Aimee Mann's "Save Me" was inspired by her relationship with the actor Dave Foley, who had gone through a divorce and was an emotional train wreck.
Rob Reiner named his 1986 movie "Stand By Me" after the song, since he thought The Body, a Stephen King story on which it was based, sounded like a horror movie.
Musically, the Twisted Sister song "We're Not Gonna Take It" is based on the Christmas tune "O Come All Ye Faithful."
The Ben Folds Five song "Brick" is about a difficult time when Folds' girlfriend got an abortion.
Michael Stipe hadn't finished the lyrics when R.E.M. recorded "Radio Free Europe." He calls the vocal "complete babbling."
She thinks of herself as a "song interpreter," but back in the '80s another country star convinced Emmylou to take a crack at songwriting.
Jim talks about the impact of "The Middle" and uses a tree metaphor to describe his songwriting philosophy.
Steve Cropper on the making of "In the Midnight Hour," the chicken-wire scene in The Blues Brothers, and his 2021 album, Fire It Up.
Songs about drugs, revolution and greed that have been used in commercials for sneakers, jeans, fast food, cruises and cars.
Here is the church, here is the steeple - see if you can identify these lyrics that reference church.
How the American gangsta rappers made history by getting banned in the UK.
