A Lover's Concerto - The Toys. Released in 1956, over 40 year later Barbara Harris still sings this as freash as it was back then. The melody is actually over 200 years older, taken from Minuet in G major.
ABC - The Jackson Five. According to co-writer Freddie Perren, the music of this track was derived from the chorus of their previous hit, 'I Want You Back'.
All Out Of Love - Air Supply. Lead vocalist Russell Hitchcock holds the note at the end of this track for more than 20 seconds.
Another Brick In The Wall - Pink Floyd. Roger Waters wrote this about his views on formal education. He hated his grammar school teachers, and felt they were more interested in keeping the kids quiet than teaching them. The chorus came from a school in Islington, England, and was chosen because it was close to the studio. It was made up of 23 kids between the ages of 13 and 15. They were overdubbed 12 times, making it sound like there were many more kids.
Dock Of The Bay - Otis Redding. When Otis recorded this, he didn't have a last verse written, so he whistled it. He planned to return to Memphis and fill in the verse after performing in Madison, Wisconsin, but he died before he had the chance. When Cropper produced the song, he left the whistling in, and it fit the mood of the song perfectly. It is probably the most famous whistling in any song.
Don't Know Why - Norah Jones. This was almost the victim of record company stupidity. When the album started selling and the song was apparently a hit, Virgin Records, who owned Blue Note, thought radio stations would prefer a different version and remixed it with a dance beat and processed vocals. Norah Jones thought it sounded ridiculous and insisted on distributing the album version to radio stations.
Down Under - Men At Work. The lyrics were written by lead singer Colin Hay who says..."the chorus is really about the selling of Australia in many ways, the over-development of the country. It was a song about the loss of spirit in that country. It's really about the plundering of the country by greedy people. It is ultimately about celebrating the country, but not in a nationalistic way and not in a flag-waving sense. It's really more than that." Some translations: Fried out combie - a broken-down van. Head full of Zombie - Zombie was a particularly strong batch of marijuana which was floating around Australia for a long time. People called it 'Zombie Grass'. Vegemite Sandwich - Vegemite is a fermented yeast spread that is pretty much a national institution in Australia. Some people love it and can't start the day without a piece of toast spread with Vegemite, and some go so far as to carry a small jar of it with them when they travel overseas. Some are indifferent to it, and others can't stand it. It kind of resembles smooth black tar, and is similar in taste to the English 'Marmite', but Aussie's will always tell you that Vegemite is far superior.