"Ain't No Sunshine" by Bill Withers was inspired by the Jack Lemmon movie Days of Wine and Roses.
The Hollies hit "The Air That I Breathe" was written in part as a reaction to the smog in Los Angeles.
"After Midnight" was written by the Oklahoma guitarist J.J. Cale, who was dirt poor until Eric Clapton recorded his song and turned it into a hit.
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."
Train's guitarist had to Google an instructional video to learn how to play the ukulele for "Hey Soul Sister."
Chuck Berry's only #1 hit was "My Ding-a-Ling," a novelty song about a boy and his... you know.
The lead singer/lyricist of The Beach Boys talks about coming up with the words for "Good Vibrations," "Fun, Fun, Fun," "Kokomo" and other classic songs.
MTV, a popular TV theme song and Madonna all show up in this '80s music quiz.
"How much does it cost? I'll buy it?" Another songwriter told Jonathan to change these lyrics. Good thing he ignored this advice.
A Soul Train dancer takes us through a day on the show, and explains what you had to do to get camera time.
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.
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?