Korn's most popular song, "Freak On A Leash," is about their predatory record label making huge profits off the band. It was quite profitable, helping the Follow The Leader album sell over 5 million copies.
The White Stripes song "We're Going To Be Friends" is very innocent, but Jack White feared it would be interpreted cynically. It wasn't, and was even adapted into a children's book.
The "pompatus of love" from the Steve Miller song "The Joker" comes from a line in a '50s doo-wop song Miller misheard: "puppetutes of love."
"Stay" by Lisa Loeb was the first #1 hit by an unsigned artist. It got a boost from Ethan Hawke, who got it into a movie he starred in called Reality Bites.
"Light My Fire" was the first song Doors guitarist Robby Krieger wrote. Looking for a universal theme, he decided to write about one of the four elements (air, earth, water, fire).
Country star Slim Whitman's version of the 1920s song "Rose Marie" spent 11 consecutive weeks at #1 in the UK in 1955, a record until 1991 when Bryan Adams’ "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" spent 16 weeks at the top.
Elvis, Little Richard and Cheryl Cole have all sung about Teddy Bears, but there is also a terrifying Teddy song from 1932 and a touching trucker Teddy tune from 1976.
Armed with a childhood spent devouring books, Mike Scott's heart was stolen by the punk rock scene of 1977. Not surprisingly, he would go on to become the most literate of rockers.
The former Dead Kennedys frontman on the past, present and future of the band, what music makes us "pliant and stupid," and what he learned from Alice Cooper.
John tells the "St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion)" story and explains why he disappeared for so long.
An interview with Frankie Valli, who talks about why his songs - both solo and with The Four Seasons - have endured, and reflects on his time as Rusty Millio on The Sopranos.
Wilder's hit "Break My Stride" had an unlikely inspiration: a famous record mogul who rejected it.