The bedrock of David Guetta's Nicki Minaj-featuring single "Hey Mama" is a sample of "Rosie," a 1940s prison recording from folk archivist Alan Lomax that songwriter Esther Dean first showed the French DJ on YouTube.
Adam Levine of Maroon 5 made it obvious who their song "This Love" was about when he named the album "Songs About Jane."
Bob Marley's backup singers, The I Threes, claim they are the "Three Little Birds" in his famous song.
Elton John's "Crocodile Rock" borrows a bit from Don McLean's "American Pie." Both songs feature a Chevy, and are about young people who are heartbroken when their music "dies."
"We Will Become Silhouettes" by The Postal Service sounds happy and fun, but it's a very bleak song about a nuclear winter. Lead singer Ben Gibbard wrote the lyric while ruminating over 9/11.
Tired of X-Factor winners getting the UK Christmas #1, British Facebook users staged a successful campaign to download "Killing In The Name" by Rage Against The Machine enough times to boost the song to the top in 2009, blocking the X-Factor single by Joe McElderry.
Revisit the awesome glory of Night Ranger and Damn Yankees: cheesily-acted videos, catchy guitar licks, long hair, and lyrics that are just plain relatable.
Country songs with titles so bizarre they can't possibly be real... or can they?
Shears does very little promotion, which has kept him secluded from the spotlight. What changed when Cyndi Lauper had a hit with his song? Not much, really.
Paul Stanley on his soul music project, the Kiss songs with the biggest soul influence, and the non-make-up era of the band.
Dean's saga began with "Ariel," a song about falling in love with a Jewish girl from New Jersey.
Tyler talks about his true love: songwriting. How he identifies the beauty in a melody and turns sorrow into art.