Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" is a joyful-sounding song with lyrics that are surprisingly somber: "when the night falls, loneliness calls." It's co-writer explained: "Many of our friends were in this boat - 5 o'clock comes around, they start getting restless."
"Closing Time" by Semisonic was written by the lead singer when his wife was pregnant. Some of the lyrics are about being born.
The first single to simultaneously top the UK and US charts was The Everly Brothers' "Cathy's Clown" in May 1960.
"The Reason" by Hoobastank took off on TikTok in 2021 when it soundtracked confessional #NotAPerfectPerson videos about mistakes and regrets. The band made one of their own with the caption: "Realizing 20 years later that you named your band Hoobastank."
Hozier's "Take Me to Church" drew inspiration from the atheist writer Christopher Hitchens. He called it "a bit of a losing your religion song."
Bob Seger's song "Beautiful Loser" was inspired by book Leonard Cohen published in 1966 called Beautiful Losers.
Mike Rutherford talks about the "Silent Running" storyline and "Land Of Confusion" in the age of Trump.
Since emerging from MySpace with her hit "Bubbly," Colbie has become a top songwriter, even crafting a hit with Taylor Swift.
One of the most popular classical vocalists in the land is lining up a trip to space, which is the inspiration for many of her songs.
With Bernie Taupin, Martin co-wrote the #1 hits "We Built This City" and "These Dreams." After writing the Pretty Woman song for Go West, he had his own hit with "In the House of Stone and Light."
