What A Wonderful World

This was written by Bob Thiele and George Weiss. Thiele was a producer for ABC records, and Weiss was a songwriter who helped create the hit version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." The song is about appreciating the beauty of our surroundings.

Armstrong recorded this for scale, accepting only $250 to make sure the orchestra got paid.

This is the song most associated with Louis Armstrong, but it does not represent the body of his work, which consists mostly of Jazz.
In 1988, this was re-released in the US after it was used in the Robin Williams movie Good Morning, Vietnam. It charted at #32

The boss of ABC Records hated this and did not promote it until it became a hit in England.

This was the last song publicly performed by Eva Cassidy, who died of cancer about 6 weeks later in 1996. Cassidy became known after her death when a BBC radio DJ started playing songs from her album Songbird. The album gained popularity and went to #1 in the UK. She required medication to get on stage the last time.

Joey Ramone covered this on his 2002 album, Don't Worry About Me, which was released almost a year after his death. Ramone occasionally played this live long before he recorded it. It expressed his optimistic view of the world, even as he was faced with death.

In Britain, this was the biggest-selling single of 1968.

For the 2002 album When Pigs Fly: Songs You Never Thought You'd Hear, Country music star Roy Clark recorded this song. Cevin Soling, who was executive producer on the album, had The Oak Ridge Boys record "Carry On Wayward Son" for the project, and their manager Jim Halsey suggested Clark. Says Soling: "Johnny Cash was going to be on the record. And I was supposed to go to Jamaica to work with him. And that was one of the sad phone calls that I got... he had borrowed Elizabeth Barrett Browning's house there and was building a studio, so I was waiting for construction of the studio. He was going to do the Zombies' 'Time Of The Season,' and then shortly before I was supposed to go out there I got a call that he was too sick. Then I talked to Jim Halsey about it, and he goes, 'Well, if you're looking for that I can get Roy Clark.' So that was how the Roy Clark track came together. It was just thrown at me. Any track is so much work, it was nice to have something that just sort of fell in my lap. I mean, I was doing all the contract negotiations, I was doing the producing, the contracts, the arranging... everything. Soup to nuts was all me in making it happen. So for a track to fall in my lap was a godsend at that point."

Hawaiian musician Israel Kamakawiwo'ole recorded this in a medley with "Over The Rainbow" for his 1993 album Facing Forward. This version was used in the films Finding Forrester, Meet Joe Black, and 50 First Dates, as well as on the television show ER.

In 2007 a cover by Katie Meluia and Eva Cassidy was a #1 in the UK. It was an unusual duet with Meluia's vocals being spliced with those of the late Eva Cassidy. A charity single for the Red Cross, the single was only available in Tesco stores, so it was a surprise this version of "What A Wonderful World" outsold the competition in the singles chart.

With the success of this cover, Eva Cassidy became the 13th act to have a posthumous UK chart-topper. No other artist has had a larger gap between passing away and their debut posthumous UK #1, Cassidy having died on November 2, 1996, 11 years and one month ago before achieving peak position.

This was a #11 hit in the UK in 2001 when Cliff Richard released it in a medley with "Somewhere Over The Rainbow." Co-incidentally Eva Cassidy's biggest hit in the UK before this single had been her take on "Somewhere Over The Rainbow," which peaked at #42.

The 66-year-old Armstrong became the oldest act to top the UK charts when this reached #1. Four years previously Satchmo had become the oldest artist to record a US #1 when "Hello, Dolly!" hit the top spot. Armstrong's record was broken in 2009 when the 68-years-and 9 months-old Tom Jones was one of the artists on the Comic Relief cover of "Islands in the Stream."

