Fall Out Boy's "The Phoenix" samples the classical work "Allegro Non Troppo," which was composed by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1941. Vocalist Patrick Stump was inspired by "the creepiness" of the strings.
New Order took the title for "Blue Monday" from an illustration, which read "Goodbye Blue Monday," in the Kurt Vonnegut book Breakfast Of Champions. The image referred to the invention of the washing machine improving housewives' lives.
A roadie for the Allman Brothers came up with the line "The road goes on forever" for "Midnight Rider," and got a songwriting credit for his contribution.
The video for "Informer" by Snow that ran on MTV was subtitled so viewers could understand what he was saying.
"Kokomo" gave The Beach Boys their first #1 hit in 22 years. They picked the title because it sounded tropical.
The Starland Vocal Band got the title "Afternoon Delight" from the late-afternoon appetizer menu at the restaurant Clyde's Of Georgetown in Washington, DC.
It started with a bouncy MTV classic. Nirvana and MCR made them scary, then Gwen, Avril and Madonna put on the pom poms.
Ian talks about his 3 or 4 blatant attempts to write a pop song, and also the ones he most connected with, including "Locomotive Breath."
The lead singer of Everclear, Art is also their primary songwriter.
A renowned guitarist and rock revivalist, Dave took "I Hear You Knocking" to the top of the UK charts and was the first to record Elvis Costello's "Girls Talk."
Faith No More's bassist, Billy Gould, chats to us about his two new experimental projects, The Talking Book and House of Hayduk, and also shares some stories from the FNM days.
Doors expert Jim Cherry, author of The Doors Examined, talks about some of their defining songs and exposes some Jim Morrison myths.
