The Cure lead singer Robert Smith wrote "Lovesong" as a wedding present for his fiancée, Mary, shortly before their marriage. They met when he was 14; he says Mary helped him through many difficult periods and essentially saved his life.
Michael McDonald's "I Keep Forgettin'" is based on a '60s song with the same title written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.
"St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion)" was not written for the movie, but for Rick Hanson, a wheelchair athlete whose 1985 "Man In Motion" tour logged 24,856 miles on his wheelchair in 34 countries while raising $26 million for spinal cord research.
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.
"The Reason" by Hoobastank took off on TikTok in 2021 when it soundtracked confessional #NotAPerfectPerson videos about mistakes and regrets. The band made one of their own with the caption: "Realizing 20 years later that you named your band Hoobastank."
New Order got the title for "Blue Monday" from an illustration that read "Goodbye Blue Monday" in the Kurt Vonnegut book Breakfast Of Champions. The image refers to the invention of the washing machine improving housewives' lives.
"When seeds that you sow grow by the wicked moon/Be sure your sins will find you out/Your past will hunt you down and turn to tell on you."
A founding member of the band War, Harold gives a first-person account of one of the most important periods in music history.
The 5-octave voice of the classical rock band Renaissance, Annie is big on creative expression. In this talk, she covers Roy Wood, the history of the band, and where all the money went in the '70s.
A Soul Train dancer takes us through a day on the show, and explains what you had to do to get camera time.
A drummer for one of the most successful metal bands of the last decade, Chris talks about what it's like writing and performing with Slipknot. Metal-neck is a factor.
Songwriters have used cards and card games to make sense of heartache, togetherness, and even Gonorrhea.