Who's That Girl?

When songwriters write about people, they often base their characters on real people. From The Beatles’ Michelle and Lucy to Paul Anka’s Diana and Eric Clapton’s Layla, a lot of songs about girls are based on real girls. So invariably, when such a song becomes a big hit, people try to guess who the girl is. In this post, let us take a closer look at some of the myths surrounding such songs.

Susie Q

Many people think this rock track covered brilliantly by Creedence Clearwater Revival is written about or as a tribute to one of the pioneering women artistes in the field of rock: Suzi Quatro (her totally un-rocking real name is Susan Kay Quatrocchio).

Wrong!

Susie Q was written way back in 1957 by a singer-musician named Dale Hawkins. At that time, Suzi Quatro was just seven years old.

Sweet Caroline

For years people thought that Caroline was either an imaginary character or someone Neil Diamond knew back in his young days. Then in 2007, while performing for JFK’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, on her fiftieth birthday Diamond revealed that the song was written for her! He saw a photograph of her in a magazine; she was just eleven years old at that time and looked really sweet in a horse-riding outfit – hence, “Sweet Caroline”.

The Bitch is Back

When Elton John wrote this rocking track in the eighties (it promptly got banned by several radio stations because of the ‘B’ word), everyone wondered who the “Bitch” was.

Well… the bitch was Elton himself!

He was in the middle of one of his regular creative tantrums when the wife of his co-writer Bernie Taupin rolled her eyes and said, “Well, well, the bitch is back!” And another Elton John hit was born!