In The Beatles' "When I'm 64," Paul McCartney asks a woman if she'll still be there for him when he's 64. In 2006, he got his answer when shortly before his 64th birthday, he and Heather Mills separated.
Billy Joel wrote "We Didn't Start The Fire" after a 21-year-old told him, "everyone knows that nothing happened in the '50s."
Pete Townshend wrote The Who's "Pinball Wizard" to coax a good review for the Tommy album out of a rock critic who loved pinball. It worked.
Phil Collins' "Take Me Home" is about a patient in a mental institution and was inspired by the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
The video for Brad Paisley's "Online" is a mini-Seinfeld reunion, featuring Jason Alexander, Estelle Harris, and Patrick Warburton.
Otis Redding often ad-libbed vocals at the end of songs, but for "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay" he just whistled instead - it became some of the most famous whistling in song history.
Joe talks about the challenges of of making a Duke Ellington tribute album, and tells the stories behind some of his hits.
Jim talks about the impact of "The Middle" and uses a tree metaphor to describe his songwriting philosophy.
Did Eric Clapton really write "Cocaine" while on cocaine? This question and more in the Clapton edition of Fact or Fiction.
Many unusual folks appear in Grateful Dead songs. Can you identify them?
Edie Brickell on her collaborations with Paul Simon, Steve Martin and Willie Nelson, and her 2021 album with the New Bohemians.
When Dave recorded the first version of the song with his group the Blasters, producer Nick Lowe gave him some life-changing advice.