David Bowie's "Space Oddity" tells the story of an astronaut who cuts off communication and floats into space. The BBC used it extensively in their coverage of the 1969 moon landing - an odd choice considering the lyrics.
Sea creatures mentioned in "Rock Lobster" by The B-52's include a jellyfish, piranha, bikini whale and narwhal.
"After Midnight" was written by the Oklahoma guitarist J.J. Cale, who was dirt poor until Eric Clapton recorded his song and turned it into a hit.
The Mission: Impossible theme is in 5/4 time. Composer Lalo Schifrin joked that he did it so 5-legged aliens could dance to it.
"Kickstart My Heart" is about all the ways Motley Crue gets their blood flowing without drugs. It was inspired by their bass player Nikki Sixx, who claimed he had to be revived with a shot of adrenaline to the heart after an overdose.
YouTube were forced into an upgrade after PSY's "Gangnam Style" broke the video-sharing website's hit counter. Once the tune reached 2,147,483,647 views, the maximum positive value for a 32-bit signed binary integer in computing, the view-counter could no longer work.
The former Metallica bassist talks about his first time writing a song with James Hetfield, and how a hand-me-down iPad has changed his songwriting.
The Creed lead singer reveals the "ego and self-fulfillment" he now sees in one of the band's biggest hits.
Our chat with Barney Hoskyns, who covers the wild years of Woodstock - the town, not the festival - in his book Small Town Talk.
Michael tells the story of "Send Me On My Way," and explains why some of the words in the song don't have a literal meaning.
His song "Into The Night" is one of the most-played of all time. For Benny, it took him to hell and back.
A scholarly analysis of yacht rock favorites ("Steal Away," "Baker Street"...) with a member of the leading YR cover band.