Members of the San Francisco 49ers, including Dwight Clark, Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott, sang backup on "Hip to Be Square" by Huey Lewis and the News.
"I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)" by Jay-Z borrows four bars from Notorious B.I.G's "The World Is Filled." Jay-Z and Biggie Smalls attended Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School in Brooklyn, New York, at the same time.
"We Will Become Silhouettes" by The Postal Service sounds happy and fun, but it's a very bleak song about a nuclear winter. Lead singer Ben Gibbard wrote the lyric while ruminating over 9/11.
Demi Lovato recorded a Spanish version of her song "Skyscraper," but she doesn't speak Spanish. She performed it on a Latin music awards show with help from a teleprompter.
The Matchbox Twenty song "3 AM" is about the difficult times lead singer Rob Thomas spent caring for his mother, who had cancer.
Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The U.S.A." was inspired by the book (later a movie) Born On The Fourth Of July by Ron Kovic, a Vietnam veteran who protested the war when he returned home.
The original voice of Snap! this story is filled with angry drag queens, video impersonators and Chaka Khan.
Pool balls, magpies and thorns without roses - how well do you know your Tom Waits lyrics?
Where words like "email," "thirsty," "Twitter" and "gangsta" first showed up in songs, and which songs popularized them.
When a waitress wouldn't take him home, Jack wrote what would become one of the Eagles most enduring hits.
His keyboard work helped define the Muscle Shoals sound and make him an integral part of many Neil Young recordings. Spooner is also an accomplished songwriter, whose hits include "I'm Your Puppet" and "Cry Like A Baby."
Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz on where the term "new wave" originated, the story of "Naive Melody," and why they never recorded another cover song after "Take Me To The River."