Weekend Listomania (Special What's in a Name? Video Edition)

Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental amanuensis Hop-Sing and I are off to Austin, Texas for a meet-up of role playing game enthusiasts in the company of Dungeons and Dragons afficianado Allen Butler, a/k/a the author of How to Care For Your Eyeglasses.

Daddy needs a new Sword of Wounding, bitches!!!!

Sorry, got carried away there. What I meant to say is that posting by moi will necessarily be somewhat fitful for a few days.

But until then, as always, here's a fun project for you all to contemplate:

Best Post-Elvis Pop/Rock Song With a Name in the Title (That Was Written About an Actual Person)!!!

Arbitrary rule: Songs with the complete name of a celebrity -- i.e., "Robert DeNiro's Waiting" -- need not apply, although songs about celebrities not completely named -- i.e., "Salman" (if there were such a song about the great Rushdie) -- are okay.

Okay, here's my totally top of my head Top Eight:

8. The Smashing Pumpkins -- For Martha



Jeebus fuck, Billy Corgan again? What's he been in now -- the last fifteen Listomanias? Anyway, this one is about his mother Martha.

7. The Rolling Stones -- Angie



Angie, as in David Bowie's then wife, who apparently Mick was boinking.

6. A tie --

Buddy Holly -- Peggy Sue



and

Ritchie Valens -- Donna



I think there's a cautionary lesson here: Write a song about a would-be girlfriend and die in a plane crash.

5. Neil Sedaka -- Oh Carol



For Carole King. Neil apparently had a teenage crush on her.

4. The Kinks -- David Watts



Ray based this on a real guy he met on an early Kinks tour -- not the abominable golden schoolboy of the lyric, but some local politico who in Ray's words, "had the whole town like this!".

3. Derek and the Dominos -- Layla



Eric Clapton's love letter to George Harrison's wife. Said it before and I'll say it again, it's amazing to me that Eric and George remained life long friends.

2. The Knack -- My Sharona



As in Sharona Alperin, now a real estate agent in L.A. The love of the teenaged Doug Fieger's young life, apparently.

And the number one pop/rock record about a real, live, actually existing person is, I can't believe we're even arguing about this it's so fricking obvious, is --

1. The Beatles -- Sexy Sadie



About the Maharishi, natch. Lennon changed it to avoid making trouble but later regretted it as a cop-out. In hindsight, of course, it's a much better song for the ambiguity.

Alrighty now -- what would your choices be?

[Shameless Blogwhore: My parallel Cinema Listomania (pretty amusing, I think) is now up over at Box Office. As always, if you leave a comment, an angel gets its wings.]