The Inspiration Behind These Famous Songs Show That A Great Idea Can Come From Anywhere
Musicians have an image in mind when they create a song and some of those images became some of the most famous songs of all time. They were inspired by real people and there has to be some sort of backstory behind the songs. There's something or someone that was the special focus that inspired it all.
Sometimes, the song can be about a person they loved, while in other cases, it can be based on fantasies or adoring one of their favorite baseball players. Serious, someone was really obsessed with a certain Yankee great. While some artists were courageous enough to title the name of the song after the muse, others found a way to be quiet about it. These songs were inspired by many different people.
Here's The Story Of The Hurricane
Bob Dylan co-wrote "Hurricane" with Jacques Levy in protest against the imprisonment of middleweight boxer, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. Dylan was under every belief that the boxer was arrested as an act of racism, which led to a false trial and a wrongful sentence.
Dylan actually re-recorded the song to adjust some of the lyrics because Columbia Records' lawyers were concerned about some of the references the song made. The references made were about the two-star witnesses of the murder, Alfred Bello and Arthur Dexter Bradley.
The Sweetest Thing
U2 was dominating the music world once The Joshua Tree was released in March 1987. Bono penned "Sweetest Thing" as a tribute and apology to his wife, Ali Hewson, since Bono missed out on her birthday for the time spent working on the album.
U2 donated all the profits from the single to Alison's charity of choice, Chernobyl Children's Project International. The song was originally released on the B-side single of "Where The Streets Have No Name". "Sweetest Thing" was re-recorded and re-released for U2's compilation album The Best of 1980-1990.
A Day In The Life
Sgt. Peppers will go down as one of the greatest albums ever made, and finishing out the landmark album was "A Day In The Life". The song lyrics are about a man going through a whirlwind of emotions as he reads the newspaper and the song goes through his day.
The song was written by John Lennon, who wrote the first two verses about his friend, Guinness heir Tara Browne, who was killed in a car crash in December 1966. The paper Lennon was reading was the January 17, 1967 edition of the Daily Mail.
My Sharona
The moment The Knacks frontman Doug Fieger laid eyes on Sharona Alperin, it was love at first sight. Despite Fieger being 25 and Alperin being 17 at the time, his love for her inspired him to write songs about her. Nevertheless, only one became a household single.
"My Sharona" secured The Knacks one of the biggest hits ever known. Fieger and Alperin dated for four years, with the single being written in about a 15-minute span. Interestingly enough, Alperin went on to work in real estate and promotes her listings on mysharona.com
Uptown Girl
Billy Joel's classic hit was originally about his Australian model girlfriend, Elle MacPherson, who was 19-years old at the time. As soon as the pair broke up, Joel moved on and started dating another model, Christine Brinkley. The song was released two years before Joel and Brinkley said: "I do".
It seems as if that both MacPherson and Brinkley are the inspiration behind the lyrics to "Uptown Girl". Basically, according to Joel, the average downtown man falls for a beautiful uptown woman. Joel said that Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons inspired the melody.
Maybe I'm Amazed
Paul McCartney can write a love song, there's no doubt about it. "Maybe I'm Amazed" is probably the most meaningful love song McCartney ever wrote. He performed the song as a solo artist as he expressed his gratitude to his wife Linda.
When The Beatles broke up, Linda served as a strong pillar of support for McCartney. In turn, he decided to write the song to her as a tribute and for being who she is as a person. It was one of the many songs McCartney penned to his wife before her death in 1998.
Andy, Did You Hear About This One?
"Man on the Moon" had a ton of cultural references to the point where it revolves around one particular person. Comedian Andy Kauffman was an inspiration to the REM single. From Saturday Night Live to Taxi and his bizarre behavior, Mike Mills elaborated why the band penned a tribute.
He was the perfect ghost to lead you through this tour of questioning this, which made a ton of sense when a movie came to be about the life of the deceased comedian. Jim Carrey portrayed his childhood idol, and the single was the song to the movie.
Sweet Child O' Mine
Some of the best-known songs can be composed in the spur of the moment. Slash and Steven Adler were warming up for a jam session at Guns N' Roses condo in West Hollywood when Izzy Stradlin joined in with some cords and Duff McKagan added a bass line.
Axel Rose heard what was going on from upstairs and was inspired to write lyrics. At the time, Rose's true muse was model Erin Everly, who was his girlfriend. Rose was on such a roll that he completed the lyrics later that afternoon. With all that said and done, "Sweet Child O' Mine" became a popular hit for Guns N' Roses.
