Songs that mention stars

[Jim Beaver]

There was a thread a while back about songs that mention actors by name. I
didn't notice this one, which I just ran across the other day:

"Let's Not Talk About Love" by Cole Porter refers to:

Hedy Lamarr
Joan Bennett
Greta Garbo
John Barrymore
Betty Grable
Bob Hope
Wallace Beery
Marlene Dietrich

as well as to non-actors:
Fiorella La Guardia
Samuel Goldwyn
Eleanor Roosevelt
Fredric Chopin
George Sand
Cleopatra
Peggy Joyce
Senator Carter Glass
Harold Ickes
Hamilton Fish
Adolf Hitler
Earl Carroll

Then there's "Farming" by Porter:

Katherine Cornell
Lady Mendl
Mae West
Wendell Wilkie
Monty Woolley
Michael Strange
Margie Hart
Fannie Hurst
Fannie Brice
Greta Garbo
Elsa Maxwell
George Raft
Clifford Odets
John Steinbeck
Guy Lombardo
Liz Whitney
Samuel Goldwyn
Anna Sten
Fred Astaire
Paul Whiteman
Henry Morgenthau
Mrs. Hearst
Orson Welles
Dolores del Rio
Marlene Dietrich
Harpo Marx
Salvador Dali
Lynne Fontanne
Sophie Tucker
Clifton Webb

Of course, about half of these folks turn up in other Porter songs, so I
suspect he may qualify as the biggest name-dropper in songwriting history.

Jim Beaver

[Jim Powers]

"Puttin' On the Ritz" mentions Gary Cooper

[Anthony Dale]

Check out Comden & Green & Styne's "Drop that Name" in BELLS ARE
RINGING...it even mentions Rin Tin Tin ;-)

td

"Jim Beaver" <jumb...@prodigy.net> wrote in message
news:oto38.10297$OT6.154...@newssvr16.news.prodigy.com...

[Ruth]

In article <3C4E3AA5...@compuserve.com>, Jim Powers
<72327.12...@compuserve.com> wrote:

> "Puttin' On the Ritz" mentions Gary Cooper
>

How

[Robert Keser]

Jim Beaver wrote:

> There was a thread a while back about songs that mention actors by name.

"You Oughta Be In Pictures" was written in 1934, but oddly didn't appear
in a picture itself until 1951 (in Starlift). Anyway, it has the following:

You're lovely as a Crawford
Like Davies you are gay
You're sweet as a Gaynor
And you're as hot as a gal named West
You'd surely make Garbo jealous
if you took a movie test
You ought to dress like Tashman
and ride in foreign cars.

You're handsome as a Gable
You're healthy as a Mix
You surely should be able
to photograph like Richard Dix
You surely should sing like Bing
You've got more than a Barrymore
You ought to dress like Powell
and ride in sporty cars.

Then there's "Hooray for Hollywood" from Hollywood Hotel (1937),
which says of Max Factor:

Just give him half an hour
You'll look like Tyrone Power.

Then there's "If I Had a Talking Picture of You" and "At the Moving
Picture Ball", but I can't dig them out at the moment.

--Bob Keser

[Zoticus]

Lou Reed's song "City Lights" is all about Charlie Chaplin.

[salad]

One of my favorite songs:
"Celluloid Heros" - by the Kinks

Celluloid Heroes

Everybody's a dreamer and everybody's a star,
And everybody's in movies, it doesn't matter who you are.
There are stars in every city,
In every house and on every street,
And if you walk down Hollywood Boulevard
Their names are written in concrete!

Don't step on Greta Garbo as you walk down the Boulevard,
She looks so weak and fragile that's why she tried to be so hard
But they turned her into a princess
And they sat her on a throne,
But she turned her back on stardom,
Because she wanted to be alone.

You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard,
Some that you recognise, some that you've hardly even heard of,
People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,
Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.
Rudolph Valentino, looks very much alive,
And he looks up ladies' dresses as they sadly pass him by.
Avoid stepping on Bela Lugosi
'Cos he's liable to turn and bite,
But stand close by Bette Davis
Because hers was such a lonely life.
If you covered him with garbage,
George Sanders would still have style,
And if you stamped on Mickey Rooney
He would still turn round and smile,
But please don't tread on dearest Marilyn
'Cos she's not very tough,
She should have been made of iron or steel,
But she was only made of flesh and blood.

C

And those who are successful,
Be always on your guard,
Success walks hand in hand with failure
Along Hollywood Boulevard.

