How the Song Came to Be
How Dr. Hook Got on the ‘Cover of the Rolling Stone’
A band records a song about its burning desire to make it to the cover of the leading music magazine. We’ve got the backstory. Do you know who wrote it?
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The Jaggerz’ ‘The Rapper’: You Know What He’s After
“The song was something that I wrote watching people in nightclubs. You’d see these dudes go over and start rapping to chicks,” said the band’s Donnie Iris.
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The Ides of March and the Story of ‘Vehicle’
They took their band name from a Shakespeare classic, their biggest hit from a real-life incident, and they drove their way up the charts in the year 1970.
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‘Dueling Banjos’ From ‘Deliverance’: An Unlikely Hit
The song, featured prominently in the 1972 thriller, was used without the permission of its composer. There’s actually only one banjo used.
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Brian Wilson & the Beach Boys’ ‘Don’t Worry Baby’: Instant Inspiration
There’s no more representative piece of work to play for a visiting alien as testament to Wilson’s gifts than “Don’t Worry Baby.”
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The Beatles’ ‘I Saw Her Standing There’: Way Beyond Compare
The song is an endless (and endlessly relatable) story, but also a finite one in that it takes place in less than three minutes.
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‘It’s the Real Thing’: When a Coca-Cola Ad Inspired 2 Hit Singles
In 1971, the creative director for the beverage’s ad agency wrote down the words “I’d like to buy the world a Coke.” His vision for a new campaign took off
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Once Upon a Time: Mark Lindsay on the Raiders’ ‘Good Thing’
The group’s lead vocalist talks about writing the hit single with producer Terry Melcher, the wild story of the Los Angeles home they lived in and the Tarantino movie.
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John Fogerty Talks About Writing ‘Proud Mary’
50 years after he began writing one of his most-beloved tracks, the musician shared how the song came to be
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