"All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" resulted from a music teacher's momentary inspiration in the classroom.
Hugh Laurie, star of the TV show House, had a minor hit in 2011 with "Police Dog Blues," an old Blues song from 1929.
At the end of the Doors song "Touch Me," Jim Morrison chants, "Stronger than dirt!" The line is from an Ajax commercial where a white knight rides around destroying dirt.
When the Christian band DC Talk covered Nirvana's "All Apologies" at concerts, they would change the line "Everyone is gay" to "Jesus is the Way."
In Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)" what he won't do is a list of six items in the lyrics, including "Forget the way you feel right now" and "Be screwing around."
"Paper Planes" was inspired by M.I.A.'s hassles trying to get a visa to enter America.
The hit duet "Somewhere Out There" was written for an animated film about a family of immigrant mice who lose one of their young.
An interview with Dr. John Covach, music professor at the University of Rochester whose free online courses have become wildly popular.
Country songs with titles so bizarre they can't possibly be real... or can they?
Not everyone can be a superhero, but that hasn't stopped generations of musicians from trying to be Superman.
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.
These Three famous songs actually describe how they were written - late into the evening.
Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan explains the "few red lights" in "Smoke On The Water" and talks about songs from their 2020 album Whoosh!