Occasionally, a musician or band breaks out with a hit that sounds destined to become an instant classic. Whether inspired by a song's somber, emotion-inducing lyrics or entranced by a refrain's undeniably catchy tune, these songs become deeply entrenched in the minds of even the least-interested listeners.
However, as these songs carry enough impact to become permanent fixtures in pop culture history, the often heart-wrenching and sometimes quirky stories behind these famous song lyrics often go untold. While the melodies are instantly recognizable, these songs' backstories may surprise you.
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1Bob Marley’s Ex Claims 'I Shot The Sheriff' Is About Birth Control
For Bob Marley, a musician known for his straightforward, peace-inspiring lyrics, “I Shot the Sheriff” seems to be an atypical song. This led fans to believe the Wailers frontman was poetically alluding to an entirely different topic than what was heard in the song, and one of Marley's ex-flames proved them right.
According to Esther Anderson, the song is about her decision to use birth control, which Marley opposed. The doctor who prescribed them was referred to as “the sheriff,” as they weren't responsible for creating them but were interfering with nature by prescribing them to patients. Hints of this revelation can be heard in the following lines:
Every time I plant a seed / He said kill it before it grow.
Though this occurrence may have led to the initial ideas for the ballad, the idea of “the sheriff” as a person of authority interfering with spiritual beliefs and practices trends to a larger interpretation typical of Marley's lyrical poetry. Marley himself said the song was about seeking justice.
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'Limousine' By Brand New Tells A Tragic True Story
Brand New's haunting song, “Limousine,” retells the story of 7-year-old Katie Flynn, who was tragically killed by a drunk driver on the way home from a family wedding in 2005. The somber ballad opens with the line, “Katie, don’t cry, I know you’re trying your hardest,” before launching into a lament describing the family's immense sorrow and grief instilled by the driver's carelessness.
Flynn and her family were riding in a limousine when Martin Heidgen collided with their vehicle in his pickup truck on the fateful night. The limo immediately burst into flames. While the limousine driver and the rest of her family escaped, Katie perished instantly. Heidgen was initially charged to serve between 18 years to life in prison.
The bridge, which serves as an angry assertion at the recklessness of drunk drivers, is a quote from Katie's mother, who was heard to murmur the words to her daughter's body at the scene of the incident:
I love you so much, but do me a favor and baby don’t reply, because I can dish it out, but I can’t take it.
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As the song that threw the Austin, TX, based band Fastball into fame, “The Way” became one of the most recognizable songs of the late ‘90s. But while fans may know every word of the song, the story of the elderly couple that inspired the lyrics isn’t as well known.
Looking for inspiration for the group's second album, lead vocalist Tony Scalzo scoured newspaper headlines. When he stumbled across the story of an elderly couple who had gone missing without a trace, Scalzo knew he wanted to capture the sad, mysterious tale in song.
On June 29, 1997, Raymond (88) and Lela (83) Howard left home to attend the Pioneer Day Festival. Both showed signs of memory loss, and their families urged them to allow someone to drive them. Instead, the couple chose to get behind the wheel and drive themselves. When the Howards hadn't made it home by nightfall, their family reported them missing.
Despite multiple sightings throughout the days that followed, no one seemed to be able to pinpoint Raymond and Lela's location. Nearly two weeks later, two boys found their vehicle, along with the Howards' remains, at the bottom of a 25-foot cliff near Hot Springs, AK.
While the family was initially unaware that the hit song they heard on the radio was inspired by their loved ones' disappearances, they couldn't help but notice the similarities suggested in the lyrics:
Their children woke up
And they couldn't find 'em
They left before the sun came up that day
They just drove off and left it all behind 'em
But where were they going without ever knowing the way?Anyone can see the road that they walk on is paved in gold
And it's always summer
They'll never get cold
They'll never get hungry
They'll never get old and gray
You can see their shadows wandering off somewhere
They won't make it home
But they really don't care
They wanted the highway
They're happier there today, todayLela's son from her first marriage, Hal Ray Copeland, later shared:
That sounded like Momma and Mr. Howard - the way they died. You could tell by the way it sounded… I thought “that's exactly what happened. That's what they did. They just drove away…” I liked it, really. I liked the song (a lot)… My cousin said (Lela) left a star. On TV all the time, a song about her. She would have loved that.
