"Yellow" by Coldplay is a deep, meaningful song, but the title has a rather prosaic origin: it came from the phone directory, known as "the yellow pages."
Mary J. Blige introduced three new words with her hit "Family Affair": hateration, holleration and dancerie.
Creedence Clearwater Revival's first single was a cover of a rockabilly song called "Susie Q." When it became a hit, group leader John Fogerty went into a songwriting frenzy so they wouldn't be one-hit wonders, resulting in hits like "Proud Mary" and "Lodi."
Stevie Nicks wrote "Landslide" before she joined Fleetwood Mac. She was considering going back to school when she and her boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham were asked to join the group.
The first hit song that was used in a commercial before it was released as a single was "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing," which was written for a Coke ad.
"Head Over Heels" by The Go-Go's is a metaphor for how things were getting out of control for the band; they broke up a year later.
The Yardbirds drummer explains how they created their sound and talks about working with their famous guitarists.
Scott was Stevie Wonder's bass player before becoming a top session player. Hits he played on include "I Will Survive," "Being With You" and "Sara Smile."
'80s music ambassadors Wang Chung pick their top tracks of the decade, explaining what makes each one so special.
Who writes a song about a name they found in a phone book? That's just one of the everyday things these guys find to sing about. Anything in their field of vision or general scope of knowledge is fair game. If you cross paths with them, so are you.
How did The Edge get his name? Did they name a song after a Tolkien book? And who is "Angel of Harlem" about?
Emilio talks about what it's like to write and perform with the Tower of Power horns, and why every struggling band should have a friend like Huey Lewis.