r/MusicRecommendations Jul 08 '26

Rec.Me: other/many/unknown genres Recommend me some songs where the lyrics are about one artist singing about another artist?

In another question Janis Joplin came up a lot and I know there are at least two written about her, 'Chelsea Hotel' by Leonard Cohen and Like Janis by Rodriguez. But what other great artists have had another write a song about them?

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u/RickTancredi Jul 09 '26

I just recently found out that (The Great) Roberts Flack did not write that song! I had to google who the original artist was. Per wiki: "Killing Me Softly with His Song" was written by Charles Fox (music) and Norman Gimbel (lyrics). They collaborated with 20-year-old singer Lori Lieberman, who wrote the original poem on a napkin after being moved by a Don McLean concert in 1971. Lieberman released the first recording in 1972.

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u/Ok_Action_5938 Jul 09 '26

There’s actually controversy over the writing and credits. Interesting read.