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- Al Aumuller / New York World-Telegram and the Sun
- Wikimedia Commons
- No known copyright restrictions
When Irving Berlin's “God Bless America” hit radio airwaves in 1939, the country had been suffering from financial depression for nearly a decade. Since his teens, Guthrie spent time hitchhiking and jumping trains throughout the nation in search of work, Woody Guthrie was angered by the blindly patriotic lyrics that seemed to ignore the devastation people all over America were experiencing.
In retaliation, he penned “This Land is Your Land,” a folk song that captured the beauty of the landscape he witnessed in search of employment while highlighting the struggles of the poor people he met along the way.
While the song is most recognized for its lyrics suggesting that everyone in America, “from the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters," was welcome in the country, the extended version of the song reveals Guthrie's intention behind the song:
As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.
In the squares of the city, in the shadow of the steeple,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
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With its catchy beat and forward-thinking lyrics, “Dude Looks Like a Lady” has become one of the most recognized Aerosmith songs since it was released in 1987. Co-written by Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and band outsider Desmond Child, the song has garnered as much attention for being one of the first to discuss gender identity in a positive light as it has by some within the LGBTQ+ community who argue it unintentionally became a track to mock transgender individuals.
Child, who urged Tyler to change the lyrics from “Cruisin' for the Ladies" to “Dude Looks Like a Lady” has since revealed the story behind the track - which involved a night out drinking between Aerosmith and Motley Crue. After having a few cocktails, Tyler spotted what he believed to be a woman with her back turned to him. With a thick head of luscious blonde hair, the “Sweet Emotion” vocalist couldn't help but approach the woman. When they turned around, Tyler found it wasn't a woman at all. Instead, he had come face-to-face with Motley Crue's lead vocalist, Vince Neil.
Having spent the entire evening with the band, Tyler and Perry couldn't help but notice that Motley Crue's members seemed to use the phrase “Dude” more often than most in conversation. From there, a song that would eventually rule the rock scene for decades was born.
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When Aerosmith band members Steven Tyler and Joe Perry began writing "Walk This Way," the duo nailed the instrumentals but struggled with the lyrics. The band took a break from a particularly frustrating creative session, deciding on a trip to the movies to clear their heads. It was 1975, and Young Frankenstein was playing at a nearby theater in New York's Times Square.
The group apparently enjoyed the film so much that they came back quoting lines exchanged between Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) and Igor (Marty Feldman) as they entered the studio doors. As they recalled Feldman telling Wilder to "walk this way," producer Jack Douglas realized the line would be a perfect song title.
Tyler immediately started writing lyrics, but accidentally left his notes in the cab he took to meet with the brand the next morning. After a few hours locked in a stairwell with his portable tape player, a recording of the tune, and a few pencils, Tyler successfully scribbled the now-famous lyrics on the building's wall.
Since Aerosmith's initial inspiration, the song has charted in two different decades: once in 1976 and again when the band partnered with rap group Run-DMC in 1986.
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Pearl Jam's 1991 massive hit, “Jeremy,” helped lead rock into the new era of grunge, launching the band's trajectory into an even higher level of fame. The upbeat tempo almost helped disguise the heart-wrenching lyrics and subject of the song, which was based on a true story.
That same year, a boy named Jeremy Delle from Richardson, TX, ended his life in front of his class after years of being bullied at school. The Dallas Morning News reported:
Because he had missed class, the teacher in his second-period English class told Jeremy to get an admittance slip from the school office. Instead, he returned with the gun, police said. He walked directly to the front of the classroom. “Miss, I got what I really went for,” he said, then placed the barrel in his mouth and fired.
The band felt his story needed to be told and used the incident as inspiration for the song and the subsequent music video, which drew increasing amounts of controversy as school shootings became more prevalent the following decade.
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American composer, lyricist, and record producer Jim Steinman originally penned “Total Eclipse of the Heart” - which hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 1983 - for a musical adaptation of the classic vampire movie Nosferatu.
Inspired by the total darkness of a full moon eclipse, the song's original title was "Vampires in Love." Steinman once mentioned that anyone who listened to the lyrics could quickly realize that the song was referring to romance found in vampiric darkness.
