10 Songs About Actors and Actresses

These ten songs about actors and actresses are all OSCAR-worthy performances.

10. Rain Perry – “Keanuville”
You really have to love Keanu Reeves to attend thirteen Dogstar shows and see him in Hamlet twice. (For those who haven’t seen or read Hamlet at all, Perry helpfully provides a tongue-in-cheek spoiler: “the ending is really sad.”)

09. Elton John – “Roy Rogers“
We’re a little (okay, a lot) sick of “Candle in the Wind,” so here’s a song about another actor. When “you just seem older than yesterday/And you’re waiting for tomorrow to call,” you might as well live vicariously through the televised adventures of Roy and his trusty horse, Trigger.

08. Bree Sharp – “David Duchovny“
Unrequited love should always be as catchy as this pop song about “the man, the myth, the monotone” behind Fox Mulder.

07. Robbie Fulks – “Jean Arthur“
Fulks is alt-country’s resident smartass, but he’s sincere when he sings that “any woman God’s made yet/Stands like a rough draft” next to legendary actress Jean Arthur (You Can’t Take It With You, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington).

06. Bauhaus – “Bela Lugosi’s Dead“
Bauhaus’ debut single clocks in at nearly ten minutes, which is about one-eighth the length of the horror actor’s most famous film: Dracula.

05. Cake – “Frank Sinatra“
This song, with its image of an old man listening to a skipping record of “Stormy Weather” while surrounded by the things “others throw away,” is mighty depressing; it also happens to be one of the band’s best singles. Not content to merely sing about a Sinatra record, Cake covered “Strangers in the Night” for the soundtrack of videogame Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse

04. Eagles – “James Dean“
No song will ever be able to perfectly describe the king of cool, but this one comes pretty close. Too fast to live, too young to die , indeed.

03. Johnny Cash – “Who’s Gene Autry”
Cash counted Autry, whose signature adorned one of his guitars, as one of his heroes. This song is a loving tribute to The Singing Cowboy, “an image of justice and goodness and purity” who made the world look a little brighter to a poor country boy.

02. R.E.M. – “Man on the Moon“
This song about Andy Kaufman from Automatic for the People is far better than the Jim Carrey film of the same name.

01. The Clash – “The Right Profile“
Here’s a gem from London Calling about “Montgomery Clift, honey:”the handsome and troubled movie star whose 1956 car accident caused severe facial injuries, forever changing his appearance.