Icona Pop consider "I Love It" a kiss-off to their boyfriends. "We just wanted to get the song out and get the pigs to hear it," group member Jawo said.
"Master Blaster (Jammin')" is Stevie Wonder's tribute to Bob Marley, released less than a year before Marley died.
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.
MC Skat Kat was created for the remix of "Opposites Attract," which was released as the last single from Paula Abdul's Forever Your Girl album. The team that created the Kat also did a-ha's "Take On Me" video.
Cher had a habit of calling people "babe," which her husband, Sonny Bono, picked up. That's how "babe" landed in the 1965 Sonny & Cher megahit "I Got You Babe."
A 1989 track by Kenny G, "Going Home," is the unofficial national closing song in China. The tune is played at the end of train rides, the end of school days, and when malls are about to close.
The stories behind the biggest hit songs about trucking.
Billy Joel and Hall & Oates hated making videos, so they chose a director with similar contempt for the medium. That was Jay Dubin, and he has a lot to say on the subject.
The 10 biggest "retirement tours" that didn't take.
How a goofy detective movie, a disenchanted director and an unlikely songwriter led to one of the biggest hits in pop history.
Daniel Lanois on his album Heavy Sun, and the inside stories of songs he produced for U2, Peter Gabriel, and Bob Dylan.
