According to the song's writer, Diane Warren, Cher hated the song and she had to force it on her by holding her leg down during a session until she recorded it.
The James Blunt song "You're Beautiful" is not romantic: it's a about a creepy subway encounter with an ex.
Paul McCartney based the "Eleanor Rigby" story on old ladies he met at his housing estate. He saw how sometimes when they died, nobody really noticed.
The Ben Folds Five song "Brick" is about a difficult time when Folds' girlfriend got an abortion.
"Unchained Melody" first appeared in a 1955 movie called Unchained. The Righteous Brothers recorded it in 1965, and their version was resurrected in the 1990 movie Ghost.
"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.
In 1986, a Stephen King novella was made into a movie, with a classic song serving as title, soundtrack and tone.
How a country weeper and a blues number made "rolling stone" the most popular phrase in rock.
Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.
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.
The stories behind the biggest hit songs about trucking.
Phone booths are nearly extinct, but they provided storylines for some of the most profound songs of the pre-cell phone era.