One of the first teenage stars of the Rock Era was Lesley Gore, who was just 16 when she recorded "It's My Party," a huge hit in 1963. It gave us the iconic phrase, "It's my party, I'll cry if I want to."
Kacey Musgraves offered "Follow Your Arrow" to her friend Katy Perry, but Perry thought Musgraves should record the song herself, telling Kacey it seemed "like something that you would totally say."
Tim McGraw recorded "Live Like You Were Dying" just two weeks after his own father passed away.
After the Beastie Boys sampled a bunch of Led Zeppelin songs, Robert Plant did it himself on his 1988 solo hit "Tall Cool One," which sampled "Whole Lotta Love," "Black Dog" and "The Ocean."
"Mercedes Boy" by Pebbles is about a real guy she fell in love with - they both drove Mercedes when she wrote it.
It was never a big hit, but the uplifting "Mr. Blue Sky" has endured as Electric Light Orchestra's most popular song. Group leader Jeff Lynne wrote it when after two weeks of gloomy weather, the clouds parted to reveal a beautiful day.
Have you got the smarts to know which of these graduation song stories are real?
Edie Brickell on her collaborations with Paul Simon, Steve Martin and Willie Nelson, and her 2021 album with the New Bohemians.
The drummer and one of the primary songwriters in Grand Funk talks rock stardom and Todd Rundgren.
You may not recognize his name, but you will certainly recognize Peter Lord's songs. He wrote the bevy of hits from Paula Abdul's second album, Spellbound.
Did Eric Clapton really steal George's wife? What's the George Harrison-Monty Python connection? Set the record straight with our Fact or Fiction quiz.
