Quincy Jones wanted to change the title of "Billie Jean" to "Not My Lover" so it wouldn't be confused with the tennis star Billie Jean King. Michael Jackson refused.
The closing lyrics in "One Week" by Barenaked Ladies are "Birchmount Stadium, home of the Robbie," which refers to a soccer tournament in Ontario.
MTV wanted Weezer to record a version of their song "Hash Pipe" as "Half Pipe" to appeal to the skateboarding crowd. The band refused, and MTV listed the song as "H*** Pipe."
Eminem sampled Dido's "Thank You" for his song "Stan," and Dido appeared in his video as Stan's unfortunate wife.
The line, "I feel the snakebite enter my veins," led many to believe the Godsmack song "Voodoo" is about drugs, but it's really about Wiccan ritual, inspired in part by the Wes Craven movie The Serpent and the Rainbow.
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."
Justin wrote the classic "Nights In White Satin," but his fondest musical memories are from a different decade.
The Reverend rants on psychobilly and the egghead academics he bashes in one of his more popular songs.
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.
Call us crazy, but we like it when an artist comes around who doesn't mesh with the status quo.
Does he have beef with Gaga? Is he Sean Lennon's godfather? See if you can tell fact from fiction in the Elton John edition.
