WHAT HAPPENED TO GIRLS WHO INSPIRED THE HITS
THESE are the women who have inspired a million love songs... and the odd album too.
James Morrison is one of those songwriters who is not afraid to wear his heart on his record sleeve - his album, currently Number One in the charts, owes a great emotional debt to his relationship with close friend Lydia Collins (right).
She died at 18 from leukaemia but not before Morrison wrote the songs that would make up his debut record. The album's sleeve-notes carry a haunting message to her: "You are a true angel and I will never forget you. You will always be in my heart."
DEBORAH SHERWOOD
looks at some of the other women, such as the original Girl from Ipanema, pictured here on the beach, who stirred the imaginations of pop singers and songwriters down the years...
PEGGY SUE
James Morrison is one of those songwriters who is not afraid to wear his heart on his record sleeve - his album, currently Number One in the charts, owes a great emotional debt to his relationship with close friend Lydia Collins (right).
She died at 18 from leukaemia but not before Morrison wrote the songs that would make up his debut record. The album's sleeve-notes carry a haunting message to her: "You are a true angel and I will never forget you. You will always be in my heart."
DEBORAH SHERWOOD
looks at some of the other women, such as the original Girl from Ipanema, pictured here on the beach, who stirred the imaginations of pop singers and songwriters down the years...
PEGGY SUE
By BUDDY HOLLY: No6 in 1957
IN real life she was Peggy Sue Gerron, the girl who made Buddy feel blue. But she wasn't dating him, she was going out with his drummer Jerry Allison. The song was called Cindy Lou until Jerry, wanting to impress his sweetheart, persuaded Buddy to change the title at the last minute.
Peggy Sue, now 66, is proud to have inspired the rock 'n' roll classic. "I love that song," she says. "It's part of music history and it's been a big part of my life. I'll always be grateful Buddy used my name.
"We were all so involved in rock 'n' roll when we were young. It was our special music."
Peggy became Jerry's wife and Buddy wrote a sequel, Peggy Sue Got Married. Today she is twice divorced, has two children and hosts a radio show in Lubbock, Texas, Buddy's home town.
Does she ever wonder if Buddy secretly fancied her? She recalls the moment when he knocked her over in his rush to get on stage. "Sorry, can't stop! I'm too late to pick you up... but you sure are pretty," he told her.
MY SHARONA
By THE KNACK: No6 in 1979
SHARONA Alperin was a 17-year-old LA schoolgirl who The Knack's singer Doug Fieger became so fixated with that he wrote a song for her.
It worked - Sharona left her boyfriend and joined Doug on the band's world tour. "It was incredibly flattering that he wrote it to win my heart," she says. In all, Doug wrote 15 songs for Sharona - including one called She's So Selfish because she refused to dump her steady boyfriend.
"When we met there was this chemical reaction and he fell in love with me and broke up with his girlfriend of nine years," recalls Sharona, 45, now an estate agent in Los Angeles.
"I was in the arms of this other guy while this rock star was singing about how he was in love with me. It was incredible."
She stayed with Doug for four years. In the end, she says, they broke up because "we expired".
Today Sharona's happily married with two children. But she's still in touch with Fieger, who is married with four kids of his own.
ANGIE
By THE ROLLING STONES: No5 in 1973
THE former Mrs David Bowie also has the honour of inspiring two songs by her ex... Golden Years and The Prettiest Star.
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote their tribute after a drunken lunch with her. She first heard the lyrics months later on the radio. "I was stunned," she said. "I hated being associated with the song for years because every time I appeared on a TV chat show they'd play that tune."
She married Bowie in 1970, a year after they met, and is credited with transforming his image.
They had a son Zowie, now a 36-year-old film director, but they haven't spoken since their divorce in 1980.
Today Angie, 56, lives in Arizona, with 40-year-old electrician Michael Gassett.
BARBARA ANN
By THE BEACH BOYS: No3 in 1966
IN real life she was Barbara Ann Fassert.
Her brother Fred wrote the song in 1961 when she was just 13, sang it first in their New York kitchen and then gave it to their brother Charles to perform with his group The Regents.
But it was the Beach Boys' surfing version that made it a timeless classic.
"When I heard my name being sung I was so excited," said Barbara Ann, now Mrs Rizzo, a mum of three who runs a supermarket in the Bronx with husband Pat.
"I feel the same way today that I did when I first heard it - amazed!"
Not everyone actually believed her when she took the credit for the song though.
Even husband Pat wasn't convinced when she first told him about her claim to fame.
"I thought she must really care for me if she's trying to impress me with this story," he said.
After all these years she still has an original 45 record of the hit that bears her name.
ROSANNA
By TOTO: No12 in 1983
ONE of 1983's biggest American hits was about actress Rosanna Arquette.
Back then she was dating Toto keyboard player Steve Porcaro and made herself very popular with the band by bringing along food and drink to the recording studio, where they were working long hours.
The tune was written by David Paich in gratitude - and it won Toto a Grammy for Record of the Year. It didn't change Rosanna's life - but it did change the way she says her name. "People call me Rosanna but my mother still pronounces it Ro-sahn-na," she says. "It probably just sounded better in a song to sing it that way."
