Ladies in Song

There are many songs that include a woman's name in the title. That is no surprise to music fans. There are some names, of course, that could be male or female. (One of Blake Shelton's earliest songs was about a girl named Austin. NY Yankee back-up catcher is Austin Romine.) There are some songs that may have a woman's name in the title, but they could be referring to something else. Could "Georgia on My Mind" be referring to the state of Georgia? For the purposes of this post, it doesn't matter. Here are some of my favorites with the title followed by the singer, songwriter(s) in parenthesis (for the most part) and maybe part of the lyric and a comment:

 

 

"Sweet Harriet" - the Western Swing Authority (Shane Guse & Larry Wayne Clark) tells the story of Harriet LeBeau and what her daddy didn't know. How can you not like a swingin' fun song with fiddles that mentions freckles in the first verse? Stacey Lee Guce sings lead. Wow. Is she great!

 

"Her name is Harriet LeBeau, she is the preacher's daughter

She's got three freckles on her nose, and she sips on holy water"

 

The WSA also covers this  1942 song:

 

"Miss Molly" (Cindy Walker) Stacey's husband Shane Guse, also an outstanding vocalist, sings lead

 

 

The Bryants, Felice and Boudleaux, wrote a ballad in which the guy winds up in jail and an uptempo song in which the girl winds up in jail. The songs were released on the same 45 rpm record. The “A” side was “Take a Message to Mary” and the “B” or flip side was “Poor Jenny”. I have the Cadence 45. It was rare that the flip side of a 45 was any good but Everly Brothers flip sides were better than most.

 

the Mary song:

“Take a message to Mary but don’t say I’m in a jam
You can tell her I had to see the world or tell that my ship set sail
You can say she better not wait for me but don’t tell her I’m in jail
Oh, don’t tell her I’m in jail”

 

the Jenny song:

“Jenny has a brother and he’s hot on my trail
Her daddy wants to ride me out of town on a rail
I hope I’ll be around when Jenny gets out of jail
Poor Jenny”

 

and in how many songs has the word "apprehended" appeared?

 

"It seems a shame that Jenny had to go get apprehended, a heckuva fate
This party was the first one she ever had attended
It had to happen on our very first date"

Felice & Boudleaux also wrote "Wake Up Little Susie".

 

Cathy's Clown - Everly Brothers (Don Everly)

 

"Don't want your love anymore
Don't want your kisses, that's for sure
I die each time I hear this sound
Here he comes, that's Cathy's clown"

The Everly Brothers also gave us

"Up in Mabel's Room" (Phil Everly & Terry Slater)

"Claudette" (Roy Orbison) & "Lucille" (Albert Collins & Richard Penniman)

 

"Now That You've Met Molly" - Georgia Middleman (Georgia w Sam & Annie Tate) single mom song. "It happens every time, someone gets close to me,

 

So if you're gonna break my heart, if she's gonna change your mind, if it's gonna tear apart what seems so hard for girls like me to find, so maybe you should really tell me now, if you plan on backing out, I'm not the only heart here on the line, now that you've met Molly"

 

"Georgia on My Mind" - Ray Charles (Hoagy Carmichael - music & Stuart Gorrell - lyrics)

 

"Georgia, Georgia,
The whole day through
Just an old sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind"

 

"I Miss My Mary" - Hal Ketchum (Hal Ketchum)  from his "Past the Point of Rescue" album: one of his best songs ever, about an alcoholic who abandons wife and child as his disease progresses.

 

"I draw my pay down on the docks.....I send it off to Mary
I might hold back a dollar to wash this pain out of my back
But the pain keeps getting clearer and Mary your face just keeps on fading
Now the light shines through this bottle....memories all fade to black"

 

"Dreams of Martina" - Hal Ketchum (Rodney Crowell)

 

"Dreams of Martina, what can I say?
Dreams of Martina stand in my way
Tonight I'm gonna lay that heartache down"

 

"Hey Cinderella" - Suzy Bogguss (Matraca Berg, Gary Harrison & Suzy B)

The fantasy of the first two verses turns into “dreams that lost their way” by the end of the third verse. The chorus begins “Hey Cinderella” and ends with the question “Does the shoe fit you now?” In the song’s second half, reality has totally set in. There’s talk of compromising and coming to terms with our vanity.

 

Suzy also gave us her take on "Rosie the Riveter" (Redd Evans & John Jacob Loeb), a patriotic WWII song (1942)

 

"All the day long, whether rain or shine
She's a part of the assembly line
She's making history, working for victory
Rosie, brrrrrrrrrrr, the riveter"

 

 

In the 1960's, an Irish trio, the Bachelors, gave us 4 songs from the 1920's. I have them on their greatest hits cd:

 

"Charmaine" & "Diane" (Erno Rapee & Lew Pollack),

"Ramona" (lyrics - L. Wolfe Gilbert, music - Mabel Wayne)

"Marie" (Irving Berlin)

 

Jim Reeves covered the same 4 in the 1950's.

