1) Jump - Van Halen
We’ve lost count of the times we’ve bounced out of bed and into the shower whilst head banging along to this cheery track.
Only, as it happens, it’s not as cheery as we thought.
David Lee Roth, trying to think up the lyrics to the tune, listened repeatedly to it - before he remembered seeing a television news report the night before about a man who was threatening to commit suicide by jumping off of a high building.
Oh yes. Roth thought that one of the onlookers of such a scene would probably shout "go ahead and jump" and the song was born.
Dark, eh?
2) A Day In The Life - The Beatles
This is definitely one of the creepier songs in The Beatles’ discography - and for good reason.
In Hunter Davies’s The Beatles — the band’s only authorised biography — John Lennon explains that the song’s first verse, which starts, “I read the news today, oh boy / About a lucky man who made the grade.”
He said it was about the death of Tara Brown, a London socialite, heir to the Guinness beer fortune and friend of the Beatles.
Brown was apparently driving his sports car way above the speed limit when he failed to see the traffic lights change in front of him —inspiring the line “he didn’t notice that the lights had changed”.
He collided with a parked truck and died from his injuries the next day.
Lennon said: “I didn’t copy the accident - Tara didn’t ‘blow his mind out’ [in a car]. But it was in my mind when I was writing that verse.”
3) Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani
This one’s nowhere near as disturbing as the others, thankfully.
Hollaback Girl was reportedly dreamed up when Courtney Love slammed Gwen Stefani as a ‘jumped-up cheerleader’. Awks.
Gwen wrote the song and the rest is history.
4) Do You Hear What I Hear? - Bing Crosby
Yup, we’re sorry; a Christmas song has made it onto the list.
Basically, while the song sounds like it’s about sleigh bells and festive fun, it’s actually all about the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Noel Regney, the composer, intended the song as a call for peace at a time when cold war tension was at its highest.
He said: “I am amazed that people can think they know the song and not know it is a prayer for peace.”
Hmm.
5) Summer Of ’69 - Bryan Adams
We all know what this one means, right? It’s all about nostalgia, and growing up, and the end of the summer of love…
Except, apparently it’s not.
Bryan Adams was ten years old in 1969. Which means that the upbeat nature of the song wasn’t inspired by an actual year… more for the singer’s fondness of a certain sexual position.
He said: "One thing people never got was that the song isn't about the year 1969. It's about making love, a la '69!"
6) I Shot The Sheriff - Bob Marley
This one is, according to Bob Marley’s girlfriend, an anti-birth control anthem.
“Sheriff John Brown always hated me,
For what, I don't know:
Every time I plant a seed,
He said kill it before it grow”
According to Esther Anderson, she was on birth control pills at the time the song was written, and Bob wasn’t happy about it. He wanted her to have his baby.
Believing it to be a sin to kill the seed, he swapped out the doctor for a sheriff and voila! The song was born.
7) Tears In Heaven - Eric Clapton
In this emotionally-charged song, Eric Clapton is talking to his son, Conor, who was just four years old when he fell to his death from the 53rd story of a New York City apartment building in 1991.
“Would you know my name
If I saw you in heaven?”
He has since said the track served as a vehicle for his grieving.
8) Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
It sounds like a teen anthem - but it goes a little deeper than that.
According to numerous sources, Kathleen Hannah - a friend of the band - hated Kurt Cobain’s girlfriend.
And, you guessed it, Teen Spirit was a brand of girl's deodorant at the time.
The legend claims that Hannah spray painted "Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit" in his bedroom after the girlfriend stayed over one night.
Kurt never heard of the deodorant but thought that was a bang-up title for his new song. Winner.
9) Dude Looks Like A Lady - Aerosmith
Steven Tyler’s version of this is that Aerosmith met Vince Neil from Motley Crew, thought he was a lady, and then kept saying ‘dude, you look like a lady’.
The other, more believable version, was that Tyler got VERY drunk at an awards show and accidentally hit on Neil, thinking he was a girl.
Either way, Vince Neil was working that androgynous look back in the 80s.
10) American Pie - Don McLean
Don McLean rarely answers questions about his hit song, but he has confirmed that the phrase “the day the music died” refers to the plane crash that illdd Buddy holly, Ritchie Valens and JP ‘The Big Bopper’ Richardson in 1959.
Buddy Holly, a hugely significant figure in the legacy of rock ’n’ roll, was only 22-years-old.
11) I Don’t Like Mondays - The Boomtown Rats
In 1979, 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer walked into Grover Cleveland Elementary School and shot eight children, two adults and, later, one police officer.
When she was asked to explain her actions by a reporter, she said: “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.”
