"Baby One More Time" was originally offered to TLC but they passed on it. The R&B trio felt uncomfortable singing "'hit me baby one more time."
Florida Georgia Line's "Cruise" was the first-ever country single to earn diamond certification (10 million units sold) from the RIAA.
Dexys Midnight Runners' "Come on Eileen" is based on a real girl called Eileen that the band's Kevin Rowland had a relationship with in his early teenage years.
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.
"Stand By Me" hit #4 in the US when it was released in 1961, then went to #9 in 1986 when it was used in the movie of the same name.
Jay-Z was going to ask Mary J. Blige to duet on "Empire State of Mind," but he decided on Alicia Keys when he heard the piano stabs on the track.
Dean wrote the screenplay and lyrics to all the songs in Footloose. His other hits include "Fame" and "All The Man That I Need."
Billy Joel and Hall & Oates hated making videos, so they chose a director with similar contempt for the medium. That was Jay Dubin, and he has a lot to say on the subject.
Newman makes it look easy these days, but in this 1974 interview, he reveals the paranoia and pressures that made him yearn for his old 9-5 job.
She thinks of herself as a "song interpreter," but back in the '80s another country star convinced Emmylou to take a crack at songwriting.
Scaramouch, a hoople and a superhero soundtrack - see if you can spot the real Queen stories.
