Articles by Justin Beckner
John Waite Disliked 'Open Arms.' It Became Journey's Biggest US Hit: The Borrowed Chord That Resolves Into Its Title Line
Prince Disliked Sinéad O'Connor's Version of 'Nothing Compares 2 U', and in 2022, His Estate Kept It Out of a Documentary About Her
Macklemore and Kesha's 'Good Old Days' Never Lands on the V Chord. The Sheet Music Shows How It Finds a Way Home Without One
Vanessa Carlton Couldn't Finish 'A Thousand Miles' for Months, Then Closed It Out in a Single Evening
Adele Planned to Re-Record 'Set Fire to the Rain' With Rick Rubin, Then Kept Her Demo Vocal Instead
Nobody Knows Who Wrote 'Baby Shark' and the Song Feels Like It Never Ends
Gerard Way Wanted My Chemical Romance's 'Cancer' to Be 'the Darkest Song Ever.' Writing It Took About 8 Minutes
Lady Gaga's Deep Cut That Waited More Than 11 Years for TikTok to Get It on the Hot 100: 'Bloody Mary'
Frank Sinatra Almost Didn't Record 'New York, New York.' He Cut It Twice Before Settling on the Version Everyone Knows
The Stones' 'She's a Rainbow' Only Uses Three Chords, but It Doesn't Sound Like It
'Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)': A Rejected Demo Turned Into Green Day's Biggest Hit
People Used to Skip Nirvana's 'Something in the Way.' Then The Batman Sent It to No. 46 on the Hot 100
Neil Diamond's 'Sweet Caroline' Chorus Works Because of the Gaps in It, Not the Notes, According to the Actual Sheet Music
Warner Bros. TV And The Friends Writers Were Furious When The Rembrandts Finished Their Theme Song Without Asking
More Than a Songwriter: Dolly Parton Donated Over 300 Million Books, and Even Turned Down Elvis Once
Inside 'Life On Mars?': David Bowie's Revenge on 'My Way,' and the Late-Arriving Tonic That Makes It Work
Chopin Took Opium for Years. No One Can Prove Whether It Shaped His Music or Not
Rewritten from Scratch, but the Title Survived: Jerry Lee Lewis' 'Great Balls of Fire' and Its Odd Songwriting Split
'Bella Ciao': The Antifascist Anthem Nobody Can Actually Trace
Radiohead's 'Karma Police' Quietly Lifts a Beatles Chord Move, and the Resemblance Is Real
'The Song Stays or I Go': How a Producer's Ultimatum Saved 'Over the Rainbow'
One Chord Makes 'California Dreamin'' Undercut Its Own Lyrical Promise: The Word 'Warm' Lands on C# Minor
