Before recording "Boom Clap" herself, Charli XCX offered the song to Hilary Duff, but her people turned down the tune because it "wasn't cool enough for Hilary."
The guys who wrote "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" had never been to a baseball game but knew it was a good song topic.
Jay-Z's version of "99 Problems" is a cover of a 1993 song by Ice-T with the lyrics changed to be about Jay's rise to fame.
Train's guitarist had to Google an instructional video to learn how to play the ukulele for "Hey Soul Sister."
Bob Marley's "I Shot The Sheriff" deals with police brutality in the Trenchtown section of Jamaica, where he grew up. He felt that police assumed young men in the area were all criminals.
The "Ms. Jackson" in the OutKast song is Erykah Badu's mother. Andre 3000 had a child with Badu, and felt she was portraying him as a lousy dad.
He wrote "She Blinded Me With Science" so he could direct a video about a home for deranged scientists.
Rockers, rappers and pop stars have been known to quote the Bible in their songs. See if you match the artist to the biblical lyric.
JJ talks about The Stranglers' signature sound - keyboard and bass - which isn't your typical strain of punk rock.
After cutting his teeth on hardcore punk videos, Paul defined the grunge look with his work on "Hunger Strike" and "Man in the Box."
Was Janet secretly married at 18? Did she gain 60 pounds for a movie role that went to Mariah Carey? See what you know about Ms. Jackson.
How Bing Crosby, Les Paul, a US Army Signal Corps Officer, and the Nazis helped shape rock and Roll.