"Mr. Roboto" by Styx was written by their keyboard player, Dennis DeYoung, who used Japanese words and imagery to create an allegory about censorship.
When it topped the chart in 2012, Dierks Bentley's "5-1-5-0" became the first #1 Country hit with a title that's all numbers.
Tim McGraw recorded "Live Like You Were Dying" just two weeks after his own father passed away.
It was never a big hit, but the uplifting "Mr. Blue Sky" has endured as Electric Light Orchestra's most popular song. Group leader Jeff Lynne wrote it when after two weeks of gloomy weather, the clouds parted to reveal a beautiful day.
"If It Makes You Happy" by Sheryl Crow is about the sour grapes some of her collaborators from her first album expressed to the media when they felt slighted.
"Cult of Personality" by Living Colour incorporates speeches by John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The Winger frontman reveals the Led Zeppelin song he cribbed for "Seventeen," and explains how his passion for orchestra music informs his songwriting.
We ring the Hell's Bells to see what songs and rockers are sincere in their Satanism, and how much of it is an act.
Newman makes it look easy these days, but in this 1974 interview, he reveals the paranoia and pressures that made him yearn for his old 9-5 job.
Chris and his wife Tina were the rhythm section for Talking Heads when they formed The Tom Tom Club. "Genius of Love" was their blockbuster, but David Byrne only mentioned it once.
The drummer and one of the primary songwriters in Grand Funk talks rock stardom and Todd Rundgren.
We've heard of artists putting their hearts into their music, but some take it literally.