"The House Of The Rising Sun" is a traditional folk song, either about a brothel or a prison.
"99 Luftballons" by Nena is about a Cold War scare when balloons showed up on radar and were mistaken as a nuclear threat.
"Cruise" climbed from 6-5 on the Hot 100 in its 34th week. In doing so it set a record for the slowest ascent to the Top 5 in the chart's history, which was beaten by Imagine Dragon's "Radioactive" 42-week clamber to #4 three weeks later.
At the end of the Doors song "Touch Me," Jim Morrison chants, "Stronger than dirt!" The line is from an Ajax commercial where a white knight rides around destroying dirt.
The idea for "The Man Comes Around" came to Johnny Cash from a dream he had where he was in Buckingham Palace and the Queen said to him, "Johnny Cash, you're just like a thorn tree in a whirlwind."
The men of Sparks on their album Hippopotamus, and how Morrissey handled it when they suggested he lighten up.
The Third Day frontman talks about some of the classic songs he wrote with the band, and what changed for his solo country album.
The story of the legendary lupine DJ through the songs he inspired.
The guitarist/songwriter explains how he came up with his signature sound, and deconstructs some classic Fear Factory songs.
He's a singer and an actor, but as a songwriter Paul helped make Kermit a cultured frog, turned a bank commercial into a huge hit and made love both "exciting and new" and "soft as an easy chair."