djchameleon

I know some of these are well known facts but there might be a few things here and there that you might find interesting. Also we can continue this list by added weird or obscure facts about other songs/bands to keep the thread going. You can also put out the different ones that you had no idea about that blew your mind.

1. Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” was originally written for Celine Dion.
2. The song “Torn” by Natalie Imbruglia is actually a cover. The original is by Ednaswap.
3. “Tainted Love” is a cover as well. The original is by Gloria Jones and came out in 1964.
4. ALSO “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” is a cover by some dude. The original is by a guy named Robert Hazard.
5. One last one: “I Love Rock & Roll” is a cover. It was originally by The Arrows, not Joan Jett.
6. The song “Sweet Child of Mine” was written in five minutes.
7. The song “Like a Virgin” is actually about a guy getting over a breakup.
8. Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” is actually about anal sex.
9. The song “Summer of 69” by Bryan Adams is about 69’ing, like, sexually. In this interview, he said: “Some parts [of the song] are autobiographical, but the title comes from the idea of 69 as a metaphor for sex. Most people thought it was about the year 1969.”
10. Serial killer Aileen Wuornos was obsessed with Natalie Merchant’s “Carnival.” She requested they play it at her funeral.
11. Billy Joel’s “Only the Good Die Young” is about a man trying to convince a Catholic girl to lose her virginity to him.
12. Sarah McLachlan’s song “Angel” is about heroin addiction.
13. The song “Closing Time” by Semisonic is not about closing a bar, it’s about the birth of the lead singer’s daughter.
14. “Zombie” by The Cranberries is about terrorism in Northern Ireland.
15. “Slide” by The Goo Goo Dolls is about abortion.
16. “Brick” by Ben Folds Five is also about abortion.
17. And “The Freshman” by The Verve Pipe is about abortion as well.
18. Shel Silverstein wrote “A Boy Named Sue.”
19. “Gettin’ Jiggy wit It” was written by Nas.
20. The song “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites” samples this YouTube video of a girl stacking cups. “OH MY GOSH.”
21. Justin Timberlake’s “Rock Your Body” was written by Pharrell for Michael Jackson’s final album, Invincible.
22. “…Baby One More Time” was rejected by TLC.
23. Rihanna’s “Umbrella” was supposed to be a Britney Spears song.
24. Leona Lewis was originally supposed to sing Rihanna’s “We Found Love.”
25. “Toxic” was intended for Kylie Minogue, not Britney Spears.
26. Britney Spears’ “I’m a Slave 4 U” was written for Janet Jackson.
27. “Semi-Charmed Life” is about a couple on a crystal meth binge.
28. “1985” by Bowling for Soup is originally by the band SR-71.
29. “Red Red Wine” by UB40 was originally recorded by Neil Diamond
30. Prince wrote Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.”
31. “The Way” by Fastball is about an elderly couple who went missing and were later found dead in a ravine.
32. Bruce Springsteen wrote “Blinded by the Light.”
33. “Since U Been Gone” was turned down by Pink and Hilary Duff before Kelly Clarkson recorded it.
34. Bruno Mars wrote CeeLo Green’s “**** You.”
35. “Me and Mr. Jones” by Amy Winehouse is about Nas.
36. Avril Lavigne helped write the Kelly Clarkson song “Breakaway.” It was meant to go on Avril’s first album, the one with “Sk8er Boi” and “Complicated,” but it didn’t really fit with her image.
37. “How Will I Know” by Whitney Houston was originally supposed to be for Janet Jackson.
38. Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” was written for S Club 7.
39. Jesse McCartney wrote Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love.”
40. Frank Ocean wrote the Justin Bieber song “Bigger.”
41. Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” was written by Otis Redding. You can listen to his version here.
42. “You Oughta Know” by Alanis Morissette is about Dave Coulier (from Full House).
43. “Ben” by Michael Jackson was originally intended for Donny Osmond.
44. Eve 6’s “Here’s to the Night” is about a one-night stand.
45. Miley Cyrus’ “We Can’t Stop” was originally intended for Rihanna.
46. “Bad” was originally supposed to be a duet between Michael Jackson and Prince.
47. The song “Hey Ya” by Outkast is actually about a man stuck in a loveless relationship.
48. The DMB song “Crash” is sung from the perspective of a peeping tom.
49. “Disturbia” by Rihanna was originally a Chris Brown song.
50. Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” MAY actually be about his then-fling, Elle Macpherson.
51. Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” is about his then-girlfriend, Rosanna Arquette.
52. Lori Lieberman wrote “Killing Me Softly,” not Roberta Flack.
53. Shania Twain or Faith Hill were both given the opportunity to record Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable.”
54. “Candle in the Wind” was originally written about Marilyn Monroe but rewritten about Princess Diana when she was killed and titled “Goodbye England’s Rose.”
55. Bob Marley’s “I Shot The Sheriff” is about birth control. Bob Marley didn’t want his girlfriend to take birth control pills. The doctor who prescribed the pills was the sheriff.
56. The song “There She Goes” by Sixpence None the Richer is about heroin. The song was actually originally by The La’s too.
57. LFO’s “Girl on TV” is about Jennifer Love Hewitt.
58. Usher’s “Burn” is about Chilli from TLC.
59. The song “Hollaback Girl” by Gwen Stefani was written in response to something Courtney Love said about Gwen in Seventeen magazine.
60. Madonna’s “Take a Bow” is reportedly about Sean Penn.
61. “Hero” by Mariah Carey was originally intended for Gloria Estefan.
62. Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” was originally written for Britney Spears. You can listen to Britney’s demo here.
63. Prince wrote The Bangles’ “Manic Monday.”
64. The song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is not about an LSD trip. It’s about a painting John Lennon’s son drew for him.
65. Prince’s song “1999” is about nuclear war.

