Radiohead's "Harry Patch (In Memory Of)" is about the last surviving World War I veteran to fight in the trenches.
Will.I.am, literally dreamt up "I Gotta Feelin'." Said the Black Eyed Pea: "Have you ever had a dream where there's a melody in your dream? I'll wake up out of my sleep and record that! 'I Gotta Feelin' was one of those songs."
The "Gunter Glieben Glauten Globen" intro in Def Leppard's "Rock Of Ages" is something their producer Mutt Lange came up with when he got tired of counting them "1, 2, 3, 4..."
Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Keith Moon and John Paul Jones recorded "Beck's Bolero" and almost formed a band. They couldn't find a lead singer, so Page and Jones formed Led Zeppelin.
A key line in "Africa" is "I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become," which is about drifting away from what you really want in life. Toto keyboard player David Paich, who wrote the song, felt his work was consuming him.
"MMMbop" by Hanson was so ubiquitous in 1997 that when the band appeared on SNL, they took part in a skit where Helen Hunt and Will Ferrell seek retribution by trapping them in an elevator and playing the song until they crack. "Now, you will suffer like we did," Hunt tells them.
With the band in danger of being dropped from their label, Alice Cooper drummer Neal Smith co-wrote the song that started their trek from horror show curiosity to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
With $50 and a glue stick, Bruce Pavitt created Sub Pop, a fanzine-turned-label that gave the world Nirvana and grunge. He explains how motivated individuals can shift culture.
We ring the Hell's Bells to see what songs and rockers are sincere in their Satanism, and how much of it is an act.
The man who ran Nirvana's first label gets beyond the sensationalism (drugs, Courtney) to discuss their musical and cultural triumphs in the years before Nevermind.
The top chant artist in the Western world, Krishna Das talks about how these Hindu mantras compare to Christian worship songs.
We've heard of artists putting their hearts into their music, but some take it literally.