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.

Taylor Swift's co-writer and co-producer, Jack Antonoff, was in an alternative rock band with a number one hit before he teamed up with her. https://youtu.be/FcET8B7rvrk

Billy Corgan drew inspiration from an unreleased song when he wrote the Smashing Pumpkins biggest hit.

This song written by Sia is featured on Rihanna's Unapologetic album released in 2012 and became a number one single.

Legendary rock producer, Trevor Horn, co-produced Seal's debut studio album released in 1991 which featured a top ten single, "Crazy," that took two months to record.

1981 was a breakout year for Rick Springfield thanks to his album, Working Class Dog, and the single, "Jessie's Girl," which paved the way for the success of this cover song written by the Red Rocker.

The lead singer of Filter, Richard Patrick, got so blackout drunk, he was inspired to write the band's most successful single released on their second studio album, "Title of Record."

Learn why Matty Healy characterized this 1980s-inspired song from The 1975 album, "Notes on a Conditional Form," as their "Frankenstein" song.

Tears for Fears 1985 hit single, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," allegedly borrowed its chorus and name from a song performed by The Clash.

Lenny Kravitz was enlisted to moan on this sensual hit single that was featured on Madonna's first greatest hits album, the Immaculate Collection. This song topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1990.

In 1980, Boz Scaggs and David Foster co-wrote a hit song for the movie "Urban Cowboy" and then released a different version as a single featuring Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Timothy Schmit on backing vocals. Also performing on this song are Eagles guitarist, Don Felder, and members from Toto, Steve Lukather, Jeff Porcaro, and Mike Porcaro.

A young session guitarist, Jimmy Page, purportedly played with John Barry's orchestra at EMI Studio One on this hit song for the James Bond movie, Goldfinger, sung by Shirley Bassey.

The Bee Gees used the same drum recordings on 4 different hit songs, 3 were for the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack and the other was for a Barbra Streisand number one single written by Robin Gibb and Barry Gibb. The song "Night Fever" features the original drums, the others used drum loops that were credited as Bernard Lupe in the liner notes.

Hear the origin story of The Killers' best-selling single of all time released on their debut album, Hot Fuss, in 2004 (Mr. Brightside written by Brandon Flowers and Dave Keuning). This is audio-only from our YouTube channel.

U2's guitarist, The Edge, wanted to conjure up the ultimate live song in 1986 for their fourth album, The Joshua Tree, so he made a demo at his home the night before the band was scheduled to resume their studio recording sessions. This is audio-only from our YouTube channel.

Learn how Eminem's best-selling single from 2002 was written and recorded while on location filming the movie "8 Mile" in Michigan. It's his first song to reach the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. This is audio-only from our YouTube channel.

Learn who's responsible for one of Led Zeppelin's most famous guitar riffs played by Jimmy Page off their fourth album. This is audio-only from our YouTube channel.

Learn how the Boss won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1994 using his own home recording in the movie, Philadelphia, starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington. This is audio-only from our YouTube channel.

Hear how drummer, Alex Van Halen, uses a crash cymbal choke perfectly as a compositional device on their hit song, Runnin' With The Devil, released in 1978. This is audio-only from our YouTube channel.

Hear Freddie Mercury's final vocal line recorded at Mountain Studios, Montreux, Switzerland six months before he died on November 24, 1991. He was unable to finish this song, so Brian May finished singing it for him. It was released on Queen's album, Made in Heaven. This is audio-only from our YouTube channel.

The French music duo called upon this Chic co-founder to co-write the biggest single off their fourth and final album, Random Access Memories, and ended up building the entire song around his guitar riff. This is audio-only from our YouTube channel.

Hear how Dolly Parton introduced herself to mainstream radio in 1977 with a single that climbed both the country music charts and Billboard Hot 100. This hit song was from her album, Here You Come Again. This is audio-only from our YouTube channel.

Seriously...hear how loud he mixed his snare on the first single released from the Genesis album, We Can't Dance, in 1991. This video also features one of Phil Collins' biggest snare sounds which occurs on the Robert Plant song, In the Mood. This is audio-only form our YouTube channel.

We highlight Jimmy Buffett's greatest song which was written weeks before the death of his friend, Jim Croce, and then recorded just a few weeks after. It was released on his fourth album, Living and Dying in 3/4 Time. This is an audio-only from our ⁠YouTube channel.

This Led Zeppelin hit was released as a single and stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 weekly charts longer than any other song from the band. Hint: It's from their 1973 album, Houses of the Holy.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' "Damn the Torpedoes" album features their one and only top ten single which was recorded in just one take. It also includes another hit song that took a staggering 100 takes to finally get it right.