 

 

 

"Dearest Esmeralda" - John Denver (John Denver & Bill Danoff)

 

"Dearest Esmeralda, in another age
Antiques would be modern, we would be the rage"

 

"Annie's Song" -John Denver (John Denver)

 

"You fill up my senses
Like a night in a forest
Like the mountains in springtime
Like a walk in the rain"

 

"Annie's Other Song" - John Denver (John Denver)

"I'm bringing me home to you, that's all that I have to give,
my life, my love, my everything, it's you I choose to be with."

  

 

search "Chad Mitchell Trio's Funny Folk Songs" and you'll find:

 

Mandy Lane (W. Chad Mitchell)

Lizzie Borden (Michael Brown)

and

Hang on the Bell Nellie (Connor-Erard-Parker)

 

and other CMT funny folk songs

 

 

"Pearl" - Lisa Brokop - (Lisa Brokop & Kim McLean) a story song about the daughter of a drunk abusive father, who escaped him to sing the blues.

 

"She'd go barefoot down to Beale street, she had no fancy shoes
She'd tell them she was 21 and got paid to sing the blues
She'd crawl back into her window every night at 2:00 am
And pray her daddy didn't come to steal her innocence again"

 

 

"Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" - Kenny Rogers and the First Edition (Mel Tillis)

 

"It wasn't me that started that old crazy Asian war
But I was proud to go and do my patriotic chore
And yes, it's true that I'm not the man I used to be"

"It's hard to love a man whose legs are bent and paralyzed
And the wants and needs of a woman your age, Ruby, I realized
But it won't be long I've heard them say until I'm not around"

  

"Cleopatra, Queen of Denial" - Pam Tillis (Pam Tillis, Jan Buckingham & Bob DiPiero)

 

"And I swore one day I would tame him,
Even though he loves to run hog wild.
Just call me Cleopatra, everybody,
Cause I'm the Queen of Denial."

 

"Mad Ruth/the Babe- Danny O'Keefe (Danny O'Keefe) the Babe being Yankee great Babe Ruth

"Mad Ruth, you would have loved the babe
She wanted things you never had
And she made you happy
Till she left you, sad"

 

   

Carlene - Phil Vassar (Phil Vassar, Charlie Black & Rory Michael Bourke)

 

"I was lousy at math, a failed historian
Carlene was the valedictorian
I was the quarterback in the back of the class
She was the whiz kid in the horned-rimmed glasses"

 

 

"Sweet Caroline" - Neil Diamond (ND)

 

Sweet Caroline
Good times never seemed so good

 

"Cracklin Rosie" (ND) a wine

 

"Cracklin' Rose,
You're a store-bought woman
But you make me sing like a guitar hummin'
So hang on to me, girl,
Our song keeps runnin' on"

 

 

"Shiloh" (ND)

 

"Papa says he'd love to be with you
If he had the time
So you turn on the only friend you can find
There in your mind

 

Shilo, when I was young
I used to call you name"

 

    

 

What are your favorites?

 

Here, in no particular order, are some others you may want to consider:

 

Leave a Message Juanita - Derailers

Allison Miranda - Garth Brooks

Amy's Back in Austin - Little Texas   

Stealing Cinderella - Chuck Wicks 

Elvira - Oak Ridge Boys  - my heart's on fire for ...

Dolores - Mavericks

Texas Ruby - Gary Nicholson

My Maria - Brooks & Dunn (B.W. Stevenson & Daniel Moore)

Austin - Blake Shelton

Desiree - Keith Urban (Urban & Vernon Rust), also covered by David Nail

Guinevere - Eli Young Band

You Ain't Dolly - Ashley Monroe & Blake Shelton

Sweet Annie - Zac Brown Band

Mary - ZBB

Genevieve - Sugarland

Mandy - Barry Manilow  

Georgy Girl - Seekers 

Maybellene - Chuck Berry

Marlena - Frankie Valli & Four Seasons  

Cecilia and For Emily, wherever I may find her - Simon & Garfunkel

Carrie-Anne - Hollies

Justine - Righteous Brothers "you just don't do me right"

Hello Mary Lou - Ricky Nelson "goodbye heart"

Barbara Anne - the Regents   

Something Like Olivia - John Mayer

Proud Mary - Creedence Clearwater Revival

Sara Smile - Hall & Oates

Runaround Sue - Dion

Daisy Jane - America

Ruby Tuesday - Stones (I have it by William "Oliver" Swofford)

Brandi - Looking Glass

Modern Day Bonnie & Clyde - Travis Tritt

Sweet Betsy from Pike - Suzy Bogguss (from American Folk Songbook)  

Rama Lama Ding Dong - Edsels, I got a girl named Rama Lama, Rama Lama Ding Dong

Stormy - Classics IV (not Stormy Daniels)