I was sitting here today watching VH1’s Rockfest. I had tons of other things to do, but I figured I needed a break. One of the first videos I saw was “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses. What a beautiful love song by a band that typically sang about…well, not so beautiful things.
I began thinking about hit songs written about women. You may not know it, but “Sweet Child O’ Mine” was written about Axl Rose’s then girlfriend Erin Everly. Erin was the daughter of Everly Brother Don and niece of Everly Brother Phil. As lovely as the song is with lyrics like “Her hair reminds me of a warm safe place, where as a child I’d hide,” the relationship between the two ended on a not so lovely note. After dating for years, they eventually married, separated, got back together, and then divorced all within a year.
I thought about writing this blog, and then before I could even get to the computer, the next video came on. It was another song written about a specific girl – The Knack’s “My Sharona.” It was inspired by a girl named Sharona that Knack lead singer Doug Fieger fell in love with. It must be fate that I write about this!
Model Pattie Boyd had at least two hit songs about her – two by Eric Clapton (“Layla” and “Wonderful Tonight”) and two by George Harrison (“Something” and “Bell Bottom Blues”). Rosanna Arquette may be dating Paul McCartney, but is he going to write a song for her as beautiful as “Rosanna?” Yep, rumor has it that “Rosanna” was written by Toto’s David Paich about band member Steve Porcaro’s relationship with Rosanna Arquette.
Do you remember the Buddy Holly hit “Peggy Sue?” It was originally titled “Cindy Lou” after Buddy’s niece, but was renamed “Peggy Sue” after Peggy Sue Gerron. Jerry Allison was the drummer for the Crickets, Buddy’s band and had recently broken up with girlfriend Peggy Sue. I guess renaming the song worked – the two eventually married. Ritchie Valens would die at the young of 18, but not before he immortalized his girlfriend Donna Ludwig in song (“Donna”). Ritchie died in a plane crash with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper. Many believe that this event itself was immortalized in song in “American Pie” with the words “the day the music died.”