The Cure lead singer Robert Smith wrote "Lovesong" as a wedding present for his fiancée, Mary, shortly before their marriage. They met when he was 14; he says Mary helped him through many difficult periods and essentially saved his life.
Madonna wrote a song called "Love Won't Wait" that she didn't want, but became a UK #1 hit for Gary Barlow.
Florida Georgia Line's "Cruise" spent 24 weeks on top of the Country chart - the most ever until Sam Hunt's "Body Like a Back Road" was #1 for 34 weeks. The record was previously held by Eddy Arnold's "I'll Hold You in My Heart (1947-48), Hank Snow's "I'm Moving On" (1950-51) and Webb Pierce's "In the Jailhouse Now" (1955), which each led for 21 weeks.
The Steve Miller song "Abracadabra" was inspired by Diana Ross and The Supremes. Miller first met the girl group when they performed together on NBC's Hullabaloo in 1966, and he wrote the lyrics after spotting Diana Ross skiing years later.
Shaggy wrote his swaggering hit "Boombastic" after learning what "shag" means in the UK.
"Should I Stay or Should I Go?" by The Clash features some Spanish lines by the Texas singer Joe Ely.
Into the vaults for this talk with Bolton from the '80s when he was a focused on writing songs for other artists.
The Garbage drummer/songwriter produced the Nirvana album Nevermind, and Smashing Pumpkins' Gish and Siamese Dream.
Nick made some of the biggest videos on MTV, including "The Final Countdown," "Heaven" and "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)."
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.
Starting in Virginia City, Nevada and rippling out to the Haight-Ashbury, LSD reshaped popular music.
Shears does very little promotion, which has kept him secluded from the spotlight. What changed when Cyndi Lauper had a hit with his song? Not much, really.