Al Green wrote the lyrics for “Let's Stay Together” in five minutes after Willie Mitchell gave him a rough mix of a tune that he and drummer Al Jackson had developed.
When David Bowie sings, "We like dancing and we look divine" in "Rebel Rebel," it's a reference to a famous drag queen known as Divine.
Ariana Grande's hit "Problem" started off as a track written by One Direction songwriter Savan Kotecha. He gave it the working title of "The Whisper Song," after a 2005 Ying Yang Twins hit.
The motto for Boys Town, which was a Nebraska home for troubled youth, inspired the song "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" by The Hollies.
"Sail" by AWOLNATION had a remarkably slow climb up the Hot 100. It was the first ever song to spend over a year on the chart before entering the top 20.
Jack White titled "Seven Nation Army" after how he would mispronounce "Salvation Army" when he was little.
The man who ran Nirvana's first label gets beyond the sensationalism (drugs, Courtney) to discuss their musical and cultural triumphs in the years before Nevermind.
Into the vaults for this talk with Bolton from the '80s when he was a focused on writing songs for other artists.
A renowned guitarist and rock revivalist, Dave took "I Hear You Knocking" to the top of the UK charts and was the first to record Elvis Costello's "Girls Talk."
The 5-octave voice of the classical rock band Renaissance, Annie is big on creative expression. In this talk, she covers Roy Wood, the history of the band, and where all the money went in the '70s.
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.
The king of Christian worship music explains talks about writing songs for troubled times.