
"Paranoid" reflects a feeling Black Sabbath bass player Geezer Butler often felt after using drugs.

"I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)" by Jay-Z borrows four bars from Notorious B.I.G's "The World Is Filled." Jay-Z and Biggie Smalls attended Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School in Brooklyn, New York, at the same time.

Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" was originally called "Brown Skinned Girl," and was about an interracial relationship.

"It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" was inspired by a dream where Michael Stipe conjured up images of people with the initials L.B.: Lester Bangs, Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Leonard Bernstein.

Billy Joel wrote "We Didn't Start The Fire" after a 21-year-old told him, "everyone knows that nothing happened in the '50s."

At 9:57, David Bowie's "Blackstar" was the longest song to reach the Hot 100 until 2019, when Tool bested the record with the 10:21 "Fear Inoculum."
Fiona's highly-anticipated third album almost didn't make it. Here's how it finally came together after two years and a leak.
Long before Eminem, Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj created alternate personas, David Bowie, Bono, Joni Mitchell and even Hank Williams took on characters.
Into the vaults for this talk with Bolton from the '80s when he was a focused on writing songs for other artists.
On Glen's résumé: hit songwriter, Facebook dominator, and member of Styx.
Doubt led to drive for Francis, who still isn't sure why one of Status Quo's biggest hits is so beloved.
One of the first successful female singer-songwriters, Janis had her first hit in 1967 at age 15.