My Michelles

Michelle, ma belle
These are words that go together well
My Michelle

With this Beatles’ song, it’s all about language. The singer wants to tell Michelle that he loves her, but he only knows a few words in French, so he keeps saying them over and over again to her.

The minor chord tonality really amplifies this feeling of discomfort. You know this feeling well if you’ve ever been desperate to say something to someone else in another language, but you can’t.

The phrase “My Michelle” features prominently in this song, but the song itself is called Michelle.

Guns N Roses have a song centered around someone named Michelle, but their song is called My Michelle.

Your daddy works in porno
Now that mommy’s not around
She used to love her heroin
But now she’s underground

Okay, we’ve clearly moved on from middle to high school thinking here. Paul McCartney’s narrator simply attempts to tell his girlfriend that he loves her, and that suddenly seems quaint by comparison.

Axl Rose wrote the lyrics about Slash’s school friend, Michelle Young. Michelle had become close with the band over the years, and had joke-complained to Axl that nobody had ever written a song about her. What ultimately resulted was gritty, raw, and real.