Michael Stipe hadn't finished the lyrics when R.E.M. recorded "Radio Free Europe." He calls the vocal "complete babbling."
Michael Jackson's 1995 song "You Are Not Alone" was the first single in US history to enter the Billboard Hot 100 chart at #1
Lady Gaga is a big fan of horror movies; listen for the names of these three Alfred Hitchcock films in the lyrics to "Bad Romance": Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window.
The game Lana Del Rey sings about in "Video Games" is World of Warcraft - her ex used to play it all the time.
"Diamonds From Sierra Leone" by Kanye West is about the "blood diamonds" mined using child labor in Africa. It also serves as a shout-out to Roc-A-Fella records, known for a diamond-shaped hand signal.
The original "Venus" was a #1 hit for the Dutch band Shocking Blue. Listen to the first line and you'll hear a muffed word: "goddess" was sung as "goddness."
With the rise of Kindie rock, more musicians are embracing their inner child with tunes for tots - here, we look at pop stars who recorded kids' albums.
It started with a bouncy MTV classic. Nirvana and MCR made them scary, then Gwen, Avril and Madonna put on the pom poms.
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.
If the name Citizen Dick means anything to you, there's a chance you'll get some of these right.
Eddie (played by Johnny Depp in the video) found fame fleeting, but Chuck Berry's made-up musician fared better.
After cutting his teeth on hardcore punk videos, Paul defined the grunge look with his work on "Hunger Strike" and "Man in the Box."