Woman
"Woman" served as an ode to John Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono. The song would be featured on the album that Lennon and Ono collaborated on shortly before his unfortunate death on December 8, 1980. This would become the first posthumous single released from the album Double Fantasy.
In an interview with Rolling Stone three days before his death, Lennon stated the song was the "grown-up version" of his song "Girl". Lennon also dedicated the song to his wife, who in turn, stood for all women for everything that women should be able to do.
Candle In The Wind
All of Britain was in mourning when Princess Diana was killed in a car crash on August 31, 1997. Of all the people in attendance at her funeral, Sir Elton John had the privilege of performing a song on September 6 when we said goodbye to her.
The song he chose was "Candle In The Wind", which was originally released in 1973 as a tribute to Marilyn Monroe. Lyricist Bernie Taupin altered the words of the song to fit Diana's circumstances, but the single was incredibly popular as the world mourned over her shocking death.
The Day The Music Died
"American Pie" was featured on Don McLean's album of the same name as the song in 1971. The song refers to a plane crash in 1959 that killed rock and roll icons Buddy Holly, Jiles Perry Richardson Jr., and Ritchie Valens. The verse "The day the music died" was powerful.
It's featured throughout the song as a tribute to the impact those artists had on the music scene before their deaths. Nevertheless, McLean never revealed the meaning behind the lyrics and characters mentioned in the lyrics, which talks about the loss of innocence the early rock and roll generation endured.
Hey Jude
The Beatles would perform "Hey Jude" in front of a live audience in 1968. Paul McCartney dedicated the song to John Lennon's son Julian to comfort him when John and Cynthia got divorced because of his affair with Yoko Ono.
McCartney went to visit Cynthia and Julian at their home in Weybridge Surrey, England because he missed them and found it strange they were out of his life. On the way to the house, McCartney composed the song and Cynthia was touched by it since she was around the fab four before they got big in 1963.
I Love Mickey
Teresa Brewer recorded the song "I Love Mickey" about Mickey Mantle, the center fielder for the New York Yankees. What's impressive is that Mantle appeared on the record with Brewer herself. But, that didn't stop people assuming there was a mutual attraction between the singer and baseball slugger.
The song came to be when Brewer was at a Yankee game while watching Mantle in action. She told a friend how terrific she thought Mantle was and decided to write a song about it. Brewer then presented the song to Mantle and they recorded the track together.
Go Your Own Way
Fleetwood Mac's album Rumors proved to be a huge influence in the seventies. The song "Go Your Own Way" was released in 1976, which was about the ending of a relationship. So, when the song came out, people were curious to know which relationship it was about.
As it turns out, the song was written by Lindsey Buckingham, the band's lead guitarist as his relationship with lead singer Stevie Nicks was coming to an abrupt end. Nicks hated the lyrics "Packing up, shacking up is all you wanna do" and that showed that the song was extremely personal.
Something
George Harrison and Patti Boyd met on the set of A Hard Days Night. They two got married in 1966 and two years later, "Something" would be a song written about Boyd. It speaks about her enigmatic allure and how beautiful she is throughout the song.
Harrison also cited other inspirational sources of the song besides his wife. The song alluded to Krishna, the Hindi deity. Since he writes about women, he writes about God. But of course, the marriage would end in 1976, but that wasn't the end of Boyd's love life.
George's best friend would write his own song about his wife, but it had an unfortunate ending for Harrison.
Peggy Sue
Buddy Holly helped out his drummer and friend Jerry Allison and named his new hit song "Peggy Sue". The song was named after Peggy Sue Gerron, who was swooning over Allison at the time. It also ended up securing Holly one of the biggest rock and roll hits of all time.
The song even won the heart of Peggy Sue and the both of them would go on to tie the knot. The successful union was celebrated with a sequel to the song "Peggy Sue Got Married". Unfortunately, it wasn't anywhere near the charts topper like the prequel.
Donna
Ritchie Valens got the crowd on its feet with his Mexican folk song "La Bamba". However, his highest-rating charting hit was the sweet ode of "Donna". The song was dedicated to Valens high school sweetheart, Donna Ludwig. The song reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1959.
Valens and Ludwig stayed in contact while he was on the road performing the hit until February 3, 1959. Valens, along with Buddy Holly, was tragically killed in a plane crash. Even after his unfortunate death, Ludwig remained a close friend of Ritchie's family.
