There really is a Girl From Ipanema. Her name is Helo Pinheiro, and she would walk "Like a samba" past the bar the songwriters frequented, providing the inspiration.
"Walking In Memphis" isn't so much about Memphis as it is The Hollywood Cafe in Mississippi, where Marc Cohn encountered an older woman named Murial playing piano.
Avril Lavigne said her Goodbye Lullaby track "Darlin" was "probably" the second song she ever wrote. The Canadian composed it when she was an unsigned 15-year-old living in Napanee, Ontario.
"Don't Dream It's Over" is the biggest hit for Crowded House, whose lead singer, Neil Finn, sang it on tour when he joined Fleetwood Mac. He wrote the song when he was feeling a bit lost as a way of urging himself on.
Holland-Dozier-Holland originally wrote "Where Did Our Love Go" with The Marvelettes in mind, but they turned it down. Marvelettes lead singer Gladys Horton sang in a lower key than Diana Ross, so when The Supremes came to record the tune, Ross was forced to sing in a lower, breathier style than she was used to.
"Zoot Suit Riot" isn't just a Cherry Poppin' Daddies song - they were real riots in Los Angeles in 1943 that inspired the lyrics.
Is "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" about Vietnam? Was John Fogerty really born on a Bayou? It's the CCR edition of Fact or Fiction.
Was "Pearl" Eddie Vedder's grandmother, and did she really make a hallucinogenic jam? Did Journey have a contest to name the group? And what does KISS stand for anyway?
The former Dead Kennedys frontman on the past, present and future of the band, what music makes us "pliant and stupid," and what he learned from Alice Cooper.
Soul music legend Bill Withers on how life experience and the company you keep leads to classic songs like "Lean On Me."
Phone booths are nearly extinct, but they provided storylines for some of the most profound songs of the pre-cell phone era.
When he was playing Ozzfest with Black Label Society, a kid told Zakk he was the best Ozzy guitarist - Zakk had to correct him.