The first line of "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" is "It was the 3rd of September," which is the day lead singer Dennis Edwards' father died.
The Mission: Impossible theme is in 5/4 time. Composer Lalo Schifrin joked that he did it so 5-legged aliens could dance to it.
When the Velvet Underground song "Heroin" got screechy, Maureen Tucker stopped drumming, figuring it would bust the take, but her bandmates kept going. You can hear it at the 5:20 mark.
"Come Dancing" by The Kinks was inspired by the older sister of Ray Davies, who would make guys take her out dancing and spend their money on her, only to send them home frustrated with just a peck on the cheek.
The Goo Goo Dolls got the title for their song "Iris" from a country singer named Iris DeMent. The word doesn't show up in the lyric; lead singer Johnny Rzeznik said he was "trying to be pretentious and arty by calling it that."
Wolfgang Van Halen breaks down the songs on his debut album, Mammoth WVH, and names the definitive Van Halen songs from the Sammy and Dave eras.
MTV, a popular TV theme song and Madonna all show up in this '80s music quiz.
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.
Was "Pearl" Eddie Vedder's grandmother, and did she really make a hallucinogenic jam? Did Journey have a contest to name the group? And what does KISS stand for anyway?
Songwriting Hall of Famer Linda Perry talks about her songs "What's Up" and "Beautiful," her songwriting process, and her move into film music.
The renown rock singer talks about "The House of the Rising Sun" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood."