Layla
If anyone is looking for a song about how to win over the heart of your best friend's wife, turn to Eric Clapton. He did exactly that when he serenaded Pattie Boyd, who was still married to former Beatle George Harrison. Clapton didn't win her over at the time.
The guitar legend released the hit "Layla" in 1970. Performing with his blues-rock band Derek and The Dominoes, Clapton expressed his rather big obsession with Boyd. He loved her to the point where he moved in with her sister, Paula. In 1979, two years after Boyd and Harrison divorced, Clapton got the girl of his dreams.
Good Times Never Seem So Good
The iconic hit by Neil Diamond drew inspiration from a cover of Life magazine. The cover came from an issue on September 7, 1962, where it showed Caroline Kennedy riding a horse when she just four years old. The image of young Caroline remained at the back of Diamond's mind.
Five years later "Sweet Caroline" was born. In 2014, Diamond said that the song was actually written about his ex-wife, Marsha. However, he needed a women's name with three syllables to fit the melody. Which is why Diamond had Caroline in his mind for quite some time.
Brown Sugar
Mick Jagger loved being around the ladies, there was no denying it. Jagger and model-singer Marsha Hunt had a brief and secret relationship, only to last long enough for them to have a daughter together, Karis Jagger, who was born in November 1970.
It's not a surprise that Hunt would be the inspiration to "Brown Sugar" which became a well-known hit by The Rolling Stones. There was immediate speculation the song was about singer Claudia Lennear and not Hunt herself. But, Hunt was the one hanging out the Jagger, which makes so much sense, right?
Sunday Morning Coming Down
Selling more than 90 million records worldwide, there's no debating that Johnny Cash was one of the greatest musicians of his time. But you don't have a successful career spanning six decades without drawing inspiration from some unique places.
Rumor has it that the legendary singer-songwriter (and apparently sometimes, pilot) Kris Kristofferson landed a helicopter on Cash's lawn at his Nashville home. Legend says Kristofferson had a beer in hand and announced, “I thought this might be the best way to get a song to you—bring it right out of the sky.” Although Kristofferson later said Cash wasn't even home when he delivered the song pitch, Cash released "Sunday Morning Coming Down" late that year where it peaked at number one. That wasn't the only unique place Cash drew inspiration from.
A Boy Named Sue
Another one of Johnny Cash's most recognizable hits is "A Boy Named Sue." Cash recorded the tune in early 1969 and it quickly became his biggest hit on the Billboard Hot 100, spending three weeks in the number two spot.
It's surprising enough that Cash only has one top-ten single throughout his career — but what may be more surprising is how "A Boy Named Sue" came to be. The song was written by poet and humorist Shel Silverstein. Silverstein was inspired by his close friend Jean Shepherd who was taunted as a child for his feminine name.
Yesterday
The Beatles are...The Beatles. Few words can truly describe the impact that the band has had on the music industry, and well, the world. But not all of the songs penned by the group are deeply meaningful like you might think.
"Yesterday" on the group's fifth studio album Help! was partially inspired by scrambled eggs. Apparently, Paul McCartney awoke one morning with a little tune in his head. He knew he had something good with the tune, but the lyrics weren't coming to him yet. As a filler, the legendary musician sang the nonsensical lyrics, “Scrambled eggs, oh my baby, how I love your legs.”
A Change Is Gonna Come
Sam Cooke's hit "A Change Is Gonna Come" is arguably one of the most iconic civil rights anthems in history. But the inspiration behind the tune will surprise you.
The soulful sixties anthem was actually inspired by another sixties anthem — Bob Dylan's song, "Blowin' In The Wind." In Peter Guralnick's book Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke, he writes that Cooke was so carried away with the message, and the fact that a white boy had written it, that "[Cooke] was almost ashamed not to have written something like that himself.”
One Way Or Another
Few people haven’t heard Blondie’s hit, “One Way Or Another” but most don’t know the meaning behind the lyrics or its origin. The band’s lead singer, Debbie Harry wrote the song about her ex-boyfriend who ended up stalking her. While the song may have an upbeat melody, the lyrics get a whole lot darker when you realize what she’s talking about.
The artist told Vice, “ I’ve had a couple of ex-boyfriends who didn’t understand the ‘ex’, and that was problematic.” Not only did she have a problem with ex-boyfriends harassing her, but crazed fans, too.
Loser
The song, “Loser” written by Beck was a cry for help from an artist whose life was falling apart before his eyes. After trying to make it in the music industry in New York City, Beck returned to Los Angeles where he still struggled to find his voice in the industry.
