Song Meanings
The stories and meanings behind well-known songs.
If It Makes You Happy by Sheryl Crow: The Meaning Behind the Song
The chorus asks a question that sounds like an accusation and turns out to be aimed inward. If this is what you wanted, why are you...
Song MeaningUptown Girl by Billy Joel: The Meaning Behind the Song
A working man watches a wealthy woman get out of a car and decides to try anyway. That is the entire plot, delivered in three minutes...
Song MeaningOrdinary by Alex Warren: The Meaning Behind the Song
A song called “Ordinary” that spends its length insisting nothing about the situation is ordinary should not work as well as it does. Alex Warren built...
Song MeaningMacArthur Park: The Meaning Behind the Song
One line has kept this song in arguments for nearly sixty years. Somebody leaves a cake out in the rain, the icing runs, and the singer...
Song MeaningFire and Rain by James Taylor: The Meaning Behind the Song
For half a century listeners have traded a story about this song involving a plane crash, a surprise visit and a girlfriend who never arrived. None...
Song MeaningBlack Velvet by Alannah Myles: The Meaning Behind the Song
The song never says who it is about. It describes a boy from the South, a voice that undoes people, and a sudden disappearance, and it...
Song MeaningTiny Dancer by Elton John: The Meaning Behind the Song
It took thirty years for this song to become the thing it is now. It was barely a hit on release, and it is currently one...
Song MeaningEverlong by Foo Fighters: The Meaning Behind the Song
Dave Grohl wrote this song on a friend’s floor at Christmas, in under an hour, at a point where his marriage had ended and his band...
Song MeaningAPT. by ROSE and Bruno Mars: The Meaning Behind the Song
Millions of people have shouted the chorus of “APT.” without knowing they were shouting a Korean word, and a fair number assumed it meant apt in...
Song MeaningWhat Do You Mean? by Justin Bieber: The Meaning Behind the Song
“What Do You Mean?” asks its question so many times that the question becomes the song. It sounds relaxed, almost weightless, and the frustration underneath is...
Song MeaningYou’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch: The Meaning Behind the Song
It is one of the few Christmas songs built entirely out of insults, and it has been sung to children every December since 1966. “You’re a...
Song MeaningMilkshake by Kelis: The Meaning Behind the Song
Twenty years on, people still ask what the milkshake is. The song has been played at every wedding reception and school disco since 2003, and the...
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