A key line in "Africa" is "I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become," which is about drifting away from what you really want in life. Toto keyboard player David Paich, who wrote the song, felt his work was consuming him.
"I Swear" was a #1 country hit for John Michael Montgomery before All-4-One made it a #1 pop hit.
The moans of pleasure in the Guns N' Roses song "Rocket Queen" are authentic.
Fall Out Boy's "The Phoenix" samples the classical work "Allegro Non Troppo," which was composed by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1941. Vocalist Patrick Stump was inspired by "the creepiness" of the strings.
Neil Diamond wrote "I'm A Believer" early in his career. It was a hit for The Monkees and revived by Smash Mouth in 2001 for the movie Shrek, helping make Diamond cool again.
The song "Without You," a hit for Nilsson in 1972 and Mariah Carey in 1994, was written and originally recorded by Badfinger in 1970.
On the "schizoid element" of his lyrics, and a famous line from "Everything Zen."
Tyler talks about his true love: songwriting. How he identifies the beauty in a melody and turns sorrow into art.
Iron Maiden, Adele, Toto, Eminem and Earth, Wind & Fire are just some of the artists with songs directly inspired by movies - and not always good ones.
Rickie Lee Jones on songwriting, social media, and how she's handling Trump.
Charlotte was established in the LA punk scene when a freaky girl named Belinda approached her wearing a garbage bag.
The king of Christian worship music explains talks about writing songs for troubled times.