"I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" by Elton John was written for the sister of actress Rene Russo. Bernie Taupin, who wrote the lyrics, was married to Rene's sister, Toni.
"Love Is A Battlefield" was written as a ballad, but Pat Benatar's guitarist/husband turned it into an uptempo song.
Jimmy Webb was inspired to write The 5th Dimension song "Up-Up and Away" after seeing a hot-air balloon his friend flew on promotions for the Southern California radio station KMEN.
The first female rapper to perform on a #1 hit? Surprisingly, it's Lil' Kim with the 2001 remake of "Lady Marmalade" for the movie Moulin Rouge. She was was joined on the track by Christina Aguilera, Missy Elliott, Pink and Mya.
Kelly Rowland was the first Destiny's Child member to have a hit away from the group: her Nelly duet "Dilemma."
YouTube had to upgrade after PSY's "Gangnam Style" broke their hit counter in 2012. Once the video reached 2,147,483,647 views, the maximum positive value for a 32-bit signed binary integer in computing, the view-counter could no longer work.
The top chant artist in the Western world, Krishna Das talks about how these Hindu mantras compare to Christian worship songs.
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.
His song "Into The Night" is one of the most-played of all time. For Benny, it took him to hell and back.
Rise Against frontman Tim McIlrath explains the meanings behind some of their biggest songs and names the sci-fi books that have influenced him.
Did Eric Clapton really write "Cocaine" while on cocaine? This question and more in the Clapton edition of Fact or Fiction.
On the "schizoid element" of his lyrics, and a famous line from "Everything Zen."