Rosanna, now 47, starred with Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan. She has been married and divorced three times and now works as a film director.
Toto weren't the only artists to write about her... former lover Peter Gabriel also did so with In Your Eyes, on his 1986 album So.
THE GIRL FROM IPANEMA
By STAN GETZ & JOAO GILBERTO: No 29 in 1964
HELO Pinheiro really was tall and tanned and young and lovely - just 17 - on the morning she walked past Vinicius de Moraes and Tom Jobim outside their favourite bar in Rio.
They grabbed a napkin and scribbled the first words that came into their heads - and penned the world's second most played song after The Beatles' Yesterday.
It made them millions and it changed Helo's life. She left her teaching job, set up a modelling agency, appeared in TV soaps, made a string of adverts and posed for Playboy.
Today the girl from Ipanema is a 60-year-old granny studying law. She became locked in a bitter row with the families of the late writers for naming a store after the song, but still enjoys her place in pop history.
"Wherever I go I'm recognised as the girl from Ipanema," says Helo, married to retired engineer Fernando for nearly 40 years.
They have a 22-year-old son who suffered brain damage as a child and needs special care.
"Men still come up to me and say those songwriters were right, you are lovely," she adds. "When I go in a bar with musicians they always play the song."
Frank Sinatra is among more than 400 artists to cover it - but the original hit was an afterthought. Singer-guitarist Joao Gilberto got wife Astrud to sing an English translation after recording it first in Portuguese.
UPTOWN GIRL
By BILLY JOEL: No1 in 1983
UPTOWN Girl was inspired by 1980s blonde supermodel Christie Brinkley (left).
Billy met her in a hotel where she was staying with fellow model Elle Macpherson and singer Whitney Houston.
He was sitting at the piano playing As Time Goes By and they struck up a conversation. As Billy later said, he was a downtown guy meeting a glamorous girl who had it all - he couldn't believe his luck.
Christie, now 52, appeared in the Uptown Girl video. They married in 1985 and had a daughter, Alexa Ray. Although they divorced in 1994, they managed to remain friendly.
Today she never discusses the song, but she did reveal some clues about her relationship with Billy, now 57.
"We know each other really well," she says. "We couldn't live together. But there was no reason to throw away our friendship.
"Just because people can express themselves through their art doesn't mean they are great communicators in person."
WHAT KATIE DID
By THE LIBERTINES, No1 in 2004
KATIE Lewis spent two years with rock's wild child Pete Doherty... and was left with a serious heroin habit.
What Katie Did, from The Libertines' eponymous No.1 album, was Doherty's attempt to tell the story of her battle to kick drugs.
It was hardly the most romantic of subjects, but Katie, 23, insists she has fond memories of the lover whose pet name for her was Katie Bapples, in reference to her large chest. "I still love and adore Pete and will always remember our time together," she said.
But she is upset by the singer's descent into drugs, adding: "Pete could have had it all, but now he has nothing. He has devastated his family and those of us who love him.
"It's a tragedy that his life has come to this."
Doherty went on to write another song with his new group, Babyshambles, called What Katy Did Next... this time, though, it was about his new love, on-off supermodel girlfriend Kate Moss.
YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL
By JAMES BLUNT: No1 in 2005
FORMER soldier James wrote the song after spotting former lover Dixie Chassay with a new man.
It was his first single, based on their two-year relationship which ended in 2003. Heartbroken, he went off to America to write it.
Love it or loathe it, it was a huge hit. Loyally, he has always refused to name the girl, but friends say it was definitely Dixie.
She is now a casting assistant who has worked on movies including Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Dixie, 28, who lives in London, counts the likes of artist David Hockney, singer Paul Simon and actors Carrie Fisher and John Malkovich among her family friends.
Recently she has been dating Gosford Park actor Tom Hollander.
Dixie still refuses to discuss the past.
All her father, architect Tchaik Chassay, would say was: "Oh no... not that song again."
LADY D'ARBANVILLE
By CAT STEVENS: No8 in1970
PATTI D'Arbanville was a young model and a great love of Cat Stevens. But the song was actually about their break-up after she dumped him, moved on to Mick Jagger and eventually married Miami Vice star Don Johnson.
Nowadays she doesn't have such happy memories of the song written for her. "I cried when Cat first sang the song for me," Patti, now 56, recalled. "I was flattered, of course.
"But the song is about the death of our relationship. I much prefer Wild World, the song he wrote for me in happier days."
Patti and Cat - now known as Yusuf Islam since his conversion to Islam - first dated in 1969 but split in 1974. She had a son with Don Johnson and three kids with current hubby, New York fireman Terry Quinn. Now an actress, she has a part in World Trade Center, Oliver Stone's new film about 9/11. She is no longer in touch with Cat, though she bumped into him a while ago. "He looked happy. That's all you can wish for anyone you've loved," she says.
Sunday Mirror.co.UK
Sunday Mirror.co.UK
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