Carl

Great list. Mine would include Billy Joel's piano break in "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant," The bridge of Springsteen's "Rosalita" (the one where Bruce stands on the piano as it duels with Clarence's sax) and when Janis Joplin gets her wail on in "Kozmic Blues."

That tour is coming to a great little theater here in Connecticut. I love EW&F, but I'm afraid Chicago is going to play stuff like "Hard For Me To Say I'm Sorry," causing me to run screaming into the lobby. If they're playing their early stuff, complete with mighty horns, I'm there.

This is a good movie. It's not nearly as depressing as I thought it would be, and the acting is incredible. At one point, a little girl performs "Desperado." It's one of the best uses of a song in movie history. I can't do it justice with words, but I think you'll be impressed if you rent this movie.

I thought the animation was even better in Shrek 2, but the story wasn't as good. The original is amazing, so I was certainly not disappointed by this one. I'm a big fan of "Holding Out For A Hero," so I was digging that part, but "Livin' La Vida Loca" was no "I'm A Believer." I was surprised they didn't change the lyrics - "Her skins the color mocha" could easily have been "She's better than any Ogre," or something to that effect.

Has anyone noticed that for the past year or so, Creed has pretty much disappeared from radio and TV? I think the band knew they were hated due to insurmountable overexposure, and the only cure was MORE COWBELL!, I mean, breaking up. They could not be saved (that one was for you, Psychocatholic), so they're doing everyone a favor by going away. We can only hope now that they are broken up, that the sum of the parts is better than the whole.

Aaaaack. I just got it. Outkast replaced "Hey Ya" with "I Like The Way You Move." I'm 70% sure. (Can you be any less than 100% sure? I always thought if you were sure of something, there had to be no chance you were wrong. There has to be a better way to express the probability of surety.)

We are very thin on Songfacts for this one, so I put out the call: Can anyone explain what David Bowie's "Changes" is about?

Welcome aboard Marc. I'm learning that Tom Waits writes some intensely romantic songs. From what I read, his wife is his collaborator in work and in life. She helps him write songs and means the world to him. I guess they live in a rural town somewhere, where Tom is often recruited to help out on school field trips and stuff - he's known as a guy who's always around because he doensn't have a real job.

Sounds like I need to rent A Fish Called Wanda. In one of the many instances when I've been wrong, I thought "Dream Weaver" was going to be rereleased in 1992 and become a huge hit once again. "Bohemian Rhapsody" was used in the movie Wayne's World, and after Wayne and his buddies grooved to it in Garth's Pacer, the song had massive success when it came out as a single. I was sure "Dream Weaver" was next - it was also used in the movie. Never happened.

How about P. Diddy? The man makes some hits. Geeter, let us know the songs when we crack the case.

I was quite surprised when I found out "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" was by Queen. Years later, after listening to a lot of their stuff, I've come to realize that Queen was capable of sounding like a lot of different bands, and they were surprisingly good at it. From "Another One Bites The Dust" to "You're My Best Friend" to "We Are The Champions," they were always making a new kind of noise. All 4 members wrote songs in completely different styles - and this was encouraged. If more companies managed their employees that way, imagine the creative ideas that would flow through the corporate world. Anyway, I think "Somebody To Love" does sound like a Queen song, but I totally dig your point.

For some reason, Aussie Rock doens't play very well here in The States unless the band fires cannons on stage and has a guitarist that wears a schoolboy uniform. I'm guessing this is poor promotion, because there's nothing wrong with the sound. I thought Midnight Oil and The Hoodoo Gurus were going to break through, but they never really did. Even Kylie Minogue hasn't been a big deal over here. So for us Americans willing to broaden our horizons, what is a good album to start with?

I may have found the perfect workout song. Check out "Walk The Walk" by Poe. It's got big drums and grooves for a solid 5 minutes. There's a good chance it will make you run faster.

I didn't read any disrespect into that reply Batman. To some people, it's real obvious that Rosie O'Donnell and Freddie Mercury and Bert are gay as Christmas, but it's not clear to everyone. I don't think anyone believes you are a homophobe.

The 2 most heinous examples of songs misused in commercials are "Fortunate Son" and "Mercedes Benz." Joplin's song was used by Mercedes to imply that everyone should strive to own one. The song is a commentary on how the quest for material possessions has twisted our values. Mercedes Benz was used as an example of a luxury item we feel we need but really don't. "Fortunate Son" was used by Wrangler to push the patriotic splendor of their jeans. The song is about a kid who gets drafted and has to fight a war while George Bush got to sort of serve in the National Guard because his daddy was important. What makes these so bad is that Janis Joplin and John Fogerty had no say in the matter. Devo has been misuing their songs in commercials for years (see Songfacts for "Whip It" and "Freedom Of Choice"), but they control it. Same thing with The Who.

