Michael Jackson's "Liberian Girl" opens with the South African female singer Letta Mbulu saying the Swahili phrase "Naku penda piya-naku taka piya-mpenziwe." There was some geographic liberty here, as Swahili is not spoken in the West African nation of Liberia.
"Soul Man" was a new term when the song was written in 1967. As defined by Sam & Dave, the "soul man" was a farmer "comin' to ya on a dusty road."
"Midnight Train To Georgia" was originally "Midnight Plane To Houston," but was changed to sound more R&B.
It really was so easy for Linda Ronstadt to score a hit with her Buddy Holly cover of "It's So Easy." She would sometimes change the lyric to: "It's so easy to have a hit, all you have to do is recycle it."
The Bryan Adams song "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" was almost rejected for the movie Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves because it didn't sound medieval enough.
It took him seven years to recover from his American hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)," but Chris Rea became one of the top singer-songwriters in his native UK.
When Judd Apatow needed under-appreciated rockers for his Knocked Up sequel, he immediately thought of Parker, who just happened to be getting his band The Rumour back together.
Who writes a song about a name they found in a phone book? That's just one of the everyday things these guys find to sing about. Anything in their field of vision or general scope of knowledge is fair game. If you cross paths with them, so are you.
A band so baffling, even their names were contrived. Check your score in the Ramones version of Fact or Fiction.
The Third Day frontman talks about some of the classic songs he wrote with the band, and what changed for his solo country album.
The 2011 Artist of the Year at the Dove Awards isn't your typical gospel diva, and she thinks that's a good thing.
