When Keith Urban played "Somebody Like You" for his girlfriend, she called him a hypocrite because he "sucked at relationships."
John Mellencamp considers "Pink Houses" an "anti-American song," laying bare the struggles of the poor and working class.
Bob Marley's "I Shot The Sheriff" deals with police brutality in the Trenchtown section of Jamaica, where he grew up. He felt that police assumed young men in the area were all criminals.
MC Skat Kat was created for the remix of "Opposites Attract," which was released as the last single from Paula Abdul's Forever Your Girl album. The team that created the Kat also did a-ha's "Take On Me" video.
Meghan Trainor and her producer Kevin Kadish wrote "All About That Bass" for another artist to record, but after Epic Records boss LA Reid heard Meghan play a demo of the song on a ukulele, he signed her to his label and told her she should sing it.
"Jessie's Girl" was the #1 song in America when MTV went on the air. They put it in hot rotation right away, making the song even more popular.
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.
Collaborating with T Bone Burnett, Leslie Phillips changed her name and left her Christian label behind - Robert Plant, who recorded one of her songs on Raising Sand, is a fan.
Bridesmaids, Reservoir Dogs, Willy Wonka - just a few of the flicks where characters discuss specific songs, sometimes as a prelude to murder.
Into the vaults for this talk with Bolton from the '80s when he was a focused on writing songs for other artists.
"How much does it cost? I'll buy it?" Another songwriter told Jonathan to change these lyrics. Good thing he ignored this advice.
She thinks of herself as a "song interpreter," but back in the '80s another country star convinced Emmylou to take a crack at songwriting.