I Want You Back

BEHIND THE SONG: I Want You Back

• This was the first Jackson 5 single released by Motown Records. It launched their career and went to #1 in the US, as did their next 3 releases: "ABC," "The Love You Save" and "I'll Be There."
• Michael Jackson sang lead. He was 11 years old and the youngest of the group. There was one younger Jackson brother named Randy, who replaced Jermaine in the group in 1977.
• This was written by a team of Motown writers called The Corporation. The head of the label, Berry Gordy, was one of the writers. They were based in California, unlike most Motown writers who were in the Detroit offices.
• Michael Jackson reminded Berry Gordy of Frankie Lymon, another teenage star. Gordy helped write this as if he was writing for Lymon.
• The original title was "I Want To Be Free." It was Gordy's idea to change it to "I Want You Back" and make it more of a love song.
• This was intended for Gladys Knight & The Pips, and at one point Diana Ross was going to record it, but Berry Gordy decided to change the title and some of the lyrics and use it for his newly-signed group of boys, the Jackson 5.
• Gordy went out of his way to make this a hit. He was very high on The Jackson 5, and felt they were the perfect group to prove that Motown could continue it's success through the '70s. At the time, this was the most expensive Motown single ever recorded.
• The then 11-year-old Michael Jackson became the youngest person to be involved in an American #1.
• Two popular songs sampled this in 2001: Jay Z used it on "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" and it was also used on Lil' Romeo's "My Baby." It was also sampled on the Kris Kross hit "Jump."
• The sci-fi Soul singer-songwriter Janelle Monáe covered this as a bonus track on the deluxe edition of her The Electric Lady album. She explained to A.V.Clubthat she chose this particular tune as it resonated with her. "There are so many amazing Michael Jackson songs from different stages of his career," she said, "and that happened to be one of my favorite stages. It makes people happy, and I love the tone, and musically, it has a lot of places to go for our orchestra. It has a lot of odd instrumentation."
  
  "The version I did does not sound like the Jackson 5 original recording," Monáe continued. "I wanted to interpret it my way and record it differently, while continuing to pay homage to him, but I saw it in a different light. I'm really excited to let you guys hear it because you'll get a chance to hear that song from my perspective. I had a dream about it and how I wanted it to be recorded."

Ride Like The Wind

This Soft Rock classic tells the story of a condemned man on the run to Mexico. The storyline is one not often heard on Adult Contemporary radio, but the precise instrumentation and soaring background vocals, which were provided by Michael McDonald, helped make the song a big hit.

What you probably didn't know about the song: Christopher Cross was on acid when he wrote the lyrics. We were living in Houston at the time, and on the way down to Austin to record the songs, it was just a beautiful Texas day," he told us. "I took acid. So I wrote the words on the way down from Houston to Austin on acid."

Speaking about his inspiration for the outlaw theme in this song, Cross told us: "I grew up with a lot of cowboy movies. Serials and stuff, like The Lone Ranger and these cowboy serials where they were always chasing the bad guy. And I lived in San Antonio near Mexico, so there was always this anarchistic allure about if you could get to Mexico, you could escape the authority. Also, Mexico was a place where you could go down there and drink and do all this debauchery that as a kid, you think sounds really cool. So getting to the border in Mexico was a fascinating thing to me."

In 1999, the satirical newspaper The Onion published a story with the headline, "Christopher Cross Finally Reaches Mexican Border," which was a reference to this song. Cross appreciated the honor.

This song originated out of live performances by Christopher Cross and his band when they would play a 1973 Paul McCartney & Wings song called "Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five." They would jam on the song, and in the middle section, Cross would do the "ba da da da, da da, da da" part, which became the centerpiece of "Ride Like The Wind."

A track from Christopher Cross' first album, this was released as his first single. His record company, Warner, wanted "Say You'll Be Mine" to be the first single, but Cross' producer Michael Omartian convinced them that "Ride Like The Wind" was the best choice. The song went all the way to #2 in America, but the next release was even bigger: "Sailing" was a #1 hit and won Grammy awards for Song Of The Year and Record Of The Year.

On the album inner sleeve, Christopher Cross dedicated this song to Lowell George, formerly of the band Little Feat, who died in 1979.

The Michael McDonald connection came courtesy of Cross' producer Michael Omartian - they knew each other from working with Steely Dan. McDonald offered to do some background vocals, so they put him to work on the song "I Really Don't Know Anymore." A few weeks later when Cross and Omartian were working on "Ride Like The Wind," they realized they needed another voice for the answer vocals, so they called McDonald back to do it.

The album had some impressive credits, as Don Henley also contributed some vocals. The big names helped it earn credibility and airplay, making it a wildly successful debut for Cross.

A group called East Side Beat recorded a Dance version of this song in 1991 that was popular in Europe, making #3 in the UK. The Jazz trumpet player Freddie Hubbard included it on his 1982 album which was titled after the song, and the Metal band Saxon released a cover in 1988. Cross says he likes the East Side Beat version, as he prefers covers that put a different spin on the song.

