The eerie percussion and guitar for Portsihead's "Sour Times" was sampled from Lalo Schifrin's "Danube Incident," music composed by the Argentine composer for an episode of Mission Impossible.
Bruce Springsteen's "Streets Of Philadelphia" won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1994, beating out Neil Young's "Philadelphia," which was also written for the movie Philadelphia.
"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" is about a guy Jim Croce met in the National Guard, which Jim joined to keep him out of Vietnam. Leroy went AWOL, but got caught when he tried to pick up his paycheck.
Pink wrote "Just Give Me A Reason" about how one partner can feel jilted over something trivial, like how her boyfriend passes her the butter.
It has long been speculated that the Soundgarden song "Black Hole Sun" came from the name of a sculpture in Seattle, but according to their frontman Chris Cornell the title came from a phrase he misheard on the news. The band's name did come from a sculpture.
The "Electric Avenue" in the Eddy Grant song is a real street. It got its name because it was the first street in London with electric lights.
"I'll Be" was what Edwin called his "Hail Mary" song. He says it proves "intention of the songwriter is 180 degrees from potential interpretation by an audience."
Did they really trade their guitarist to The Doobie Brothers? Are they named after something naughty? And what's up with the band name?
Edie Brickell on her collaborations with Paul Simon, Steve Martin and Willie Nelson, and her 2021 album with the New Bohemians.
It took him seven years to recover from his American hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)," but Chris Rea became one of the top singer-songwriters in his native UK.
Rise Against frontman Tim McIlrath explains the meanings behind some of their biggest songs and names the sci-fi books that have influenced him.
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.