Before it was part of a Pink Floyd album title, James Taylor put the line "still I'm on the dark side of the moon" in his 1968 song "Carolina In My Mind." He was living in London and missing his home in North Carolina.
Pink Floyd's "Talkin' Hawkin'" uses a sample of Stephen Hawking's synthesized voice taken from a speech he made for a 1994 British Telecom commercial.
The original "Venus" was a #1 hit for the Dutch band Shocking Blue. Listen to the first line and you'll hear a muffed word: "goddess" was sung as "goddness."
Beck's "Where It's At" is a nod to the early years of hip-hop when DJs would use two turntables to loop drum breaks, and a microphone to hype the crowd ("two turntables and a microphone...").
The riff for The Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant" was pinched from a very unpunk song, the ABBA ballad "S.O.S."
"Constant Craving" by k.d. lang deals with principles of Buddhism, including the cycles of birth and death.
The evolution of the symbol that was Prince's name from 1993-2000.
When a waitress wouldn't take him home, Jack wrote what would become one of the Eagles most enduring hits.
When a song describes a wedding, it's rarely something to celebrate - with one big exception.
U2, Carly Simon, Joanna Newsom, Brian Wilson and Fiona Apple have all gone to Van Dyke Parks to make their songs exceptional.
Meshell Ndegeocello talks about recording "Wild Night" with John Mellencamp, and explains why she shied away from the spotlight.
