
Feist's "1234" is "about lost love, and the hope to recapture what you once had," but it's best known for the Sesame Street version about counting to four.

"Sunday Girl" was written by Blondie guitarist Chris Stein to cheer up Debbie Harry after her cat had run away whilst they were away on tour. The gray cat was called Sunday Man.
Jimmy Webb was inspired to write The 5th Dimension song "Up-Up and Away" after seeing a hot-air balloon his friend flew on promotions for the Southern California radio station KMEN.
"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.

The idea for "The Man Comes Around" came to Johnny Cash from a dream he had where he was in Buckingham Palace and the Queen said to him, "Johnny Cash, you're just like a thorn tree in a whirlwind."

Until December 5, 1998, a song had to be issued as a single to make the Hot 100. Aaliyah's "Try Again" was the first tune to top the chart based on airplay alone, without any sales figures being included.
A talk with Martin Popoff about his latest book on Rush and how he assessed the thousands of albums he reviewed.
When Dave recorded the first version of the song with his group the Blasters, producer Nick Lowe gave him some life-changing advice.
Justin wrote the classic "Nights In White Satin," but his fondest musical memories are from a different decade.
Even before Soundgarden wrote a song about him, Artis was the most famous spoon player of all time. So why has he always been broke?
Phil was a songwriter, producer and voice behind many Philadelphia soul classics. When disco hit, he got an interesting project: The Village People.
Elvis, Little Richard and Cheryl Cole have all sung about Teddy Bears, but there is also a terrifying Teddy song from 1932 and a touching trucker Teddy tune from 1976.