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You heard it here, folks. Charles Manson wrote a Beach Boys song!

30 Weirdo Backstories to Hit Songs

November 11, 2023

We don’t know about you, but we love a juicy backstory. We’ll delve super deep into the making of any great piece of work. Like what Michael Jackson ate for lunch before recording “Billie Jean,” or what color underwear Neil Diamond wore while recording “Sweet Caroline.”

We don’t actually know those particular things. We’d probably be served a restraining order if we did. But there are other great backstories here, we swear!

30

A Whole New World

Pop culture inspirations A Whole New World John Musker, co-director of Aladdin, revealed that the iconic song was inspired by Richard Donner's 1978 film SUPERMAN, where Christopher Reeve takes Margot Kidder's Lois Lane on a dream date. CRACKED — Source

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Pop culture inspirations Barenaked Ladies' One Week Frontman Ed Robertson revealed on TikTok that the lyrics from their 1998 hit came from a sad, strange moment in his life, involving A PASTOR MISQUOTING A LYNYRD SKYNYRD SONG at his brother's funeral. CRACKED — Source

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Pop culture inspirations our Over the Hills and Far Away This Led Zeppelin song included in the album Houses of the Holy was inspired by A РОЕМ WRITTEN BY J.R.R. TOLKIEN in 1915. The lyrics are not related to Tolkien's works, but the title is a tribute to his influence. CRACKED — Source

27

Pop culture inspirations Taylor Swift's Death By A Thousand Cuts Swift's song from her album Lover is about A MOVIE INSPIRED BY ONE OF HER OWN SONGS. The film, Someone Great, was written by director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson after being inspired by Swift's song Clean, from her album 1989. CRACKED — Source

26

THE GUESS WHO WROTE AMERICAN WOMAN ON THE SPOT AT A DIVE BAR. Guitarist Randy Bachman broke a guitar string during their set, and after he'd restrung it he was at the piano tuning his guitar. The audience started responding to the tuning sounds, so the band worked them into a song, right then and there. CRACKED.COM music.cbc.ca/#/blogs/2013/2/Randy-Bachman-takes-us-behind-the-writing-of-American-Woman — Source

25

Bachman Turner Overdrive

You AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET WAS RECORDED TO MAKE FUN OF A STUTTERER. ana The stutterer was Randy Bachman's brother Gary, and Bachman Turner Overdrive recorded the song to poke fun at him. The song was never intended for commercial release, and Bachman re-recorded it without the stuttering. The record company insisted on releasing the original, and it became the band's only number one hit. CRACKED.COM http://www.stutteringhelp.org/btos-song-unique — Source

24

Billy Joel

THE WORKING TITLE FOR BILLY JOEL'S SAPPY BALLAD HONESTY WAS SODOMY. IT'S SUCH A LONELY WORD... Joel's drummer Liberty DeVito used to write inappropriate lyrics to songs as a way to motivate Joel to write more acceptable ones. CRACKED.COM Bill DeMain, 2004. In Their Own Words: Songwriters Talk about the Creative Process. — Source

23

The Beatles

HELTER SKELTER IS THE BEATLES' ATTEMPT TO OUT-WHO THE WHO. Paul McCartney wrote it after hearing The Who's eardrum-shattering style, and figuring he could do better. CRACKED.COM wwww.thecurrent.org/feature/2013/07/16/today-in-music-history-the-beatles-record-helter-skelter — Source

22

SUMMER OF '69 WASN'T ABOUT THE YEAR. IT WAS ABOUT THE SEX. 1969 - NOOK 3 BS 22 1 GNG Goka 27 24 10 FED 14/21 7 28 26 29 30 31 25 Bryan Adams confirmed in an interview that it was about 69 the sex, not '69 the year. Adams was 9 years old in 1969, so if it had been about his memories of that year, the song would actually have been creepier. CRACKED.COM http://www.pacities.org/sunsetstrip/show/6235/Review/Article45.html — Source

21

STEVEN TYLER WROTE THE SONG WALK THIS WAY WHEN НЕ HEARD MARTY FELDMAN USE THE PHRASE IN YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. Not unironically, it was Run-DMC's cover of the song that brought Aerosmith back from the dead in the 1980s. CRACKED.COM 9109 97 — Source

