Pete Townshend wrote The Who's "Pinball Wizard" to coax a good review for the Tommy album out of a rock critic who loved pinball. It worked.
Ed Sheeran's "Bloodstream" was written after an experience taking MDMA during a wedding celebration in Ibiza; it's basically about all the feelings that he got from that time.
Listen carefully and you'll hear the sound of birds in "Birds Of A Feather" by Billie Eilish. Her brother/producer Finneas couldn't resist putting them in, but he kept them real quiet in the mix.
"The Candy Man" is the opening song in the 1971 movie Willie Wonka And The Chocolate Factory, but the version released as a single was by Rat Pack member Sammy Davis Jr. It was a #1 hit and became his signature song even though his audience was very adult.
Billy Joel's "My Life" was used as the theme song to the 1980 TV show Bosom Buddies, which starred a young Tom Hanks as a guy who lives in a hotel for women by dressing up as a girl.
Korn's most popular song, "Freak On A Leash," is about their predatory record label making huge profits off the band. It was quite profitable, helping the Follow The Leader album sell over 5 million copies.
John Lennon, Paul Simon and Lynyrd Skynyrd are some of the artists who have written revenge songs. Do you know who they wrote them about?
Steppenwolf frontman John Kay talks about "Magic Carpet Ride," "Born To Be Wild," and what he values more than awards and accolades.
From "Some Day My Prince Will Come" to "Let It Go" - how Disney princess songs (and the women who sing them) have evolved.
When he joined Guns N' Roses in 1990, Matt helped them craft an orchestral sound; his mezzo fortes and pianissimos are all over "November Rain."
An original member of Depeche Mode, Vince went on to form Erasure and Yaz.
The "All I Want" singer went through a long depression, playing some shows when he didn't want to be alive.