"Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" is one of the all-time greatest hallucinatory fantasies (rocking horse people and marmalade skies, anyone?), but the woman who inspired the song was very real. Lucy Vodden (née O’Donnell) passed away this week after a battle with lupus, but admitted two years ago that she was the muse behind the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper tune—and as a toddler, no less. Lucy and Julian Lennon shared a nursery school class in 1966, and Julian made a scribbly drawing of her, later describing her as "in the sky with diamonds" to his father, John. She told the BBC in 2007, "I remember Julian and I both doing pictures on a double-sided easel, throwing paint at each other, much to the horror of the classroom attendant."
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
The Arquettes are a Hollywood dynasty, but Rosanna is the only one who can claim to have inspired two pop songs (including what is perhaps an iconic ‘80s love ballad). "Rosanna," Toto’s 1983 hit (which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard charts and won record of the year at the Grammys) is rumored to reference band member Steve Porcaro’s relationship with ex-girlfriend Arquette (songwriter David Paich denies the connection, but… pretty major coincidence, no?). Peter Gabriel, however, has confirmed his musical connection to Arquette; the two lived together in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, and Gabriel recently admitted to writing "In Your Eyes" about the actress. And when your song inspires John Cusack to hold up a boom box to profess his love, you’ve really made it.
Rosanna
In Your Eyes (2002 Album Remaster Version)
The Plain White T’s earnest acoustic hit "Hey There Delilah" dominated the radio in 2007, when the band scored a major label debut with Every Second Counts. The song is almost tooth-achingly sweet to listen to, but the story behind it is even sweeter: "Hey There" is about the now 26-year-old professional runner Delilah DiCrescenzo, whom lead singer Tom Higginson met in 2002 and tried to woo, to no avail. Higginson told USA Today that he "thought she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. I told her, 'I have a song about you already.' Obviously, there was no song. But I thought it was smooth." When "Delilah" became a chart success, DiCrescenzo remained anonymous—especially because she had a boyfriend. She said in 2007, "When I’m at the gym, it’s playing. Part of me wants to scream at the top of my lungs that it's about me. Another part of me wants to cower and say it's not." She finally came out in public as the song’s muse when Higginson and his band earned a Grammy nod in 2008. DiCrescenzo accepted his invitation (with her boyfriend’s blessing) to attend the awards ceremony and appeared on the Today show that January. But even then, she rebuffed the boy who had immortalized her in song: "I knew it was fictionalized," she told Matt Lauer. "And I’m glad that I finally get the opportunity to say I do have a boyfriend and it is romanticized."
Hey There Delilah
Few muses have learned to milk their 15 minutes of fame like Peggy Sue Gerron, who even now is on a national tour to celebrate her memoir, Whatever Happened to Peggy Sue? But Gerron was the inspiration for one of the ‘50s most memorable songs, not only due to catchiness but due to the fact that its singer, Buddy Holly, was killed in the "Day the Music Died" plane crash on February 3, 1959, along with Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. According to her official Web site—where you can buy the memoir, a souvenir "Peggy Sue" Chevrolet convertible replica, and other ephemera—her biography notes, "Her first introduction to Buddy Holly was the thing of which fairytales are made. Buddy actually accidentally knocked her down in a hallway at Lubbock High School while running, with guitar and amplifier in hand, to get on stage for a music assembly." She ultimately married the drummer of Holly’s band, The Crickets, and loved the singer from afar—remaining in relative obscurity, even after the Buddy Holly biopic emerged in 1978. Finally, in 2001, Gerron went on Oxygen’s "I’ve Got a Secret" and revealed her true identity. Now she sponsors the Buddy Holly Centre in Lubbock, and vows, via her site, to "keep the music alive."
Peggy Sue
The clear frontrunner among song muses is model Pattie Boyd, ex-wife of Eric Clapton and George Harrison. Clapton’s most famous love song, "Layla," recorded when he was with Derek and the Dominos, is about Boyd—who was married to the quiet Beatle at the time. Harrison and Boyd married in 1966, and in the late ‘60s, Harrison and Clapton became close friends. In his 2007 autobiography, Clapton notes that it was at this time that he began secretly "falling in love with Pattie," and recorded "Layla" as a reference to the 12th-century Persian poem in which a moon princess is married off to another man than the one who is lovesick for her. Clapton played the song at a party, and according to story, confessed the same night to Harrison that he was falling for his wife—creating no small rift between the musicians. Still, Harrison and Boyd remained married until 1977, and Harrison graciously attended her second wedding in 1979…to Clapton (they later divorced in 1989). Boyd can also claim of the best stories behind one of the century’s most passionate song, but also inspired two other unforgettably romantic hits, The Beatles’ "Something," and Clapton’s "Wonderful Tonight." All other muses bow to her.
Layla
The identity behind the most popular song to pay homage to a transvestite…The Kinks’ "Lola" is still under hot debate. The widely accepted identity of the song’s leading lady is Candy Darling, a glamorous crossdresser and Warhol Factory regular who is rumored to have dated front man Ray Davies briefly (she did a " definitive interview" with Davies in Interview Magazine when Andy Warhol still ran it). The other possibility, argued in the band’s official biography, is that Davies wrote the lyrics after the band’s manager drank so much at a Paris nightclub that he accidentally danced with a cross-dresser. Either way, the song revived The Kinks’ popularity—when the song hit in 1970, it was the band’s first big single in five years.
