"Forever" by Chris Brown was written for a Wrigley's Doublemint Gum commercial. The full song contains the gum's tagline: "Double your pleasure, double your fun."
The White Stripes song "We're Going To Be Friends" is very innocent, but Jack White feared it would be interpreted cynically. It wasn't, and was even adapted into a children's book.
Barry Manilow didn't write his #1 hit "I Write The Songs." Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys wrote it.
Fleetwood Mac were going through various internecine romantic tribulations while recording their Rumours album. The song "Dreams" was written by Stevie Nicks with the line "Players only love you when they're playing" directed at their guitarist, Lindsey Buckingham.
Billy Joel's song "Allentown" was written as "Levittown," which is the town in Long Island where he grew up. He got the idea to change it after taking a trip to Pennsylvania.
"Stand By Me" hit #4 in the US when it was released in 1961, then went to #9 in 1986 when it was used in the movie of the same name.
Greg talks about writing songs of "universal truth" for King Crimson and ELP, and tells us about his most memorable stage moment (it involves fireworks).
How Bing Crosby, Les Paul, a US Army Signal Corps Officer, and the Nazis helped shape rock and Roll.
Does Angus really drink himself silly? Did their name come from a sewing machine? See if you can spot the real stories about AC/DC.
Do you know who wrote Patti Smith's biggest hit? How about the Grease theme song? See if you can match the song to the writer.
The Stooges guitarist (and producer of the Kill City album) talks about those early recordings and what really happened with David Bowie.
Where words like "email," "thirsty," "Twitter" and "gangsta" first showed up in songs, and which songs popularized them.