The actress Michelle Pfeiffer gets namechecked in the 2014 megahit "Uptown Funk" ("Michelle Pfeiffer, that white gold"). When it was released, "Riptide" by Vance Joy was on the charts; that song also mentions her ("Closest thing to Michelle Pfeiffer that you've ever seen").
The '40s hit "Rum and Coca-Cola" is really about American soldiers soliciting prostitutes in Trinidad.
In Led Zeppelin's "Fool In The Rain," the guy goes into a funk when he thinks he's been stood up, but is elated when he realizes he's been standing on the wrong corner, and it's all a terrible mess.
The Kenny G instrumental "Songbird" owes much of its success to VH1, which launched a year earlier and played the video to death.
When Petula Clark reached #1 in the US with "Downtown" in 1965, she became the first female singer from England to hit #1 in the US during the Rock Era (after 1955).
"Aberdeen" by Cage The Elephant is named after the birthplace of Kurt Cobain. It's in Grays Harbor County, Washington.
Rick has a surprising dark side, a strong feminine side and, in a certain TV show, a naked backside. But he still hasn't found Jessie's Girl.
Songs where something goes horribly wrong (literally or metaphorically), and help is needed right away.
Bradley Cooper, Michael J. Fox, Rami Malek, Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow and George Clooney: Which actors really sang in their movies?
The leader of the Modern A Cappella movement talks about the genre.
The man who created Yacht Rock with "Sailing" wrote one of his biggest hits while on acid.
Rise Against frontman Tim McIlrath explains the meanings behind some of their biggest songs and names the sci-fi books that have influenced him.