12) Dear Mama - Tupac
“When I was young me and my mama had beef
Seventeen years old kicked out on the streets
Though back at the time, I never thought I'd see her face
Ain't a woman alive that could take my mama's place…”
Tupac was born a month after his mother was acquitted of more than 150 charges of "Conspiracy against the United States government and New York landmarks" in the New York "Panther 21" court case.
He was born in the East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City.
Dear Mama was his tribute to her.
13) Blank Space - Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift loves to put secret messages in the lyric notes of her album. For each song she types the lyrics in lower cases letters, but throughout the song there will be spontaneous capitalised letters. If you put them all together they will form a message.
The secret message in Blank Space is: "There once was a girl known by everyone and no one.”
This song is about how the media portrays her as a ‘man-eater’, as opposed to what her life is actually like.
14) Oh Father - Madonna
Madonna has never mentioned physical abuse in her family, but she has revealed that her father was a disciplinarian and her stepmother was very, very hard on her. Author Lucy O'Brien wrote in her book Madonna: Like an Icon that the song stemmed more from the emotional neglect that Madonna faced, with her father locked up in grief after her mother died.
15) Til It Happens To You - Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga’s new song, which intends to promote awareness of sexual assault, is rooted in personal experience.
The songstress revealed that she was raped as a teenager, adding: “I went through some horrific things that I’m able to laugh [at] now, because I’ve gone through a lot of mental and physical therapy and emotional therapy to heal over the years.
“I was a shell of my former self at one point. I was not myself. To be fair, I was about 19. I went to Catholic school and then all this crazy stuff happened, and I was going, ‘Oh, is this just the way adults are?’ I was very naive.”
16) Cry Me A River - Justin Timberlake
In 2012, Justin Timberlake finally (mostly) confirmed something we all assumed - that his hit Cry Me a River is about ex-girlfriend Britney Spears.
Speaking on E!'s True Hollywood Story, Justin said that a heated phone conversation between the young lovers inspired the lyrics.
Timbaland said: “He went to a concert and saw Britney, and Britney talked about him in the show and he was pissed.”
Justin added: “I was on a phone call that was not the most enjoyable phone call. I walked into the studio and he (Timbaland) could tell I was visibly angry.”
They then got to work on the lyrics - and Justin’s emotion clearly shone through.
Timbaland said: “I was like, ‘Man, don’t worry about it’ and he's like, ‘I can’t believe she did that to me’ and he was like, ‘You were my sun, you were my earth.’”
17) Someone Like You - Adele
Dan Wilson, who co-wrote the song with Adele, said: “She told me she wanted to write a song about her heartbreak…that was how she put it.
“She told me a little bit about the guy who broke up with her, and I think maybe part of my contribution was to help keep the song really simple and direct—very personal.”
While it has never been confirmed, it is widely believed that Alex Sturrock - the official photographer on her 2009 tour - was Adele’s ex.
This is partly because, his website, his photos of Adele look less like professional tour photos and more like intimate candids from the bedroom.
Sturrock reportedly refused to call Adele his girlfriend and chipped away at her self-esteem - presumably leading to the breakup and this amazing power ballad.
18) Sunday Bloody Sunday - U2
On the 30th January 1972, British soldiers opened fire on a group of innocent, unarmed civil rights protestors in Northern Ireland.
Fourteen people were killed, including seven teenagers.
The event, known as Bloody Sunday, was clearly the inspiration between the U2 song, which includes such chilling lines as “bodies strewn across the dead end street”.
19) You Oughta Know - Alanis Morisette
It might just be THE most famous breakup song of all time - and it’s unsurprising that the raw emotion came from a real breakup in Alanis Morisette’s life.
While Alanis has never confirmed the name of the ex who sparked her rage, it’s been widely reported that the tune was inspired by the teen star’s relationship with older man Dave Coulier. Yeah, the guy who does the Rocky and Bullwinkle impressions.
In 1997 the Boston Herald reported that Coulier "admitted the lines are very close to home. Especially the one about 'an older version of me' and bugging him 'in the middle of dinner.'"
However he later went back on his words, denying the song was ever about him.
20) Don’t Speak - No Doubt
No Doubt’s lead singer Gwen Stefani and bassist Tony Kanal had been together for seven years when they broke up - putting the future of the band at stake.
Cue the song Don’t Speak, which a devastated Gwen co-wrote with her brother and (then) bandmate, Eric Stefani.
It makes the lyrics a lot more powerful now you know the story behind them, doesn’t it?
21) Small Bump - Ed Sheeran
This heartbreaking song, all about the tragedy of miscarriage, might have been written as if Ed Sheeran was the father - but he was, in fact, writing about a close friend.