In 2005, a web series called Yacht Rock debuted, poking fun at artists like Christopher Cross and Michael McDonald in their depictions of what went on behind the scenes of songs like this one. Cross and McDonald saw the humor, and even performed this song in 2009 on the "Yacht Rock Party" episode of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

Be True To Your School

The Beach Boys' school was Hawthorne High School in Hawthorne, California, which is where Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson and Al Jardine all went. Brian, who wrote the track, incorporated some of Hawthorne's fight song - "Scarlet and Gold" - into the middle eight of "Be True To Your School."

The cheerleaders on the track (chanting "Push 'em back! Push 'em back! Waaaaaay back!") were a girl group called The Honeys: sisters Marilyn and Diane Rovell, and cousin Ginger Blake. Brian Wilson produced some tracks for the group (most notably "He's A Doll"), who also cut demos for the Shangri-Las. They also sang backup on Glen Campbell's song "Guess I'm Dumb." Brian and Marilyn got married in 1964 and had the daughters Carnie and Wendy, who later formed Wilson Phillips. Marilyn and Diane formed a group called Spring, which released a self-titled album in 1972 with Brian as executive producer. The single "Good Time" got some attention, but failed to chart. Brian and Marilyn divorced in 1979.

Early Beach Boys songs like this one dealt with issues important to teenagers - girls, cars, surfing, and in this case, pride in your school. Musically, the group stood out thanks to Brian Wilson's songcraft and their distinctive harmony vocals. The songs also connected because of lead singer Mike Love's lyrics, which captured a slice of life in the high school halls. It was something he learned from Chuck Berry, whose song "School Day" provided a template for Rock n' Roll school songs. In our interview with Mike Love, he explained: "You can feel the influence of Chuck Berry in songs like 'Surfin' U.S.A.' which is patterned after 'Sweet Little Sixteen,' and songs like 'Fun, Fun, Fun' and 'Be True To Your School,' so many of the songs that have the lyrical impulse that Chuck Berry would put into his songwriting."

Until 1994, when Mike Love won a lawsuit awarding him composer credit on this and 34 other Beach Boys songs, Brian Wilson was the only credited songwriter on the track. The publishing rights to these songs was administered by Brian's father Murry Wilson, who Love claims often left him off the credits.

This song entered the Top 40 on November 23, 1963, which was the day after US President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Four weeks later, the song made its chart peak of #6.

The Boys Of Summer

This is about looking back on a past relationship and wanting your ex back - wanting to return to what you had. The first verse depicts how the writer is left behind. His ex has moved on but he hasn't and still hangs onto hope: "But babe, I'm gonna get you back, I'm gonna show you what I'm made of / those days are gone forever I should just let them go but..." At first he is hanging onto hope but then he realizes that he must let go. The "Boys of Summer" could refer to the boys his ex is now seeing, and how they are just summer flings, while he is in it for the long haul.

Don Henley told the NME that he really did see a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac. Said the Eagles frontman: "I was driving down the San Diego freeway and got passed by a $21,000 Cadillac Seville, the status symbol of the Right-wing upper-middle-class American bourgeoisie – all the guys with the blue blazers with the crests and the grey pants – and there was this Grateful Dead 'Deadhead' bumper sticker on it!"

The opening lyrics ("Nobody on the roads, nobody on the beach") refer to the California coast as summer turns into fall. It becomes a much quieter place when the weather gets cold.

The title comes from a baseball book by Roger Kahn called Boys of Summer. The book is about The Brooklyn Dodgers, who broke the hearts of their fans when they moved to Los Angeles.

The music was written by Mike Campbell, who worked with Tom Petty as a guitarist and producer for many years. He has also written tracks for many songs, including "Refugee," "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," and "Don't Do Me Like That." Campbell offered this to Petty, but he turned it down and the song went to Henley, who wrote the lyrics. Campbell also played guitar on this and produced it.

Mike Campbell told us about recording this song: "I used to have a 4-track machine in my house and I had just gotten a drum machine - it's when the Roger Linn drum machine first came out. I was playing around with that and came up with a rhythm. I made the demo on my little 4-track and I showed it to Tom, but at the time, the record we were working on, Southern Accents, it didn't really sound like anything that would fit into the album. The producer we were working with at the time, Jimmy Iovine, called me up one day and said he had spoken with Don, who I'd never met, and said that he was looking for songs. He gave me his number and I called him up and played it for him and he called me the next day and said he put it on in his car and had written these words and wanted to record it. That's kind of how it started. Basically, he wanted to recreate the demo as close as we could. We ended up changing the key for the voice. We actually cut it in one key, did the whole record with overdubs and everything, and then he decided to change the key like a half step up or something, we had to do the whole record again, but it turned out pretty good."

