Katy Perry's song "E.T." came from a beat originally intended for the rap group Three Six Mafia. When her producer accidentally pulled up the beat, Perry asked to use it.
Sir Mix-A-Lot says he's earned over $100 million from "Baby Got Back." He wrote the song and owns the publishing rights, so he can authorize its use in movies, TV shows and commercials, which he often does.
"I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)" by Jay-Z borrows four bars from Notorious B.I.G's "The World Is Filled." Jay-Z and Biggie Smalls attended Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School in Brooklyn, New York, at the same time.
YouTube had to upgrade after PSY's "Gangnam Style" broke their hit counter in 2012. Once the video reached 2,147,483,647 views, the maximum positive value for a 32-bit signed binary integer in computing, the view-counter could no longer work.
KT Tunstall's "Suddenly I See" was inspired by Robert Mapplethorpe's photograph of Patti Smith on the cover of her album Horses.
The movie The Breakfast Club opens with a passage from David Bowie's "Changes" ("And these children that you spit on...")
Lori's songs have been recorded by Faith Hill and Sara Evans. She's performed on the CMAs and on Oprah. She also has five kids.
Dan cracked the Top 40 with "Ritual," then went to India and spent 2 hours with the Dalai Lama.
Michelle Branch talks about "Everywhere," "The Game Of Love," and her run-in with a Christian broadcasting network.
Medley looks back on "Unchained Melody" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" - his huge hits from the '60s that were later revived in movies.
These overtly religious songs crossed over to the pop charts, despite resistance from fans, and in many cases, churches.
When a song describes a wedding, it's rarely something to celebrate - with one big exception.