How the Song Came to Be
The Scene: How the Song Came to Be

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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The Scene: How the Song Came to Be

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 Scene: 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 Scene: How the Song Came to Be

Elton John’s ‘Levon’: A Pauper to a Pawn

The first single from 1971’s Madman Across the Water is “one of our finest moments lyrically and melodically” and includes Paul Buckmaster’s soaring orchestral arrangements.

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The Scene: How the Song Came to Be

First Banger: The Shredding Delight of the Beatles’ ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’

This is the first Beatles guitar solo that shreds, and it’s hard to fathom/estimate how many kids decided they wanted to be guitar heroes upon hearing Harrison’s thrilling break.

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The Scene: How the Song Came to Be

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 Scene: How the Song Came to Be

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 Scene: How the Song Came to Be

Johnny Cash—’A Boy Named Sue’: Behind the Song

“That’s the most cleverly written song I’ve ever heard,” Cash told the song’s composer. It became Cash’s biggest hit single.

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The Scene: How the Song Came to Be

‘Dancing in the Moonlight’—The Circuitous Path of the One and Only King Harvest Hit

Everybody was “Dancing in the Moonlight” in the early ’70s, but who was the band that recorded this catchy one-hit wonder? We decided to find out.

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The Scene: How the Song Came to Be

‘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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