Music Row in Nashville is full of publishing companies occupied by songwriters who make a living at their craft. The Bryants got there long before it became a songwriting epicenter, and wrote over 1,500 songs that have sold over 300 million records.
"Ho Hey" by The Lumineers is about New York City, where lead singer Wesley Schultz moved to make it in music. He was dismayed to find many "trust fund kids" in the music scene while he struggled to pay the rent.
"Pink Cadillac" was a B-side for Bruce Springsteen in 1984, but after Aretha Franklin sang about pink Cadillacs on "Freeway Of Love" the following year, Natalie Cole covered the song and had a hit with it in 1988.
Mary J. Blige introduced three new words with her hit "Family Affair": hateration, holleration and dancerie.
"Yellow" by Coldplay is a deep, meaningful song, but the title has a rather prosaic origin: it came from the phone directory, known as "the yellow pages."
Dr. Luke and Max Martin originally wrote Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" with Pink in mind but she turned it down.
The French part in Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer" explains that the killer is going after a girl, like Norman Bates in the movie Psycho.
At 80 years old, Yoko has 10 #1 Dance hits. She discusses some of her songs and explains what inspired John Lennon's return to music in 1980.
Chris tells the story of "Wicked Game," talks milkshakes and moonpies at Sun Records, and explains why women always get their way.
dUg dIgs into his King's X metal classics and his many side projects, including the one with Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam.
The 5-octave voice of the classical rock band Renaissance, Annie is big on creative expression. In this talk, she covers Roy Wood, the history of the band, and where all the money went in the '70s.
It started with a bouncy MTV classic. Nirvana and MCR made them scary, then Gwen, Avril and Madonna put on the pom poms.
Graham Nash tells the stories behind some of his famous songs and photos, and is asked about "yacht rock" for the first time.