"Regulate" by Warren G. & Nate Dogg broke new ground by sampling a mellow, melodic hit from the '80s: "I Keep Forgettin'" by Michael McDonald.
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" by Band-Aid was the first big group charity single. It was organized by Bob Geldof, who a year later put together "We Are The World" and Live Aid.
The first time Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Bonham and John Paul Jones all recorded together in the studio was when they backed American singer PJ Proby on his 1969 album Three Week Hero.
"We Will Become Silhouettes" by The Postal Service sounds happy and fun, but it's a very bleak song about a nuclear winter. Lead singer Ben Gibbard wrote the lyric while ruminating over 9/11.
In "Kiss From A Rose," seal sings "kiss from a rose on a gray," not "grave," but he won't explain the lyric, feeling listeners should adapt the song to their own experience.
"Sing" was inspired by a girl that Ed Sheeran met in Las Vegas in the summer of 2013, when "one thing led to another and now she's kissing my mouth."
On the "schizoid element" of his lyrics, and a famous line from "Everything Zen."
Songwriting Hall of Famer Linda Perry talks about her songs "What's Up" and "Beautiful," her songwriting process, and her move into film music.
Can you be married in one country but not another? Only if you're part of a gay couple. One of the first famous singers to come out as a lesbian, Janis wrote a song about it.
Bradley Cooper, Michael J. Fox, Rami Malek, Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow and George Clooney: Which actors really sang in their movies?
The (Meat)puppetmaster takes us through songs like "Lake Of Fire" and "Backwater," and talks about performing with Kurt Cobain on MTV Unplugged.
David Gray explains the significance of the word "Babylon," and talks about how songs are a form of active imagination, with lyrics that reveal what's inside us.