Billy Joel is surprised that "Piano Man" is so successful. He called it "an old, long song about a guy at a depressing piano bar."
"No Scrubs" introduced the term "scrub" to the popular lexicon, and defined it in the opening lines ("a scrub is a guy that think he's fine...").
The Devo song "Freedom Of Choice" is about mindless consumerism - how people like to make frivolous choices, but otherwise want to be told what to do.
"Wanted Dead Or Alive" by Bon Jovi got the Unplugged craze going when Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora performed it with just their acoustic guitars at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards.
Before recording "Boom Clap" herself, Charli XCX offered the song to Hilary Duff, but her people turned down the tune because it "wasn't cool enough for Hilary."
"The Way" by Fastball was inspired by the story of an elderly couple from Texas who drove to a nearby family reunion and kept going. Fastball's bass player imagined them taking off and having fun like they were young. The story didn't end well: the couple was later found dead after they crashed in a canyon.
The Bush frontman on where he finds inspiration for lyrics, if his "machine head" is a guitar tuner, and the stories behind songs from the album The Kingdom.
Petula talks about her hits "Downtown" and "Don't Sleep In The Subway," and explains her Michael Jackson connection.
David Gray explains the significance of the word "Babylon," and talks about how songs are a form of active imagination, with lyrics that reveal what's inside us.
Justin wrote the classic "Nights In White Satin," but his fondest musical memories are from a different decade.
In the name of song explanation, Al talks about scoring heroin for William Burroughs, and that's not even the most shocking story in this one.