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Fame, fortune, power, titties. People say these are the most crucial things in life, but you can have a pocket full o' gold and it doesn't mean sh*t if you don't have someone to share that gold with. Seems simple. Yet it's an important lesson to learn. Even lone wolves run in packs sometimes.

Urban Hat€monger ?

66. Soft Cell recorded Tainted Love just 2 days after Marc Almond heard Gloria Jones original for the first time ever.

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Cuthbert

Good idea for a thread DJ, struggling to think of something to contribute to it though.

Psy-Fi

Knew about half of those, and some are by people/bands I don't listen to, so they don't mean anything to me anyway.

Number 8 should have been number 2 on the list...
The original lyrics are clearly about anal sex ("Tutti Frutti, good booty / If it don't fit, don't force it / You can grease it, make it easy") but they were rewritten to make the song suitable for radio.

Number 11 was obvious to me the first time I heard the lyrics.

Number 32 was such a big hit for Manfred Mann's Earth Band, and played to death on the radio, so I can see how most people might think they wrote it and not know it's actually a Spingsteen song.

Number 55 was claimed to be about birth control by a former girlfriend of his named Esther Anderson. I always thought the song was about government oppression/abuse and fighting back against it. From an entry in Wikipedia; Marley explained his intention as follows: "I want to say 'I shot the police' but the government would have made a fuss so I said 'I shot the sheriff' instead… but it's the same idea: justice."

Number 64 is clearly about LSD. John denied it at the time, but his alternative explanation always seemed so ridiculous, I always figured he was just having a laugh with it.

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She's a Brick House

Pet_Sounds

67. The Beach Boys' Wouldn't It Be Nice originated from Brian Wilson's fantasies about his wife's older sister. The two eventually started an affair.

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Everybody's dying just to get the disease

Taxman

^^ didn't know that.

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The Batlord

And I thought I hated Full House.

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Black Francis

67- Nirvana's 'Smells like teen spirit' got that name after Kurt saw a teen spirit deodorant.

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"Hey Kids you got to meet the MIGHTY PIXIES!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbRbCtIgW3A

Goofle

I appreciate the list but none of them will change the way I feel about those songs.

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blackcoffee

the story i heard was that kathleen hanna (of bikini kill) drunkenly spray painted "kurt smells like teen spirit" on his apartment wall because it was the deodorant his then-girlfriend tobi vail wore.