95 Fun Facts About Lyric

What is the term for a misheard song lyric?

A mondegreen: writer Sylvia Wright coined the word in 1954 after hearing a ballad's 'laid him on the green' as 'Lady Mondegreen'.

Whom did Carly Simon reveal in 2015 as the subject of the second verse of 'You're So Vain'?

Warren Beatty: Simon says Beatty thinks the whole song is about him.

In 'Purple Haze', Jimi Hendrix asks to be excused while he kisses what?

The sky: Hendrix sometimes played along in concert, singing 'kiss this guy' while pointing at a bandmate.

'Bad Moon Rising' is famously misheard as warning about what?

A bathroom on the right: John Fogerty has played along, sometimes singing that version himself in concert.

Which 1963 garage-rock single triggered an FBI investigation into its supposedly obscene words?

Louie Louie's lyrics were innocuous but slurred, so FBI agents never worked out what was sung, and the case ended without prosecution.

Which band's 'Don't Stop Believin'' mentions south Detroit, a place that doesn't really exist?

Journey's Steve Perry said he tried north, east and west Detroit, but south sounded best, only to learn later that it's actually Canada.

Which astronomer's name is sung repeatedly in 'Bohemian Rhapsody'?

Galileo Galilei: Mercury kept adding more 'Galileos', and Brian May recalled the overdubbed tape wearing so thin he could see through it.

What is structurally unusual about 'Bohemian Rhapsody' for a hit single?

It has no chorus, and when record companies wanted the six-minute song cut down, Freddie Mercury refused to slice it up.

Which Arabic word is cried out in the opera section of 'Bohemian Rhapsody'?

Bismillah means 'in the name of God', and DJ Kenny Everett's early plays on Capital Radio helped push the song to No. 1 in the UK.

In Don McLean's 'American Pie', 'the day the music died' refers to what?

The 1959 plane crash killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper, and McLean's line became the popular name for it.

How did the eight-minute 'American Pie' fit on a single?

Split across both sides: listeners had to flip the record mid-song, and it still spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100.

Which pop star's shortened 2000 cover of 'American Pie' topped the UK chart?

Madonna recorded it for her film The Next Best Thing, and though polls later ranked it among the worst covers ever, McLean called it 'a gift from a goddess'.

Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' takes its title from what?

A brand of deodorant: Kathleen Hanna wrote 'Kurt smells like Teen Spirit' on his wall, and Cobain didn't know Teen Spirit was a deodorant.

Which band's loud-quiet dynamics did Kurt Cobain say he was copying on 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'?

The Pixies: Cobain said he was trying to write the ultimate pop song and connected so heavily with them he should have been in a Pixies cover band.

Paul McCartney wrote 'Hey Jude' to comfort which child during his parents' divorce?

Julian Lennon: McCartney wrote the song on his way to visit Julian and his mother Cynthia, and first called it 'Hey Jules'.

Why did George Martin worry that radio wouldn't play 'Hey Jude'?

It ran over seven minutes, but when Martin said DJs wouldn't play it, John Lennon shot back, 'They will if it's us.'

John Lennon credited the dreamlike imagery of 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' to which author?

Lewis Carroll's Alice books inspired the imagery, Lennon said, and he swore he had no idea the title's initials spelled LSD.

What gave 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' its title?

A nursery school drawing of a classmate named Lucy came home already called that, and Lennon thought the title too good to pass up.

'Every Breath You Take' is sung from whose point of view?

A possessive lover: Sting called the song 'very, very sinister', and said people misread it as a gentle love song.

At whose Jamaican writing desk did Sting begin writing 'Every Breath You Take'?

Ian Fleming's desk at Goldeneye, where he wrote the Bond novels; guitarist Andy Summers later said his own guitar part is what made the song.

Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the U.S.A.' is narrated by whom?

A Vietnam veteran who comes home to no help, yet Ronald Reagan praised the 'message of hope' in Springsteen's songs on the 1984 campaign trail.

Who wrote 'I Will Always Love You', long before Whitney Houston's hit version?

Dolly Parton wrote it as a farewell to her mentor Porter Wagoner, and turned Elvis down when his manager demanded half the publishing rights.

Whitney Houston recorded 'I Will Always Love You' for which 1992 film?

