George Harrison's 1971 song "Bangla Desh" was the first major charity single. It was part of a concert held to bring relief to the people of Bangladesh, who were fighting for independence and suffering from a famine.
Florida Georgia Line's "Cruise" spent 24 weeks on top of the Country chart - the most ever until Sam Hunt's "Body Like a Back Road" was #1 for 34 weeks. The record was previously held by Eddy Arnold's "I'll Hold You in My Heart (1947-48), Hank Snow's "I'm Moving On" (1950-51) and Webb Pierce's "In the Jailhouse Now" (1955), which each led for 21 weeks.
"St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion)" was not written for the movie, but for Rick Hanson, a wheelchair athlete whose 1985 "Man In Motion" tour logged 24,856 miles on his wheelchair in 34 countries while raising $26 million for spinal cord research.
Billy Joel is surprised that "Piano Man" is so successful. He called it "an old, long song about a guy at a depressing piano bar."
2001 was when collaborations between rappers and singers became commonplace, leading to a new Grammy category: Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. The first winner was "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" by Eve and Gwen Stefani. This was before Stefani put out her first solo album.
One of the first teenage stars of the Rock Era was Lesley Gore, who was just 16 when she recorded "It's My Party," a huge hit in 1963. It gave us the iconic phrase, "It's my party, I'll cry if I want to."
Kevin Godley talks about directing classic videos for The Police, U2 and Duran Duran, and discusses song and videos he made with 10cc and Godley & Creme.
Katy Perry mentions McDonald's, Beyoncé calls out Red Lobster, and Supertramp shouts out Taco Bell - we found the 10 restaurants most often mentioned in songs.
A popular contemporary folk singer, Williams still remembers the sticky note that changed her life in college.
The Nails lead singer Marc Campbell talks about those 44 women he sings about over a stock Casio keyboard track. He's married to one of them now - you might be surprised which.
Where words like "email," "thirsty," "Twitter" and "gangsta" first showed up in songs, and which songs popularized them.
Steve Cropper on the making of "In the Midnight Hour," the chicken-wire scene in The Blues Brothers, and his 2021 album, Fire It Up.