John Legend wrote "All Of Me" about his fiancée Chrissy Teigen. He sang it to her at their wedding ceremony in Como, Italy.
"Tenderness" by General Public was partly inspired by the outbreak of AIDS, which at the time was thought to be contagious.
Taylor Swift's “Shake It Off” was inspired by how she'd learned to deal with all the false rumors that circulated about her. "The only thing we can control is our reaction to that ,” said Swift. "You can either let it get to you … [or] you just shake it off."
"Sloop John B" is a traditional West Indian folk song, and it was a huge hit for The Beach Boys in 1966. They tweaked the lyric, "This is the worst trip since I've been born" to "...I've ever been on" as a wink to acid culture.
The names Louise, Jack, Marie and Milo all show up in the song "Footloose." Marie was the mother of Dean Pitchford, who co-wrote it.
Prince kept doves at his Paisley Park mansion. And yes, sometimes they did cry.
The top chant artist in the Western world, Krishna Das talks about how these Hindu mantras compare to Christian worship 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."
Here's what happens when an opening act is really out of place with the headliner, like when Beastie Boys opened for Madonna.
The Stax legend on how he cooked up "Green Onions," the first time he and Otis Redding saw hippies, and if he'll ever play a digital organ.
Soul music legend Bill Withers on how life experience and the company you keep leads to classic songs like "Lean On Me."
Does he have beef with Gaga? Is he Sean Lennon's godfather? See if you can tell fact from fiction in the Elton John edition.