As we were driving around the other day, the iPod served up “Valerie” by the Crooked Fingers, which is a weirdly unclassifiable little song. It opens with a skiffle-ish acoustic guitar riff, adds a little steel guitar in the background, then thumping sort of jug band bass drum, with a the vocals coming in aheadlong rush, and just when that’s all beginning to make sense, the mariachi horns come in, and you just have to say “Fuck it,” and roll with the song. It’s a good tune, in an odd way.
Anyway, that reminded me of a long-ago party in grad school (circa 1996), where we spent a great deal of time debating the merits of songs whose titles were just women’s names (prompted by Laura Branigan’s “Gloria” coming up on the cheesey 80’s mix tape I had contributed for the soundtrack)– proper names only, no titles, so “Veronica” and “Maggie May” make it but “Mary Queen of Arkansas” and “Queen Jane Approximately” do not.
I considered doing a big list of songs fitting that criterion (in the manner of “Prohibited Activities, According to My iPod“), but, well, that comes to 116 songs out of my collection, which seems a little excessive. The five-star list is below the fold, though, and it’s pretty good company:
- “Eleanor Rigby,” The Beatles
- “Kate,” Ben Folds Five
- “Layla,” Derek & The Dominos
- “Bertha,” Grateful Dead
- “Lola,” Kinks
- “Gloria,” Laura Branigan
- “Evangeline,” Matthew Sweet
- “Sally Maclennane,” The Pogues
- “Maggie May,” Rod Stewart
- “Mandinka,” Sinéad O’Connor
- “Dakota,” Stereophonics
(I think the original list was restricted to one-word titles, so no “Eleanor Rigby” or “Sally Maclennane,” but I like those songs too much to leave them out…)
(For those who care, songs named after men only turn up 79 times in my collection, and that’s counting about six different versions of “Jack Straw.” The five-star list is just four songs: “Galileo,” “Conrad,” “Van Gough,” and “Buddy Holly.”
(This probably tells you more about the gender breakdown of pop songwriters than about the inherent merits of naming songs after women.)
So what’s the best song ever named after a woman?
Of the songs I have on my computer, the only two on my 5-star list are “Marianne” and “Cecilia”.
Even my 4* list doesn’t have that many.
How about “Roxanne”? I still remember sitting in 8th grade homeroom when I first heard it on the little transistor radio we used to play before class started. I thought it was a cool song, although it took me a while to realize what it was about.
I also like “Victoria” by the Kinks. They could also contribute a man’s name in “David Watts” which was also covered by the Jam.
So what’s the best song ever named after a woman?
Actually I’m surprised that I can’t think of one. “Valerie” is one of Richard Thompson’s best songs, I guess.
As for a man, there’s “Sam” by the Meat Puppets.
The best album consisting entirely of songs named after men or women is definitely Tweez by Slint. But none of the songs are particularly good when taken out of context.
Technically, “Lola” is a song named after a man, as well as a song whose title is a woman’s name.
As for songs named after women/songs that are women’s names, a few which I like and which have not been mentioned are “Rio” by Duran Duran (What can I say, I’m a child of the 80s), “Ruby Tuesday by the Rolling Stones (which was one of my favorites even before I became a Stones fan), and “Flo,” by Smash Mouth (because it is funny).
Shirley on “Talking with the Taxman About Poetry”
What is the title/artist of the song “N Lines about N Women” that you parody in this post? I have/had that song on an old casette, but I’d like to get a digital version.
What is the title/artist of the song “N Lines about N Women” that you parody in this post?
“88 Lines About 44 Women,” by the Nails.
The late great God Street Wine had numerous songs named after women. Not counting the ones with other words in the title (i.e. Princess Henrietta, Tina’s Town, Goodnight Gretchen), their best songs in this list include: Imogene, Wendy, Molly, Diana, and Angeline. I’m sure there are some others I’m missing.
Lessee…here’s what I can find on the Nano today:
There’s some really good songs in there, but if I had to pick my fave from that bunch it would probably be “Judith”, with “Shirley” and “Candy” tearing each other’s hair and clothes for second.