I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show,
A fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes,
Because celluloid heroes never feel any pain
And celluloid heroes never really die.

C

Oh celluloid heroes never feel any pain
Oh celluloid heroes never really die.

Eric

[Anthony Dale]

"Dressed up like a million dollar trouper, trying hard to look like Gary
Cooper, super-duper."

td

"Ruth" <firs...@yankeestadium.net> wrote in message
news:firstbase-08949...@news.rcn.com...

[Stephen Cooke]

I'd write out the lyrics to The Humphrey Bogart Rhumba by The Happiness
Boys, but sadly I dropped my 78 of this, and it shattered.

I believe it also mentions Clark Gable and Myrna Loy, but it's been ages
since I've heard it.

swac
o/~"And if you do not care for Humphrey Bogart, name it after any star you
desire..."o/~

[ShaneOttawa]

"Even Burt Reynolds in that black trans-am, all going to meet down at
the Cadillac Ranch"

- Cadillac Ranch, Bruce Springsteen

[James L. Neibaur]

Celluloid Heroes has laready been mentioned, and its entire lyrics printed, but
that one would head my list.

Also---

Junior's Farm ("Ollie Hardy should have had more sense....")
Year of the Cat (Bogart, Peter Lorre)
Key Largo (Bogey, Bacall)
Rock On (James Dean)
James Dean (James Dean)
Citizen Kane (Errol Flynn, others)
Whatever Happened To Randolph Scott (Scott, Gene, Tex, Roy, Rex, Durango Kid)

I can't resist this one:

I Should Have Known Better ("if this is love ya gotta give me Moe!")

JN

Please visit the most poorly designed web pages online:

my Favorite Movies web page:
http://hometown.aol.com/jimneibr/myhomepage/movies.html

and my Favorite Performers web page:
http://hometown.aol.com/jimneibr/myhomepage/rant.html

[Ariannah]

I wouldn't call it a "song" because it's not (IMO) real music. However
I hear it on the pop radio station practically every other day.

"That Don't Impress me Much" sung (well, the jury's still out on that)
by Shania Twain.

[Jim Powers]

"Bette Davis Eyes," a pop song from the 80's (I think) sung by Kim
Carnes.

[ron salvatore]

>Lou Reed's song "City Lights" is all about Charlie Chaplin.
>

And his "New Age" mentions Robert Mitchum.

ron

[Mpoconnor7]

-"Rock On" by David Essex (James Dean; at one point they say "Jimmy Dean" but I
doubt they're talking about the sausage magnate who sang "Big Bad John")
-"American Pie" by Don McLean (James Dean)
-"Vogue" by Madonna (she mentioned a number of them, including Fred Astaire,
Bacall, Deitrich and others)
-"Year of the Cat" by Al Stewart (Peter Lorre)

Michael O'Connor - Modern Renaissance Man
"The probability of one person being right increases in a direct porportion to
the intensity with which others try to prove him wrong"

[salad]

the song "She Likes Me for Me" - I don't know who sings it mentions Steve
Buscemi

Eric

[larry legallo]

On 23 Jan 2002 09:26:26 -0800, shane...@sympatico.ca (ShaneOttawa)
wrote:

>"Even Burt Reynolds in that black trans-am, all going to meet down at
>the Cadillac Ranch"
>
>- Cadillac Ranch, Bruce Springsteen

Not to mention James Dean in that Mercury '49

[Bill Steele]

In article <20020123231726...@mb-mt.aol.com>,
salf...@aol.com (ron salvatore) wrote:

Has anyone gone back a ways?

"I'll Take Manhattan" (Rodgers and Hart) and "Dear Mr. Gable" as sung by
Judy Garland.

There are a bunch of country western songs that mention Gene and Roy.
"Hang in There Superman" is about a star but doesn't mention his name.

[Gloria S. Chase]

Cinderella, she seems so easy
"It takes one to know one," she smiles
And puts her hands in her back pockets
Bette Davis style
http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/desolation.html

Well, I'm standin' in line in the rain to see a movie starring Gregory
Peck,
Yeah, but you know it's not the one that I had in mind.
He's got a new one out now, I don't even know what it's about
But I'll see him in anything so I'll stand in line.
http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/brownsville.html

Well, my telephone rang it would not stop,
It's President Kennedy callin' me up.
He said, "My friend Bob, what do we need to make the country grow?"
I said, "My friend John, Brigitte Bardot,
Anita Ekberg,
Sophia Loren."
(Put 'em all in the same room with Ernest Borgnine!)

