"Friends In Low Places" by Garth Brooks was written by two Nashville songwriters after a meal in a local restaurant. One of them forgot his money, but said not to worry, "I have friends in low places. I know the cook."
Johnny Cash promised to stay true to his first wife in "I Walk The Line," but when the song became a hit he found himself on the road, having an affair with June Carter, who became his second wife.
Shaggy wrote his swaggering hit "Boombastic" after learning what "shag" means in the UK.
One of the first hit songs used in a major marketing campaign was "Start Me Up" by The Rolling Stones. Microsoft paid $3 million to use it in commercials for Windows '95.
The name "Schoolhouse Rock," which was a series of educational cartoons, was a play on "Jailhouse Rock," the title of an Elvis Presley song.
Phil Collins' "Take Me Home" is about a patient in a mental institution and was inspired by the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
He wrote "She Blinded Me With Science" so he could direct a video about a home for deranged scientists.
Nick made some of the biggest videos on MTV, including "The Final Countdown," "Heaven" and "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)."
A scholarly analysis of yacht rock favorites ("Steal Away," "Baker Street"...) with a member of the leading YR cover band.
Rickie Lee Jones on songwriting, social media, and how she's handling Trump.
When he was asked to write a song for the Singles soundtrack, Mark thought the Seattle grunge scene was already overblown, so that's what he wrote about.
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.