Beck’s “Debra” is pretty fun.
“Melissa” – Allman Brothers – that’s my favorite.
Runners-up
“Angie” – Rolling Stones
“Amanda” – Waylon Jennings
“Rhiannon” – Fleetwood Mac
“Jolene” – Dolly Parton
“Mary, Mary” – the Monkees
“Valerie” – the Monkees
(OMG, I feel old)
DeskZombie, you feel old? The first song I thought of is “Laura,” (1944) by David Raksin with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. In fact, that’s such a great song that I’m gonna stop right there.
Whoops! Although I know I have Elton’s “Candle in the Wind” in my library, it’s not currently on my Nano, nor is it (obviously) entitled “Marilyn Monroe.” Embarassingly, the “Marilyn Monroe” track that’s on my iPod is actually a Monty Python sketch by that name.
In songs in my collection that aren’t currently on the iPod, “Janine” by Soul Coughing keeps coming into my head, even though it’s one of those songs that’s alternatingly charming and grating.
“Rachel” – Buddy and Julie Miller
“Candy” – Morphine
“Mrs. Robinson” – Simon and Garfunkle… that one counts, right?
As for songs named after men, I notice that Lamb has a couple of really nice ones, namely “Gorecki” and “Gabriel”.
I agree with Cecilia, but I’d much rather that the criteria allowed for Kathy’s Song and For Emily, Whenever I may Find Her.
“Barbara Ann”, The Regents (forget that knock-off cover)
“Athena”, The Who
“Kayleigh”, Marillion
… I also appear to be a child of the 80s.
Best ones from my computer:
“Jessica” — Allman Brothers Band
“Sonja” — Lyle Lovett
“Victoria” — Old 97’s
“Ana Ng” — They Might Be Giants
“Jezebel” by Iron & Wine is a good one.
Guinevere by CSN is definitely on my short list.
The song “Gloria” that comes to my mind is the one by Them (featuring Van Morrison). Wasn’t there also a song “Valerie” by Steve Winwood? I wonder how many such pairs (same woman’s name, different songs) there are. There are “Amelia”s by Joni Mitchell and Cocteau Twins.
I always prefered the earlier, Ron Williams version of “Amanda” to Waylon’s – definitely near the very top of my list. Dolly’ “Jolene”, Stones’ “Angie” and “Roxanne” are certainly high up on my list as well.
But my #1 is “Sara” by Bob Dylan, followed by “Nancy” by Leonard Cohen and “Susanne” by Leonard Cohen… I may just have to make my own list and post it on my blog…
“Katy” by Tom Paxton
“Polly,” another one from the Kinks, who also did a song called “Arthur” for the male song list.
“Carol” by Chuck Berry, which was covered by both the Stones and the Beatles.
Also “Sara” by Fleetwood Mac.
“Hey Jude”
“Emma, Emmily” (who sings that?)
How about “My Sharona”? Or Falco’s “Suzana”?
Donovan’s “Donna”
Carlotta, from the movie The Mission
Cheryl, Charlie Parker
Dinah, Bing Crosby (when he was reeeealy young)
Donna, Miles Davis
Mame, Louis Armstrong
Maria, Leonard Bernstein (okay, it is really a version by the Three Countertenors)
Naima, John Coltrane
Osie Mae, Freddie Hubbard
For men:
Charlie Rutlage, Charles Ives
Christopher Columbus, Fletcher Henderson Orchestra
Django, Modern Jazz Quartet
Juan, Wynton Marsalis
Luther, Marvin Hamlisch (from The Sting)
I also had “Laura” on my list.
Here are some more:
“Ophelia” — Natalie Merchant
“Kim” — Eminem
“Julia” and “Michelle” — Beatles
“Cecilia”
“Michelle”
“Rhiannon”
“(The ballad of) Lucy Jordan” (although that might not qualify if the parentheses aren’t there in the original title…)