The Bodyguard picked it at the last minute, after 'What Becomes of the Brokenhearted', the song first planned, was used in another film.

Who wrote 'Nothing Compares 2 U', years before Sinead O'Connor made it famous?

Prince gave it to his side project The Family in 1985, and his own 1984 recording stayed unreleased until his estate put it out in 2018.

Who wrote and first recorded 'Respect', two years before Aretha Franklin's version?

Otis Redding had the first hit with it, but after hearing Aretha Franklin's version he said a girl had taken the song from him.

'Sweet Home Alabama' was written as a reply to songs by which artist?

Neil Young was name-checked for blaming the whole South, and he later wrote that his song 'Alabama' richly deserved the shot Skynyrd gave him.

Iron Butterfly's 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida' is a slurred version of which phrase?

In the Garden of Eden: drummer Ron Bushy couldn't make out singer Doug Ingle's slurred words and wrote the title down as he heard it.

Which Dire Straits song did Mark Knopfler write after overhearing a worker in a New York appliance store?

Money for Nothing: Knopfler borrowed a bit of paper and wrote the song in the store, using the man's own language.

Why did Billboard remove 'Old Town Road' from its Hot Country Songs chart in 2019?

Billboard said it did not fit the genre, not embracing enough of today's country music, yet the Billy Ray Cyrus remix then reached No. 1 on the Hot 100.

How did Lil Nas X know to ask Billy Ray Cyrus for the remix?

From Hannah Montana, per Billy Ray Cyrus, and Lil Nas X was tweeting about getting him on a remix almost as soon as the song came out.

In which 2001 animated film does John Cale's version of 'Hallelujah' play during a key scene?

Shrek used Cale's version in the film, but label loyalty put Rufus Wainwright's recording on the soundtrack album instead.

Whose 1994 album includes a cover of 'Hallelujah'?

Jeff Buckley drowned in 1997, and his 'Hallelujah', modeled on John Cale's rearrangement, later became a posthumous hit single.

Which commedia dell'arte stock character is named in 'Bohemian Rhapsody'?

Scaramouche went unexplained: Freddie Mercury told DJ Kenny Everett the lyrics were simply 'random rhyming nonsense'.

Which 1990 Sinead O'Connor album features 'Nothing Compares 2 U'?

I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got carried the song, and O'Connor said the tear in its video came from thinking of her mother.

Which astronaut does David Bowie sing about in 'Space Oddity'?

Major Tom ends up stranded in space, yet the BBC used 'Space Oddity' as background music for its Apollo 11 moon landing coverage.

Which folk trio made 'Puff, the Magic Dragon' a hit in 1963?

Peter, Paul and Mary's Peter Yarrow built it from a student poem, then tracked down the poet, Lenny Lipton, and gave him half the credit.

Before McCartney had words for 'Yesterday', what placeholder title did the Beatles use?

Scrambled Eggs was only a working title: the melody came to McCartney in a dream, so he asked around the music business to check he hadn't copied it.

In 2017, 46 years after release, who was finally credited as co-writer of 'Imagine'?

Yoko Ono's book Grapefruit inspired the lyric, and Lennon later admitted he had been 'a bit more macho' in leaving her credit off.

Why did Paul Simon say 'Mrs. Robinson' names Joe DiMaggio rather than Mickey Mantle?

The syllables fitted the beat, Simon said, and DiMaggio himself was miffed, since he hadn't gone anywhere.

Bernie Taupin's words for 'Rocket Man' were inspired by a short story by which author?

Ray Bradbury's story reached Bernie Taupin partly through Pearls Before Swine's 1970 'Rocket Man', a song he admitted borrowing from.

Toto's David Paich had never been to Africa when he wrote 'Africa', so where did its scenery come from?

A National Geographic article, and guitarist Steve Lukather swore he'd run naked down Hollywood Boulevard if the song became a hit; it reached No. 1.

Bill Danoff said the title of 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' came to him while driving where?

In Maryland, on Clopper Road; Danoff's West Virginia came partly from hearing Wheeling's WWVA radio as a boy in Massachusetts.

Jim Steinman said 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' was first written as a love song about what?

Vampires: Steinman tied it to Nosferatu, and he later reused the melody in his vampire musical Dance of the Vampires.

