
Steely Dan's engineer, Roger Nichols, built one of the first drum machines, which they used on "Hey Nineteen."

The bedrock of David Guetta's Nicki Minaj-featuring single "Hey Mama" is a sample of "Rosie," a 1940s prison recording from folk archivist Alan Lomax that songwriter Esther Dean first showed the French DJ on YouTube.

"Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen was the song of the summer in 2012 and a major meme. It got some help from her fellow Canadian Justin Bieber, who tweeted that it was "possibly the catchiest song I've ever heard."

Phil Collins' "I Missed Again" was originally "I Miss You, Babe," and was a very somber song about his recent divorce. Collins decided to lighten it up and inject some humor into the song.

Mary J. Blige introduced three new words with her hit "Family Affair": hateration, holleration and dancerie.
A big list of musical marriages and family relations ranging from the simple to the truly dysfunctional.
"Mr. Jones" took on new meaning when the song about a misguided view of fame made Adam famous.
Genesis' key-man re-examines his solo career and the early days of music video.
Harry is Derek Smalls in Spinal Tap, Mark Shubb in The Folksmen, and Mr. Burns on The Simpsons.
Since emerging from MySpace with her hit "Bubbly," Colbie has become a top songwriter, even crafting a hit with Taylor Swift.
Waters tells the "Gypsy Woman" story, shares some of her songwriting insights, and explains how Dennis Rodman ended up on one of her songs.