"Mother" by Danzig is about censorship, specifically the Parents Music Resource Center, which pushed record labels to put warning stickers on albums with explicit lyrics.
"Baby Got Back" isn't just a booty song. According to Sir Mix-A-Lot, it's about "Lack of acceptance by Hollywood of the African-American body."
The original "Venus" was a #1 hit for the Dutch band Shocking Blue. Listen to the first line and you'll hear a muffed word: "goddess" was sung as "goddness."
The Mission: Impossible theme is in 5/4 time. Composer Lalo Schifrin joked that he did it so 5-legged aliens could dance to it.
Freddie Mercury considered "We Are The Champions" his version of "My Way." "We have made it, and it certainly wasn't easy," he said.
Beyoncé married Jay-Z five months before releasing "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)," a song she sang in character as her alter-ego, Sasha Fierce.
Tyler talks about his true love: songwriting. How he identifies the beauty in a melody and turns sorrow into art.
"Lullaby" singer Shawn Mullins on "Beautiful Wreck," beating the Devil, and his writing credit on the Zac Brown Band song "Toes."
Michael tells the story of "Send Me On My Way," and explains why some of the words in the song don't have a literal meaning.
The singer-songwriter Melanie talks about her spiritual awakening at Woodstock, "Brand New Key," and why songwriting is an art, not a craft.
Phone booths are nearly extinct, but they provided storylines for some of the most profound songs of the pre-cell phone era.
