Jay-Z did the rap on "Crazy In Love" at the last minute. He and Beyoncé had started dating and the Texan songstress asked him to get on the song the night before she had to turn in her album.
Robert Plant's "Heaven Knows" is a satirical look at the '80s, when style seemed to trump substance.
"Achy Breaky Heart" was originally recorded in 1991 by The Marcy Brothers as "Don't Tell My Heart." That original version had the lyrics: "Don't tell my heart, my achy, breakin' heart..."
The chorus in "September" by Earth, Wind & Fire is "Bada-Ya, dancing in September." Maurice White left it "Bada-Ya" instead of a real word because he never let a lyric get in the way of a groove.
"The Long and Winding Road" became The Beatles' last US #1 song on June 13, 1970.
Jay-Z was going to ask Mary J. Blige to duet on "Empire State of Mind," but he decided on Alicia Keys when he heard the piano stabs on the track.
The renown Texas songwriter has been at it for 40 years, with tales to tell about The Flatlanders and The Clash - that's Joe's Tex-Mex on "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"
A founding member of the band War, Harold gives a first-person account of one of the most important periods in music history.
The writer of "Rainy Night in Georgia" and "Polk Salad Annie" explains how he cooks up his Louisiana swamp rock.
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.
Michelob commercials generated hits for Eric Clapton, Genesis and Steve Winwood in the '80s, even as some of these rockers were fighting alcoholism.