Well, ask me why I'm drunk alla time,
It levels my head and eases my mind.
I just walk along and stroll and sing,
I see better days and I do better things.
(I catch dinosaurs
I make love to Elizabeth Taylor . . .
Catch hell from Richard Burton!)
http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/befree.html

I was sleepin' like a rat
When I heard something jerkin'.
There stood Rita
Lookin' just like Tony Perkins.
She said, "Would you like to take a shower?
I'll show you up to the door."
I said, "Oh, no! no!
I've been through this before."
http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/motorpsycho.html

This isn't counting all the Humphrey Bogart quotes on the album Empire
Burlesque.
Here's a gigantic link:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&threadm=19981114114917.22930.00001502%40ng01.aol.com&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dempire%2Bburlesque%2Bbogart%2Bquotes%26hl%3Den%26selm%3D19981114114917.22930.00001502%2540ng01.aol.com%26rnum%3D1

Brian

[JHG]

On the Western Channel, Rex Allen Jr. sings a song called "The Last of
the Siver Screen Cowboys" which names a number of western stars.

[Stephen Cooke]

Whatever happened to Randolph Scott?

swac
Ridin' the range alone.

[JHG]

>Whatever happened to Randolph Scott?
>
>swac
>Ridin' the range alone.

********************
Roy Rogers also sang a song called "Hoppy Gene & Me".

[andy749]

Little Feat's "Apolitical Blues" mentions John Wayne and Dorothy Lamour.

Beatles - "Dig It" ...Doris Day

Nick Lowe - "Marie Provost"..."she was a winner, that became the
doggie's dinner".

[Anthony Dale]

Tom Waits' "Invitation to the Blues" conjures up Rita Hayworth, amongst
others....and who wouldn' want to conjure up Rita?

td

--
I have seen the starlight fading
into echos on the floor
And I dreamed the stars parading
like tin soldiers on the shore
The city casts no shadow now
At midnight, all the whores
come out and dance with darkness
and the night rains pour...
@1979, Janis Ian.
"andy749" <and...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:25091-3C5...@storefull-122.iap.bryant.webtv.net...

[Steve Oldham]

On Sat, 26 Jan 2002 10:08:56 -0500, "Anthony Dale"
<hil...@nauticom.net> wrote:

>Tom Waits' "Invitation to the Blues" conjures up Rita Hayworth, amongst
>others....and who wouldn' want to conjure up Rita?

And '9th an Hennepin' conjures up the spirit of noir.

Steve

[David]

and...@webtv.net (andy749) wrote:

"Garbo" (1983)
"Greta" (1994)
"Mabel Normand" (c. 1980)

[Paskunia]

There was that dopey song from the 70's that had the line "Just like Bogey
in 'Key Largo.'"
And "The Curly Shuffle" by the Jump n the Saddle Band.
All I can think of, or now.

[Brent McKee]

Paskunia <OldMac...@thefarm.eieio> wrote in message
news:91A364BCpaskun...@167.206.112.134...

Can't remember the group or singer but a number of years ago there was a
song called "What Would Humphrey Bogart Do?"

--
Brent McKee

To reply by email, please remove the capital letters (S and N) from the
email address

"If we cease to judge this world, we may find ourselves, very quickly, in
one which is infinitely worse."
- Margaret Atwood

[Jim Powers]

Brent McKee wrote:

> Paskunia <OldMac...@thefarm.eieio> wrote in message
> news:91A364BCpaskun...@167.206.112.134...
> > There was that dopey song from the 70's that had the line "Just like Bogey
> > in 'Key Largo.'"
> > And "The Curly Shuffle" by the Jump n the Saddle Band.
> > All I can think of, or now.
>
> Can't remember the group or singer but a number of years ago there was a
> song called "What Would Humphrey Bogart Do?"
>
> --

And of course there's "Don't Bogart That Joint."

[Pedrinho]

You're the Nation'l Gall'ry, your Garbo's Sal'ry, you're cellophane!
----
You're the nimble tread of the feet of Fred Astaire.
---
You're a rose, you're inferno's Dante
You're the nose on the great Durante.
---
You're a boon, you're the dam of Boulder
You're the moon over Mae West's shoulder.
---
You're a Bendel bonnet, A Shakespeare sonnet,
You're Mickey Mouse!