The video for this song was the big winner at the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards, just the second year the awards were held. It won for Video Of The Year, Best Director, Best Art Direction, and Best Cinematography.

The director was Jean-Baptiste Mondino, a French graphic designer/photographer who had made a video for the song "Cargo de Nuit" by a French singer named Axel Bauer. Mondino sent that video to Jeff Ayeroff, an executive at Henley's label, Geffen Records. Ayeroff flew Mondino to California and had him meet with Henley, who was baffled by the pitch but decided to go with it and let Mondino do his thing.

Speaking about his connection to the song in the book I Want My MTV, Mondino said: "I was living in Paris, and we were into a new era, more modern. But I couldn't refuse to go to LA - it was like a dream. When I got there, I was very disappointed, because there's a big difference between what I saw when I was a kid in the beautiful old Hollywood movies, and what LA's actually about. When I listened to 'Boys Of Summer,' there was something nostalgic - he was looking back, talking about something that he's leaving behind. The '70s were dying."

Shot in black and white, (as were many of Mondino's videos), it was artistic and abstract. When Henley accepted the award for Best Video at the VMAs, he admitted to having no idea what was going on when they shot the clip, but said that Mondino and his crew made "Southern California look like the South of France." Getting Henley to show up to an awards show was no easy feat - when The Eagles won the Album Of The Year Grammy for Hotel California, Henley and the rest of the band skipped the ceremony.

This is about looking back on a past relationship and wanting your ex back - wanting to return to what you had. The first verse depicts how the writer is left behind. His ex has moved on but he hasn't and still hangs onto hope: "But babe, I'm gonna get you back, I'm gonna show you what I'm made of / those days are gone forever I should just let them go but..." At first he is hanging onto hope but then he realizes that he must let go. The "Boys of Summer" could refer to the boys his ex is now seeing, and how they are just summer flings, while he is in it for the long haul.

Don Henley told the NME that he really did see a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac. Said the Eagles frontman: "I was driving down the San Diego freeway and got passed by a $21,000 Cadillac Seville, the status symbol of the Right-wing upper-middle-class American bourgeoisie – all the guys with the blue blazers with the crests and the grey pants – and there was this Grateful Dead 'Deadhead' bumper sticker on it!"

The opening lyrics ("Nobody on the roads, nobody on the beach") refer to the California coast as summer turns into fall. It becomes a much quieter place when the weather gets cold.

The title comes from a baseball book by Roger Kahn called Boys of Summer. The book is about The Brooklyn Dodgers, who broke the hearts of their fans when they moved to Los Angeles.

The music was written by Mike Campbell, who worked with Tom Petty as a guitarist and producer for many years. He has also written tracks for many songs, including "Refugee," "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," and "Don't Do Me Like That." Campbell offered this to Petty, but he turned it down and the song went to Henley, who wrote the lyrics. Campbell also played guitar on this and produced it.

Mike Campbell told us about recording this song: "I used to have a 4-track machine in my house and I had just gotten a drum machine - it's when the Roger Linn drum machine first came out. I was playing around with that and came up with a rhythm. I made the demo on my little 4-track and I showed it to Tom, but at the time, the record we were working on, Southern Accents, it didn't really sound like anything that would fit into the album. The producer we were working with at the time, Jimmy Iovine, called me up one day and said he had spoken with Don, who I'd never met, and said that he was looking for songs. He gave me his number and I called him up and played it for him and he called me the next day and said he put it on in his car and had written these words and wanted to record it. That's kind of how it started. Basically, he wanted to recreate the demo as close as we could. We ended up changing the key for the voice. We actually cut it in one key, did the whole record with overdubs and everything, and then he decided to change the key like a half step up or something, we had to do the whole record again, but it turned out pretty good."

The video for this song was the big winner at the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards, just the second year the awards were held. It won for Video Of The Year, Best Director, Best Art Direction, and Best Cinematography.

