Dexys Midnight Runners' "Come on Eileen" is based on a real girl called Eileen that the band's Kevin Rowland had a relationship with in his early teenage years.
Dido helped shut down a Neo-Nazi Web site after learning it was using "White Flag" to promote its hateful messages. Owners of the site had misinterpreted the track as racist and thought they represented their white supremacy views.
The "Mum-mum-mum-ma" hook on lady Gaga's "Poker Face" was sampled from Boney M's 1977 hit "Ma Baker."
The '60s hit "Then He Kissed Me" covered by The Beach Boys as "Then I Kissed Her."
The '40s hit "Rum and Coca-Cola" is really about American soldiers soliciting prostitutes in Trinidad.
The third verse of "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" by Crash Test Dummies ("they shook and lurched all over the church floor...") was inspired by girl whose parents would speak in tongues at their Pentecostal service.
Rufus Wainwright on "Hallelujah," his album Unfollow The Rules, and getting into his "lyric trance" on 12-hour walks.
The first of Billy's five #1 hits was the song that propelled Madonna to stardom. You'd think that would get you a backstage pass, wouldn't you?
Lita talks about how they wrote songs in The Runaways, and how she feels about her biggest hit being written by somebody else.
Emilio talks about what it's like to write and perform with the Tower of Power horns, and why every struggling band should have a friend like Huey Lewis.
The singer/bassist for Concrete Blonde talks about how her songs come from clairvoyance, and takes us through the making of their hit "Joey."
