The riff for The Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant" was pinched from a very unpunk song, the ABBA ballad "S.O.S."
The title of Al Stewart's "Year Of The Cat" comes from Vietnamese astrology. The Year of the Cat comes every 12 Years: 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011, 2023...
The eerie percussion and guitar for Portsihead's "Sour Times" was sampled from Lalo Schifrin's "Danube Incident," music composed by the Argentine composer for an episode of Mission Impossible.
At 9:57, David Bowie's "Blackstar" was the longest song to reach the Hot 100 until 2019, when Tool bested the record with the 10:21 "Fear Inoculum."
A live, stripped-down version of "Flying Without Wings" by the Irish boy band Westlife was the first #1 on the Official UK Download Chart. It was recorded in May 1994 at The Globe, Stockholm.
"Paranoid" reflects a feeling Black Sabbath bass player Geezer Butler often felt after using drugs.
How did The Edge get his name? Did they name a song after a Tolkien book? And who is "Angel of Harlem" about?
Rob Halford, Richie Faulkner and Glenn Tipton talk twin guitar harmonies and explain how they create songs in Judas Priest.
Is "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" about Vietnam? Was John Fogerty really born on a Bayou? It's the CCR edition of Fact or Fiction.
In the summer of 1990, you could get arrested for selling a 2 Live Crew album or performing their songs in Southern Florida. And that's exactly what happened.
Director Mark Pellington on Pearl Jam's "Jeremy," and music videos he made for U2, Jon Bon Jovi and Imagine Dragons.
Billie Jean, Delilah, Sara, Laura and Sharona - do you know who the girls in the songs really are?