The thunderclap sound heard in the Bee Gees song "Tragedy" was made by Barry Gibb with his mouth.
Grazing In The Grass by The Friends Of Distinction was the first big hit to use the phrase "dig it" in the lyric.
The philosophical Kansas song "Dust In The Wind" is inspired by a line of Native American poetry: "For all we are is dust in the wind."
"All I Wanna Do" by Sheryl Crow started with the first line from an obscure poem called "Fun" that read, "All I wanna do is have some fun."
When the Velvet Underground song "Heroin" got screechy, Maureen Tucker stopped drumming, figuring it would bust the take, but her bandmates kept going. You can hear it at the 5:20 mark.
"Yellow" by Coldplay is a deep, meaningful song, but the title has a rather prosaic origin: it came from the phone directory, known as "the yellow pages."
The Brazilian rocker sees pictures in his riffs. When he came up with one of his gnarliest songs, there was a riot going on.
Waters tells the "Gypsy Woman" story, shares some of her songwriting insights, and explains how Dennis Rodman ended up on one of her songs.
Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan explains the "few red lights" in "Smoke On The Water" and talks about songs from their 2020 album Whoosh!
Guitarist Tony Iommi on the "Iron Man" riff, the definitive Black Sabbath song, and how Ozzy and Dio compared as songwriters.
The longtime bassist of Earth, Wind & Fire discusses how his band came to do a holiday album, and offers insight into some of the greatest dance/soul tunes of all-time.
Rockers, rappers and pop stars have been known to quote the Bible in their songs. See if you match the artist to the biblical lyric.