The much-misheard 'deuce' in 'Blinded by the Light' refers to what, per Springsteen?

A 1932 Ford hot rod, the deuce coupe; Manfred Mann's cover changed the verb before 'deuce', and fans misheard the word.

1982 claims of Satanic backmasking in 'Stairway to Heaven' led to a hearing where?

In California, an Assembly committee played the song backward; in 1983 Arkansas lawmakers voted to require labels on records with backward messages.

Which Bee Gees disco hit has a tempo of about 103 beats per minute, making it a training aid for CPR?

Stayin' Alive sits inside the 100–120 chest compressions a minute recommended for CPR, and trainees who practise to it keep the rhythm in mind for months afterwards.

Neil Diamond said in 2007 that 'Sweet Caroline' was inspired by a magazine photo of which president's daughter?

John F. Kennedy's daughter Caroline was on a magazine cover that stuck in Diamond's mind; in 2014 he said the song was really about his wife Marcia, whose name had too few syllables.

Whose 1983 debut single 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun' was written four years earlier by a man, Robert Hazard?

Cyndi Lauper changed some of the words, because Hazard had written it as a rock song from a male point of view and played it with bands around Philadelphia.

Which toy company sued over Aqua's hit 'Barbie Girl', only for a US court to rule the song a protected parody?

Mattel said the song damaged the doll's image and lost; in 2023 the Barbie film's own soundtrack sampled it, in Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice's Barbie World.

Which Eminem song from the film 8 Mile was the first hip-hop track to win the Oscar for Best Original Song?

Lose Yourself won while Eminem was asleep, sure that he had no chance; he finally performed it at the Oscars as a surprise guest in 2020.

Which songwriter won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature for new poetic expressions within the American song tradition?

Bob Dylan was the first musician to win the literature prize; he said nothing in public for days, then skipped the Stockholm ceremony, citing other commitments.

Which song did a US judge free from copyright claims in 2015, after Warner/Chappell had charged fees for decades?

Happy Birthday to You kept earning fees until the judge found the copyright covered only one piano arrangement; the publisher later agreed to pay back $14 million.

Which Elton John song, first written about Marilyn Monroe, was rewritten in 1997 for the funeral of Princess Diana?

Candle in the Wind, in its 1997 version, entered the UK chart at number one after a single day of sales and became the best-selling single in UK chart history.

Taylor Swift's hit 'Love Story' borrows the lovers of which Shakespeare play but ends with a marriage proposal?

Romeo and Juliet struck Swift as a tale where only the couple wanted to be together; she disliked Shakespeare's tragic ending, so her version gives the pair a happy one.

Vanilla Ice's 'Ice Ice Baby' takes its bassline from which 1981 duet by Queen and David Bowie?

Under Pressure earned its writers nothing from the rap hit at first; Queen and Bowie were given songwriting credit only after the single had become a hit.

Which Queen anthem did Brian May write around a stomp-stomp-clap beat made by the band's own feet and hands?

We Will Rock You got its stamping from the band overdubbing themselves on a studio drum riser many times, with delay added so it sounded like a huge crowd.

Which blues singer recorded 'Hound Dog' in 1952, four years before Elvis Presley made it a rock and roll hit?

Big Mama Thornton took it to number one on the R&B chart for seven weeks, her only hit; in 2021 Rolling Stone dropped Presley's version from its 500 greatest songs in favour of hers.

Whose 1988 song 'Fast Car' won the Country Music Association's Song of the Year after Luke Combs covered it in 2023?

Tracy Chapman became the first Black person to win that award, 35 years after she released the song; Combs said it had been a personal favourite since his childhood.

Which Eric Clapton ballad from the film Rush was written about the death of his four-year-old son Conor?

Tears in Heaven became Clapton's best-selling single in the United States and won three Grammys, including both Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

Survivor wrote 'Eye of the Tiger' for which Sylvester Stallone film after Queen refused him one of their songs?

Rocky III needed a theme because Queen denied Stallone permission to use Another One Bites the Dust; he asked Survivor for something with a pulse to match the punches.

Which horror film actor recorded the spoken-word section of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' in just two takes?

Vincent Price got the job because producer Quincy Jones's wife was a friend of his and suggested him when the team wanted a famous voice from horror films.

Which ABBA song won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton and was later voted the contest's best ever?