He said at the time: “It was quite a difficult subject to tackle. I wrote it from their perspective.
“It was my perspective looking on them to begin with. It's quite a touchy subject, so I wrote it from the perspective of actually being the parent.”
22) Save The Last Dance For Me - The Drifters
This one might just break your heart.
Doc Pomus allegedly wrote this super-sweet pop ballad after watching his bride dance with everyone else at their wedding.
Tragically Doc had polio.
24) Let Me Go - Gary Barlow
It might sound like an upbeat song, but this uplifting ballad was written about the stillbirth of Gary Barlow’s daughter, poppy.
He said: “I don’t like there to be things that are unsaid really... and from that thing happening to my dad’s passing, there’s a lot of them in this record with me
“It should be a celebration that song, because in some respects, it’s alive that record, and those lyrics and what it relates to.”
He added: “It keeps a life and a flame in the whole thing.”
25) The A Team - Ed Sheeran
Speaking on 97.3 San Francisco, Ed Sheeran explained that his inspiration behind the song came from an experience volunteering at a homeless charity during the holidays.
While he was there, he saw signs posted all over that said “Angel’s Rules.”
The people explained that there was a woman, named Angel, who had been trouble until they made her the unofficial sheriff of the shelter. She could make the rules as long as she followed them.
He said: “She was actually a big Guns N’ Roses fan and made me play ‘Sweet Child O Mine’ like six times. I had a chat with her and a sit down.”
After finishing the gig, one of his fellow volunteers explained that, at the end of the holiday season, the homeless shelter would close - and Angel would return to her life on the streets.
“I was 18 at the time. Lived away from home for about two years but I had never really seen the dark underbelly of London.
“It was a bit of a wake up call to me. I wrote this song for Angel,” he said.
26) Everytime - Britney Spears
“I may have made it rain, please forgive me.
My weakness caused you pain and this song is my sorry.”
Yup, you guessed it; this is Britney’s response to Justin Timberlake’s Cry Me A River - and her plea for forgiveness following their breakup.
However Brit has neither confirmed nor denied these allegations.
27) Cold Case Love - Rihanna
She didn’t write it herself, but Rihanna has confirmed that her song ‘Cold Case Love’, from the album Rated R, was about Chris Brown and his assault on her.
Rihanna said: “It's a song that everybody wanted to hear, everything that I didn't say for the past eight months, exactly how I felt about that relationship and how I feel about it now – that song says it all."
28) Heartbeat - Beyonce
Speaking in Life Is But a Dream, her new documentary debuting on HBO in February, Beyonce said: "About two years ago, I was pregnant for the first time.
"And I heard the heartbeat, which was the most beautiful music I ever heard in my life.
"I flew back to New York to get my check up -- and no heartbeat," she says. "Literally the week before I went to the doctor, everything was fine, but there was no heartbeat."
She added: "I went into the studio and wrote the saddest song I've ever written in my life. "And it was actually the first song I wrote for my album. And it was the best form of therapy for me, because it was the saddest thing I've ever been through."
29) Billie Jean - Michael Jackson
In a December 2001 cover story for Mojo magazine, Gerri Hirshey recounted her December 1982 interview with Jackson for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.
She insisted that Michael Jackson had said he was plagued by a stalker that insisted he was the father of her child. He kept a photo she had mailed him in his house, he said, "in case she ever does turn up someplace. I need to recognise this face instantly."
She said that Billie Jean was based on this; however Jackson would publicly maintain that Billie Jean was a fictional figure based on the groupies he and his Jackson brothers encountered, and not inspired by one person.
30) Girl - Destiny’s Child
“Take a minute, girl – come sit down, tell us what’s been happening,” sings Beyonce on Girl. “In your face I can see the pain… don’t try to convince us that you’re happy.
“Girl, you don't have to be hiding / Don't you be ashamed to say he hurt you / I'm your girl, you're my girl, we your girls / Don't you know that we love ya…”
And, as it turns out, the emotional anthem was a plea from Kelly Rowland’s former-bandmates, as they begged her to escape the abusive relationship she details so honestly on Dirty Laundry.
In that song, Kelly sings about the abuse (“Meanwhile this n****r puttin’ his hands on me… I was battered / He hit the window like it was me, until it shattered”), admitting that the man turned her against Bey, whom she misses.
Kelly stated that the fans figured out the lyrical connection: "I don't know how people connect dots with music and artists that they have followed for so long but when I saw people on Twitter starting to put all the pieces together, it was so interesting.
“They did it with Girl, they did it with Bad Habit... I was like ok! Crazy!"
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