I'll Take "Songs About People" for $200

Larryi 2-3-17
But, what if you were the inspiration behind those songs whose theme is: she is ugly but I love her anyway (e.g., "My Funny Valentine)?

Larry, point taken, and yes it is certainly possible in some cases for immortalization in a song to be handled in a tasteless manner. In the case of "Rag Doll," however, I don’t see it that way. The negatives that were presented just pertain to the girl’s unfortunate circumstances, not to the girl herself. And for example, note the line "such a pretty face should be dressed in lace."

In any event, as I indicated I found the story behind the song (which I’ve seen stated in slightly different form than in the Wikipedia writeup, with the girl perhaps having been somewhat older) to be rather touching.

Best regards,
-- Al

Joan Baez - Diamonds and Rust - Bob Dylan

Brian Wilson did not write Barbara Ann about Agent 99.  He didn't write it all--it was a guy named Fred Fassert (never heard of him, I had to look it up).

And I believe "Barbara Ann" had already been a hit for the vocal group The Regents, iirc. Most of the songs on the Party album were hits by other people. Doing Beatles songs, contemporaries of theirs, was not very cool of them!

As our foremost rock historian, bdp24 is of course correct about "Barbara Ann." As is Tostadosunidos. As described in the following reference, it was written by Fred Fassert and recorded by The Regents, to which he belonged, in 1958. Although it was not released until 1961, when it became a modest hit. The Beach Boys cover of the song was released four years later.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1449809/bio

As mentioned in the reference, the song was named after Fassert’s baby sister. Which brings to mind another song that was also recorded in 1958 and that I recall was also named after a baby sister, "Susie Darlin’" by Robin Luke (eventually to become Professor Robin Luke, Ph.D.). As I recall the story he named his composition thusly to eliminate the possibility that the girls he was pursuing at the time would suspect the song was named after a rival :-)

Regards,
-- Al