Sunday, January 13, 2008

Popular Songs and Stories and More

Every song was inspired by a person, a story or an event.
Here are some songs that I found were somewhat different. Whatever was the reason for the birth of these songs was someone or something quite interesting, unusual, or tragic!

1- American Pie.
Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. Richardson were pioneers in rock and roll in the 1950s. They were flying together in a tour and their plane crashed, killing all three men. Don McLean called February 3rd, 1959 "The Day the Music Died" and 12 years later came up with "American Pie"

But February made me shiver
With every paper I’d deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn’t take one more step....



2- The Way.
Real story: An elderly couple decided to leave everything behind them and travel together like crazy teenagers. They have disappeared,lost touch with the world, and none of their friends or family could find them. Fastball made a song out of it, and guess what? It was a number ONE hit in 1998.

They made up their minds
And they started packing
They left before the sun came up that day
An exit to eternal summer slacking
But where were they going
Without ever knowing the way?





3- Tears in Heaven.
Eric Clapton was a rock singer. In 1991, his 4-year old son fell down from the 53rd floor of a building in New York and died. Eric was shocked by the incident but was able to make a song out of it: Tears in Heaven. A decade later he decided to stop playing the song.

Would you know my name
If I saw you in heaven
Will it be the same
If I saw you in heaven
I must be strong, and carry on
Cause I know I don't belong

Here in Heaven






4- Hey There Delilah


A guy meets a girl who happens to be a runner, and asks her out, she was already in a relationship so she turned him down. He made up a song to express how much he loved her. Watch the Olympic Games this summer, you might see Delilah DiCrescenzo running in the 800-meter competitions. A love song not inspired by a love story.

5- Billie Jean

In the early 1980s, a woman claimed that Michael Jackson was the father of her child, and her husband. Her name was Billie Jean. She called herself "Billie Jean Jackson". Investigations showed that she was mentally disturbed and lying, but Jackson made one of the most successful songs in modern music history out of this story, and named it "Billi Jean" in a honor of the crazy woman.

Billie Jean is not my lover

She's just a girl who claims that I am the one

But the kid is not my son

She says I am the one, but the kid is not my son


6- How to Save a Life

This young man was working as a mentor for troubled teenagers. One of them had a behavioral problem that could not be solved by his family members and therapists. This inspired the young man from the Fray to come up with "How To Save a Life"

Step one you say we need to talk

He walks you say sit down it's just a talk

He smiles politely back at you

You stare politely right on through

Some sort of window to your right

As he goes left and you stay right

Between the lines of fear and blame

And you begin to wonder why you came......




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Hope you liked it,
Fares

11 comments:

Maher said...

Hey There Delilah???? No Shit!

ooooooohhh its what you do to meeeeee!! ohhhhhhh its what you dooo to meeeee!!

Love the song..
Song of the ear for me :)

asoom said...

Ok I really like this post, I'm always interested in knowing what the writer was thinking when he/she wrote the lyrics of songs I love.

I loved American Pie but now I love it even more.

With regards to #6, the how to save a life song, to add to what you said I think specifically speaking the person that Isaac was talking about was a drug-addicted teen in denial that he had a problem.

Anonymous said...

try "hey there Khalaila" on youtube! it has a nice story too =) (it is a real song am not trying to be cool here)

Isam said...

the complete story about American Pie can be found here http://my-day-in-music.blogspot.com/2007/11/meaning-of-american-pie.html

nice post ...

7aki Fadi said...

loved it .

Thanks for sharing

Hareega said...

Maher, yeah that was the song of 2007 in my opinion

asoom, thanks for the input, it's a great song

supreme ki, yeah listened to the khalayla song, it was ok, thanks for the updates

isam, will check the site. some meanings of american pir are still ambigious though

7aki fadi, thanks for reading

Dandoon said...

THANK U :)

bella said...

"How to save a life" is probably the greatest song ever, I LOVE it!!

And hey there delilah is one of my current favorites, bs thanks for the history, I thought it was about a long distance relationship, LOL :)

Anonymous said...

Eric Clapton is great....the song is so touching as well.
Hey there Delilah is wonderful akid!
good list:)

Hareega said...

dandon, tinker, caroline, thanks for checking! These are indeed awesome songs

Misa Porras Hurado said...

Great collection of songs! Some of them (Tears In Heaven, American Pie...) have been on my favorites list since I was a kid! Of course... since Clapton is taking viagra online his music is not the same as before.