Steinman was also surprised that he was asked to work with singer Bonnie Tyler on the project, as he usually worked with Meat Loaf and other artists who were more hard rock or heavy metal than pop. Still, Steinman loved Tyler's voice and was excited to take on the challenge of moving into a different genre. Although Steinman's musical version of Nosferatu never came to be, it later made an appearance in the score of his musical Dance of the Vampires.
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Gwen Stefani's cheer-themed track, “Hollaback Girl,” was so popular that it once held the number one spot on worldwide music charts. A departure from the artist's more grungy beginnings with No Doubt, some fans were left confused about her choice to produce a pop-sounding single. Later, it was revealed that the track was an intended answer to comments Courtney Love had made about Stefani during a 2004 interview, mentioning:
Being famous is just like being in high school. But I’m not interested in being the cheerleader. I’m not interested in being Gwen Stefani. She’s the cheerleader, and I’m out in the smoker shed. And plenty of you are out there in the smoker shed too. When it comes to rock ‘n’ roll, it’s just like high school.
Insulted by the accusations, Stefani fired back:
Y’know someone one time called me a cheerleader, negatively, and I’ve never been a cheerleader… So I was, like, "OK, f**k you. You want me to be a cheerleader? Well, I will be one then. And I’ll rule the whole world, just you watch me."
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Hey Man Nice Shot
Since Filter's track, “Hey Man, Nice Shot,” was released in 1995, it's been heard in video games, cartoons, and national sporting events. Though many assumed that the lyrics were a reference to Kurt Cobain's death, the band wrote the song about a Pennsylvania politician who ended his life on television.
After serving in the House of Representatives from 1965-1971, R. Budd Dwyer earned a position in the state's Senate from 1971-1981. Setting his sights on a higher office, Dwyer ran two consecutive successful campaigns to become the State Treasurer of Pennsylvania in 1980 and 1984.
During his tenure, it was discovered that state withholding errors had resulted in employees overpaying their Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). In an effort to remedy the mistake, Dwyer awarded the estimated $4.6 million investigative contract to Computer Technology Associates (CTA) - a firm based in California but run by a fellow Pennsylvania native. A few months later, Dwyer was accused of receiving bribes for the project through an anonymous tip.
Despite claiming his innocence and refusing to accept a plea deal, Dwyer was charged with 11 offenses, including perjury, mail fraud, and conspiracy. Though the State Treasurer faced up to 55 years in prison, he was offered a much shorter, five-year sentence if he resigned from office.
Despite being found guilty, Dwyer maintained his innocence at a live press conference, where he told reporters he would die in office before admitting to guilt. After saying goodbye to his wife and children, Dwyer ended his own life with a shot to the head. While many claimed the drama played itself on live television, the (sometimes unedited) footage was actually aired on news stations after the events. In 2010, a key witness against Dwyer admitted to lying under oath.
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Britney Spears exploded onto the music scene with her first hit song, “…Baby, One More Time,” in 1998. While the song seemingly became an overnight hit with a music video that holds a prominent place in pop culture history, many were left questioning what the teen was really singing about.
With lyrics like “Give me a sign; Hit me, baby, one more time,” it's easy to see where fans' confusion lies. The song was written by Swedish songwriter Max Martin and Swedish-Moroccan songwriter Rami Yacoub, who believed that “hit” was the up-and-coming American slang term for calling someone on the phone. Far from requesting physical abuse, the song only suggests that a heartbroken girl just wants to hear from her ex one more time.
They were mistaken, but that didn't stop the song from racing to the top of the music charts. Reportedly, TLC and pop singer Robyn were offered the song before it landed in Spears's recording studio.
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Before “Closing Time" hit the radio waves in 1998, Semisonic had been performing multiple days a week in clubs, struggling to make it as a band. Dan Wilson and the group initially thought of the opening lyrics as a response to part of their inevitable nightly routine, when bartenders made their last calls for alcohol sales, patrons prepared to find their next entertainment venue, and the band packed up to go home.
Still, after the birth of his daughter, Wilson couldn't help but incorporate some dual-meaning lines into the lyrics. While the lines often pass through listeners' ears without much pause, and Wilson admitted that most never caught on to his joke, the nod to his new family addition is obvious in retrospect:
Closing time, open all the doors
And let you out into the world…Closing time, time for you to go out
To the places you will be from
Closing time, this room won't be open
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