The Story Behind The Song

One of the most renowned American indie rock bands, The Shins have carved a lasting legacy with their distinctive blend of folk, pop, and indie rock. Formed in 1996 by frontman James Mercer, a chance inclusion of “New Slang” in the indie movie classic Garden State helped to take their indie buzz mainstream just as their breakout sophomore album, Chutes Too Narrow, propelled them to indie stardom....

Air Supply, the Australian soft rock duo has been melting hearts and serenading souls since 1975. In 1979, they created a succession of hits worldwide, including eight top-five hits on the US Billboard Hot 100: "Lost in Love”, "All Out of Love", "Every Woman in the World", "The One That You Love", "Here I Am", "Sweet Dreams", "Even the Nights Are Bet...

Run-DMC (Joseph "Run" Simmons, Darryl "DMC" McDaniels , and Jason "Jam Master Jay," Mizell) was more than just a hip-hop group. They were a force of nature that transformed music, fashion, and history. Their deceptively simple, endlessly catchy lyrics and energetic live performances made them stars, and their use of rock and roll samples helped to break down the barriers be...

One of the most popular and influential bands of the 1980s, Culture Club was the original new wave boyband. They fused new wave, pop, and reggae to create a unique sound that was both catchy and stylish. The Story Behind the Song 's Peter Csathy returns to talk to the ever-flamboyant and wise Boy George to discuss "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me." The two discuss the song's mix of l...

The Story Behind the Song 's Peter Csathy is back to talk to legendary The Police drummer Stewart Copeland to talk about "Roxanne." Definitely known as "The Police Song," "Roxanne" is a song that changed the fortunes of the English rock band The Police . The song was written by lead singer and bassist  Sting for their debut album Outlandos d'Amour , which celebrates...

In this episode of  The Story Behind the Song , join host Peter Csathy as he chats with Pink Floyd's Nick Mason to discuss “Time” from the epic The Dark Side of the Moon.  In the interview, Nick Mason reflects on the band's origins, the tragic story of founding member Syd Barrett's last contribution to Pink Floyd before exiting the band, The Beatles' influence on the band, and Nick...

In this episode of  The Story Behind the Song , join host Peter Csathy as he chats with  Def Leppard 's Joe Elliot to discuss the unlikely story of how "Pour Some Sugar on Me" became the last entry into Def Leppard's second album Hysteria. In his interview, Joe Elliott humbly reflects on the group's success and so much more: how he came up with the group's name, why they ch...

In this episode of  The Story Behind the Song , join host Peter Csathy as he chats with UK-based singer-songwriter Howard Jones to discuss how he broke all the rules when he arrived as a one-man band and topped the charts with "New Song," a song he wrote to be his debut and artist manifesto to the world. Literally singing, "I don't wanna be hip and cool. I don't wanna play by t...

There is something about the drums and trans-inducing hook of Toto 's Africa. that draws you in every time you press play. The song is an earworm that has been streamed over 1 billion times on Spotify alone! David Paich of Toto joins us on the Story Behind the Song to talk about this timeless and cross-generational song, which celebrates its 40th year this year and almost didn't see the li...

In this special bonus episode of  The Story Behind the Song , join host Peter Csathy as he  revisits his interview  with Gerald Casale of  Devo  about the band’s seminal 1980 single “Whip It.” Released as the second single off Devo’s  Freedom of Choice,  “Whip It” remains instantly recognizable with it’s hooky synthesizer lines, over-the-top vocal delivery, and overall silly tone. While it quickly...

For the first episode of the New Year, The Story Behind the Song is celebrating the 40th anniversary of A Flock of Seagulls by diving into their new wave classic "I Ran (So Far Away)." The track and the band's look were some of the defining styles of the '80s, and their presence in our collective pop culture psyche flies right into today. On the episode, A Flock of Seagulls frontma...

Some songs are songs and some songs are bangers. Nirvana’ s Smells Like Teen Spirit was lightening in a bottle. It propelled  Nevermind  to the top of several album charts at the start of 1992 and was an event that is often marked as the point when grunge entered the mainstream. To tell the tale behind the song, we speak to songwriter, super record producer, drummer and co-producer of the alternat...

