One of the first hit songs used in a major marketing campaign was "Start Me Up" by The Rolling Stones. Microsoft paid $3 million to use it in commercials for Windows '95.
"Nobody Does It Better" by Carly Simon was used in the film The Spy Who Loved Me. It was the first James Bond song not named after the movie.
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.
The Phoenix song "1901" is about Paris. Their lead singer Thomas Mars said: "Paris in 1901 was better than it is now. So the song is a fantasy about Paris."
Steely Dan's engineer, Roger Nichols, built one of the first drum machines, which they used on "Hey Nineteen."
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.
Roger reveals the songwriting formula Clive Davis told him, and if "Eight Miles High" is really about drugs.
The man who created Yacht Rock with "Sailing" wrote one of his biggest hits while on acid.
JJ talks about The Stranglers' signature sound - keyboard and bass - which isn't your typical strain of punk rock.
The Christian rapper talks about where his trip to Haiti and his history of addiction fit into his songs.
Rosanne talks about the journey that inspired her songs on her album The River & the Thread, including a stop at the Tallahatchie Bridge.
