Suede - Beautiful Ones

"Beautiful Ones" is the second single from the album Coming Up by Suede, released on October 14, 1996. on Nude Records. The song became a Top Ten hit in the UK, peaking at #8.
Billboard wrote: "like a fast-mangled Oasis song, Suede succeeded in making sounds of pop/rock that are definitely unique. The painfully true lyrics and vibrant sounds have already proved to be a hit in the U.K."

British female singer Kim Wilde recorded a version of the song for her 2011 album "Snapshots".
In Chile, "Beautiful Ones" was plagiarized and used the song Cachureos called "Los Ancianos".

Good Charlotte - The Anthem

This is about kids in school who are not popular. The song is meant to give them confidence.

A month before this was released, it was used in the football video game Madden 2003. The game sold over 5 million copies and provided the exposure the song needed to become a hit. With songs becoming more difficult to get on radio and MTV, many artists began using non-traditional methods to get their songs heard. This proved that a video game can break a song.

 

 

stellastarr* - Graffiti Eyes

Stellastarr (styled as stellastarr*) is an American indie rock band based in New York City.
The band formed in March 2000 from the ashes of a previous musical effort formed while studying art and design at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
Their third album, Civilized, was released in July 2009 on their own label, Bloated Wife. The album recovers the speed of the first and the essence of the second. "Graffiti Eyes" and "Numbers" are the singles.

Status Quo - Whatever You Want

This song was written by guitarist Rick Parfitt and keyboardist Andrew Bown who got drunk whilst writing it. After writing, Bown took their work upstairs in order to "Quo it up" by removing some chords, leaving just two during the verses! He came back down and claimed - "I think I've done it!"

P.O.D. - Youth Of The Nation

This song was inspired by the March 5, 2001 shootings at Santana High School in Santee, California. 15-year-old Charles Williams walked into school with his father's gun and fired 30 shots, killing 2 students and wounding 13 others. The shooting was remarkably close to where P.O.D. was working that day, and inspired this song. In our interview with lead singer Sonny Sandoval, he said: "When we were actually writing the record for Satellite, we were two blocks away from the Santee high school shootings. We had taken a break and went out for some coffee, and we see all the fire trucks and the police department and the helicopters and news. And we're like, something's going on. We turn on the TV and all of a sudden there's a young kid who has trapped everybody inside the school and he's shooting. Here we are, glued to the TV and we're literally two blocks away. All this is going down, and here we were supposed to write music. It kind of just set the tone for how we felt that day."

Oasis - Don't Look Back In Anger

Noel Gallagher (from Uncut magazine August 2007): "We were in Paris playing with The Verve, and I had the chords for that song and started writing it. We were due to play 2 days later. Our first-ever big arena gig, it's called Sheffield Arena now. At the sound check, I was strumming away on the acoustic guitar, and our kid (Liam Gallagher) said, 'What's that you're singin'?" I wasn't singing anyway, I was just making it up. And our kid said, 'Are you singing 'So Sally can wait'.'' And I was like - that's genius! So I started singing, 'So Sally can wait."'

"I remember going back to the dressing room and writing it out," Noel continued. "It all came really quickly after that. (The title) 'Don't Look Back In Anger' just popped out. We wrote the words out in the dressing room, and we actually played it that night, in front of 18,000 other people. On acoustic guitar. Sat on a stool. Like an idiot. I never do that now."

Oasis - Wonderwall

The general consensus is that this song is about Noel Gallagher's then girlfriend Meg Mathews, who is compared with a schoolboy's wall to which posters of footballers and Pop stars are attached. Noel later married then divorced Meg Mathews. However, according to Q magazines 1001 Best Songs Ever, this was not about Mathews. Noel is quoted as saying, "The meaning of that song was taken away from me by the media who jumped on it. And how do you tell your Mrs. it's not about her once she's read it is? It's about an imaginary friend who's going to come and save you from yourself."

Good Charlotte - Like It's Her Birthday

Guitarist Billy Martin discussed his contribution to the song during an interview with Unrescuable Schizo: "I got to do a guitar solo in it. I've been pushing to do some guitar solos for years. I got to do a really cool one on that song so that was definitely a highlight for me. It's a fairly pop song for us. It's still rock, it's very guitar-heavy but it's sort of a real pop melody. By putting a big rock guitar solo in the middle of the song, it gives it a nice edge. I like that fine line between being a rock band and writing pop songs."

Fran Healy - Sing Me To Sleep

This bouncy tune is a track from Wreckorder, the debut solo album by Travis lead singer Fran Healy. The song is a duet with alternative country singer Neko Case. Healy explained to American songwriter how he hooked up with Case: "I met her at a gig in Berlin, which is where I live, and after the show I went and said 'thanks for the show, you're brilliant,' I found myself asking her if she would be interested in a duet with me. While I'm' in the midst of saying this, my brain is going, 'Why'd you say that?!? Don't ask her that!!'
And I found myself speaking before my brain would allow me. But she was really sweet. She said, 'What a great idea, I'd love to do that.' And then I realized I didn't have a song, so I had to go and write a song. So I went home and wrote this song, 'Sing Me To Sleep,' and then we went to Vermont, which is where she's based, and we set up a little portable studio, just a microphone and a laptop, and we opened Pro Tools. She sang like a bird. She's amazing. She's so gracious and she looked after us. We were very well looked after."

Metallica - Fade To Black

Metallica wrote this after their equipment was stolen in early '84 and they had to start all over again. More specifically, James Hetfield wrote the lyrics in response to one of his amps being stolen. Not only was this amp his favorite, but it was also the first amp he ever owned so it had a lot of sentimental value to him. The song is about losing everything and wondering if it is worth going on.

Metallica was playing this song at their 1992 concert in Montreal's Olympic Stadium when James Hetfield was burned badly by wayward stage pyrotechnics.