The director was Jean-Baptiste Mondino, a French graphic designer/photographer who had made a video for the song "Cargo de Nuit" by a French singer named Axel Bauer. Mondino sent that video to Jeff Ayeroff, an executive at Henley's label, Geffen Records. Ayeroff flew Mondino to California and had him meet with Henley, who was baffled by the pitch but decided to go with it and let Mondino do his thing.

Speaking about his connection to the song in the book I Want My MTV, Mondino said: "I was living in Paris, and we were into a new era, more modern. But I couldn't refuse to go to LA - it was like a dream. When I got there, I was very disappointed, because there's a big difference between what I saw when I was a kid in the beautiful old Hollywood movies, and what LA's actually about. When I listened to 'Boys Of Summer,' there was something nostalgic - he was looking back, talking about something that he's leaving behind. The '70s were dying."

Shot in black and white, (as were many of Mondino's videos), it was artistic and abstract. When Henley accepted the award for Best Video at the VMAs, he admitted to having no idea what was going on when they shot the clip, but said that Mondino and his crew made "Southern California look like the South of France." Getting Henley to show up to an awards show was no easy feat - when The Eagles won the Album Of The Year Grammy for Hotel California, Henley and the rest of the band skipped the ceremony.

The Ataris did a cover of this in 2003. Mike Campbell's thoughts on their version: "I like it a lot. My son's 15, he has a punk band and he was excited about it. I thought it took some balls to try that song, it's not a song you expect a young band like that to do, but I kind of like their version of it. I listened to it closely and noticed that they had done a lot of the guitar parts and they had changed a little bit but not a whole lot. I like the way the guy sang it, they changed one lyric and I thought that was cool. I heard it on the radio three times in one day and I got kind of excited about it."

In The Ataris version, instead of saying "I saw a DEADHEAD sticker on a Cadillac" they say "I saw a BLACK FLAG sticker on a Cadillac." Black Flag is a hardcore punk band that Henry Rollins fronted.

The Ataris played their version of this at the 2003 Home Run Derby. ESPN used the song in various promos for the event. It may have been the last time one of Henley's songs was used on the network. A short time later, ESPN hired conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh as a football analyst. Henley can't stand Limbaugh, and has refused to license his songs to ESPN ever since they put him on the air.

In 2010, Henley won a lawsuit against Chuck Devore, who was running for a US Senate seat in California. Devore - a Republican - used "The Boys of Summer" and "All She Wants to do is Dance" in his campaign advertising, which didn't go over well with Henley. A California judge didn't buy Devore's defense that he was making "fair use" of the songs. Devore didn't get the nomination, finishing third in the Republican primary.

MTV exposure from this song's video raised Henley's profile but cost him a degree of anonymity. With the Eagles, he was tucked away behind a drum kit, and rarely on TV. Only one video was made for his first album - that was "Johnny Can't Read," and MTV rarely played it. Once "The Boys of Summer" got in hot rotation, Henley found himself suddenly recognizable, which often made him uncomfortable.

Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)

Roger Waters wrote this song about his views on formal education, which were framed during his time at the Cambridgeshire School for Boys. He hated his grammar school teachers and felt they were more interested in keeping the kids quiet than teaching them. The wall refers to the wall Waters built around himself because he wasn't in touch with reality. The bricks in the wall were the events in his life which propelled him to build this proverbial wall around him, and his school teacher was another brick in the wall.

Waters told Mojo, December 2009, that the song is meant to be satirical. He explained: "You couldn't find anybody in the world more pro-education than me. But the education I went through in boys' grammar school in the '50s was very controlling and demanded rebellion. The teachers were weak and therefore easy targets. The song is meant to be a rebellion against errant government, against people who have power over you, who are wrong. Then it absolutely demanded that you rebel against that."

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.

The addition of the choir convinced Waters that the song would come together. He told Rolling Stone: "It suddenly made it sort of great."

Pink Floyd's producer, Bob Ezrin, had the idea for the chorus. He used a choir of kids when he produced Alice Cooper's "School's Out" in 1972. Ezrin liked to use children's voices on songs about school.

There was some controversy when it was revealed that the chorus was not paid. It also didn't sit well with teachers that kids were singing an anti-school song. The chorus was given recording time in the studio in exchange for their contribution; the school received 1000 pounds and a platinum record.

