Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" is about their founding member Syd Barrett, who became an acid casualty. Notice the S-Y-D in the title.
"Grenade" was a term used on the show Jersey Shore to mean an ugly girl. Bruno Mars says his hit song with that title was written before the show started.
The first popular song to use the phrase "Heavy Metal" was "Born To Be Wild" by Steppenwolf, which was featured in the movie Easy Rider.
Ellie Goulding's hit single "Burn" was originally demoed by Leona Lewis for her 2011 Glassheart album. She scrapped the tune when the project was retooled to include more ballads.
Jessie J had a lyric from her song "Who You Are" tattooed on her hip, but she spelled "lose" incorrectly so it reads: "Don't loose who you are in the blur of the stars."
"Lean On" was originally sent by Major Lazer to both Rihanna and Nicki Minaj's camps as a slower reggae track. After both parties rejected the tune, Major Lazer recruited Danish singer MØ to supply vocals and recorded it themselves.
Do you know who wrote Patti Smith's biggest hit? How about the Grease theme song? See if you can match the song to the writer.
Julian tells the stories behind his hits "Valotte" and "Too Late for Goodbyes," and fills us in on his many non-musical pursuits. Also: what MTV meant to his career.
How a gym teacher, a janitor, and a junkie became part of some very famous band names.
Waters tells the "Gypsy Woman" story, shares some of her songwriting insights, and explains how Dennis Rodman ended up on one of her songs.
A talk with Martin Popoff about his latest book on Rush and how he assessed the thousands of albums he reviewed.
It took him seven years to recover from his American hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)," but Chris Rea became one of the top singer-songwriters in his native UK.