Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" is about Christie Brinkley, who he married, but it started as a song about Elle McPherson, who he also went out with.
"Lean On" was originally sent by Major Lazer to both Rihanna and Nicki Minaj's camps as a slower reggae track. After both parties rejected the tune, Major Lazer recruited Danish singer MØ to supply vocals and recorded it themselves.
The guys who wrote "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" had never been to a baseball game but knew it was a good song topic.
The TV show Cheers was nearly canceled after its first season, but the theme song, "Where Everybody Knows Your Name," was very popular. To satisfy viewer demand, the theme was made into a full song and released as a single.
Members of the San Francisco 49ers, including Dwight Clark, Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott, sang backup on "Hip to Be Square" by Huey Lewis and the News.
Jeff Lynne sang the word "groose" in the chorus of "Don't Bring Me Down" as a nonsense placeholder, but left it in when he found out it means "greetings" in German ("gruss").
It started with a bouncy MTV classic. Nirvana and MCR made them scary, then Gwen, Avril and Madonna put on the pom poms.
The former Metallica bassist talks about his first time writing a song with James Hetfield, and how a hand-me-down iPad has changed his songwriting.
These overtly religious songs crossed over to the pop charts, despite resistance from fans, and in many cases, churches.
A talk with Martin Popoff about his latest book on Rush and how he assessed the thousands of albums he reviewed.
Wilder's hit "Break My Stride" had an unlikely inspiration: a famous record mogul who rejected it.
Chad tells tales from his time as drummer for Nirvana, and talks about his group Before Cars.