James Taylor wrote "Sweet Baby James" during a road trip to Virginia in honor of his brother’s new baby, also named James, whom he was about to meet for the first time.
The first popular song to use the phrase "Heavy Metal" was "Born To Be Wild" by Steppenwolf, which was featured in the movie Easy Rider.
Listen carefully and you'll hear the sound of birds in "Birds Of A Feather" by Billie Eilish. Her brother/producer Finneas couldn't resist putting them in, but he kept them real quiet in the mix.
The bedrock of David Guetta's Nicki Minaj-featuring single "Hey Mama" is a sample of "Rosie," a 1940s prison recording from folk archivist Alan Lomax that songwriter Esther Dean first showed the French DJ on YouTube.
2001 was when collaborations between rappers and singers became commonplace, leading to a new Grammy category: Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. The first winner was "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" by Eve and Gwen Stefani. This was before Stefani put out her first solo album.
David Byrne says "Road To Nowhere" is about "how there's no order and no plan and no scheme to life and death and it doesn't mean anything, but it's all right.
"Lullaby" singer Shawn Mullins on "Beautiful Wreck," beating the Devil, and his writing credit on the Zac Brown Band song "Toes."
The former Metallica bassist talks about his first time writing a song with James Hetfield, and how a hand-me-down iPad has changed his songwriting.
"London Bridge," "Ring Around the Rosie" and "It's Raining, It's Pouring" are just a few examples of shockingly morbid children's songs.
A talented lyricist, Philip helped revive Neil Sedaka's career with the words to "Laughter In The Rain" and "Bad Blood."
In the name of song explanation, Al talks about scoring heroin for William Burroughs, and that's not even the most shocking story in this one.
A Soul Train dancer takes us through a day on the show, and explains what you had to do to get camera time.