The first single from the Thriller album was "The Girl Is Mine," chosen over "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" because it was a duet with Paul McCartney and thus guaranteed airplay.
Bono came up with the idea of focusing on a soldier's last thoughts as he dies from his wounds in the U2 song "White As Snow" after reading William Golding's 1956 novel Pincher Martin.
Freddie Mercury considered "We Are The Champions" his version of "My Way." "We have made it, and it certainly wasn't easy," he said.
When the Velvet Underground song "Heroin" got screechy, Maureen Tucker stopped drumming, figuring it would bust the take, but her bandmates kept going. You can hear it at the 5:20 mark.
Don't play "I Will Always Love You" at your wedding - Dolly Parton wrote it about leaving someone behind to strike out on her own.
Al Gore chose an inspiring but obscure campaign song when he ran for president in 2000: "Let The Day Begin" by The Call.
The former Metallica bassist talks about his first time writing a song with James Hetfield, and how a hand-me-down iPad has changed his songwriting.
From the lake in "Roundabout" to Sister Bluebird in "Starship Trooper," Jon Anderson talks about how nature and spirituality play into his lyrics for Yes.
Todd Rundgren explains why he avoids "Hello It's Me," and what it was like producing Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell album.
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.
Dave explains how the video appropriated the meaning of "Runaway Train," and what he thought of getting parodied by Weird Al.
In the name of song explanation, Al talks about scoring heroin for William Burroughs, and that's not even the most shocking story in this one.
