"Paranoid" reflects a feeling Black Sabbath bass player Geezer Butler often felt after using drugs.
"Diamonds From Sierra Leone" by Kanye West is about the "blood diamonds" mined using child labor in Africa. It also serves as a shout-out to Roc-A-Fella records, known for a diamond-shaped hand signal.
Until December 5, 1998, a song had to be issued as a single to make the Hot 100. Aaliyah's "Try Again" was the first tune to top the chart based on airplay alone, without any sales figures being included.
The name "Schoolhouse Rock," which was a series of educational cartoons, was a play on "Jailhouse Rock," the title of an Elvis Presley song.
Roger Daltrey stutters the vocal on "My Generation" by The Who. The idea was to sound like a British kid on speed.
When Petula Clark reached #1 in the US with "Downtown" in 1965, she became the first female singer from England to hit #1 in the US during the Rock Era (after 1955).
Rick Astley on "Never Gonna Give You Up," "Cry For Help," and his remarkable resurgence that gave him another #1 UK album.
Daniel Lanois on his album Heavy Sun, and the inside stories of songs he produced for U2, Peter Gabriel, and Bob Dylan.
Was a Beatles song a TV theme? And who came up with those Fresh Prince and Sopranos songs?
Sheryl Crow's longtime songwriting partner/guitarist Jeff Trott reveals the stories behind many of the singer's hits, and what its like to be a producer for Leighton Meester and Max Gomez.
Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.
Famous songs that lent their titles - and in some cases storylines - to movies.