"Run To You" by Bryan Adams was written for Blue Oyster Cult, and the guitar part is modeled after "Don't Fear The Reaper." BOC turned it down, so Adams recorded it for his album Reckless.
David Bowie's "Space Oddity" tells the story of an astronaut who cuts off communication and floats into space. The BBC used it extensively in their coverage of the 1969 moon landing - an odd choice considering the lyrics.
"Achy Breaky Heart" was originally recorded in 1991 by The Marcy Brothers as "Don't Tell My Heart." That original version had the lyrics: "Don't tell my heart, my achy, breakin' heart..."
Pete Townshend wrote the lyrics for "My Generation" during a train ride from London to Southampton on his 20th birthday.
Meghan Trainor and her producer Kevin Kadish originally wrote "All About That Bass" for another artist to record. However, after Epic Records boss LA Reid heard Meghan play a demo of the song on a ukulele, he signed the young songwriter to his label and told her she should sing it.
Often heard as a patriotic song, "Down Under" is really about the selling of Australia and makes a strong political statement.
Into the vaults for this talk with Bolton from the '80s when he was a focused on writing songs for other artists.
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.
Kevin Godley talks about directing classic videos for The Police, U2 and Duran Duran, and discusses song and videos he made with 10cc and Godley & Creme.
One of the most successful songwriters in the business, Desmond co-wrote "Livin' La Vida Loca," "Dude (Looks Like A Lady)" and "Livin' On A Prayer."
The renown Texas songwriter has been at it for 40 years, with tales to tell about The Flatlanders and The Clash - that's Joe's Tex-Mex on "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"
