The 1986 Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram duet "Somewhere Out There" was written for An American Tail, an animated film about a family of immigrant mice who lose one of their young.
The Jesus Jones song "Right Here, Right Now" was conceived as an optimistic version of Prince's "Sign O' The Times."
The music video for "You Are A Tourist" by Death Cab For Cutie was done live on the internet, becoming the first live, scripted, single-take music video recorded that way.
The Hollies' 1967 hit "Carrie Anne" is about the British singer-actress Marianne Faithfull, but with "Marianne" changed to "Carrie-Anne" to disguise it. Faithfull dated Allan Clarke of The Hollies.
Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" was written by the keyboard player from Toto, who was working on the Thriller album.
One of the most enduring songs from the '90s is "Iris" by The Goo Goo Dolls, which got huge on social media and streaming in the 2020s. The song was written for a movie called City Of Angels, about an angel (Nicolas Cage) who falls in love with a human (Meg Ryan).
When he joined Guns N' Roses in 1990, Matt helped them craft an orchestral sound; his mezzo fortes and pianissimos are all over "November Rain."
The Scorpions and UFO guitarist is also a very prolific songwriter - he explains how he writes with his various groups, and why he was so keen to get out of Germany and into England.
The renown rock singer talks about "The House of the Rising Sun" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood."
The Red Hot Chili Peppers have some rather unusual song titles - see if you can spot the real ones.
Fagen talks about how the Steely Dan songwriting strategy has changed over the years, and explains why you don't hear many covers of their songs.
Rob Halford, Richie Faulkner and Glenn Tipton talk twin guitar harmonies and explain how they create songs in Judas Priest.