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.
"Walking In Memphis" isn't so much about Memphis as it is The Hollywood Cafe in Mississippi, where Marc Cohn encountered an older woman named Murial playing piano.
"Summertime" by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince is built on a sample of a Kool & The Gang instrumental from 1974 called "Summer Madness," which gets a shout in the line, "This is the Fresh Prince's new definition of summer madness."
"Hunger Strike" by Temple of the Dog features Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder, and was Vedder's first music video.
"London Calling" by The Clash was written amid widespread fears that the Thames River was going to flood the city.
"Ho Hey" by The Lumineers is about New York City, where lead singer Wesley Schultz moved to make it in music. He was dismayed to find many "trust fund kids" in the music scene while he struggled to pay the rent.
In her days with The Runaways, Joan Jett saw The Arrows perform "I Love Rock And Roll," which Alan Merrill co-wrote - that story and much more from this glam rock pioneer.
When Judd Apatow needed under-appreciated rockers for his Knocked Up sequel, he immediately thought of Parker, who just happened to be getting his band The Rumour back together.
One of the most popular classical vocalists in the land is lining up a trip to space, which is the inspiration for many of her songs.
A look at the good (Diana Ross, Eminem), the bad (Madonna, Bob Dylan) and the peculiar (David Bowie, Michael Jackson) film debuts of superstar singers.
The evolution of the symbol that was Prince's name from 1993-2000.
Lita talks about how they wrote songs in The Runaways, and how she feels about her biggest hit being written by somebody else.