When Rihanna's "Umbrella" was a hit in the summer of 2007, it rained constantly in London, prompting their newspaper The Sun to suggest a "Rihanna Curse."
"Mr. Roboto" by Styx was written by their keyboard player, Dennis DeYoung, who used Japanese words and imagery to create an allegory about censorship.
Calvin Harris' "Blame" was the first song to break 10 million streams in a week on Spotify. The record was set during the seven days of September 8 to September 14, 2014.
One of Tom Petty's most personal songs is "Room At The Top," which he stopped performing because it brought back painful memories.
Bruce Springsteen wrote "Blinded By The Light," which was a #1 hit for Manfred Mann's Earth Band. The "Madman Drummers" line is a reference to Springsteen's first E-Street drummer, Vinnie "Mad dog" Lopez.
Steely Dan's engineer, Roger Nichols, built one of the first drum machines, which they used on "Hey Nineteen."
"How much does it cost? I'll buy it?" Another songwriter told Jonathan to change these lyrics. Good thing he ignored this advice.
Producer Rupert Hine talks about crafting hits for Tina Turner, Howard Jones and The Fixx.
The longtime BS&T frontman tells the "Spinning Wheel" story, including the line he got from Joni Mitchell.
A band so baffling, even their names were contrived. Check your score in the Ramones version of Fact or Fiction.
Do you remember the first time you heard "email" in a song? How about "hater" or "Facebook"? Here are the songs where they first showed up.
Tom stopped performing Thompson Twins songs in 1987, in part because of their personal nature: "Hold Me Now" came after an argument with his bandmate/girlfriend Alannah Currie.