29 Hit Songs’ Secret Backstories

Songs have a way of worming themselves into our brains and lives in subtle ways, without us giving a single thought as to how they arrived in our ears. And as it turns out, most songs have really interesting histories. So we asked our readers to come up with fascinating facts about well-known songs, that you can worm into your brain alongside that catchy melody. Here’s what they came up with…

29 Entry by Giovenna Bianca Sipalay

Queen's collaboration with David Bowie on Under Pressure was pure impromptu. David Bowie just happened to be by the studio where Queen was recording t

28 Entry by Scott Laffey

Heart ICE TALLCK METALLIC Kirk Hammett ganked part of the solo from Enter Sandman from Heart's Magic Man. But I didn't get it from Heart's versio

27 Entry by Moses Armstrong

CRACKEDCON CHE UWERUF SALLT theme song is based on a sample from the break in tthe James Brown song Funky Drummer.

26 Entry by Scott Laffey

That out-of-place chord (followed by Sting laughing) in the first few seconds of The Police's Roxanne came from the singer's ass. The frontman expla

25 Entry by Amyan Bridi

Michael Jackson was Kanye West's biggest inspiration for his album GRAUI Heartbreaks And 808s. E WE When Kanye played Heartless to Jackson, he compl

24 Entry by Chan Teik Onn

Dolly Parton's Jolene came from the singer's two separate real-life experiences. She came up with the name during a show where she met a beautiful B

23 Entry by Chan Teik Onn

Desmond Child wrote 'If You Were A Woman (And I Was A Man)' for Bonnie Tyler, but the song did not reach the level of success he was hoping for. So he

22 Entry by Cracked Plasticians

Bad was originally going to be a collaboration between Michael Jackson and Prince. Producer Quincy Jones says it was his idea to put the two rivals to

21 Entry by Giovenna Bianca Sipalay

Keith Richards produced the guitar riff for (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction while asleep. He woke up the next day without a clue until he heard a reco

20 Entry by Kristina Yong

Sam Smith sang Stay With Me all by himself-- no choir. He got the choir effect by layering his voice (while standing in different spots) about 20 ti

19 Entry by Lornie Aswila Jeffrey Lausin

CRACKEDC COM Club nthe D In Sia got the idea for Camilla Cabello's Grying In The Club when she was on her way to the toilet while writing a demo wit

18 Entry by Andrea Meno

Johnny Cash's The Man Comes Around comes from a dream about Queen Elizabeth. In the dream, Cash went into Buckingham Palace and saw Queen Elizabeth

17 Entry by Chan Teik Onn

Ed Sheeran wrote Afire Love for his grandfather, who never really knew the singer due to AlzHEeimER'S disease. He began writing the song two weeks b

16 Entry by Maclise

CRACKEDCO Jeff Lynne of the Electric Light Orchestra wrote Mr. Blue Sky after holing himself up in a swiss cabin to write music. After two weeks of fa

15 Entry by Leah Silverman

CRACKED.COM Leonard Cohen's record company, Columbia, originally refused to release his album with the song Hallelujah in the United States. They sa

14 Entry by PollyDarton

CRACKEDcO Kurt Cobain HATED the recording of Smells Like Teen Spirit It's such a perfect mixture of cleanliness and nice, candy-ass production. It

13 Entry by Andrea Meno

CRACKEDCO COM Macarena was the result of a sudden outburst. One night, Antonio Romero Monge of the duo Los del Rio watched a great performance from

12 Entry by PollyDarton

Grand funk's We're an American Band. has a verse mentioning Sweet, sweet Connie which refers to Connic Hamzy of Little Rock AR. Hamzy is one of th

11 Entry by Maclise

The iconic disco hit Disco Inferno by The Trammps was actually inspired by the 1974 disaster movie, The Towering Inferno, with Steve McQueen.

10 Entry by PollyDarton

Andre 3000 OU wrote Outkast's KASIG Ms. Jackson as an apology of sorts to the mother of his former partner MS. JACKSON Erykah Badu. Badu wasn't enti

9 Entry by Scott Laffey

CRACKEDC Stevie Nicks' COM Stand Back ripped off a Prince song. And he was totally cool with it. Nicks wrote the song over the melody for Little Re

8 Entry by Markos Hasiotis

CRACKEDGON Shaggy's hit song It Wasn't Me was inspired by a skit Eddie Murphy did in Raw about men being unfaithful and denying it.

7 Entry by Harvey Sapigao

During the shooting of the music video of Taylor Swift's Shake It Off, heavy-metal music was played around the perimeter of the studio SO no-one cou

6 Entry by Lornie Aswila Jeffrey Lausin

The title of the song Cake By The Ocean by DNCE was the result of Swedish production duo Mattman & Robin misunderstanding the phrase, sex on the be

5 Entry by PollyDarton

THE WHITE Seven TRIPES Nation Army The lyrics of the song proclaim I'M going to Wichita. Jack White says that he has never actually been to Wichit

4 Entry by Joshua Yapcengco

Brad Arnold from 3 Doors Down wrote Kryptonite when he was 15 during his math class.

3 Entry by Erin Willis

CRNO The iconic drum beats at the end of Livin' On The Edge by Aerosmith... were played on a bass drum that Steven Tyler stole from his high school

2 Entry by Maclise

CRACKEDco According to Axl Rose, the seed for Welcome to the Jungle was planted when he and a friend hitchhiked to New York City. While wandering arou

1 Entry by PollyDarton

J OURNEY DON'T STOP BELIEVIN' Don't Stop Believin was an improvisational collaboration between keyboardist Jonathan Cain and singer Steve Perry. Cai

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