Getting frustrated with the struggle of it all, and for the audience’s lack of attention, while performing on stage, he penned “Loser” which would end up being his breakthrough single in 1994. It turned out that voicing his struggles living in a trailer park and running out of money for food was what resonated with his audience.
Polly
The late singer of Nirvana, Kurt Cobain was clearly troubled during his suicide attempts and leading up to his death. Things that he read about weighed heavy on his mind and writing songs was his outlet.
Nirvana’s hit song “Polly” was penned by Cobain after he read about a 14-year-old girl who was kidnapped in Washington state in June of 1987 after attending a concert. Her kidnapper tortured her before she was eventually able to flee the car when he stopped for gas. The culprit was Gerald Friend, who had escaped from prison, then eventually paroled after he abducted a 12-year-old.
Circus
The song “Circus” by artist Eric Clapton really pulls your heartstrings. Clapton wrote the song about the last night he spent with his young son, Conor before the boy fell to his death the following day.
Clapton had taken his son to the Circus the night before the accident, the memories most likely replaying in the artist’s mind as he yearns to see his son again, who will forever live as a young boy who never got the chance to grow up. The song goes: “Little man with his eyes on fire and his smile so
Closing Time
The oh-so-famous '90s rocker "Closing Time" by Semisonic may seem like it's about last call at a bar, but the truth is that it's about the birth of singer Dan Wilson's first child. Ever wonder why the lyrics "Time for you to go out to the places you will be from" never seemed to make any sense? That's because it's about taking your child home from the hospital.
In 2010, Wilson told American Songwriter about the very inspiration behind his hit single. "My wife and I were expecting our first kid very soon after I wrote that song. I had birth on the brain. I was struck by what a funny pun it was to be bounced from the womb."
Higher
Creed is an ultra-religious band, so it makes sense that "Higher" would be about Christ's ascension into Heaven or how religion (and the Lord's forgiveness) is a one-way track to a utopian afterlife. Sorry, but Scott Stapp, the band's frontman, didn't draw inspiration from Christianity when he wrote the song's lyrics. Instead, he took inspiration from Hindu monks.
"Higher" is about lucid dreaming. “You’re physically asleep, but you’re awake in your mind,” explained the singer. Stapp read about Hindu monks who perfected lucid dreaming and tried to use these techniques to rid himself of a terrible, reoccurring nightmare.
Jeremy
Lead singer Eddie Vedder wrote Pearl Jam’s song “Jeremy” about high school students who brought a gun to class. It combines the stories of the two incidents. One was a high school classmate of Vedder’s who shot up his school in San Diego.
The other is a sad tale of a boy who shot himself in the head in front of his entire class in Texas, soon after he had been transferred there from another school. “Jeremy spoke in class today” is a metaphor for the boy shooting himself as his classmates looked on.
Adam’s Song
Written by Blink-182 frontman Mark Hoppus, “Adam’s Song” voiced Hoppus’ loneliness that he felt while coming off tour with the band. The song was also inspired by a teenage suicide Hoppus had read about, where the boy was lonely and wrote a letter to his family before killing himself.
“I never thought I’d die alone, another six months I’ll be unknown…” describes the hollow lonely feeling Hoppus felt after a whirlwind tour, with no one to come home to, as he was single at the time while his bandmates always had someone greeting him at airports.
Total Eclipse of the Heart
"Total Eclipse of the Heart" is an iconic '80s power ballad. The song comes from Bonnie Tyler's fifth album Faster than the Speed of Light and is, without a doubt, her biggest hit. The man behind the song, Jim Steinman, is Meatloaf's collaborator – and that's a key piece of the puzzle. Basically, the song is exactly what you'd expect from someone in Meatloaf's camp and is better suited towards the Twilight soundtrack than and '80s rom-com.
In an interview with Playbill, Steinman admitted that the song is about vampires. "I remembered I actually wrote that to be a vampire love song," he said. "Its original title was 'Vampires in Love' because I was working on a musical of Nosferatu, the other great vampire story. If anyone listens to the lyrics, they're really like vampire lines. It's all about the darkness, the power of darkness and love's place in the dark."
Love Will Tear Us Apart
The song “Love Will Tear Us Apart” by the band Joy Division was written by singer Ian Curtis, talking about the strained relationship with his wife Deborah Curtis. Ian had started an affair with a Belgian journalist named Annik Honore, and even sent her love letters as he recuperated from a suicide attempt.
