Two tears roll down Sinead O'Connor's face toward the end of the video for "Nothing Compares 2 U." They were shed because she associated the song's lyrics of love and loss with her mother, who was killed in a car accident in 1985.
When "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" climbed to #1 on the Hot 100, Katy Perry became the first woman to send five songs from one album to the top of the charts. The four previous chart-toppers from her Teenage Dream set were "California Gurls," "Teenage Dream," "Firework" and "E.T."
The eerie percussion and guitar for Portsihead's "Sour Times" was sampled from Lalo Schifrin's "Danube Incident," music composed by the Argentine composer for an episode of Mission Impossible.
"Back In The U.S.S.R." by The Beatles was play on "California Girls" by The Beach Boys, with "Moscow girls" and "Ukraine girls" instead of the all-American girls.
"One Way Or Another" is based on a stalker who creeped out Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry.
The "pompatus of love" from the Steve Miller song "The Joker" comes from a line in a '50s doo-wop song Miller misheard: "puppetutes of love."
Billy Joel and Hall & Oates hated making videos, so they chose a director with similar contempt for the medium. That was Jay Dubin, and he has a lot to say on the subject.
Dean's saga began with "Ariel," a song about falling in love with a Jewish girl from New Jersey.
"Come On Eileen" was a colossal '80s hit, but the band - far more appreciated in their native UK than stateside - released just three albums before their split. Now, Dexys is back.
Richie talks about producing the first two Kiss albums, recording "Brother Louie," and the newfound appreciation of his rock band, Dust.
Nirvana, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen are among those who wrote songs with cities that show up in this quiz.
