The music video for "You Are A Tourist" by Death Cab For Cutie was done live on the internet, becoming the first live, scripted, single-take music video recorded that way.
Rob Reiner named his 1986 movie "Stand By Me" after the song, since he thought The Body, a Stephen King story on which it was based, sounded like a horror movie.
Neil Young later apologized for "Southern Man," calling it "accusatory and condescending" in its portrayal of the American South.
George Harrison's 1971 song "Bangla Desh" was the first major charity single. It was part of a concert held to bring relief to the people of Bangladesh, who were fighting for independence and suffering from a famine.
Ed Sheeran's "Bloodstream" was written after an experience taking MDMA during a wedding celebration in Ibiza, and it's basically about all the feelings that he got from that time.
Beck's "Where It's At" is a nod to the early years of hip-hop, when DJs would use two turntable to loop drum breaks, and a microphone to hype the crowd.
How well do you know your protest songs (including the one that went to #1)?
Into the vaults for this talk with Bolton from the '80s when he was a focused on writing songs for other artists.
Wolfgang Van Halen breaks down the songs on his debut album, Mammoth WVH, and names the definitive Van Halen songs from the Sammy and Dave eras.
He wrote "She Blinded Me With Science" so he could direct a video about a home for deranged scientists.
For songwriters, Johnny represents the American man. He has been angry, cool, magic, a rebel and, of course, marching home.
Phone booths are nearly extinct, but they provided storylines for some of the most profound songs of the pre-cell phone era.