The Cure's "Lullaby" is based on a recurring nightmare frontman Robert Smith had as a child where he was eaten by a giant spider.
The inspiration for Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown" came from the songwriter worrying about his girlfriend, who was out at bars all day while he was at home penning songs.
Bob Seger got inspired to write "Night Moves" after watching the movie American Graffiti, which showed young people growing up in his "neck of the woods."
"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.
Paul McCartney based the "Eleanor Rigby" story on old ladies he met at his housing estate. He saw how sometimes when they died, nobody really noticed.
Lou Reed's 11-minute "Street Hassle" features a spoken part by Bruce Springsteen.
How Bing Crosby, Les Paul, a US Army Signal Corps Officer, and the Nazis helped shape rock and Roll.
After studying in Paris with a famous composition teacher, Charles became the most successful writer of TV theme songs.
From the cowbell on "Mississippi Queen" to recording with The Who when they got the wrong Felix, stories from one of rock's master craftsmen.
Long before she was judging contestants on American Idol, Oliver was producing Paula Abdul. Here's how he helped turn this unknown choreographer into a star.
Tom talks about the evolution of Cinderella's songs through their first three albums, and how he writes as a solo artist.
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.
