Famous Songs Inspired By James Dean

"Oh well, I look at you and say/It's the happiest that I've ever been/And I'll say I no longer feel I have to be James Dean" (via Genius). Such are the lyrics to Noah and the Whale's joyful 2008 single "Five Years Time," which appeared on the indie folk-rock band's album "Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down." The song imagines where the narrator and his companion might be in five years ⁠— at the zoo, soaking up the sun, laughing and smoking cigarettes, and drinking wine.

The Dean-centric verse in "Five Years Time" imagines a scenario in which the narrator can be himself rather than trying to be cool. Dean is often seen as a symbol of utter coolness, with an unparalleled air of mystery and magnetic detachment. But many of his former friends and co-stars have suggested the actor was misunderstood, describing him as shy, even socially awkward.

"He would be bothered when someone would say he was mean and disrespectful," Lew Bracker, Dean's friend and writer of the 2013 book "Jimmy & Me: A Personal Memoir Of A Great Friendship," recalled (via JamesDean.com). "Because actually, he wasn't. They took silence to mean he cared little or nothing for them. They didn't have the insight, or didn't care to exercise the insight, in knowing that he was a shy boy that just didn't know how to approach them. Instead of making an attempt to approach him, they just, well, they just wrote him off."

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