"The Way We Were" was the first of five #1 singles by Barbra Streisand. She is the only artist ever to receive an Oscar, Tony, Emmy and Grammy, and also record a #1 single and album.

Lou Reed's 11-minute "Street Hassle" features a spoken part by Bruce Springsteen.

The UK band The Lightning Seeds of "Pure" fame got their name from a misheard line in Prince's "Raspberry Beret," mistaking "thunder drowns out what the lightning sees" for "thunder drowns out the lightning seeds."

The hit duet "Somewhere Out There" was written for an animated film about a family of immigrant mice who lose one of their young.

The first rap song to make the Hot 100 was "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang in 1979. At the time, many considered rap a fad that would soon pass.

Ronnie Van Zant wrote the Lynyrd Skynyrd classic "Gimme Three Steps" after making the mistake of dancing with a girl whose boyfriend was in the bar and probably had a gun. He asked for a 3-step head start.
Not everyone can be a superhero, but that hasn't stopped generations of musicians from trying to be Superman.
These Three famous songs actually describe how they were written - late into the evening.
The co-writer/guitarist on many Alice Cooper hits, Dick was also Lou Reed's axeman on the Rock n' Roll Animal album.
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."
Lita talks about how they wrote songs in The Runaways, and how she feels about her biggest hit being written by somebody else.
Iron Maiden, Adele, Toto, Eminem and Earth, Wind & Fire are just some of the artists with songs directly inspired by movies - and not always good ones.