The Hollies hit "The Air That I Breathe" was written in part as a reaction to the smog in Los Angeles.
The Squeeze song "Tempted" is one of their few with lead vocals by Paul Carrack, who sang the Ace song "How Long" and was in Mike + The Mechanics.
One of the last hits with a track made up almost entirely of uncleared samples is "Groove Is In The Heart" by Deee-Lite in 1990. Soon after, courts ruled that samples needed to be cleared.
The James Blunt song "You're Beautiful" is not romantic: it's a about a creepy subway encounter with an ex.
The prom scene in Pretty in Pink was shot to "Don't You (Forget About Me)," but "If You Leave" was used in the film. That's why the dancers are out of time with the music.
Jimmy Buffett's "Cheeseburger In Paradise" has muenster (cheese), not mustard, as commonly misheard in the line "medium rare with muenster'd be nice."
The Brazilian rocker sees pictures in his riffs. When he came up with one of his gnarliest songs, there was a riot going on.
Rob Halford dives into some of his Judas Priest lyrics, talking about his most personal songs and the message behind "You've Got Another Thing Comin'."
A Soul Train dancer takes us through a day on the show, and explains what you had to do to get camera time.
Tom stopped performing Thompson Twins songs in 1987, in part because of their personal nature: "Hold Me Now" came after an argument with his bandmate/girlfriend Alannah Currie.
He wrote "She Blinded Me With Science" so he could direct a video about a home for deranged scientists.
Where words like "email," "thirsty," "Twitter" and "gangsta" first showed up in songs, and which songs popularized them.