Waterloo uses Napoleon's 1815 defeat as a metaphor, and conductor Sven-Olof Walldoff led the orchestra that night dressed as the emperor himself.

John Newton, who wrote the words of the hymn 'Amazing Grace', had earlier captained ships in which line of business?

The slave trade stayed Newton's living even after the 1748 storm that began his conversion; decades later he became an outspoken abolitionist alongside William Wilberforce.

Which children's poet and cartoonist wrote the Johnny Cash hit 'A Boy Named Sue'?

Shel Silverstein, author of The Giving Tree, gave Cash his only top-ten single on the Billboard Hot 100, recorded live in front of the inmates of San Quentin prison.

Deep Purple's 'Smoke on the Water' recounts a 1971 casino fire in Montreux that broke out during whose concert?

Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention lost all their equipment when someone fired a flare gun at the ceiling; Deep Purple watched the smoke drift over Lake Geneva from their hotel.

Francis Scott Key wrote 'The Star-Spangled Banner' after watching British ships bombard which Baltimore stronghold?

Fort McHenry's defence in 1814 became a poem by Key, a lawyer, which was then sung to the tune of a British song composed for a London gentlemen's club.

Which Scottish poet wrote down the words of the New Year's Eve favourite 'Auld Lang Syne' in 1788?

Robert Burns said he took it down from an old man's singing, and parts of it do match a ballad printed in 1711, decades before he sent his version to a song collection.

Which song was almost cut from The Wizard of Oz because the studio felt it stalled the story?

Over the Rainbow stayed in only because the film's producer and director insisted; it went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song and became Judy Garland's signature tune.

Eric Clapton wrote 'Layla' while in love with Pattie Boyd, who was then married to which fellow guitarist?

George Harrison and Boyd later divorced and she married Clapton; the title comes from a 12th-century Persian poem, The Story of Layla and Majnun, a copy of which he had been given.

Who wrote the English words of Frank Sinatra's 'My Way', adapting the French pop song 'Comme d'habitude'?

Paul Anka wrote it for Sinatra's 1969 release; a year earlier David Bowie, then a songwriter for hire, had been asked to put English words to the same French tune.

A 2015 jury found that 'Blurred Lines' infringed the copyright of 'Got to Give It Up', a 1977 single by which singer?

Marvin Gaye was given a posthumous songwriting credit on the hit; Robin Thicke had told GQ he set out to echo Gaye's record, then said under oath that Pharrell Williams wrote nearly all of it.

Huey Lewis sued Ray Parker Jr., claiming which 1984 film theme copied the melody of 'I Want a New Drug'?

Ghostbusters had used Lewis's song as temporary background music during production, the filmmakers later admitted; the case was settled out of court in 1985 with a confidentiality agreement.

David Bowie's song 'Heroes' was inspired by seeing his producer kiss a singer beside which landmark?

The Berlin Wall stood about 500 yards from the converted concert hall where Bowie was recording; the couple he saw were producer Tony Visconti and singer Antonia Maass.

Which Bon Jovi hit follows Tommy, a dockworker out of work in a strike, and Gina, a waitress?

Livin' on a Prayer left Jon Bon Jovi cold in its first recording; Richie Sambora convinced him the song was good and the band reworked it with a new bassline and a talk box.

Which Billy Joel hit rattles through more than 100 headline people and events from 1949, his birth year, to 1989?

We Didn't Start the Fire began when a 21-year-old told Joel it was a terrible time to be that age, and Joel answered by listing the turmoil of his own youth.

Which Cranberries protest song did Dolores O'Riordan write about the victims of a 1993 bombing in Warrington?

Zombie was O'Riordan's angry answer to two bombs hidden in litter bins on a Warrington shopping street, an attack that killed two children.

Which U2 song, driven by a military drumbeat, describes British troops shooting civil rights protesters in Derry?

Sunday Bloody Sunday got its drum pattern after a chance meeting changed drummer Larry Mullen Jr.'s mind about playing to a click track, which he had firmly refused to do.

Which brand name kept the Kinks' 'Lola' off BBC radio until Ray Davies flew back from New York to re-record it?

Coca-Cola broke the BBC's rule against product placement, so Davies made a 6,000-mile round trip in the middle of a tour just to sing a generic drink name instead.

