Bruce Springsteen's "Streets Of Philadelphia" won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1994, beating out Neil Young's "Philadelphia," which was also written for the movie Philadelphia.
"Jeopardy" by The Greg Kihn Band got the Weird Al treatment with "I Lost On Jeopardy." Kihn and Jeopardy game show announcer Art Fleming both appear in the video.
Don McLean's "American Pie" starts in mono and gradually goes to stereo. It isn't full stereo until the end of the song, which is over 8 minutes long.
"Kashmir" is the only Led Zeppelin song to use outside musicians, as it needed strings and horns.
Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler got the idea for "Money For Nothing" after overhearing delivery men in a New York department store complain about their jobs while watching MTV.
New Order took the title for "Blue Monday" from an illustration, which read "Goodbye Blue Monday," in the Kurt Vonnegut book Breakfast Of Champions. The image referred to the invention of the washing machine improving housewives' lives.
Chris and his wife Tina were the rhythm section for Talking Heads when they formed The Tom Tom Club. "Genius of Love" was their blockbuster, but David Byrne only mentioned it once.
Greg talks about writing songs of "universal truth" for King Crimson and ELP, and tells us about his most memorable stage moment (it involves fireworks).
You may not recognize his name, but you will certainly recognize Peter Lord's songs. He wrote the bevy of hits from Paula Abdul's second album, Spellbound.
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 "All I Want" singer went through a long depression, playing some shows when he didn't want to be alive.
The king of Christian worship music explains talks about writing songs for troubled times.