The Disco beat was suggested by their producer, Bob Ezrin, who was a fan of the group Chic. This was completely unexpected from Pink Floyd, who specialized in making records you were supposed to listen to, not dance to. He got the idea for the beat when he was in New York and heard something Nile Rodgers was doing.

Pink Floyd rarely released singles that were also on an album. They felt their songs were best appreciated in the context of an album, where the songs and the artwork came together to form a theme. Producer Bob Ezrin convinced them that this could stand on it's own and would not hurt album sales, and when the band relented and released it as a single, it became their only #1 hit. Two more songs were subsequently released as singles from the album: "Run Like Hell" and "Comfortably Numb."

The concept of the album was to explore the "walls" people put up to protect themselves. Any time something bad happens, we withdraw further, putting up "another brick in the wall."

The Wall was one of 2 ideas Waters brought to the band when they got together to record in 1978. His other idea was The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, which he ended up recording as a solo album.

Water's original demo for this was just him singing over an acoustic guitar, and he saw it as a short interstitial piece for the album. He explained in Mojo magazine: "It was only going to be one verse, a guitar solo and out. Then the late Nick Griffths, the engineer at Britannia Row, recorded the school kids, at my request. He did it brilliantly. It wasn't until I heard the 24-track tape he sent while we were working at Producer's Workshop in Los Angeles that I went, 'Wow, this now a single.' Talk about shivers down the spine."

When they first recorded this song, it was one verse and one chorus, and lasted 1:20. Producer Bob Ezrin wanted it longer, but the band refused. While they were gone, Ezrin made it longer by inserting the kids as the second verse, adding some drum fills, and copying the first chorus to the end. He played it for Waters, who liked what he heard.

This is often paired with "Happiest Days of Our Lives" when played on radio stations, and it follows "Happiest" on the album. "Happiest Days of Our Lives" depicts how childhood was great and there was nothing to worry about, until the teachers came along and tried to oppress and suppress the children. Waters then describes that the teachers must have it rough in their own homes, and take out their frustration on the students.

To make this album, they came up with the concept of the character "Pink." Bob Ezrin wrote a script, and they worked the songs around the character. The story was made into the movie The Wall, starring Bob Geldof as "Pink." Many people believe you have to be stoned to enjoy the film.

For the stage show, a giant wall was erected in front of the band using hidden hydraulic lifts as they played. It measured 160x35ft when completed, and about halfway through the show, the bricks were gradually knocked down to reveal the band.

Waters sang lead. When he left Pink Floyd and the band toured without him, Gilmour sang it.

The original idea for the concept of the actual Wall they wanted to create came from a problem Roger Waters was having during their concerts. When he started thinking about the show, he wanted to isolate himself from the public because he couldn't stand all the yelling and shouting. "The Wall" was not just a symbol and a concept, but a way of separating the band from their audience.

The line "We don't need no education" is grammatically incorrect. It's a double negative and really means "We need education." This could be a commentary on the quality of the schools.

On July 21, 1990, Waters staged a production of The Wall in Berlin to celebrate the destruction of The Berlin Wall.

The 1998 movie The Faculty has a version of this song remixed by Class Of '99.

In England, this was released in November 1979 and became the last UK #1 of the '70s.

Part 1 of this song is often overlooked. It is saying that because Pink's father went off and died in WWII, he built The Wall to protect him from other people. In the movie you see him at the playground with the other kids and their fathers, then one of the kids leaves with his father and Pink tries to touch the father's hand. The father pushes him away quite aggressively then leaves.

In 2004, Peter Rowan, a Scottish musician who runs a royalties firm, started tracking down the kids who sang in the chorus, who were by then in their 30s. Under a 1996 copyright law, they were entitled to a small amount of money for participating on the record. Rowan was no so much interested in the money as in getting the chorus together for a reunion.

On July 7, 2007, Roger Waters performed this at the Live Earth concert at Giants Stadium in New Jersey. Live Earth was organized to raise awareness of global warming, and the slogan for the event was "Save Our Selves" (S.O.S.). Waters poked fun at Pink Floyd and the event by flying a giant inflatable pig overhead, which was a classic Pink Floyd stage prop, except this one was emblazoned wit the words "Save Our Sausages."

Roger Waters did the Scottish voices on the track. He told Mojo magazine December 2009 laughing, "I can do mad Scotsman and high court judges."

