"Tenderness" by General Public was partly inspired by the outbreak of AIDS, which at the time was thought to be contagious.
Otis Redding often ad-libbed vocals at the end of songs, but for "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay" he just whistled instead - it became some of the most famous whistling in song history.
When Marc Cohn played "True Companion" to his girlfriend, she thought he was proposing. He wasn't, but he did eventually marry her.
Dan Tyminski, the singer on Avicii's "Hey Brother" is the same guy who sang lead vocal on "A Man Of Constant Sorrow" in the movie O’ Brother, Where Art Thou.
MTV wanted Weezer to record a version of their song "Hash Pipe" as "Half Pipe" to appeal to the skateboarding crowd. The band refused, and MTV listed the song as "H*** Pipe."
Feist's "1234" is "about lost love, and the hope to recapture what you once had," but it's best known for the Sesame Street version about counting to four.
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.
The guy who brought us "Stacy's Mom" also wrote the Jane Lynch Emmy song and Stephen Colbert's Christmas songs.
Dave explains how the video appropriated the meaning of "Runaway Train," and what he thought of getting parodied by Weird Al.
A song he wrote and recorded from "sheer spiritual inspiration," Allen's didn't think "Southern Nights" had hit potential until Glen Campbell took it to #1 two years later.
Switchfoot's frontman and main songwriter on what inspires the songs and how he got the freedom to say exactly what he means.
"Dead Skunk" became a stinker for Loudon when he felt pressure to make another hit - his latest songs deal with mortality, his son Rufus, and picking up poop.