10 Most Iconic Rock Songs Named After Women

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Rock and roll has always been filled with songs about women, so narrowing the subject down to songs that actually use a woman’s name in the title makes the idea a little more manageable. Even then, there are hundreds of famous choices spanning every era and style of rock music.

This list brings together 10 songs whose titles are built around memorable female names, from Roxanne and Rhiannon to Angie and Layla. Some were inspired by real women, others by fictional or mythological figures, and a few have stories behind the names that became almost as famous as the songs themselves.

#10 – “Roxanne” – The Police

“Roxanne” became one of The Police’s defining early songs after appearing on their 1978 debut album Outlandos d’Amour. Sting wrote it after a trip to Paris, where the sight of sex workers in the streets mixed in his imagination with Roxane, the woman at the center of Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac. The song’s reggae-influenced rhythm, Andy Summers’ guitar, Stewart Copeland’s drumming, and Sting’s desperate vocal made it unlike almost anything else on rock radio at the time, and the repeated plea to Roxanne remains one of the most recognizable choruses of the era.

Read More: 10 Most Underrated Police Songs

#9 – “Rhiannon” – Fleetwood Mac

Stevie Nicks found the name Rhiannon in the novel Triad and wrote the song before she knew much about the name’s deeper connection to Welsh mythology. She later explained that the song was not really about the character in the book but about a supernatural woman she created in her own imagination. Released on Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled 1975 album, “Rhiannon” became one of Nicks’ signature songs, with her haunting vocal and the band’s restrained arrangement giving the track the mysterious quality that has followed it for decades.

#8 – “Rosanna” – Toto

Frantogian, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

“Rosanna,” from Toto’s 1982 album Toto IV, took its title from actress Rosanna Arquette, who was dating Toto keyboardist Steve Porcaro when songwriter David Paich met her. Paich has said her name simply fit the song he was already writing, rather than the lyrics being a biography of Arquette. Jeff Porcaro’s famous half-time shuffle, Paich’s keyboards, Steve Lukather’s guitar, and the shared vocals helped turn “Rosanna” into one of Toto’s biggest records, reaching number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and winning Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards.

#7 – “Beth” – Kiss

“Beth” was one of the biggest surprises in Kiss history. Sung by Peter Criss and released on the 1976 album Destroyer, the piano-and-orchestra ballad sounded nothing like the hard-rocking band that had built its reputation on guitars, makeup, and explosions. The song grew out of an earlier composition called “Beck” that Criss and Stan Penridge had worked on before Kiss, with producer Bob Ezrin later helping reshape it into the version that was recorded. “Beth” reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the highest-charting Kiss single in the United States.

#6 – “Jessica” – The Allman Brothers Band

Dickey Betts named “Jessica” after his young daughter, whom he watched playing while he was working on the instrumental that would appear on The Allman Brothers Band’s 1973 album Brothers and Sisters. Betts was also thinking about Django Reinhardt while composing the piece, and one of Chuck Leavell’s finest piano performances matched the bright guitar melody. With no lyrics, “Jessica” still captures personality through melody, movement, and joy, making it one of rock’s most recognizable instrumentals and one of the most unusual entries on a list of songs named after women.

#5 – “My Sharona” – The Knack

“My Sharona” was inspired by a real woman, Sharona Alperin, whom Knack singer Doug Fieger met while the band was beginning to build a following in Los Angeles. Fieger became infatuated with her, and that obsession fed directly into the song he wrote with guitarist Berton Averre. Released in 1979 on Get the Knack, the song spent six weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the biggest record of the band’s career. Its pounding rhythm, stop-and-start riff, and instantly memorable title made Sharona’s name part of rock history.

Read More: Top 10 Songs From The Knack

#4 – “Lola” – The Kinks

Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround, Part One [2 CD][Deluxe Edition]

Ray Davies turned a nightclub encounter into one of The Kinks’ biggest hits with “Lola,” released in 1970 on Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One. The narrator meets Lola in a club, becomes increasingly unsure how to understand her identity, yet remains drawn to her, allowing Davies to tell the story with humor, affection, and very little judgment. Davies later described it simply as a love song in which Lola’s identity was secondary to the narrator’s feelings. The record reached number two in the United Kingdom and number nine in the United States.

#3 – “Sweet Caroline” – Neil Diamond

Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show

It is amazing how “Sweet Caroline” continues to find new audiences decade after decade. Neil Diamond has explained that the name Caroline was inspired by Caroline Kennedy after he remembered seeing a photograph of her as a child, although the song itself was not actually about her. Released in 1969, “Sweet Caroline” reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and eventually became something far bigger than a hit single, turning into a communal singalong at weddings, parties, stadiums, and especially Boston Red Sox games at Fenway Park.

Read More: Our 10 Favorite Neil Diamond Songs

#2 – “Angie” – The Rolling Stones

“Angie,” from The Rolling Stones’ 1973 album Goats Head Soup, remains one of the band’s most beautiful ballads. Keith Richards wrote the core of the song, while Mick Jagger helped complete the lyrics, and despite decades of speculation connecting the title to various real women, Richards ultimately said it was not about one particular person. The acoustic guitars, Nicky Hopkins’ piano, Charlie Watts’ restrained drumming, and Jagger’s wounded vocal gave the Stones a very different kind of hit, and “Angie” went all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

#1 – “Layla” – Derek and the Dominos

The Layla Sessions: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and the Dominos

We had no choice but to close the list with “Layla,” one of the great love songs in classic rock history. Eric Clapton wrote it out of his love for Pattie Boyd, who at the time was married to his close friend George Harrison, while the title came from the Persian story of Layla and Majnun and its tale of impossible love. The collaboration between Clapton and Duane Allman still blows my mind every time I hear it, and the shift from the furious guitar-driven first half into the famous piano coda gives the song an emotional range unlike almost anything else in rock. It remains the defining recording from Derek and the Dominos’ only studio album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.