How the Song Came to Be
Dr. Hook on ‘Cover of the Rolling Stone’: 50 Years Ago
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 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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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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Johnny Cash’s ‘A Boy Named Sue’: The Story Behind the Song
“That’s the most cleverly written song I’ve ever heard,” Cash told the song’s composer, Shel Silverstein. It became Cash’s biggest hit single.
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Deliverance’s ‘Dueling Banjos’: 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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The Doobie Brothers’ ‘What a Fool Believes’: Behind Their #1 Hit
The song almost didn’t happen. Michael McDonald’s sister told him it sounded like ‘circus music’ and to forget it. Good thing he didn’t listen to her!
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The Five Americans’ Catchy Hit, ‘Western Union’: Dit-Da-Dit-Da-Dit
The clean-cut band from Oklahoma chose its name to help stand out from groups that were part of the British Invasion, and scored a catchy single in 1967
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‘It’s the Real Thing’: When a Coke 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 songs, the musician shared how he first started writing it and how the title came to be
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