The teacher character in this song shows up again in Pink Floyd's next album, The Final Cut (1983), notably in the song "The Hero's Return." He is based on the many men who returned from war and entered the teaching profession, as they had no other opportunities. Brick InThe Wall (Part II)

Roger Waters wrote this song about his views on formal education, which were framed during his time at the Cambridgeshire School for Boys. He hated his grammar school teachers and felt they were more interested in keeping the kids quiet than teaching them. The wall refers to the wall Waters built around himself because he wasn't in touch with reality. The bricks in the wall were the events in his life which propelled him to build this proverbial wall around him, and his school teacher was another brick in the wall.

Waters told Mojo, December 2009, that the song is meant to be satirical. He explained: "You couldn't find anybody in the world more pro-education than me. But the education I went through in boys' grammar school in the '50s was very controlling and demanded rebellion. The teachers were weak and therefore easy targets. The song is meant to be a rebellion against errant government, against people who have power over you, who are wrong. Then it absolutely demanded that you rebel against that."

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.

The addition of the choir convinced Waters that the song would come together. He told Rolling Stone: "It suddenly made it sort of great."

Pink Floyd's producer, Bob Ezrin, had the idea for the chorus. He used a choir of kids when he produced Alice Cooper's "School's Out" in 1972. Ezrin liked to use children's voices on songs about school.

There was some controversy when it was revealed that the chorus was not paid. It also didn't sit well with teachers that kids were singing an anti-school song. The chorus was given recording time in the studio in exchange for their contribution; the school received 1000 pounds and a platinum record.

The Disco beat was suggested by their producer, Bob Ezrin, who was a fan of the group Chic. This was completely unexpected from Pink Floyd, who specialized in making records you were supposed to listen to, not dance to. He got the idea for the beat when he was in New York and heard something Nile Rodgers was doing.

Pink Floyd rarely released singles that were also on an album. They felt their songs were best appreciated in the context of an album, where the songs and the artwork came together to form a theme. Producer Bob Ezrin convinced them that this could stand on it's own and would not hurt album sales, and when the band relented and released it as a single, it became their only #1 hit. Two more songs were subsequently released as singles from the album: "Run Like Hell" and "Comfortably Numb."

The concept of the album was to explore the "walls" people put up to protect themselves. Any time something bad happens, we withdraw further, putting up "another brick in the wall."

The Wall was one of 2 ideas Waters brought to the band when they got together to record in 1978. His other idea was The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, which he ended up recording as a solo album.

Water's original demo for this was just him singing over an acoustic guitar, and he saw it as a short interstitial piece for the album. He explained in Mojo magazine: "It was only going to be one verse, a guitar solo and out. Then the late Nick Griffths, the engineer at Britannia Row, recorded the school kids, at my request. He did it brilliantly. It wasn't until I heard the 24-track tape he sent while we were working at Producer's Workshop in Los Angeles that I went, 'Wow, this now a single.' Talk about shivers down the spine."

When they first recorded this song, it was one verse and one chorus, and lasted 1:20. Producer Bob Ezrin wanted it longer, but the band refused. While they were gone, Ezrin made it longer by inserting the kids as the second verse, adding some drum fills, and copying the first chorus to the end. He played it for Waters, who liked what he heard.

This is often paired with "Happiest Days of Our Lives" when played on radio stations, and it follows "Happiest" on the album. "Happiest Days of Our Lives" depicts how childhood was great and there was nothing to worry about, until the teachers came along and tried to oppress and suppress the children. Waters then describes that the teachers must have it rough in their own homes, and take out their frustration on the students.

To make this album, they came up with the concept of the character "Pink." Bob Ezrin wrote a script, and they worked the songs around the character. The story was made into the movie The Wall, starring Bob Geldof as "Pink." Many people believe you have to be stoned to enjoy the film.

For the stage show, a giant wall was erected in front of the band using hidden hydraulic lifts as they played. It measured 160x35ft when completed, and about halfway through the show, the bricks were gradually knocked down to reveal the band.

Waters sang lead. When he left Pink Floyd and the band toured without him, Gilmour sang it.

The original idea for the concept of the actual Wall they wanted to create came from a problem Roger Waters was having during their concerts. When he started thinking about the show, he wanted to isolate himself from the public because he couldn't stand all the yelling and shouting. "The Wall" was not just a symbol and a concept, but a way of separating the band from their audience.

