The Texas songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker wrote "Mr. Bojangles" after a weekend in jail where a fellow inmate told him his life story.
The name "Schoolhouse Rock," which was a series of educational cartoons, was a play on "Jailhouse Rock," the title of an Elvis Presley song.
"November Rain" by Guns N' Roses has a literary influence: The lyric is based on a story called Without You by Del James.
Ariana Grande's hit "Problem" started off as a track written by One Direction songwriter Savan Kotecha. He gave it the working title of "The Whisper Song," after a 2005 Ying Yang Twins hit.
Sting wrote "Every Breath You Take" at the same desk in Jamaica as where Ian Fleming wrote his James Bond novels.
Katy Perry's breakout hit "I Kissed A Girl" was surprising to those familiar with her past: her parents were pastors and she started off singing Christian music.
Dwarfs on stage with an oversize Stonehenge set? Dabbling in Satanism? Find out which Spinal Tap-moments were true for Black Sabbath.
Just how much did these monsters of rock dabble in the occult?
The leader of the Modern A Cappella movement talks about the genre.