Lola
David Bowie and Iman are a power couple now, but in 1970, he was married to his first wife, Angela, in England. The two met when Angie (then Mary Angela Barnett) was 19, and she later gave birth to son Duncan before the pair divorced in 1980. She went on to write a memoir, Backstage Passes: Life on the Wild Side with David Bowie, and became a recording artist in her own right, with two albums in her native U.K. It would be hard to escape 10 years of living with Bowie in his heyday without a few shoutouts, and Angie had many; Bowie’s "Golden Years" and "The Prettiest Star" are about her, and the film Velvet Goldmine is loosely based on the couple’s personal life. Then, in 1990, news emerged that Angela may have been the muse behind The Rolling Stones’ "Angie"—Angela appeared on the Joan Rivers Show and confessed that she had "caught Bowie in bed with Mick Jagger," and that she assumed they were "composing Angie." Contrasting interpretations claim that Angie is Angela, or instead, a metaphor for Bowie himself. Furthering confusion, both Jagger and Bowie have dismissed the idea of their affair and Angela’s talk-show revelations as "rubbish." In the end, the truth has not yet out; some even suggest that "Angie" is in fact model Anita Pallenberg, who carried on affairs with both Jagger and Keith Richards.
Angie
In 2007, after holding onto the secret for almost 40 years, Neil Diamond confessed that Caroline Kennedy, who was 11 years old when the song came out in 1969, was the inspiration for his famous song. He says that he saw the Kennedy daughter in a magazine—"a picture of a little girl dressed to the nines in her riding gear, next to her pony"…and wrote the song in less than an hour in a Memphis hotel room. Diamond revealed the news in order to play the song for Kennedy (who was apparently "struck by it and really, really happy") at her 50th birthday party celebration. The song still gets major play at Red Sox games…every eighth inning in Fenway Park, Sox fans belt out the words.
Sweet Caroline
Prudence Farrow—Mia’s little sister—has her spiritual explorations to thank for her namesake song, The Beatles’ "Dear Prudence." John Lennon and Farrow were both guests at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s retreat in central India, and he was moved to write the song for her after she stayed in her room the whole trip and wouldn’t talk during her meditation sessions. Lennon wanted to drag Farrow out of what he thought might be depression, so he encouraged her to "come out and play" with the song. Fans of the new Beatles: Rock Band can do the same; Farrow’s homage is one of a select group of Beatles’ hits that made it to the videogame’s karaoke list.
Dear Prudence
Singer-songwriter Carole King would go on to weave her own heartbroken tapestry of song, but in the 1950s, she was simply a classmate (and sometimes girlfriend) of Neil Sedaka at Queens College—and inspired one of his big hits, 1959’s "Oh! Carol." In response, King wrote, "Oh Neil," a song that, while not a radio hit, caught the eye of record industry titan Don Kirshner. She then wrote for girl groups like The Shirelles ("Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow") and Little Eva ("The Locomotion") before striking out on her own in the ‘70s. Her second solo record, Tapestry, recorded in 1971, stayed on the charts for six years and is still one of the best sellers of the decade. She’s not just Carol(e) from Queens anymore.
Oh! Carol
Ludwig van Beethoven—closet romantic? The composer’s most famous piece of music "FÜr Elise" (whose actual title is Bagatelle in A minor) is steeped in mysterious origins. The composition was not uncovered or published until 1865, 40 years after Beethoven’s death, leaving the composer unable to identify this puzzling woman. Some claim she was an unknown fifth mistress of Beethoven’s, but the more likely scenario could be because of a possible miscommunication over the original title. If titled "FÜr (or For) Therese," the piece could have been dedicated to Therese Malfatti, a student and niece of his physician, who turned down his marriage proposal. The title could have been transcribed incorrectly due to the pianist’s poor handwriting.
FÜr Elise
One of the most memorable songs on the self-titled debut of Crosby, Stills and Nash, "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" was written by Stephen Stills for his then-girlfriend, folk singer Judy Collins. The four-song suite, recorded while the titular heartbreaker was in the studio, took Stills months to write and muses on Judy’s piercing blue eyes. The music-loving couple had been dating for two years, but prior to the band hitting it big, Collins fell in love with someone else and Stills said "the breakup was imminent." Collins doesn’t seem to mind the song (which climbed to No. 21 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart) and even claimed a Grammy of her own for her interpretation of Joni Mitchell’s "Both Sides Now."
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
Is there better inspiration for a rock star than glimpsing a prostitute strolling the streets while on his way to a show? Sting was inspired to write The Police’s 1978 hit "Roxanne" while he was in the red-light district in Paris, and imagined what it would be like to fall in love with one of the prostitutes. Although he didn’t get the actual streetwalker’s name, Sting titled the song and his mysterious crush "Roxanne" after an unlikely source—Cyrano de Bergerac’s object of desire—a poster of the play was hanging in the hotel where he performed.
Roxanne
Sotheby’s Los Angeles real-estate agent Sharona Alperin claims to have "been finding entertainment professionals their dream homes for over 20 years," and uses her namesake song as proof. "Sharona was only 17 when she was immortalized in The Knack's 1979 hit single ‘My Sharona,’" she writes on her Web site." Sharona believes that "'My Sharona' has had an impact on my ability to understand the entertainer's mind, there's something simpatico. You've got to care to the nth degree. You can't drop the ball for one minute." The Knack lead singer Doug Fieger met Sharona when she was 16 (and he 27), and later wrote in liner notes that "It was like getting hit in the head with a baseball bat; I fell in love with her instantly." So, "My Sharona" may be a bit creepy in origin, but still, who can deny that hook?
My Sharona