20

WHO ARE You IS ABOUT CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS. Who? 013 NHOB K who? Specifically, it's about Pete Townshend hashing out royalties for The Who's American sales. After 14 hours of negotiations, the execs handed Townshend a check, and he went on the bender described in the song. CRACKED.COM Geoffrey Giuliano, 1996. Behind Blue Eyes: The Life of Pete Townshend. — Source

19

CRACKED.COM Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water recounts a real tragedy. The story in the lyrics actually happened - the band was in Montreux, Switzerland, when some stupid with a flare gun burned down the casino where they were supposed to record an album using a mobile studio. otour — Source

18

The Beastie Boys' (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)' was supposed to be a parody. The Beasties were poking fun at 1980's frat culture. Except that no one got the joke, and the song was adopted as an anthem celebrating the kind of debauchery it was sending up. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

CRACKED.COM Metallica's Nothing Else Matters G.B.W came from thoughtless guitar fingering. Some people doodle on paper while on the phone. James Hetfield randomly plucked at his guitar's strings while talking to his girlfriend. That pattern became the song's opening bars. — Source

16

Guns N' Roses' Sweet Child o' Mine began as a dumb joke. During a jam session, Slash started making faces while playing a silly melody. The other band members liked the tune and ran with it. Within an hour my guitar exercise had become something else, Slash wrote. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

Aerosmith

CRACKED.COM The dude in Aerosmith's Dude (Looks Like a Lady) is Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe. According to songwriter Desmond Child, the song was born when the band went into a club and saw a woman with teased- up platinum mullet and black nails and porcelain skin and jewelry and with a curvy waist - who turned out to be Neil. — Source

14

Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline is named after JFK's daughter. Diamond needed a three-syllable name to fit the song he was writing. Then he remembered a photo of 7-year-old Caroline Kennedy he had seen in a magazine. CRACKED.COM — Source

13

12

The Beach Boys' Never Learn Not to Love was written by Charles Manson. Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson was close with Manson, until the band reworked and recorded one of his songs without crediting him. Manson was furious. Considering the Family's victims were murdered over much less that that, the Boys got off easy. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

CRACKED.COM Billie Jean almost got Michael Jackson killed. Jackson was so absorbed in the song, working on it in his head while driving, that he didn't notice his car was on fire. Someone on a bike had to point it out to him. — Source

10

Sam Smith sang Stay With Me all by himself -- no choir. Не got the choir effect by layering his voice (while standing in different spots) about 20 times, and what we hear is the finished demo. The song was written in 34 minutes and recorded in a single take, but it wasn't until he'd added the harmonies that he felt like the whole song suddenly made sense. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

Keith Richards produced the guitar riff for (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction while asleep. Не woke up the next day without a clue until he heard a recording of about two minutes of guitar and then me snoring for the next forty minutes. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

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 together, and turn that antagonistic energy into pop gold. Apparently it was a hard pass, for Prince. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

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 re-wrote it into 'You Give Love A Bad Name' for Bon Jovi, just to prove that the song was meant to be a hit. CRACKED.COM — Source

6

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 8-year old girl named Jolene. And the 'homewrecker' angle came from a redhead bank teller who developed a huge crush on her husband. CRACKED.COM — Source

5

Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson was Kanye West's biggest inspiration for his album CRACKED.COM Heartbreaks And 808s. K E WE When Kanye played Heartless to Jackson, he complimented him (without knowing it was him singing on the track), and that made Kanye way more confident about his singing. — Source

4

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 explained that he hadn't slept the night before recording his vocals and tiredly sat on a piano thinking the lid was closed. We thought it was funny, so we left it in, he said. GRACKED.COM — Source

3

CRACKED.COM THE POWERPUFF GIRLS theme song is based on a sample from the break in the James Brown song Funky Drummer. — Source

2

Heart ICE-T METALLICA Kirk Hammett ganked part of the solo from Enter Sandman from Heart's Magic Man. But I didn't get it from Heart's version, explained Hammett. I CRACKED.COM got it from a cut off Ice-T's Power album, where he used it as a sample. The guitarist said he kept hearing the lick and thought, I have to snake this! — Source

1

CRACKED.COM 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 tracks for their 10th studio album when both parties decided to work on an original piece during a 24-hour session. Mercury and Bowie even did their vocals separately without hearing each other as they sang their part. — Source

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