29 Baffling Backstories to the Songs You’ve Heard a Million Times in Line at CVS

Well-known songs with lesser-known origins
29 Baffling Backstories to the Songs You’ve Heard a Million Times in Line at CVS

While listening to a world-famous song on the radio, you’d have to be a real music nerd to think about its backstory. We’re hoping you’re that music nerd, because we put in the work to drum up said backstories, and we’d like a little appreciation!

And if you also happen to be a random music fact nerd, come back tomorrow for the backstory of this list.

Never Learn Not to Love

The Beach Boys' Never Learn Not to Love was written by Charles Manson. Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson was close with Manson, until the band reworked and recorded one of his songs without crediting him. Manson was furious. Considering the Family's victims were murdered over much less that that, the Boys got off easy. CRACKED.COM

Smoke on the Water

CRACKED.COM Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water recounts a real tragedy. The story in the lyrics actually happened - the band was in Montreux, Switzerland, when some stupid with a flare gun burned down the casino where they were supposed to record an album using a mobile studio.

Yesterday

CRACKED.COM Paul McCartney was afraid he was plagiarizing Yesterday. After dreaming up the melody, McCartney wasn't sure it was actually his creation. For a time he went around asking people in the business if they had heard it before. I thought if no one claimed it after a few weeks then I could have it, he said.

(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)

The Beastie Boys' (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)' was supposed to be a parody. The Beasties were poking fun at 1980's frat culture. Except that no one got the joke, and the song was adopted as an anthem celebrating the kind of debauchery it was sending up. CRACKED.COM

Nothing Else Matters

CRACKED.COM Metallica's Nothing Else Matters C.B.W came from thoughtless guitar fingering. Some people doodle on paper while on the phone. James Hetfield randomly plucked at his guitar's strings while talking to his girlfriend. That pattern became the song's opening bars.

Sweet Child o’ Mine

Guns N' Roses' Sweet Child o' Mine began as a dumb joke. During a jam session, Slash started making faces while playing a silly melody. The other band members liked the tune and ran with it. Within an hour my guitar exercise had become something else, Slash wrote. CRACKED.COM

Dude (Looks Like a Lady)

CRACKED.COM The dude in Aerosmith's Dude (Looks Like a Lady) is Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe. According to songwriter Desmond Child, the song was born when the band went into a club and saw a woman with teased- up platinum mullet and black nails and porcelain skin and jewelry and with a curvy waist - who turned out to be Neil.

Sweet Caroline

Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline is named after JFK's daughter. Diamond needed a three-syllable name to fit the song he was writing. Then he remembered a photo of 7-year-old Caroline Kennedy he had seen in a magazine. CRACKED.COM

Jolene

CRACKED.COM Dolly Parton's Jolene was a real woman. Parton kept teasing her husband about a red-headed bank teller who gave him a lot of attention. (Her name wasn't Jolene, though t that name came from a little girl Parton met while signing autographs.)

Hallelujah

Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah became big because of Shrek. The song went mostly underappreciated for years, even as other artists kept covering it, until a version of it was used in a movie about an ogre, a princess, and a donkey. Then it started popping up everywhere. CRACKED.COM

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

CRACKED.COM Keith Richards literally composed (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction in his sleep. Richards woke up in the middle of the night, recorded about 30 seconds of the song on a tape recorder, and then fell back asleep. In the morning he didn't remember any of it, until he played the recording.

Billie Jean

CRACKED.COM Billie Jean almost got Michael Jackson killed. Jackson was so absorbed in the song, working on it in his head while driving, that he didn't notice his car was on fire. Someone on a bike had to point it out to him.

