Behind The Song

Without the music, the 1983 cult classic film Eddie & The Cruisers just wouldn’t be the same. And without the film, the real-life bar band band who wrote many of the songs for its multi-platinum soundtrack wouldn’t have recorded the Top Ten single from it, “On The Dark Side.” Get into the story of how John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown band got the gig of a lifetime in this episode of the Behind The Song podcast.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By the time Bachman Turner Overdrive were ready to record their third album, Not Fragile, Randy Bachman had sent demo tapes to almost two dozen record labels, all met with rejection letters. Finally, a twist of fate led to inking a contract with Mercury Records…but they were told they were one song short of “that magic element” the label thought they needed for the album. In this episode of the Behind The Song podcast, find out how “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” was begrudgingly added to the track listing and became a number one smash for B.T.O. even though Randy Bachman had intended for the song to be nothing more than a brotherly inside joke! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Temple Of The Dog’s short-lived status as a Seattle rock supergroup got its start as a tribute project for the late Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone, and ended up yielding one self-titled album that became a platinum seller. The idea to record songs for Wood, who died of an overdose at age 24, was the late Chris Cornell of Soundgarden’s way of coping with the grief of losing his friend, and the band he recruited as the songs became a full album included not only fellow Seattle musicians who would go on to form Pearl Jam, but a then-unknown singer who had flown up from San Diego, Eddie Vedder. Unpack the touching history of this classic tune in this episode of the Behind The Song podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“One Way Or Another” by Blondie is based on an experience frontwoman Debbie Harry had with a stalker ex-boyfriend. In an incredible turnabout of power, the song ended up being one of the major hits on the band’s commercial breakthrough album, Parallel Lines. It’s an inspirational tale about making something positive out of a very negative experience. Find out more in this episode of the Behind The Song podcast.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Live And Let Die” marked some important firsts for the James Bond film franchise. It was the first 007 film to star Roger Moore as James Bond, and when it came to the music, it had a little help from some key players with Beatles pedigrees. Paul McCartney’s title theme was the first rock song ever for a Bond film, and the entire score was created by producer Sir George Martin, the fifth Beatle. Find out how it all came together in this episode of the Behind The Song podcast.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eddie Money seemed to burst onto the national music scene fully formed when his self-titled debut album was released in 1977 and “Two Tickets To Paradise” climbed up the charts, but he had already traveled a long and unlikely road to get there. His journey begins in a New York City police family, quitting the force himself to travel to California, where he realized his dream to become a rock star with the help of legendary promoter Bill Graham. Let’s unpack the incredible journey of this cop-turned-rock’n’roller in this episode of Behind The Song. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A favorite among Dead fans and casual listeners alike, “Casey Jones” has a super catchy melody and an origin story that goes back to early 1900’s Americana. It all started with a real-life train engineer whose heroic act inspired a ballad that eventually became the album closer on the Workingman’s Dead album, released in 1970. As with all things Grateful Dead, there’s a story here, and so let’s get into it in this episode of Behind The Song.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By the time Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers set out to record their third album, Damn The Torpedoes, they were in a legal mess with MCA Records over a contract sale which resulted in Petty losing all of his publishing rights, among other issues. In a drastic strategy to get the label off his back, he filed for bankruptcy and hid the master tapes of the material he, the band, and co-producer Jimmy Iovine were working on every day. That strategy worked, which resulted in a rare triumph for artists in the music business. When Damn The Torpedoes was released, it became their breakthrough, led by “Refugee,” a song Petty crafted the lyrics for in about 10 minutes. Dig in to the incredible story in this episode of the Behind The Song podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By the time David Bowie wrote the songs for his Aladdin Sane album, which was released in April of 1973, it was his first time writing as an actual rock star. Inspired by the people and places he saw in America while touring as his Ziggy Stardust concept, he called Aladdin Sane his “Ziggy Goes To America” album. Two people in particular that he met in New York City became the muse for its first single, the glam rock bop “The Jean Genie.” Get into the story in this episode of the Behind The Song podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By the time U2 recorded their seventh album, 1991’s Achtung Baby, they were exhausted from nonstop touring, going through personal struggles at home in Ireland, and were at odds with each other about which direction to take musically. So, they headed to Berlin for a fresh start, landing on the day of the German Unification after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was there that they wrote the song that put them all on the same page as a band again, the timeless “One,” a song about division that actually helped the band transition into a new decade. Get into the whole story in this episode of the Behind The Song podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The late Peter Green was one of the early guitar heroes in England, alongside names like Eric Clapton. He formed Fleetwood Mac in 1967, and their early records during his time