There really is a Girl From Ipanema. Her name is Helo Pinheiro, and she would walk "Like a samba" past the bar the songwriters frequented, providing the inspiration.
"Wanted Dead Or Alive" by Bon Jovi got the Unplugged craze going when Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora performed it with just their acoustic guitars at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards.
MTV reversed the word "joint" in Tom Petty's "You Don't Known How It Feels" so it was unintelligible, but gave the video a VMA anyway.
Fleetwood Mac's "Gypsy" is about Stevie Nicks' best friend, who died of leukemia.
Bob Dylan's four handwritten pages containing the original draft of "Like a Rolling Stone" fetched over $2m at Sothebys New York in June 2014 setting a price record for a popular music manuscript.
Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" is about their founding member Syd Barrett, who became an acid casualty. Notice the S-Y-D in the title.
He's a singer and an actor, but as a songwriter Paul helped make Kermit a cultured frog, turned a bank commercial into a huge hit and made love both "exciting and new" and "soft as an easy chair."
These overtly religious songs crossed over to the pop charts, despite resistance from fans, and in many cases, churches.
How well do you know your David Bowie lyrics? Take this quiz to find out.
The original voice of Snap! this story is filled with angry drag queens, video impersonators and Chaka Khan.
Rosanne talks about the journey that inspired her songs on her album The River & the Thread, including a stop at the Tallahatchie Bridge.