Fame makes for a catchy tune. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for those famous tunes that you maybe didn’t know were talking about some famous people.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for those famous tunes that
00:13you maybe didn't know were talking about some famous people.
00:24Number 20.
00:25Still Feel Like Your Man – John Mayer
00:29While Mayer himself felt like it should be pretty obvious who he was talking about in
00:33Still Feel Like Your Man, there are those who may not have been paying as close attention
00:44to his love life prior to that.
00:52If you had been, then you would have known that he and Katy Perry spent 4 years on and
00:58off again from 2012 to 2016, and with that knowledge, yes, it now does seem pretty obvious
01:06that she is the ex he's talking about in the song.
01:09As Mayer put it, who else would I be thinking about?
01:18Number 19.
01:20Obsessed – Mariah Carey Did Eminem and Mariah Carey ever date?
01:26The answer depends on who you ask.
01:29If you ask Eminem, the answer is a resounding yes.
01:33But ask Carey, and you'll get a big fat no.
01:42The two went back and forth on this matter for years in the press and in song.
01:47Carey took on Eminem's obsession with her through her 2009 album, Memoirs of an Imperfect
01:52Angel.
01:54Just in case the lyrics aren't enough, Carey took all the guesswork out of it with the
01:58music video, a video in which she plays two characters, herself and an obsessed grey hoodie-wearing
02:11goateed Eminem.
02:13The rapper was also convinced the song was about him and released the warning as a response
02:18just 6 weeks later.
02:27Number 18.
02:29All Those Years Ago – George Harrison John Lennon's murder in December of 1980
02:35shocked and saddened the world.
02:44While most people didn't have a way to express their love for Lennon to the world,
02:49some of his musician friends did exactly that.
02:53One such friend was his former bandmate George Harrison, who just 5 months after Lennon's
02:59death released All Those Years Ago.
03:08Originally written with different lyrics for Ringo Starr to sing, after Lennon's passing,
03:13Harrison re-wrote it as a tribute to his friend.
03:16Another one of Lennon's good friends, Elton John, was hesitant to record a tribute song
03:22to his dear friend.
03:23But when he saw the lyrics Bernie Taupin presented him with for Empty Garden – Hey Hey Johnny,
03:29it was a no brainer.
03:37Number 17.
03:39Love Bug – Jonas Brothers While Nick Jonas has stated in the past that
03:44the song Love Bug is about, really, just falling in love with somebody, that somebody appears
03:50to be Miley Cyrus.
03:57The two Disney TV stars dated for about a year and a half from 2006 through December
04:02of 2007.
04:03A relationship that's, according to Nick's brother Kevin, changed girls for Nick forever.
04:15Although the song wasn't released until late 2008, Love Bug was written in 2007, while
04:21Nick and Miley were an item.
04:24During a time when Nick has said that he, "...started writing about love, and I actually
04:29knew what it felt like."
04:37Number 16.
04:39Uptown Girl – Billy Joel We know what you're thinking, everyone knows
04:44this song is about Christie Brinkley.
04:49It's so obvious, Joel and Brinkley were married and she's the Uptown Girl in the
04:57music video.
04:58Well, let's just say, you're half right.
05:08The song did eventually become about Brinkley, but when Joel first wrote the track, he did
05:13so with a different supermodel in mind, Elle Macpherson.
05:17You see, prior to his marriage to supermodel Brinkley, Joel and Macpherson were an item,
05:23and it was she who was his girlfriend when he wrote the track.
05:34Number 15.
05:36Dude Looks Like A Lady – Aerosmith As the story goes, one night Aerosmith was
05:43out of town when lead singer Steven Tyler thought he saw a hot blonde woman.
05:52However, it turned out that it wasn't a woman at all, but rather Motley Crue singer
05:59Vince Neil.
06:01This case of mistaken identity led to some ribbing from Tyler's bandmates, but it also
06:06eventually led to the writing of their hit single, Dude Looks Like A Lady.
06:17Motley Crue co-founder Nikki Sixx has also confirmed the accuracy of that story, and
06:22Neil being the inspiration for the song.
06:30Number 14.
06:32Miss Jackson – Outkast While calling the song Miss Right might have
06:37been more accurate, it sure doesn't have the same syllable-esque flow as Miss Jackson.
06:48Why right, you ask?