Which Billie Holiday song protesting lynching began as a poem published in a New York teachers' union magazine?

Strange Fruit was turned down by Holiday's own label, Columbia, which feared the reaction of record shops in the South, so she recorded it for a friend's label, Commodore, instead.

Woody Guthrie wrote 'This Land Is Your Land' in irritation at hearing which Irving Berlin song on the radio?

God Bless America, sung by Kate Smith, was on the air so often in the late 1930s that Guthrie sarcastically called his first draft 'God Blessed America for Me'.

Which soul singer wrote 'A Change Is Gonna Come' after being turned away from a whites-only motel in Louisiana?

Sam Cooke and his group were arrested for disturbing the peace that night in Shreveport; in 2019 the city's mayor apologised to his family and awarded him the key to the city.

Whose 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' was the first a cappella song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100?

Bobby McFerrin made every sound on it with his own overdubbed voice, and took the title from a saying of the Indian guru Meher Baba that was printed on 1960s posters.

Which actor, later a screen Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films, had a 1968 hit singing Jimmy Webb's 'MacArthur Park'?

Richard Harris took it to number two on the US chart after the Association rejected the cantata it came from; Webb said its strange imagery stood for the end of a love affair.

Gordon Lightfoot's ballad about the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald recounts a sinking with all 29 crew in which waters?

Lake Superior took the ship in a late-season storm in November 1975; Lightfoot built his words from news reports, above all a Newsweek report printed two weeks later.

Trevor Nunn based the words of 'Memory', Andrew Lloyd Webber's show tune from Cats, on poems by which writer?

T. S. Eliot's poems Rhapsody on a Windy Night and Preludes supplied the material; Nunn, the show's director, saw his lyric chosen over versions by Tim Rice and Don Black.

Sting took the name of the Police song 'Roxanne' from an old poster in a Paris hotel foyer for which play?

Cyrano de Bergerac was advertised in the foyer of the band's seedy hotel in October 1977, where Sting had been struck by the prostitutes working the streets nearby.

Mick Jagger said 'Sympathy for the Devil' drew on which Russian novel, a gift from Marianne Faithfull?

The Master and Margarita had appeared in English translation only in 1967, a year before the song; Jagger has also named the French poet Baudelaire as an influence on it.

Aerosmith took the title 'Walk This Way' from a Marty Feldman gag in which Mel Brooks film?

Young Frankenstein was the band's break from a recording session; back in the studio they were still laughing at Feldman's limping walk, and the phrase became the song.

Which Suzanne Vega song did engineer Karlheinz Brandenburg use to fine-tune the MP3 audio format?

Tom's Diner earned Vega the title 'Mother of the MP3'; the real Manhattan restaurant later became famous as the exterior of Monk's Café in the sitcom Seinfeld.

Axl Rose wrote the words of 'Sweet Child o' Mine' about his girlfriend Erin, whose father sang in which duo?

The Everly Brothers' Don was Erin's father; the famous opening riff began as a circus-like melody Slash played while pulling faces at the drummer during a warm-up.

Bobby Darin's 1959 number one 'Mack the Knife' comes from which 1928 music drama by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht?

The Threepenny Opera gives its murder ballad about the criminal Macheath to a street singer; Louis Armstrong recorded it in English in 1955, four years before Darin's hit.

Tommy James took the title of his hit 'Mony Mony' from a lit sign on a New York skyscraper owned by what?

An insurance company, Mutual of New York, had its initials lit in red atop its building; James saw them from his terrace just as he was about to give up on the song.

Which singer's 'Escape (The Piña Colada Song)' was the last number one of the 1970s on the US chart?

Rupert Holmes swapped the cocktail into the song at the last minute, in place of actor Humphrey Bogart's name, because he felt he had made too many film references already.

Barry Manilow's chart-topping 'I Write the Songs' was in fact written by Bruce Johnston, a member of which band?

The Beach Boys' Johnston won the Grammy for Song of the Year with it; Captain & Tennille, who had worked with him in the band, made the original recording.

'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' grew out of 'Mbube', recorded in 1939 by migrant worker Solomon Linda in which country?

South Africa made Linda famous for it, but he had sold his rights to the record company's owner for ten shillings, unaware of what he was signing away.