"Me and Bobby McGee" has become a rock classic over the years. Co-written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster, this iconic song was first conceptualized with just a title -- inspired by a real person. Foster had a bit of a crush on Barbara "Bobbie" McKee who was a secretary on Nashville's music row. When he pitched the title to Kristofferson, he misheard the name as "Me and Bobby McGee," and the name stuck. Kristofferson found inspiration for his lyrics from a film, as he explained to Performing Songwriter: "There was a Mickey Newbury song that was going through my mind--'Why You Been Gone So Long?' It had a rhythm that I really liked. I started singing in that meter. For some reason, I thought of 'La Strada,' this Fellini film, and a scene where Anthony Quinn is going around on this motorcycle and Giulietta Masina is the feeble-minded girl with him, playing the trombone. He got to the point where he couldn't put up with her anymore and left her by the side of the road while she was sleeping," Kristofferson told Performing Songwriter. "Later in the film, he sees this woman hanging out the wash and singing the melody that the girl used to play on the trombone. He asks, 'Where did you hear that song?' And she tells him it was this little girl who had showed up in town, and nobody knew where she was from, and later she died. That night, Quinn goes to a bar and gets in a fight. He's drunk and ends up howling at the stars on the beach." The emotional feeling at the end of the film dictated the lyrics and overall mood of the song. Kristofferson changed the details, mentioning California and Kentucky to focus on the American experience, but that same raw emotion is evident in the lyrics. Due to the gender-neutral name of "Bobby" male and female artists gravitated to cover the song. It could tell a completely different story depending on who is singing it. In 1969, Roger Miller first recorded the song, which peaked at number 12 on the country charts. Miller's