06:50Well because Erykah Badu's mother's name is Colleen Wright, but what does she have
06:55to do with it, you also ask?
06:57Well Outkast's Andre 3000 dated Badu in the 90s and they had a child out of wedlock
07:03together.
07:04Feeling the need to tell his side of the story, Andre wrote the song as an apology and explanation
07:10to Badu's mother.
07:16You might remember the intro dedicates the song to baby's mama's mamas.
07:21If you didn't know it before, now you'll know it forever, forever ever, forever ever.
07:32Number 13.
07:34Ether – Nas The hip-hop feud between Nas and Jay-Z was
07:39one of the biggest, most talked about in the history of the genre, and the musical pinnacles
07:44of said feud both came at the end of 2001.
07:48First it was Jay-Z hitting Nas hard with his diss track, Takeover, from his album The
07:54Blueprints.
08:00But as hard as he hits, there are many who'd argue that Nas hit back even harder.
08:06Three months after Takeover, Nas put out Ether, and to say he didn't hold back would be
08:12an understatement.
08:19It's been called a diss song classic and was so influential that Ether has become a
08:25hip-hop slang term for destroying an opponent in a rap battle.
08:37Number 12.
08:38All of Me – John Legend Given that Legend wrote this song while he
08:43was engaged to Chrissy Teigen, and she is also in the music video, which they filmed
08:49days before their wedding in Italy, this song better be about Teigen.
09:01And no surprises here, the me that is all of Legend is indeed Teigen.
09:14But while she initially was extremely moved and touched by Legend's musical dedication
09:18to her, she has since heard the song so much that it no longer has the same impact as it
09:24once did.
09:32Number 11.
09:34Man on the Moon – R.E.M.
09:36No veiled references or possible misinterpretations with this one.
09:41Michael Stipe wrote this song about Andy Kaufman.
09:50The band had already composed the music, and as the recording sessions were coming
09:55to a close, Stipe still hadn't mastered the words.
09:59However, while taking a walk around Seattle, the music playing through his Walkman headphones,
10:05everything finally came together.
10:14The references to Kaufman's work, from his wrestling career to his Elvis impersonations,
10:20and the titular metaphor comparing conspiracy theories regarding the moon landing to those
10:26claiming Kaufman faked his 1984 death, movie fans will also note Jim Carrey's 1999 Andy
10:40Kaufman biopic took its title from the song as well.
10:45Number 10.
10:47Cry Me a River – Justin Timberlake
10:51Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears dated from 1999 until March of 2002.
10:56Then in November of that same year, Timberlake released his first solo album and the second
11:02single from said album was Cry Me a River.
11:11The song, about a guy who moves on after having his heart broken, was widely assumed to be
11:17about his recent breakup with Spears.
11:20Although he might have tried to deny it at the time, no one was buying it, especially
11:30after the music video came out featuring a Spears lookalike, as well as easter egg references
11:36to his ex's iconic newsboy hat and her tattoo.
11:45Number 9.
11:47Pride in the Name of Love – U2 There is a world where we are all talking
11:53about this song as being about President Ronald Reagan and his pride in his country's military
11:59might.
12:05But we don't live in that world because a couple of books about civil rights leaders
12:10Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X focused Bono's attention on the two sides of the
12:16movement.
12:17This led to King being the focus of U2's 1984 hit, Pride in the Name of Love.
12:28While Bono has since talked about his dissatisfaction with the all-too-simplistic lyrics, the song
12:34is one of the band's biggest hits and made the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of
12:39500 songs that shaped rock and roll.
12:47Number 8.
12:48Hurricane – Bob Dylan In 1967, boxer Reuben Hurricane Carter was
13:02wrongly convicted of a triple homicide and sentenced to life in prison in New Jersey.
13:08While behind bars, Carter wrote an autobiography called The 16th Round.
13:13It was this book that inspired Bob Dylan to write his protest song about Carter and his
13:18wrongful imprisonment.
13:26The song was a hit and brought Carter's story to the attention of a wider audience and led
13:32to a growing movement of support and calls for his release.
13:36While Carter did get a new trial in 1976, he was once again convicted.
13:42It wasn't until 1985 that he was finally let out after being granted a writ of habeas
13:47corpus.
13:56Number 7.
13:57You're So Vain – Carly Simon In case you were thinking that the song was
14:02about you, it isn't.
14:11Well unless you're Warren Beatty, and possibly two other men.
