Sarah McLachlan wrote "Angel" about the Smashing Pumpkins touring keyboard player Jonathan Melvoin, who overdosed on heroin and died in 1996.
"Mother" by Danzig is about censorship, specifically the Parents Music Resource Center, which pushed record labels to put warning stickers on albums with explicit lyrics.
Katherine Heigl played Josh Kelley's love interest in the video for his 2005 song "Only You." They met on the shoot, became a real-life couple, and got married two years later. That's good casting!
According to Frank Sinatra's daughter, he hated "My Way," but had to sing it at every show when it became his signature song.
Bruce Springsteen originally wrote "Fire" for Elvis Presley in 1977, and even sent him a demo. Sadly the King died before he ever heard it, and it was left to the Pointer Sisters to record the song.
The Ben Folds Five song "Brick" is about a difficult time when Folds' girlfriend got an abortion.
Brian has unearthed outtakes by Fleetwood Mac, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Costello and hundreds of other artists for reissues. Here's how he does it.
Michael tells the story of "Send Me On My Way," and explains why some of the words in the song don't have a literal meaning.
The writer of "Rainy Night in Georgia" and "Polk Salad Annie" explains how he cooks up his Louisiana swamp rock.
When televangelists like Jimmy Swaggart took on rockers like Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica, the rockers retaliated. Bono could even be seen mocking the preachers.
Bowie's "activist" days of 1964 led to Ziggy Stardust.
Daryl Hall's TV show is a hit, and he's been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - only one of these developments excites him.