Paper Planes

Paper Planes by MIA The song satirizes negative stereotypes about immigrants. MIA herself was denied entry to the US, even when she was signed to Interscope Records. CRACKED.COM

Blackbird

Blackbird by Beatles Paul McCartney has said the song is about race relations in the United States, specifically inspired by the Little Rock Nine, Black children who on the forefront of desegregation. CRACKED.COM

Angel

Angel by Sarah McLachlan McLachlan revealed that the song now best known for SPCA commercials was inspired by Jonathan Melvoin, the Smashing Pumpkins keyboardist who died by heroin overdose. CRACKED.COM

Louie Louie

Louie Louie by the Kingsmen SMEN Written by Richard Berry, the lyrics have were rumored to be so obscene that it caused an FBI investigation. But it's just a wholesome song about a Jamaican sailor returning to the island to see his lover. CRACKED.COM

Born in the USA

Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen The song has a long history of being used in a patriotic fashion, despite it being about the difficult experiences of a Vietnam veteran returning home. CRACKED.COM

One Way or Another

One Way or Another by Blondie The obsessive love song is more obsessive than it seems on the surface. Debbie Harry penned the song after being stalked by a nutjob. CRACKED.COM

Poker Face

Poker Face by Lady Gaga The singer revealed the song is surprisingly about her bisexuality. The lyrics are about her hooking up with a man but fantasizing about being with a woman. CRACKED.COM

Rich Girl

Rich Girl by Hall & Oates The song was originally written about a guy who was a fast food heir and was Hall's girlfriend's ex-boyfriend, but the gender flip sounded better. CRACKED.COM

Closing Time

Closing Time by Semisonic D U 20A - PU Although the song seems to clearly be about leaving a bar, it's actually a metaphor for being born, in anticipation for frontman Dan Wilson's upcoming fatherhood. CRACKED.COM

...Baby One More Time

...Baby One More Time by Britney Spears Hit me, baby isn't sexual or abusive but just strange phrasing by Swedish songwriter Max Martin, who thought hit was synonymous in English with call (as in hit me up.) CRACKED.COM

Harder to Breathe

Harder to Breathe by Maroon 5 It may seem like a relationship song, but it's actually about the band feeling suffocated by their record label who was making them write more songs. It paid off. CRACKED.COM

Save the Last Dance for Me

save the last dance for me A ATLANTIC THE DRIFTERS Doc Pomus wrote this saccharine pop ballad... ...after watching his bride dance with everyone else at theirwedding. GRACKED COM Doc had polio.

Hey Jude

Paul McCartney wrote 'Hey Jude' as a gesture of support and comfort for John Lennon's son Julian during the divorce of his parents. When he first heard it, John Lennon interpreted it as a gesture of comfort and support ... for John Lennon, for hooking up with Yoko Ono. Bet that was an awkward conversation. CRACKED GOM

There She Goes

SIXPENCE NONE THE RICHER THERE SHE GOES There she goes, There she goes again Racing through' my brain And I just can't contain This feelin' that remains There she blows There she blows again Pulsing through my vein And / just can't contain She = heroin This feelin' that remains The song is about the rush of being high on heroin and how CRACKED.COM fleeting that high is

I Shot the Sheriff

According to Bob Marley's girlfriend, I Shot the Sheriff was inspired by their fights over birth control. The Sheriff was the doctor who prescribed her the Pill. Sheriff John Brown always hated me, For what, / don't know. Every time / plant a seed, Не said Kill it before it grow. CRACKED.COM

Don’t Stop Believin’

CRACKED.COM There is no such place as south Detroit. The area just south of downtown Detroit is across the border in Windsor, Ontario. Harper DETROIT Cks WINDSOR OHN star D Linepin Park Taylo I tried north Detroit, I tried east and west and it didn't sing, but south Detroit sounded so beautiful. I loved the way it sounded, only to find out later it's actually Canada. -- Steve

Walk This Way

CRACKED.COM While recording Toys in the Attic Aerosmith were still writing lyrics when they took a break to see a late-night showing of Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein. One of the gag lines from Marty Feldman's Igor gave them the title for the lead single, Walk this Way. APROSM

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