14:15The subject of Simon's number one hit song has been a much talked about mystery ever
14:19since its release in 1972.
14:28For years, Simon remained very coy about the whole thing, refusing to name names and
14:34then slowly only giving out letters from their name.
14:38Then in 2015, she finally confirmed that Warren Beatty was the subject of the song's second
14:45verse.
14:46Although in wonderfully coy Carly fashion, she also said, now that doesn't mean that
14:52the other two verses aren't also about Warren.
14:55It just means the second one is.
15:05Number 6.
15:06Shine On You Crazy Diamond – Pink Floyd While he may not be a household name, to Pink
15:19Floyd fans, Sid Barrett is a key figure in music history.
15:24For those who don't know, Barrett was one of the co-founders of the band, the lead singer
15:29and primary songwriter for about the first three years of Pink Floyd's existence.
15:34However, due to his use of psychedelic drugs and deteriorating mental health, Barrett was
15:40dismissed from the group in 1968.
15:50This wasn't something the other band members did happily, and Barrett remained an important
15:55piece of all of them.
15:57So much so, that in 1975, they created Shine On You Crazy Diamond, a 25-minute, 9-part
16:05track on their Wish You Were Here album, as a tribute to their friend.
16:16Number 5.
16:18Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Mac Imagine singing backup vocals on a song written
16:24by your pained ex-boyfriend about your break-up.
16:26Nope, we can't imagine it either.
16:36But that's exactly what Stevie Nicks had to do on Go Your Own Way.
16:40The song, written by Lindsey Buckingham, was the first single off the now-iconic album
16:45Rumors.
16:53As Buckingham explained, I was completely devastated when she took off.
16:58There was a lot of pent-up frustration and anger towards Stevie and me for many years.
17:04Frustrations that all came out in this admittedly very catchy song.
17:13Number 4.
17:14Hey Jude – The Beatles Had Paul McCartney stuck with the track's
17:25original title, it would probably be more well-known who this song is talking to.
17:31In 1968, John Lennon and his first wife Cynthia separated over Lennon's love affair with
17:36Yoko Ono.
17:43McCartney quote, always feels sorry for kids in divorces, and wrote this song as words
17:49of comfort to Lennon's then 5-year-old son, Julian.
17:54When he first wrote the song, McCartney was singing Hey Jules, but he would eventually
17:58switch it to Jude because he thought that sounded a bit better.
18:09Number 3.
18:11Candle In The Wind – Elton John There are going to be some people who are expecting
18:23us to talk about how this song was written in honor and remembrance of Princess Diana.
18:29However, that version of the song, known as Candle In The Wind 1997, was a re-written
18:35version of Elton John's original Candle In The Wind from 1974.
18:47That song is an ode and tribute to another iconic woman, Marilyn Monroe.
18:54The lyricist Bernie Taupin has said that while it is about Monroe, it could have been about
18:59anyone who died young and sort of became this iconic picture.
19:04It's a beauty frozen in time.
19:07A sentiment that decades later obviously connected perfectly to the passing of Lady Di.
19:21Number 2.
19:22Layla – Derrick And The Dominoes The Derrick And The Dominoes song Layla was
19:35partially inspired by a 7th century Persian love story.
19:39A story that spoke rather strongly to Eric Clapton and the position he found himself
19:44in at the time.
19:52Namely the fact that he was secretly in love with Patti Boyd, who just so happened to be
19:57the wife of his friend George Harrison.
20:00Boyd and Harrison eventually had a very amicable divorce and in 1979, she and Clapton tied
20:07the knot.
20:15Although they were dating, Clapton wrote another song for Boyd, Wonderful Tonight.
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20:44Number 1.
20:45American Pie – Don McLean You might have heard about the 1959 plane
20:57crash that took the lives of rock stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the big bopper J.P.
21:02Richardson referred to as the day the music died.
21:05Well, it became known as such because that is how Don McLean poetically referred to it
21:11in his 1971 song, American Pie.
21:20As for the rest of the song, it is a general impressionistic allusion to the changes that
21:26took place throughout the tumultuous 1960s, but began on that fateful day in 1959.
21:40American Pie was the first single released off of McLean's similarly titled album.
21:46The second single, Vincent, a song McLean wrote in tribute to Vincent Van Gogh.
21:56Did any of these song subjects surprise you?
21:59Let us know in the comments!