"Virginia" in "Only The Good Die Young" is named after a real girl Billy Joel was trying to impress.
Billy Joel's song "Allentown" was written as "Levittown," which is the town in Long Island where he grew up. He got the idea to change it after taking a trip to Pennsylvania.
"Stay" by Lisa Loeb was the first #1 hit by an unsigned artist. It got a boost from Ethan Hawke, who got it into a movie he starred in called Reality Bites.
Rihanna's 2012 hit "Diamonds" was written by Sia Furler, who two years later had a huge hit on her own with "Chandelier." Sia also wrote the David Guetta hit "Titanium."
Yoko Ono has always denied requests to cover "Imagine" with the line "no religion, too" omitted or changed.
Richard Marx' debut single "Don't Mean Nothing" features Joe Walsh on guitar.
For songwriters, Johnny represents the American man. He has been angry, cool, magic, a rebel and, of course, marching home.
Just how much did these monsters of rock dabble in the occult?
"How much does it cost? I'll buy it?" Another songwriter told Jonathan to change these lyrics. Good thing he ignored this advice.
On the "schizoid element" of his lyrics, and a famous line from "Everything Zen."
Their frontman (Chris Cornell) started out as their drummer, so Soundgarden takes a linear approach when it comes to songwriting. Kim explains how they do it.
