It really was so easy for Linda Ronstadt to score a hit with her Buddy Holly cover of "It's So Easy." She would sometimes change the lyric to: "It's so easy to have a hit, all you have to do is recycle it."
"The Battle of Evermore" is the only song Zeppelin ever recorded with a guest vocalist. It features Sandy Denny from Fairport Convention duetting with Robert Plant.
Neil Young's song "Old Man" was inspired by the caretaker of the ranch he bought in 1970. Neil was the young man at the time, just 25.
Cake lead singer John McCrea says their song "The Distance" is about the "failure of success." No matter how much we strive for victory, we'll always want more, particularly in the corporate world.
The Nicolette Larson hit "Lotta Love" was written by Neil Young, who recorded a very different version of the song.
A key line in "Africa" is "I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become," which is about drifting away from what you really want in life. Toto keyboard player David Paich, who wrote the song, felt his work was consuming him.
It started with a bouncy MTV classic. Nirvana and MCR made them scary, then Gwen, Avril and Madonna put on the pom poms.
The Yardbirds drummer explains how they created their sound and talks about working with their famous guitarists.
The Scorpions and UFO guitarist is also a very prolific songwriter - he explains how he writes with his various groups, and why he was so keen to get out of Germany and into England.
It wasn't her biggest hit as a songwriter (that would be "Bette Davis Eyes"), but "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" had a family connection for Jackie.
Fishbone has always enjoyed much more acclaim than popularity - Angelo might know why.
Into the vaults for this talk with Bolton from the '80s when he was a focused on writing songs for other artists.