The Isley Brothers became the first group to score a Top 50 hit in six consecutive decades when their song "Contagious" peaked at #19 in 2001. Their first entry was their song "Shout" in 1959.
A Tribe Called Quest sampled the mellow groove of Lou Reed's 1972 classic "Walk On The Wild Side" on "Can I Kick It?" It fit their vibe, with Q-Tip and Phife Dawg trading lines about hanging out and having fun, the definition of "kickin' it."
"Jessie's Girl" tells the true story of a girl Rick Springfield was crushing on, but her boyfriend's name was really Gary and he was more of an acquaintance than a friend.
"Mother" by Danzig is about censorship, specifically the Parents Music Resource Center, which pushed record labels to put warning stickers on albums with explicit lyrics.
"November Rain" by Guns N' Roses has a literary influence: The lyric is based on a story called Without You by Del James.
Otis Redding often ad-libbed vocals at the end of songs, but for "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay" he just whistled instead - it became some of the most famous whistling in song history.
U2, Carly Simon, Joanna Newsom, Brian Wilson and Fiona Apple have all gone to Van Dyke Parks to make their songs exceptional.
What happens when Kurt Cobain, Iron Maiden and Johnny Lydon are told to lip-synch? Some hilarious "performances."
With the band in danger of being dropped from their label, Alice Cooper drummer Neal Smith co-wrote the song that started their trek from horror show curiosity to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Dean's saga began with "Ariel," a song about falling in love with a Jewish girl from New Jersey.
Rufus Wainwright on "Hallelujah," his album Unfollow The Rules, and getting into his "lyric trance" on 12-hour walks.
Dean wrote the screenplay and lyrics to all the songs in Footloose. His other hits include "Fame" and "All The Man That I Need."