Madonna's hit "Like A Prayer" debuted in a Pepsi commercial, but Pepsi pulled the ad the next day when the controversial video appeared. Madonna got to keep her $5 million endorsement money.
"Womanizer" was Britney Spears' comeback song, going to #1 about 10 months after she was institutionalized to get treatment for addictions and mental health issues.
On Metallica's "The Unforgiven," James Hetfield modeled his vocals on Chris Isaak.
The band Simple Minds took their name from the line "He's so simple minded he can't drive his module" in David Bowie's "The Jean Genie."
The Whitney Houston hit "I Have Nothing" was inspired by Elvis Presley, who dated the song's lyricist, Linda Thompson.
"The Night Chicago Died" was written and recorded by the British group Paper Lace. They talk about Al Capone in the song, but got a lot of details wrong - understandable since they wrote it based on gangster movies.
"Missing You" was a spontaneous outpouring of emotion triggered by a phone call. John tells that story and explains what MTV meant to his career.
The leader of the Modern A Cappella movement talks about the genre.
The Doobies guitarist and lead singer, Tom wrote the classics "Listen To The Music," "Long Train Runnin'" and "China Grove."
Kiss is the subject of many outlandish rumors - some of which happen to be true. See if you can spot the fakes.
The guy who brought us "Stacy's Mom" also wrote the Jane Lynch Emmy song and Stephen Colbert's Christmas songs.
Some album art was at least "inspired" by others. A look at some very similar covers.