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of one of his signature songs, Billy Idol joins The Story Behind the Song podcast to discuss "White Wedding." Who can forget that epic music video of Billy Idol attending a goth wedding where the bride is played by Perri Lister, Idol's real-life girlfriend at the time? We also learn about how his recent banger "Cage" was actually inspired by CO...

In various incarnations for the last 40 years, true renaissance man Danny Elfman has delivered it all. As performer, frontman, composer, conductor, and visualizer, he is the consummate multi-dimensional innovator. Always unconventional, always out of place -- and always slightly dangerous because of it -- the man and his body of work is genius -- and also all a bit mad. The frenetic and haunted mi...

Classic rock legends Blue Öyster Cult may be the first band to feature an umlaut in their name, but the band -- which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year -- was no gimmick. They released a string of major hits in the '70s, with their most transcendent classic of course being 1976's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper." The record that still haunts as deeply as ever, continually find...

Metric are an enigmatic, shape-shifting band -- always has been, always will be. Born out of Canada in 2001, they have built a discography that now spans eight studio albums that are difficult to box into any one genre (or two, for that matter). Part indie rock, part pop punk, part dance, part electronic -- why even try to put a label on it? The point is that it all works. At the center of it all...

Southern California natives Brian Aubert and Nikki Monninger front Silversun Pickups , one of rock music’s leading bastions of guitar glory. The band just recently released their sixth studio album, Physical Thrills , produced by the legendary Butch Vig of Garbage (who were highlight on July's episode of The Story Behind the Song ). The LP is marked by an adventurous -- and intentional -- depa...

This special bonus episode of The Story Behind the Song   shakes things up a bit -- let's call it  The Story Behind the Festival . Musicians Jim Lindberg of SoCal punk band Pennywise and SoCal native son Donavon Frankenreiter, together with LA music entrepreneur Allen Sanford, join the podcast to talk about their new upcoming music festival BeachLife Ranch . Spinning off of the trio's OG B...

Swedish-born Lykke Li has always been a musical enigma. She started her career seemingly happily at the age of 21 with her light, bouncy breakout track, “Little Bit.” But soon after she veered 180-degree into deep darkness, especially with her third full album, 2014’s I Never Learn . Li’s twisted journey continued thereafter with her 2018 latex-heavy album, so sad so sexy , before stripping down a...

Garbage are an iconic, eclectic band that is anything but what their name implies.  Fronting the outfit is the charismatic and irrepressible Shirley Manson from Edinburgh, Scotland. Manson first met up with her three future bandmates in Wisconsin as a result of one of those strange, classic twists of rock and roll fate involving MTV, a phone call, and a disastrous first audition. In then end, Garb...

"The Glamorous Life" proved to be a major solo breakout for Sheila E. in 1984. The classic pop track was one of her man collaborations with the legendary Prince, but Sheila E. already had a long history of playing with legends. In fact, her professional career began at only 15, when her father (a percussionist himself) asked her to fill in for him as part of Santana's band before a cro...

The transition from 1980s new wave and hair rock to 1990s far less follically-minded indie pop wasn’t always a smooth one. But enigmatic, idiosyncratic, and frequently non-grammatical duo They Might Be Giants made it all go down so easy with instantly catchy hooks and frequently hilarious lyrics. The band’s tongue-in-cheek non-sequiturs and unconventional instrumentation masked a knack for writing...

Rick Astley burst onto the pop scene 1987 seemingly out of nowhere when his debut single, the feel-good, earnest dance anthem “Never Gonna Give You Up,” grabbed the No. 1 spot in 25 countries, including the US and UK. In just a matter of weeks, Astley -- then only 21 -- traded his small town outside of Manchester, England for center stage on a global scale.  As fate would have it, "Never Gonna...

Alex Ebert is lead singer, songwriter and resident shaman of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros , the hippie-inspired outfit that broke out in 2009 with a fresh sound that was difficult to pin down. Via his alter-ego messiah character Edward Sharpe, Ebert and the Magnetic Zeros' breakout single and signature song across four albums is, of course, "Home." An ebullient and endearing an...

Manchester Orchestra is one of Indie music’s darlings, and deservedly so. The band is fearless in how it has evolved over the years, moving from the in-your-face guitar thrashes of 2014’s Cope to the much more cinematic and layered approach of their last two albums, 2017’s A Black Mile to the Surface and their recent The Million Masks of God . But something strange happened along the way to  Milli...