Famed Hollywood actress Lauren Bacall reportedly passed away earlier today at the age of 89, while the film community reels from the death of another legend, the news does have implications in the world of pop music. Bacall’s death means that there are now no longer any living celebrities referenced in Madonna’s 1990 mega-hit “Vogue.”
Shout out to Sylvia Cunha of Vanyaland sister site Do617 for bringing that to our attention. Check the lyrics to the rap part of “Vogue” below; the video is embedded after the jump.
“Greta Garbo, and Monroe
Deitrich and DiMaggio
Marlon Brando, Jimmy Dean
On the cover of a magazineGrace Kelly; Harlow, Jean
Picture of a beauty queen
Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire
Ginger Rodgers, dance on airThey had style, they had grace
Rita Hayworth gave good face
Lauren, Katherine, Lana too
Bette Davis, we love youLadies with an attitude
Fellows that were in the mood
Don’t just stand there, let’s get to it
Strike a pose, there’s nothing to it
Though Bacall crafted her legacy in films like The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), and Key Largo (1948), she was no stranger to pop music references.
Bacall and frequent co-star and one-time husband Humphrey Bogart were famously name-dropped in Bertie Higgins’ 1981 soft rock hit “Key Largo,” which reached Number 8 on the Billboard charts, and the actress was also referenced in the Clash’s 1982 song “Car Jamming” and Bon Jovi’s 2000 track “Captain Crash & The Beauty Queen From Mars.”
Also, a snippet from her 1954 movie Woman’s World can also be heard at the very end of Suede’s 1994 Britpop anthem, “The Asphalt World.”
RIP, Hollywood queen.
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