Before launching his career as a singer, Bruno Mars was a writer/producer. He and his co-writers pitched "Just The Way You Are" to Cee-Lo Green; when he turned it down, Bruno recorded it himself and released it in 2010 as his first single as a lead artist.
Bono came up with the idea of focusing on a soldier's last thoughts as he dies from his wounds in the U2 song "White As Snow" after reading William Golding's 1956 novel Pincher Martin.
Rob Reiner named his 1986 movie "Stand By Me" after the song, since he thought The Body, a Stephen King story on which it was based, sounded like a horror movie.
Elton John's "Crocodile Rock" borrows a bit from Don McLean's "American Pie." Both songs feature a Chevy, and are about young people who are heartbroken when their music "dies."
The first TV theme song to become a hit was "Peter Gunn" back in 1959. It's an instrumental composed by Henry Mancini. His version was used on an album called The Music From Peter Gunn, which stayed at #1 for 10 weeks. The song was also a hit for Duane Eddy.
Baseball Hall-of-Famer Phil Rizzuto is the announcer on Meat Loaf's "Paradise By the Dashboard Light." Rizzuto used to broadcast games for his former team, the Yankees.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers have some rather unusual song titles - see if you can spot the real ones.
The Christian rapper talks about where his trip to Haiti and his history of addiction fit into his songs.
Holly Knight talks about some of the hit songs she wrote, including "The Warrior," "Never" and "The Best," and explains some songwriting philosophy, including how to think of a bridge.
Faith No More's bassist, Billy Gould, chats to us about his two new experimental projects, The Talking Book and House of Hayduk, and also shares some stories from the FNM days.
Have you got the smarts to know which of these graduation song stories are real?
Are classic songs like "Over The Rainbow" and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in the public domain?