MUSIC HISTORY

Bill Haley & His Comets’s "(We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock" might not have been the first rock ‘n’ roll song, but it’s widely regarded as the song that brought rock to the mainstream.

Whether you prefer the 1925 movie featuring Lon Chaney, the original Broadway production, or the 2004 Gerard Butler remake, there’s no question that the chandelier crash scene is one of the most iconic moments in The Phantom of the Opera.

People love to complain about today’s music. All the lyrics are too bland, repetitive, and racy. So thank goodness we have a canon of treasured composers to fall back on! You know, guys like Mozart. He wrote songs with substance.

In this week's episode of mental_floss on YouTube, The Gregory Brothers stop by to share a little music history.

One of the great overlooked albums of the 1980s, Famous Blue Raincoat by Jennifer Warnes features the singer covering the songs of Leonard Cohen. Warnes even ended up co-writing one of the album's tracks, based on the life of a modern-day Catholic saint.

With songs about everything from flashy drug czars to downtrodden jazz musicians, Steely Dan have always cast their lyrical net far from the usual romantic fare of pop music. On one of the standout tracks from their 1975 album Katy Lied, they dug back to

It makes sense that R.E.M., a band whose lyrics are often cryptic, would find inspiration for a song in the mysterious circumstances surrounding a physical attack on newsman Dan Rather.

“Enola Gay” Written by Andy McCluskey (1980) Performed by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (better known as OMD) The

“Marie Provost” Written by Nick Lowe (1978) Performed by Nick Lowe The

“Midnight Rambler” Written by Mick Jagger & Keith Richards (1969) Performed by The Rolling Stones The