The line "We don't need no education" is grammatically incorrect. It's a double negative and really means "We need education." This could be a commentary on the quality of the schools.

On July 21, 1990, Waters staged a production of The Wall in Berlin to celebrate the destruction of The Berlin Wall.

The 1998 movie The Faculty has a version of this song remixed by Class Of '99.

In England, this was released in November 1979 and became the last UK #1 of the '70s.

Part 1 of this song is often overlooked. It is saying that because Pink's father went off and died in WWII, he built The Wall to protect him from other people. In the movie you see him at the playground with the other kids and their fathers, then one of the kids leaves with his father and Pink tries to touch the father's hand. The father pushes him away quite aggressively then leaves.

In 2004, Peter Rowan, a Scottish musician who runs a royalties firm, started tracking down the kids who sang in the chorus, who were by then in their 30s. Under a 1996 copyright law, they were entitled to a small amount of money for participating on the record. Rowan was no so much interested in the money as in getting the chorus together for a reunion.

On July 7, 2007, Roger Waters performed this at the Live Earth concert at Giants Stadium in New Jersey. Live Earth was organized to raise awareness of global warming, and the slogan for the event was "Save Our Selves" (S.O.S.). Waters poked fun at Pink Floyd and the event by flying a giant inflatable pig overhead, which was a classic Pink Floyd stage prop, except this one was emblazoned wit the words "Save Our Sausages."

Roger Waters did the Scottish voices on the track. He told Mojo magazine December 2009 laughing, "I can do mad Scotsman and high court judges."

The teacher character in this song shows up again in Pink Floyd's next album, The Final Cut (1983), notably in the song "The Hero's Return." He is based on the many men who returned from war and entered the teaching profession, as they had no other opportunities.

Dancing In The Dark

Springsteen wrote this about his difficulty writing a hit single and his frustration trying to write songs that will please people. Ironically, it was a hit single - the biggest of his career in terms of chart position.

Directed by Brian DePalma, the video was filmed at the St. Paul Civic Center in Minnesota on June 28, 1984. The audience was not real: it was made up of about 200 extras. Courteney Cox got the role of the adoring fan in the front row who gets to dance on stage with Bruce. She landed a role on the sitcom Family Ties soon after.

The video was contrived and certainly did not capture the raw energy of his live shows, but it was Springsteen's first clip to get heavy airplay on MTV, and introduced him to a new, mostly younger audience.

In the 1985 Rolling Stone reader's poll, this was voted Single of the Year.

This was the last song written for Born In The U.S.A.

This won Springsteen his first Grammy. In 1985, it got the award for Best Male Vocal.

Springsteen wrote this after his manager, Jon Landau, demanded a hit single from the album. After a brief altercation, he complied and wrote this that same night. Springsteen had over 70 songs written for Born In The U.S.A., but his manager, Jon Landau, wanted a guaranteed hit to ensure superstar status for Springsteen.

Due to its catchy beat, the somewhat depressing lyrics to this song were lost on most listeners. Springsteen's "Born In The U.S.A." had the same thing happen, as the message was lost in the music.

This was the first of 7 top 10 singles on Born In the U.S.A. and the only one released before the album.

In 1985, Tina Turner performed this on her Private Dancer tour. Her version appears on the album Tina Turner - Live in Tokyo.

A rather intriguing cover of this song was by the group Big Daddy, who hit #21 UK with their version. The concept behind Big Daddy is that a band crash landed on an island while out on tour in the late '50s or early '60s, and when they were rescued in the early '80s, tried to revive their career. Music had changed drastically by then, so they started covering '80s music in the only style they knew how to play. The result is a kind of modern Pat Boone sound.

The original concept for the music video was to have Springsteen literally dancing in the dark - shot against against a black background. Jeff Stein was the director, and Daniel Pearl, famous for his cinematography on "Every Breath You Take," was the director of photography. Pearl and Springsteen got in a kerfuffle over how he should be shot, with Springsteen wanting a filter and Pearl insisting on hard lighting. Bruce walked out after a few takes, and ended up shooting the video with Brian DePalma. A few years later, despite his efforts to avoid Springsteen, Pearl found himself working on the "Human Touch" video. Pearl says that Springsteen apologized for the "Dancing In The Dark" debacle and asked to work with him again, as he realized Pearl was right about the lighting.