Alec from Boulder, CO wins the clean and comfortable Songfacts T-shirt. Here are the answers: What famous singer had a twin brother who died at birth? - Elvis Presley His brother's name was Jesse. What song popularized the phrase "Heavy Metal"? - "Born To Be Wild" by Steppenwolf The line is "Heavy Metal thunder." What song contains the line, "I'm a driver. I'm a winner. Things are gonna change soon, I can feel it." - "Loser" by Beck What musician took a picture of The Queen of England that was used on a Canadian stamp? - Bryan Adams He's a fairly accomplished photographer. What popular band is named after a park in California? - Linkin Park What song mentions "Be-Bop-a-Lula" and "What's I Say" in the first verse? - "Walk Of Life" by Dire Straits What was the first rap group to guest star on <i>The Simpsons</i>? - Cypress Hill As with any question containing the words "rap" and "first," most guesses were Run-DMC. What famous band's bass player and drummer were married? - Talking Heads This was a good question. The White Stripes is wrong because Jack White is a guitarist. Fleetwood Mac is wrong because they would have to be living in Massachusetts to make this possible. Chris Frantz was the Talking Heads drummer and Tina Weymouth was the bass player. They are still married and founders of The Tom Tom Club. What rock star was found dead in a greenhouse? - Kurt Cobain What famous band's name is the first names of 2 American Blues singers? - Pink Floyd Wrong answers included Alice Cooper, Pearl Jam and Van Morrison. Tiebreaker: How many songs are on the Songfacts Ipod? - 812 Thanks to everyone who took the quiz, and be sure to take the new one here.

When I heard this song, I thought the lyric was "It's the right time, the wrong me." It made a beautiful statement on how you can meet the perfect person, but if the timing isn't right, it just doesn't work. In this case, the timing is right, but the person is wrong. Anyway, I was disappointed to find out the lyric was actually "Roll To Me," which means pretty much nothing. I saw Del Amitri in concert after this came out. They explained that they didn't want to play it, but knew they had to - it became their curse.

I can blame this only on a carbon based error, namely Sara and I. One of us usually sets the lyrics of the day for a week at a time and also picks a feature song. We have a very informal system for keeping track of what songs we have used recently, which is something like this: Carl: "Have we ever used Bittersweet Symphony for the feature song?" Sara: "I don't think so, but I like that song." The advantage to this system is that we can put in apropriate songs, like "Your Mother Should Know" on Mother's Day. The downside is the limitations of our memory. If you guys have suggestions for specific songs on specific days, or ideas for feature songs, let us know. Carl

There will always be people who can't stand rap in any phylum or phlow, the Hip or the Hop will drop pounds from their cerebellums wasting The Time like Prince's backup band at the car wash. Sorry, every now and then I have to bust a flow. At its best, rap is innovative, thought-provoking and set to a killer beat. My problem with rap is that it's gotten lazy. Great rappers like Jay-Z have this incredible talent, but use it in song after song to talk about the same tired cliches (We get it, you drink Cristal and wear Burberry). There has got to be more you can write about. It's also a little disturbing how obscene the lyrics have gotten. Again, it's lazy - using a naughty word instead of something clever. Unfortunately, there's an audience for this stuff, and as long as it sells, there's no need to tweak the lyrics.

"Mouth" by Merril Bainbridge. I thought she was going to be a star.

I think even Dylan will admit that Hendrix' cover of "All Along The Watchtower" is better than the original. Aretha Franklin did an amazing job with Otis Redding's "Respect." I'm a big fan of The Bangles' version of "Hazy Shade Of Winter" by Simon And Garfunkel.

Zoroastrianism. So I finally finished the Mojo article on this song. Here's their take: Freddie Mercury had an unusual childhood. He was born in what was then called Zanzibar, went to school in India, then moved to England with his parents, who were followers of a religion called - Zoroastrianism. If the song does have deep meaning, and this is by no means a sure thing, it is probably about this religion. Words like "Bismillah" actually meant something to Freddie. It turns out Zoroastrianism is a radical form of Islam - not a popular thing in most parts of the world these days - but as we know, Mercury was a peaceful, tollerant man. Note that while many rock stars had to seek out Yogis and Gurus to find enlightenment and write weird songs, Mercury lived it. He was uniquely qualified to write "Bohemian Rhapsody."

Check out Sara's post in the "About Songfacts" section for some info that could help.

I always thought of "Diva" as an attitude. They know they're good and think everyone else should too. They expect preferential treatment and are very different from the rest of us. They will never drink water that doesn't come from a bottle. I think of Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross and Mariah Carey.

I was hoping someone would answer this, because I've wondered myself. I came across an interview with Chuck D, where he said this sounds like and Earth, Wind & Fire song, but if they recorded it, there's a good chance no one would hear it because radio stations wouldn't play it. I think it's all original. Outkast doesn't use that many samples. They did have Earth, Wind & Fire sing it with them at The Grammys, and it sounded great.