Ingrid Bergman

Ingrid Bergman was a popular Swedish actress who won Academy Awards for her roles in the 1943 movie Gaslight and the 1955 film Anastasia. Apparently, Woody Guthrie was a big fan. While the folk singer is commonly thought of as a composer of socially and politically charged songs and a champion of the common man, he wrote on a variety of topics, and composed this song about Bergman in 1950. Guthrie's granddaughter Anna Canoni says, "He had a huge crush on her, and he wrote just this wonderful song about her. It's a very erotic song. Just the fact that he wrote an erotic song about Ingrid Bergman is so funny to me." (Read more from Anna in her full interview. Learn much more at the official Woody Guthrie website.)

There is no known recording of Guthrie performing this song, but the lyrics are part of the Woody Guthrie Archives, which has discovered thousands of songs Guthrie wrote. Billy Bragg put music to the lyrics and recorded it with Wilco for the Mermaid Avenue album.