The first #1 hit with a rap was "Rapture" by Blondie in 1980. Debbie Harry's rhymes left lots of room for improvement.
The Naughty by Nature hit "O.P.P." doesn't have any curse words, but many oversensitive radio stations played a "clean" version with the word "kitten" edited out, surely the first time that word was censured.
"Girl Crush" by Little Big Town came from the hashtag #girlcrush, which its co-writer, Lori McKenna, spotted on Instagram.
The philosophical Kansas song "Dust In The Wind" is inspired by a line of Native American poetry: "For all we are is dust in the wind."
Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl" was written by Oliver Leiber, who despite being the son of Jerry Leiber from Leiber & Stoller, was an unknown songwriter.
Snap! were two German producers. When they needed a rapper, they found one on the American army base there and had him rap on "The Power."
The longtime bassist of Earth, Wind & Fire discusses how his band came to do a holiday album, and offers insight into some of the greatest dance/soul tunes of all-time.
The Prince-penned "Manic Monday" was the first song The Bangles heard coming from a car radio, but "Eternal Flame" is closest to Susanna's heart, perhaps because she sang it in "various states of undress."
In her days with The Runaways, Joan Jett saw The Arrows perform "I Love Rock And Roll," which Alan Merrill co-wrote - that story and much more from this glam rock pioneer.
Into the vaults for this talk with Bolton from the '80s when he was a focused on writing songs for other artists.
Michael tells the story of "Send Me On My Way," and explains why some of the words in the song don't have a literal meaning.
Phone booths are nearly extinct, but they provided storylines for some of the most profound songs of the pre-cell phone era.