leading the band yielded songs that were transcendent, psychedelic, and rooted in the blues music that he loved. Before quitting the band and spending many years afterward battling schizophrenia, he wrote “Black Magic Woman,” a song popularized by Santana when he covered it for his Abraxas album. Get into the whole incredible story in this episode of the Behind The Song podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Lady” was the first of several hit Styx songs that Dennis DeYoung wrote for his longtime wife, Suzanne. It became the first hit song for the band, and it is largely held to be the very first power ballad in rock. Get into the inspiring story in this episode of the Behind The Song podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“In The City” is best known as an album cut on 1979’s The Long Run, an album the Eagles cobbled together after many months and on the heels of their epic Hotel California album and tour. But it was first co-written by Joe Walsh for the soundtrack to the cult classic film The Warriors, and it’s his version you hear in the unforgettable end scene. Find out how this song came to be recorded by both Joe Walsh and the Eagles after the film was released in this episode of Behind The Song!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Right Now” by Van Halen is an inspirational song about living in the moment, but it took a long time to come together. Released on 1991’s For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, their third after Sammy Hagar joined as frontman, it was purposefully written without a trace of reference to fast cars, girls, or partying. The video for the song was so ahead of its time - dealing with world issues and cultural hot button topics - that Hagar was afraid that the lyrics he had so painstakingly penned would get lost in the concept, at first. And of course, there’s the incomparable Eddie Van Halen playing piano on “Right Now,” a musical note that has its own backstory. Unpack it all in this episode of Behind The Song!  Watch the video episode and subscribe to the Behind The Song Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@behindthesongpodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been said “Closer To The Heart” by Rush is Canada’s “Stairway To Heaven,” in ways that go beyond the technical, and it struck a chord worldwide to audiences in a way that Rush’s songs hadn’t before. There’s a folk vibe to this song, a message about finding personal balance and how doing that puts the world at large in a better kind of order. It was the first Rush song to have lyrics penned by an outside co-writer, and it became a hit. Geddy Lee said it was “as close as they ever got to a pop song.” But who was that outside writer? Let’s get into “Closer To The Heart” in this episode of the Behind The Song podcast.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was a song that Jon Bon Jovi had to admit that he was wrong about. It took serious convincing for him to agree to put what became Bon Jovi’s signature song on their third album, a make or break album for the band. And the song does what only a very big, monster hit song can do: get in your head and stay there, probably forever. It also tells a story about a couple of kids, Tommy and Gina…the first in a series of songs in which the couple would appear. Get into the story of “Livin’ On A Prayer” in this episode of the Behind The Song podcast with your host, Janda Lane. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It may be the most delicate song in the entire Rolling Stones catalog, with Mick Jagger delivering every single line of “Wild Horses” with an impassioned weight. And there’s good reason for that. By the time this song was written and recorded for 1971’s Sticky Fingers album, the Stones had more than enough personal drama to sing about. Get into it in this episode of the Behind The Song podcast with Janda Lane.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Workplace romances can be challenging…especially when your job is being part of a rock band. That was certainly the case with the band Heart. In fact, their first Top 10 hit in the US was written about the beginnings of what became an intra-band relationship. Get into the story of “Magic Man” in this episode of the Behind The Song podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By 1983, John Mellencamp had finally gotten the upper hand on his career. After the success of his breakthrough album, 1982’s American Fool, he had all the cards in his deck to change the game when it came to his relationship with the music business executives who had tried to control him from the start, over six years earlier.  For his seventh studio album, Uh Huh, he did just that. Released in the fall of '83, t is the first album that bears his last name, an important step toward freeing himself of artistic shackles. Uh Huh was another success for Mellencamp on the charts, and one of its charting singles could be viewed as his mission statement: a song that encapsulates not only his battle with the folks in the corner offices who tried to dictate his career but the very spirit of the man himself. Let’s get into the story of “Authority Song” in this episode of the Behind The Song podcast.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd stands alone in many ways. By dealing with the uncomfortable concepts of life, death, greed, and mental illness, this body of work chimes with the human experience on a real level, which is remarkable considering that Roger Waters wrote the lyrics when he was just in his late 20’s. The content resonates so completely that The Dark Side Of The Moon holds the record on the Billboard 200 chart for being the longest-charting album in the chart’s history - over a thousand weeks and counting. It is one of the best-selling albums in the world, one of the most important in the entire rock genre. And when it comes to “Time,” track four on side one, we have a song that confronts us with our very path of existence. It traces the whole pattern of life, from youth to death and the great beyond, in six minutes and 53 seconds of pure poetry and amazingly creative audio imagery - ticking clocks and all. Get into it in this episode of the Behind The Song podcast.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices