The Pretenders are named after the 1956 song "The Great Pretender" by The Platters.
The Lady Gaga/Beyoncé collaboration "Telephone" isn't just about turning down an unwanted caller, it's an analog for how Gaga was feeling overwhelmed, like a phone was always ringing in her head.
The R.E.M. song "Don't Go Back To Rockville" is about Mike Mills' girlfriend at the University of Georgia, who had to go back to Rockville, Maryland, for the summer.
The title of the Metallica song "Ride The Lightning" came from a line in the Stephen King book The Stand where a guy is about to be executed.
Billy Idol's "Eyes Without A Face" has a gruesome inspiration. It's based on a 1959 French movie about a surgeon who abducts young women and removes their facial features.
Jay-Z's "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)" is based on the song "It's A Hard Knock Life" from the Broadway play Annie.
The lead singer/lyricist of The Beach Boys talks about coming up with the words for "Good Vibrations," "Fun, Fun, Fun," "Kokomo" and other classic songs.
An original member of Depeche Mode, Vince went on to form Erasure and Yaz.
Toto's keyboard player explains the true meaning of "Africa" and talks about working on the Thriller album.
Into the vaults for this talk with Bolton from the '80s when he was a focused on writing songs for other artists.
The drummer for Anthrax is also a key songwriter. He explains how the group puts their songs together and tells the stories behind some of their classics.
Armed with a childhood spent devouring books, Mike Scott's heart was stolen by the punk rock scene of 1977. Not surprisingly, he would go on to become the most literate of rockers.