
Dexys Midnight Runners' "Come on Eileen" is based on a real girl called Eileen that the band's Kevin Rowland had a relationship with in his early teenage years.

On Missy Elliott's "Work It," the backward vocal is the previous line, "Put my thing down, flip it, and reverse it," in reverse. She stumbled on it when the engineer played it backward by mistake.

2001 was when collaborations between rappers and singers became commonplace, leading to a new Grammy category: Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. The first winner was "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" by Eve and Gwen Stefani. This was before Stefani put out her first solo album.

Post Malone came up with "White Iverson" after getting braids in his hair and thinking they looked like basketball legend Allen Iverson's signature cornrows.

Michael Jackson wrote the Diana Ross hit "Muscles," which he named after his pet boa constrictor.

"Today" by Smashing Pumpkins is sarcastic in the line "today is the greatest day." Lead singer Billy Corgan wrote it about the crippling depression he was battling following the band's first big tour.
The head of Drake's estate shares his insights on the late folk singer's life and music.
Fagen talks about how the Steely Dan songwriting strategy has changed over the years, and explains why you don't hear many covers of their songs.
Not everyone can be a superhero, but that hasn't stopped generations of musicians from trying to be Superman.
Genesis' key-man re-examines his solo career and the early days of music video.
The first of Billy's five #1 hits was the song that propelled Madonna to stardom. You'd think that would get you a backstage pass, wouldn't you?
Billie Jean, Delilah, Sara, Laura and Sharona - do you know who the girls in the songs really are?