Deborah filed for divorce as Ian’s health declined. Curtis wrote a love letter to Deborah and then committed suicide by hanging. The title of the song was inscribed on his tombstone. Bandmate Stephen Morris later said in an interview with The Guardian, "This sounds awful, but it was only after Ian died that we sat down and listened to the lyrics. You'd find yourself thinking, 'Oh my God, I missed this one'. Because [we would] look at Ian's lyrics and think how clever he was putting himself in the position of someone else. I never believed he was writing about himself. Looking back, how could I have been so bleeding stupid? Of course he was writing about himself! But I didn't go in and grab him and ask, 'What's up?' I have to live with that."
Mr. Brightside
"Mr. Brightside" by the Killers is an enigma. The song has somehow never left the U.K. album charts since it was released in 2003. (This is a real thing. Not an exaggeration.) Despite the song's obvious popularity, its subject matter is probably a little different than you may have thought.
"Mr. Brightside" is an anthem about cheating, but not how you would think. It's not the woman that the narrator is possessive of, it's the man. The lyrics In question are, "but she's touching his chest now / he takes off her dress now / letting me go. / I just can't look, it's killing me / and taking control." It may seem like this narrator's poor girlfriend fell into the arms of another man, but the truth is, it was his male love interest that found something in another woman.
99 Red Balloons
“99 Luftballons,” or “99 Red Balloons” as it is known in English, was a super catchy pop hit that came from German band Nena in the ‘80s. Although the song is super upbeat, it actually has a dark meaning behind it.
The band actually wrote it as an anti-war song, protesting the Cold War during the time before the Berlin Wall had come down. When Nena guitarist Carlo Karges saw balloons released at a Rolling Stones concert in Berlin, he wondered what would happen if those balloons floated over to the Soviet side of the wall. The song is about military forces having a strong reaction to the balloons that would result in an all-out war.
Born in the USA
You’d think that Bruce Springsteen's “Born in the USA” is a great song about American patriotism, but then you’d probably be wrong. Springsteen actually wrote the song in response to the Vietnam war and the treatment of the veterans who were so lucky to return from it.
Unfortunately, at the time, a lot of politicians didn’t get it and praised Springsteen for creating a song that promoted a love of the country. Springsteen has said that the song is about the working-class man who faces ”a spiritual crisis in which man is left loss. It’s like he has nothing left to tie him into society anymore,” according to Wikipedia.
Gimme Shelter
The Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” is also a politically charged song, much to the surprise of many. The song came out in 1969, a time during rampant anti-Vietnam War protests, the Charles Manson murders, and other movements going on at the time.
According to Song Facts, Keith Richards found inspiration for the song during an actual storm. He said, “I was sitting there in Mount Street and there was this incredible storm over London, so I got into that mode, just looking out of Robert [Fraser’s] window and looking at all these people… My thought was storms on other people’s minds, not mine.”
Listen to Her Heart
Tom Petty’s “Listen to Her Heart” is obviously about a man who has no regards for a woman’s feelings. But you wouldn’t believe the real-life story that inspired Petty to write the song!
Apparently, it was a story Petty’s own wife told him about an experience she had with R&B producer Ike Turner. According to multiple sources, Petty’s wife found herself at a party hosted by Turner where he started to make unwanted advances towards her. This was just after Petty had started making a name for himself and the couple had just moved to Los Angeles.
Semi-Charmed Life
Third Eye Blind rocked 1997 with their hit song “Semi-Charmed Life.” On the surface, it sounded like most other catchy rock songs that dominated the ‘90s. But if you really pay attention to the lyrics, it actually has a deeper meaning.
The lyrics detail a drug abuser’s descent into the high they get from their crystal meth addiction and other negative bad habits. Lead singer Stephan Jenkins apparently wrote the song during a time in his life where he felt like everyone around him was getting high. According to Song Facts, Jenkins has said, “It’s a song about always wanting something. It’s about never being satisfied, and reaching backward to things that you’ve lost and towards things that you can never get.”
Jump
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Most Americans have heard Van Halen’s 1983 hit “Jump” at one point in their lives. As upbeat as it is, you’re unlikely to guess where they actually found inspiration for the song.
Lead singer David Lee Roth came up with the lyrics for the song after remembering a television news report he watched about a man that was threatening to take his own life by jumping off a building. Roth wondered if someone in the crowd might actually egg on the man by saying “go ahead and jump.” With that idea, Van Halen apparently wrote the song as an invitation to love as opposed to an encouragement for suicide.
