In our Memoir in a Melody series, Biographile writers examine the storytelling of well-known musicians, exploring the biographical and autobiographical elements of their famous songs.

Siouxsie Sioux (born: Susan Janet Ballion) came of age in London during the heyday of punk rock, and developed her trademark gothic look as a habitué of the city’s underground clubs. Her band Siouxsie and The Banshees was formed as a one-off act, a fill-in for a last-minute cancellation during music impresario Malcolm McLaren’s 100 Club Punk Rock Festival in 1976. Siouxsie and bandmates knew no songs, so they improvised: Siouxsie recited The Lord’s Prayer and other bits of memorized verse over improvised music. Surprisingly, their "act" was well-received, and requests to play other venues soon followed.

Siousxie rose to prominence as punk was ending and new wave was coming into being, and the Banshees’ sound became increasingly hard to pin down over the course of several albums. Early descriptions like "goth" and "post-punk" better reflected the band’s fans than its music, and proved to be just as short-sighted when the band began incorporating elements of house and hip hop into their music during the late eighties and early nineties

The band’s tenth album, 1991’s Superstition, brought the band mainstream success with the Billboard Top 40 single "Kiss Them For Me." It was a shimmering slice of sugary pop engineered from an unlikely mix of DJ scratching, orchestral string, Indian instruments tabla, tavil, and teal, and even a sample from the Schooly D song "PSK What Does It Mean."

Siouxsie’s heavenly voice makes the song’s chorus ("Kiss them for me, I may be delayed") sounds enigmatic but sweet, especially as it is crooned over the song’s upbeat and insistently danceable groove. This saccharine first impression lasts until you learn the meaning behind the song: It’s an ode to the life and gruesome death of actress Jayne Mansfield. With the context revealed, the lyrics of "Kiss Them For Me" read like a cautionary tale meant for those who idealize Hollywood and what they might find there.

Jayne Mansfield, like Siouxsie, found success during a time of transition in popular culture. Tastes were changing in Hollywoood, and buxom "blonde bombshells" like Marilyn Monroe and Mimi Van Doren were falling out of style. As a buxom blonde who often drew comparisons to Monroe, Jayne was just starting to land major movie roles when the "bombshell" craze ended in Hollywood.

Born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, but raised in Texas, Mansfield wanted to be an actress from a very young age. Her pregnancy and subsequent marriage at age seventeen would only delay her dream, and after attending the University of Texas for a short while, she left her husband and moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.

Cue the lyrics: The opening verse of "Kiss Them For Me" begins with a reference to Hollywood glittering and gleaming in wait for Mansfield, the former beauty pageant queen who abandoned her marriage ("a ring") and drove to Los Angeles to find her dream.

It glittered and it gleamed
For the arriving beauty queen
A ring and a car
Now you’re the prettiest by far

Mansfield reportedly had an IQ in the 160s and spoke several languages. She was no one’s fool, though: She knew that that her gorgeous physique would attract more eyes in Hollywood than her intellect. She had a genius for self-promotion, and had engineered several provocative publicity stunts to raise her profile before landing the lead role in the 1956 musical comedy "The Girl Can’t Help It." The second half of the first verse reflects her desperate and all-consuming quest to be discovered:

No party she’d not attend
No invitation she wouldn't send

With the success of "The Girl Can’t Help It," Mansfield and the studio’s publicity team went into overdrive to promote her as Hollywood’s next rising star. Sometimes Mansfield’s own efforts went a little too far for the prudish tastes of late-fifties America. There were several instances, each sparking a scandal, in which she would "accidentally" exposed her naked breasts at parties.

Cue the lyrics: Here Siouxsie presents an image of Mansfield as "transfixed" by Hollywood’s internalized "promise" of fame:

Transfixed by the inner sound
Of your promise to be found

The next line is in quotes, perhaps further evidence of Hollywood’s allure, an assurance that all promises will be kept.

"nothing or no-one will ever
Make me let you down"

Despite these hiccups, the publicity work was starting to pay off. Mansfield’s career took off, and "The Girl Can’t Help It" was followed by major roles in "The Burglar," "The Wayward Bus," "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" and "Kiss Them For Me," all released in 1957.

"Kiss Them For Me" is of course the title of her last big film, but its use in the chorus of Siouxsie's song is enigmatic. Kiss whom? Her children? Her fans in New Orleans? Is the delay she’s referring to the fateful accident that claimed her life?

Kiss them for me -- I may be delayed
Kiss them for me -- if I am delayed

Mansfield also got engaged in 1957 to Paul Hargitay, an actor and former bodybuilder. Together, they built a sprawling, forty-room mansion that Mansfield had painted pink. Among other extravagances, her "pink palace" featured a fountain that streamed pink champagne, and a pink, heart-shaped swimming pool.

It’s divoon, oh it’s serene
In the fountains pink champagne
Someone carving their devotion
In the heart shaped pool of fame

"Divoon" was a catchword used by Jayne Mansfield, and references to the "fountains pink champagne" and "heart shaped pool of fame" are clearly references to Mansfield’s Pink Palace.

"nothing or no-one will ever
Make me let you down"
Kiss them for me -- I may be delayed
Kiss them for me -- I may find myself delayed

Unfortunately Mansfield’s success was not meant to last. "Kiss Them For Me" was critically panned, and would be her last major Hollywood picture. Mansfield had been typecast as a blonde bombshell, and Hollywood had no use for her.

Mansfield, unlike Siouxsie Sioux, had trouble reinventing herself and began to flounder. Over the next decade, she was only able to find work acting in low budget foreign films, sexploitation flicks, and performing small guest parts on television and stage. Her personal life was also spiraling out of control: Her second marriage to Hargitay was marred by numerous infidelities and the two divorced in 1963. Only a few months later, she married an Italian film director named Matt Cimber and separated from him less than a year later. Over the course of her three marriages Mansfield had five children, including daughter Mariska Hargitay: well-known today for her role as Detective Olivia Benson on "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit."

By 1967, 34-year-old Mansfield’s desperate publicity stunts (including joining the Church of Satan during a ceremony in 1966) and wildly dysfunctional personal life had made her almost a pariah. With her divorce to her last husband still not final, Mansfield had moved in with a new lover, a married attorney named Sam Brody. Their relationship was abusive, sometimes physically. Mansfield had also developed a drinking problem, and was making an uncertain living doing shows at night clubs around the country.

It was the end of her career, but given enough time, she might have had an opportunity to stage a comeback. Sadly, it was not to be.

On June 29, 1967, at approximately 2:25 A.M., Mansfield, Brody, and three of Mansfield’s five children were being driven to a scheduled early morning television appearance in New Orleans, Louisiana when their vehicle rear-ended a tractor-trailer just miles outside of the city. Mansfield and Brody were in the front seat with driver Ronnie Harrison. All three of them were killed instantly as the car slid beneath the trailer. Mansfield’s three children were in the backseat at the time and survived with minor injuries.

A blonde wig found at the scene led to reports that she had been decapitated in the accident. Not so, according to the Medical Examiner’s report, but the story persists to this day. Never one to miss an opportunity for self-promotion, Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey claimed that the accident was the consequence of a "Satanic curse" he had placed on Brody after he mocked the church.

Cue the lyrics: Siouxsie makes several poetic allusions to the terrible car accident that claimed Mansfield’s life. The "spray of stars" may describe the shattering glass of the windshield as it slammed into the back of the tractor-trailer, and the "forbidden candles" might be a reference to the vehicle’s brake lights. It could also be interpreted as a reference to the candles used in the Satanic Church ceremony attended by Mansfield and Brody the year prior. The "10th impact" line is puzzling, but like a lot of great verse, "Kiss Them For Me" is open to interpretation.

On the road to New Orleans
A spray of stars hit the screen
As the 10th impact shimmered
The forbidden candles beamed

Kiss them for me -- I may be delayed
Kiss them for me -- I may find myself delayed
Kiss them for me -- kiss them for me
Kiss them for me -- I may find myself delayed

Full lyrics: “Kiss Them For Me”

It glittered and it gleamed
For the arriving beauty queen
A ring and a car
Now you’re the prettiest by far

No party she’d not attend
No invitation she wouldn’t send
Transfixed by the inner sound
Of your promise to be found

"nothing or no-one will ever
Make me let you down"

Kiss them for me -- I may be delayed
Kiss them for me -- if I am delayed

It’s divoon, oh it’s serene
In the fountains pink champagne
Someone carving their devotion
In the heart shaped pool of fame

"nothing or no-one will ever
Make me let you down"

Kiss them for me -- I may be delayed
Kiss them for me -- I may find myself delayed

On the road to new orleans
A spray of stars hit the screen
As the 10th impact shimmered
The forbidden candles beamed

Kiss them for me -- I may be delayed
Kiss them for me -- I may find myself delayed
Kiss them for me -- kiss them for me
Kiss them for me -- I may find myself delayed