribute. The name Melissa was just something that he came up with. Finally, after all of these tries at this song. Late one night in a grocery store, the name Melissa came to him. And much like Michelle by the Beatles, every single girl that has been named Melissa since 1972 has probably had this song sung to her, especially if she grew up in the South. So there you go. Hendrix, Isabella. This is a song not about an actual girl, but about his guitar, the white Stratocaster that he played at Woodstock, the iconic Jimi Hendrix Woodstock guitar he called Isabella. The song first appeared on the Rainbow Bridge album. There are a couple of versions of it, even though the lyrics, you know, have to do with a soldier returning from war come back home to his love interest. Isabella was a white Stratocaster guitar bought at Manny's Records in New York City, and Hendrix absolutely loved it, and it's now on display at the Museum of Pop Culture in his hometown of Seattle. Here's a song named after a woman that is completely unlike anything else in the band's entire body of work. Practically Beth by Kiss. Such an interesting little number because, again, it is not a rocker. Most of the band, Kiss don't even appear on the recording at all. It's Peter Chris singing it, for crying out loud. It was supposed to be Beck at first, but Bob Ezrin, who produced the Destroyer album, and convince them to change it to Beth because that would make more sense to listeners in the context of the song. So it was changed to Beth. Peter Chris sang it. Bob Ezrin is actually playing piano on this. There's a string section. It certainly is not Strutter or Detroit Rock City, but it was Kiss's most successful song on the charts. It went into the top 10. Something that kind of became a thorn in the sides of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley and Peter Chris, because Peter Chris sang the biggest hit that Kiss ever had. What are you gonna do? It's a ballad named after a girl. Tends to kind of work in rock and roll. Right. Then you have Rosanna by Toto from Toto 4.
- [09:28]
Roger Waters
Rosanna. Rosanna.
- [09:33]
Janda
Now, this is a written by David Paisch. He said it was about several girls that he knew, kind of a composite, an amalgamation, if you will. And not just one specific person, but Rosanna Arquette. Was dating Steve Porcaro at the time and they all, including Rosanna Arquette all went along with the assumption that this song was about her because it became a huge hit for Toto. I mean the video was everywhere. Rosanna Arquette was a and ingenue on the silver screen so they just kind of ran with it until later they finally came clean. Who can blame them? There's so many great songs named after girls. Lola by the Kinks, Maggie Mae, Rod Stewart that was based on a real life personal experience. Rhiannon, Fleetwood Mac a name that Stevie Nicks found in a book about a white witch Peg, Steely Dan, Roxanne by the Police. The list goes on and on and on. What's your favorite song named after a girl or about a girl or a woman? Drop a note in the comments and let me know. Thanks for joining me on this bonus episode of the behind the Song podcast. And on the way, much more classic rock and roll.