Pete Townshend wrote The Who's "Pinball Wizard" to coax a good review for the Tommy album out of a rock critic who loved pinball. It worked.
The Four Seasons' "Walk Like a Man," released in 1963, was the first Hot 100 #1 hit with a simile in its title.
No Doubt's hit "Don't Speak" is about Gwen Stefani's breakup with the band's bass player, Tony Kanal, after seven years together.
"Constant Craving" by k.d. lang deals with principles of Buddhism, including the cycles of birth and death.
Geffen Records made history on June 27, 1994 when Aerosmith's "Head First" became the first major label song made available for exclusive digital download. Download speeds at the time were so slow it took around 75 minutes to download the track.
At the end of "Radar Love," the driver dies in a crash but maintains a psychic bond with the woman he was racing to see. The song's lyricist was inspired by stories of extrasensory perception (ESP).
The Stooges guitarist (and producer of the Kill City album) talks about those early recordings and what really happened with David Bowie.
"Great songwriters don't necessarily have hit songs," says Chris. He's written a bunch, but his fans are more interested in the intricate jams.
Dave explains how the video appropriated the meaning of "Runaway Train," and what he thought of getting parodied by Weird Al.
Pete produced Dwight Yoakam, Michelle Shocked, Meat Puppets, and a very memorable track for Roy Orbison.
If the name Citizen Dick means anything to you, there's a chance you'll get some of these right.
Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.