YOU ARE HERE: zharth.net / Zharth's Music Log / Week 65 (Girls' Names)
(Originally finalized on March 13, 2024)
Preface: It's a well-worn cliche that there have been a lot of songs written with a girl's name in the title (and why not?), so I thought it would be fun to showcase some of my favorite songs that share a girl's name. Not all of them, mind you - just a small selection.
Monday: Gloria (Them) [The Angry Young Them, 1965]
Comments: We go back to Van Morrison's garage rock roots for what I feel is the quintessential song named after a girl. Not only does the chorus repeat her name, but Morrison even goes so far as to spell it out! And there's the fact that this song has been covered by too many bands to count over the decades since its initial release.
Tuesday: Suzie Q (Creedence Clearwater Revival) [Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1968]
Comments: Originally written and performed by Dale Hawkins in the late '50s, Suzie Q was a major hit for Creedence Clearwater Revival, who recorded it (among many others) for their self-titled debut album. This is good old-fashioned guitar-based rock at its finest - be sure to check out the extended version, which is usually truncated for radio play.
Wednesday: Layla (Derek and the Dominos) [Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs, 1970]
Comments: Written by Eric Clapton while pining for friend (and ex-Beatle) George Harrison's wife (Pattie Boyd - whom he later married), and from an album that also features the talents of guitarist Duane Allman, comes a song with one of the greatest rock riffs of all time. A lot of acclaim has been directed toward the unplugged version from 1992, but for me, only the original has the fire that propels it to the uppermost tier.
Thursday: Jessica (The Allman Brothers Band) [Brothers and Sisters, 1973]
Comments: The Allman Brothers Band actually has several songs named after girls to choose from. I feel like most people would pick Melissa - and that's a really good choice. But I have more of a personal connection to Jessica. Plus, I like a good instrumental, and The Allman Brothers Band were nothing if not consummate instrumentalists.
Friday: Angie (The Rolling Stones) [Goats Head Soup, 1973]
Comments: Returning to form after their double album Exile on Main St, the Stones give us one of their most enduring hits on Goats Head Soup (the original album cover was pretty gnarly). It's a haunting acoustic ballad - and not the only song on this list I've learned how to play. I'll never forget the day I was spinning discs for my college radio show, and a girl I knew named Angie brought me some pizza to the studio. I played this song to show her my gratitude.
Saturday: Rhiannon (Fleetwood Mac) [Fleetwood Mac, 1975]
Comments: From the album that re-introduced the world to a band that would quickly become a commercial juggernaut, here's a song that needs no introduction. Although I like the studio version, you have to hear the band perform it live, which proves that although the Buckingham-Nicks era of Fleetwood Mac were more pop-oriented, they could still knock it out of the park when they tried. Keep that in mind the next time you hear a Fleetwood Mac song playing on soft-rock radio.
Sunday: Jane (Jefferson Starship) [Freedom at Point Zero, 1979]
Comments: From Jefferson Airplane to Starship, this band has gone through many transformations (and seems to have had less of value to offer the world after each one - the less said about We Built This City, the better). This is one of the more successful songs from their Jefferson Starship period, that could easily be mistaken for a Foreigner hit.
Honorable Mention: Too many to name. Truly, take your pick. There are lots of good ones. If I listed any of them here, it would be disrespectful to the rest, so I'll just leave it at that. But I will mention that there were some good choices I reluctantly left off, either because I've already used them for a different theme, or because I have them earmarked for potential use in a future theme. And I could only pick seven!