Robert Plant's "Heaven Knows" is a satirical look at the '80s, when style seemed to trump substance.
"Veronica" was inspired by Elvis Costello's grandmother, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease.
The inspiration for Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown" came from the songwriter worrying about his girlfriend, who was out at bars all day while he was at home penning songs.
Eric Clapton wrote "Layla" about his love for Pattie Harrison, who was married to George Harrison at the time. He eventually married Pattie, and managed to stay friends with George.
Props to Aretha Franklin: her song "Respect" introduced the term "propers" as a sign of proper respect.
The dirty version of Cee-Lo Green's "Forget You" contains 16 F-bombs. He recorded a clean version as an afterthought, "just in case."
Outrageously gifted and just plain outrageous, Millie is an R&B and Rap innovator.
The guy who brought us "Stacy's Mom" also wrote the Jane Lynch Emmy song and Stephen Colbert's Christmas songs.
Into the vaults for this talk with Bolton from the '80s when he was a focused on writing songs for other artists.
Brian has unearthed outtakes by Fleetwood Mac, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Costello and hundreds of other artists for reissues. Here's how he does it.
Tyler talks about his true love: songwriting. How he identifies the beauty in a melody and turns sorrow into art.
Here's what happens when an opening act is really out of place with the headliner, like when Beastie Boys opened for Madonna.
