Tina Turner hated "What's Love Got To Do With It" but when her manager convinced her to record it anyway, it became her big comeback hit.
The R.E.M. song "Don't Go Back To Rockville" is about Mike Mills' girlfriend at the University of Georgia, who had to go back to Rockville, Maryland, for the summer.
"Master Blaster (Jammin')" is Stevie Wonder's tribute to Bob Marley, released less than a year before Marley died.
Drake's "One Dance" was the first ever song to rack up one billion streams on Spotify.
ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson conceived "Dancing Queen" as a dance song with the working title "Boogaloo," drawing inspiration from the 1974 George McCrae disco hit "Rock Your Baby." Their manager Stig Anderson came up with the title "Dancing Queen."
Jimi Hendrix wrote "The Wind Cries Mary" not about marijuana, but about his girlfriend at the time, Kathy Mary Etchingham.
It wasn't her biggest hit as a songwriter (that would be "Bette Davis Eyes"), but "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" had a family connection for Jackie.
Rick has a surprising dark side, a strong feminine side and, in a certain TV show, a naked backside. But he still hasn't found Jessie's Girl.
The Bush frontman on where he finds inspiration for lyrics, if his "machine head" is a guitar tuner, and the stories behind songs from the album The Kingdom.
The renown Texas songwriter has been at it for 40 years, with tales to tell about The Flatlanders and The Clash - that's Joe's Tex-Mex on "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"
The Reverend rants on psychobilly and the egghead academics he bashes in one of his more popular songs.
The revered singer-songwriter talks inspiration and explains why she put a mahout in "Drop the Pilot."