Katy Perry's song "E.T." came from a beat originally intended for the rap group Three Six Mafia. When her producer accidentally pulled up the beat, Perry asked to use it.
The dirty version of Cee-Lo Green's "Forget You" contains 16 F-bombs. He recorded a clean version as an afterthought, "just in case."
"This Is How We Do It" by Montell Jordan was the first hit to mention a designated driver in the lyric. Before he gets "faded," Montell gives the DD the keys to his truck.
A key line in "Africa" is "I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become," which is about drifting away from what you really want in life. Toto keyboard player David Paich, who wrote the song, felt his work was consuming him.
"Kokomo" gave The Beach Boys their first #1 hit in 22 years. They picked the title because it sounded tropical.
The voice is that says "here we go" in the AJR song "Bang!" belongs to Charlie Pellett, the announcer on the New York City subway ("stand clear of the closing doors, please").
The guy who brought us "Stacy's Mom" also wrote the Jane Lynch Emmy song and Stephen Colbert's Christmas songs.
The Celtic music maker Loreena McKennitt on finding musical inspiration, the "New Age" label, and working on the movie Tinker Bell.
10 Questions for the author of Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces
The Third Day frontman talks about some of the classic songs he wrote with the band, and what changed for his solo country album.
The Nails lead singer Marc Campbell talks about those 44 women he sings about over a stock Casio keyboard track. He's married to one of them now - you might be surprised which.
Soul music legend Bill Withers on how life experience and the company you keep leads to classic songs like "Lean On Me."