"I Won't Back Down" is a very personal song for Tom Petty. "I thought it wasn't that good because it was so naked," he said.
"Paper Planes" was inspired by M.I.A.'s hassles trying to get a visa to enter America.
"Magic" was the first word to serve as both the title of a #1 hit (Olivia Newton-John's 1980 tune "Magic") and the name of an artist behind a chart-topping song (Magic!'s 2014 hit "Rude").
Imagine Dragons lead singer Dan Reynolds says their 2012 hit "Radioactive" is "a song about having an awakening; kind of waking up one day and deciding to do something new, and see life in a fresh way."
"You Get What You Give" by The New Radicals was the first hit song to use the word "frenemies" in the lyrics.
"Rio" by Duran Duran is a metaphor for America, where the band was trying to break through.
Phone booths are nearly extinct, but they provided storylines for some of the most profound songs of the pre-cell phone era.
After studying in Paris with a famous composition teacher, Charles became the most successful writer of TV theme songs.
Lita talks about how they wrote songs in The Runaways, and how she feels about her biggest hit being written by somebody else.
Oliver Leiber talks about writing and producing hits for Paula Abdul, and explains his complicated relationship with his father, the songwriter Jerry Leiber.
How well do you know your protest songs (including the one that went to #1)?
Brenda talks about the inspiration that drove her to write hit songs like "Get Here" and "Piano in the Dark," and why a lack of formal music training can be a songwriter's best asset.