MusicGeology | Music History, Trivia, and Commentary

Hear the isolated backing tracks on Peter Gabriel's first solo hit.

That's right, the legendary Prince can be heard playing on Madonna's hit song.

The 1967 song, Mellow Yellow, features two music legends.

Before Dio became a heavy metal legend with bands like Rainbow and Black Sabbath, he recorded on this girl band pop hit from The Angels called My Boyfriend's Back.

Released in 1976, we highlight each track from Eagles' album, "Their Greatest Hits," which became the first record ever to receive a Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) platinum certification. It included songs such as "Desperado," "Take It Easy," and "The Best of My Love."

Ella Yelich-O'Connor from New Zealand found her muse in a simple photograph of a baseball player. This episode delves into the story of the song "Royals," a hit that not only marked the debut of singer-songwriter Lorde but also challenged the status quo of pop music's portrayal of fame and wealth.

In late 1974, David Bowie found himself in New York City, crossing paths with John Lennon, when the creation of his first number one song occurred at an impromptu jam session with the ex-Beatles member.

After the death of Bon Scott, AC/DC wrote the music for the song "Back in Black" and decided that it should stand as a poignant tribute to him. So the band's new lead vocalist, Brian Johnson, was tasked with writing a lyrical homage on behalf of the band. Watch the video version of this episode for free at MusicGeology.com

"Who Can It Be Now?" had an unusual source of inspiration. Visit MusicGeology.com to watch the video versions of our episodes for free.

Paul McCartney was upset with their final chart-topping hit released on their Let It Be album in 1970. John Lennon and George Harrison recruited producer, Phil Spector, who allegedly added some unwanted elements to Paul McCartney's song without his permission. This incident became one of the reasons why he filed a lawsuit to break up.

In 1979, composer, Barry De Vorzon, asked his friend, Joe Walsh, if he would like to write a song together for a film he was scoring called "The Warriors." The track was so good, the rest of the Eagles band re-recorded it for their "The Long Run" album.

Robert Plant's car accident in 1975 left him unable to walk for several months which led him to record Jimmy Page's favorite Led Zeppelin song while sitting in a wheelchair.

Legendary producer, Rupert Hine, wanted a sense of angst and danger for this vocal track, so he had Michael Sadler sing Saga's biggest single, On the Loose, sitting high above the ground in an old English Barn without any harness or tether.

The hugely successful song, Uptown Funk, from Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars was bombarded with claims of copyright infringement shortly after it was released as a single and climbed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in 2015.

Parts of Green Day's most successful single in the 2000-2009 decade were rumored to be unoriginal ideas that stemmed from a few other bands, including Oasis.

Pearl Jam recorded two different versions of the same hit song written by Eddie Vedder and Stone Gossard within months of each other. One was released as a single in the U.S. and featured on their album, "Ten," while the other version was used for their popular music video seen on MTV and also for their UK single.

Pink Floyd's guitarist, David Gilmour, plays on Paul McCartney's hit single off the album, "Give My Regards to Broad Street," and then donates his session fee (for recording the song) to charity.

The successful nostalgic 1980 single, Same Old Lang Syne, about his chance encounter with his ex-girlfriend, Jill Anderson, makes use of a very popular melody written in 1880 by the Russian composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

This 1970 bilingual holiday classic written by a nostalgic José Feliciano is considered one of the 25 greatest Christmas songs, but it took 50 years for it to become a top ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

This 1971 Christmas song from John Lennon and Yoko Ono borrows its melody from a traditional English folk song and becomes an annual rallying cry for world peace.

Trying to think cool, Mel Tormé and Robert Wells wrote the greatest holiday song of all time during a blistering Southern California summer and passed it off to Nat King Cole to sing.

Written in just 15 minutes, this 1994 Mariah Carey Christmas single became a number one hit 25 years later and has stayed on top of the billboard hot 100 every December.

In 1965, astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra played a prank on NASA and Gemini 7 when they smuggled some instruments on board their Gemini 6A mission to broadcast the first song from space.

This academy award winning holiday song written by Irving Berlin has sold more records than any other song. In this episode, we feature the original 1942 Bing Crosby version.

Learn the inspiration behind the "Toys in the Attic" 1975 first top 40 hit.