The Brazilian rocker sees pictures in his riffs. When he came up with one of his gnarliest songs, there was a riot going on.
As Procol Harum's lyricist, Keith wrote the words to "A Whiter Shade Of Pale." We delve into that song and find out how you can form a band when you don't sing or play an instrument.
For songwriters, Johnny represents the American man. He has been angry, cool, magic, a rebel and, of course, marching home.
Iron Maiden, Adele, Toto, Eminem and Earth, Wind & Fire are just some of the artists with songs directly inspired by movies - and not always good ones.
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."
The Third Day frontman talks about some of the classic songs he wrote with the band, and what changed for his solo country album.
The Temptations sang backup on "Super Freak" by Rick James. He mentions them in the song when he says, "Temptations, sing!"
Janet Jackson's "Alright" video features Cab Calloway and Cyd Charisse, stars of musicals she loved as a kid.
"Crank That (Soulja Boy)" was the most successful digital track of 2007 in the US with 2,909,000 downloads. On January 6, 2008 it became the first song ever to sell 3 million digital copies in the States.
"It Wasn't Me" by Shaggy was based on an Eddie Murphy comedy bit where he would deny everything no matter how badly he was caught.
"Always On My Mind" was first recorded by Brenda Lee in 1971, then by Elvis in 1972. Willie Nelson's 1982 version was the big hit and won the Song of the Year Grammy.
Icona Pop considers "I Love It" a kiss-off to their boyfriends: "we just wanted to get the song out and get the pigs to hear it," Jawo said.
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