Earthshine occurs due to a double reflection of sunlight. Light from the Sun is reflected off of the Earth onto the Moon some of this light is then reflected off of the Moon back towards the Earth. Because of this we see part of the Moon illuminated by the Sun and the rest of the Moon dimly illuminated by this doubly reflected light (which we call earthshine). Each time light reflects off a surface (like a planet), it gets dimmer because some of the light is absorbed by the reflecting surface. This means that earthshine is dimmer than moonlight because earthshine is sunlight that has been reflected twice and moonlight is sunlight that has been reflected only once (off the surface of the moon). In addition, the reflectivity of the moon (its "albedo") is less than that of the Earth, which makes earthshine even dimmer.
Fifth Harmony was going to call their song "Work," but they changed it to "Work from Home" when Rihanna released a song with that title.
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."
The Hall & Oates hit "Everything Your Heart Desires" has no rhymes.
"Teardrop" by Massive Attack has vocals by Elizabeth Fraser of The Cocteau Twins, who wrote the lyric after learning that Jeff Buckley had died.
"Sloop John B" is a traditional West Indian folk song, and it was a huge hit for The Beach Boys in 1966. They tweaked the lyric, "This is the worst trip since I've been born" to "...I've ever been on" as a wink to acid culture.
"Stay" by Lisa Loeb was the first #1 hit by an unsigned artist. It got a boost from Ethan Hawke, who got it into a movie he starred in called Reality Bites.
The renown Texas songwriter has been at it for 40 years, with tales to tell about The Flatlanders and The Clash - that's Joe's Tex-Mex on "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"
Are classic songs like "Over The Rainbow" and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in the public domain?
Phil was a songwriter, producer and voice behind many Philadelphia soul classics. When disco hit, he got an interesting project: The Village People.
Billy Joel and Hall & Oates hated making videos, so they chose a director with similar contempt for the medium. That was Jay Dubin, and he has a lot to say on the subject.
An interview with Dr. John Covach, music professor at the University of Rochester whose free online courses have become wildly popular.
The drummer and one of the primary songwriters in Grand Funk talks rock stardom and Todd Rundgren.