(Cole Porter - You're the Top)

[Pedrinho]

Feed the plot to the fish [...]
Still, we've got Dorothy Gish
---
Look what's coming: Valentino!
Vilma Banky...
---
Hey wake up there, Theda Bara
---
So when I got my mind on sex,
Who gives a damn for for Francis X.
Bushman?

(Stephen Sondheim - from "Saturday Night")

[David Matthews]

"Pedrinho" <pedr...@noos.fr> wrote in message
news:B87B7FDB.6712%pedr...@noos.fr...

>

Great song. Sung (very well) by Cary Grant in "Night and Day".

Dave

[Anthony Dale]

Johnny Mack Brown and Bessie Love (love-love-love-love)

also Stephen Sondheim, SATURDAY NIGHT.

--
I have seen the starlight fading
into echos on the floor
And I dreamed the stars parading
like tin soldiers on the shore
The city casts no shadow now
At midnight, all the whores
come out and dance with darkness
and the night rains pour...
@1979, Janis Ian.

"Pedrinho" <pedr...@noos.fr> wrote in message

news:B87B81B7.6714%pedr...@noos.fr...

[Avoid normal situations.]

MDC - "John Wayne Was a Nazi" (am I the only contributor to this group that
enjoys a bit of punk?)
Bauhaus - "Bela Lugosi's Dead"
Blondie - "Kidnapper" ("she's got bloodshot eyes, like Ray Milland")
Boys Next Door - "Roman Roman" (about Polanski's little misadventure)
M.O.D. - "Theme" ("I'm mean! Lean! Cruel! Obscene! Not only am I Elvis,
sometimes I'm James Dean!" Tom Cruise gets mentioned at the
end as well.)

There's another song whose author I can't remember called "Reagan Der
Fuhrer". Many novelty items were recorded about Reagan, too.

--
alt.flame Special Forces
"A billion here, a billion there -- pretty soon you're talking about real
money." -- Senator Everett Dirksen, on the U.S. defense budget

[ast...@webtv.net]

by...@NOSPAM.olagrande.net (Avoid normal situations.) wrote:

snip

(am I the only contributor to this group that   enjoys a bit of
punk?)

**********************************************************************************
Not at all!! I just didn't know there was anyone else here that knew
about punk.

[Sally G. Waters]

Jimmy Buffett's "Pencil-Thin Mustache":
"I wish I had a pencil-thin mustache
the Boston Blackie kind.
A two-tone Ricky Ricardo jacket
And an autographed picture of Andy Devine.
I could be anyone I wanted to be
From that suave Errol Flynn to the Sheik of Araby
If I only had a pencil-thin mustache...."

Elton John's "Roy Rogers" ("Turn up the TV,
turn off the lights, Roy Rogers is riding tonight.")

A real fave: Suzanne Vega's "Marlene on the Wall"
("Marlene watches from the wall, her mocking smile
says it all, as she records the rise & fall , of every
man who's been here")

--Sally
"Avoid normal situations." <by...@NOSPAM.olagrande.net> wrote in message
news:a3j4d6$hit$1...@og1.olagrande.net...

[Stephen Cooke]

On Sun, 3 Feb 2002, Avoid normal situations. wrote:

> MDC - "John Wayne Was a Nazi" (am I the only contributor to this group that
> enjoys a bit of punk?)

Hell no! I'd toss in Black Flag's TV Party, although it doesn't really
mention stars...unless you count "QUINCY!"

swac
How about Who Killed Bambi?

[Avoid normal situations.]

Stephen Cooke <am...@chebucto.ns.ca> wrote:
> On Sun, 3 Feb 2002, Avoid normal situations. wrote:

[..]

>> MDC - "John Wayne Was a Nazi" (am I the only contributor to this group that
>> enjoys a bit of punk?)

> Hell no!

Good. Given that old movies and punk rock are both fringe tastes, I would
figure that a few folks in each camp are the same people.

> I'd toss in Black Flag's TV Party, although it doesn't really
> mention stars...unless you count "QUINCY!"

> swac
> How about Who Killed Bambi?

While we're at it, how about The Misfits' "Who Killed Marilyn?"

--
alt.flame Special Forces
"Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know."
-- Michel de Montaigne

[dancertm]

Answer: The Noel Coward parody of Cole Porter's "Let's fall in Love."
but it was recorded in Las Vegas. Yes, it's available.

Of course, there is "Dear Mr. Gable/ You made me Love you sung by Judy
Garland.

There are others, but that's enough.