The Hollies' 1967 hit "Carrie Anne" is about the British singer-actress Marianne Faithfull, but with "Marianne" changed to "Carrie-Anne" to disguise it. Faithfull dated Allan Clarke of The Hollies.
Damon Albarn found inspiration for Blur's Britpop classic "Girls & Boys" while on holiday in Majorca. He noted that in the club scene there was "no morality involved."
Elton John's songwriting partner Bernie Taupin wrote the original lyrics for Starship's "We Built This City." It was the first Hot 100 Top 10 hit Taupin wrote without John.
Buck Dharma of Blue Oyster Cult wrote "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" after he was diagnosed with a heart condition and started thinking about his own mortality.
The first line of "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" is "It was the 3rd of September," which is the day lead singer Dennis Edwards' father died.
"Crank That (Soulja Boy)" was the most successful digital track of 2007 in the US with 2,909,000 downloads. On January 6, 2008 it became the first song ever to sell 3 million digital copies in the States.
Before "Rap" was a form of music, it was something guys did to pick up girls in nightclubs. Donnie talks about "The Rapper" and reveals the identity of Leah.
Faith No More's bassist, Billy Gould, chats to us about his two new experimental projects, The Talking Book and House of Hayduk, and also shares some stories from the FNM days.
The leader of the Modern A Cappella movement talks about the genre.
Rufus Wainwright on "Hallelujah," his album Unfollow The Rules, and getting into his "lyric trance" on 12-hour walks.
Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan explains the "few red lights" in "Smoke On The Water" and talks about songs from their 2020 album Whoosh!
Toto's keyboard player explains the true meaning of "Africa" and talks about working on the Thriller album.