Ann Peebles' "I Can't Stand The Rain" originated from a comment made by the singer to her husband, Don Bryant, when they were preparing to head out to a blues show and it began tipping down with rain.
"I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me) " borrows four bars from Notorious B.I.G's "The World Is Filled." Jay-Z and Biggie Smalls attended Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School in Brooklyn, New York at the same time.
Paul McCartney wrote "Hey Jude" to comfort John Lennon's 5-year-old son Julian, whose parents were getting a divorce.
The lyrics for Lesley Gore's "It's My Party" were based on actual events relating to his daughter Judy's sweet 16 party. The teenager threw a tantrum and burst into tears when her mum and dad insisted that her grandparents had to be invited.
"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" is about a guy Jim Croce met in the National Guard, which Jim joined to keep him out of Vietnam. Leroy went AWOL, but got caught when he tried to pick up his paycheck.
"Free Fallin'" by Tom Petty is set in Los Angeles, as he mentions Reseda, Mulholland and Ventura Boulevard.
The original voice of Snap! this story is filled with angry drag queens, video impersonators and Chaka Khan.
The Def Leppard frontman talks about their "lamentable" hit he never thought of as a single, and why he's juiced by his Mott The Hoople cover band.
A founding member of the band War, Harold gives a first-person account of one of the most important periods in music history.
"I'll Be" was what Edwin called his "Hail Mary" song. He says it proves "intention of the songwriter is 180 degrees from potential interpretation by an audience."
We've heard of artists putting their hearts into their music, but some take it literally.
Armed with a childhood spent devouring books, Mike Scott's heart was stolen by the punk rock scene of 1977. Not surprisingly, he would go on to become the most literate of rockers.
