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Song Stories

“I Say a Little Prayer”

Dionne Warwick | 1967

The wistful verses in which Dionne Warwick asks for a blessing for someone close to her glide into a jubilant chorus pledging eternal love on this 1967 hit. Warwick later revealed in the liner notes to The Look of Love: The Burt Bacharach Collection that she "approached the song from the point of view that it was written, that we were sending a message to our kids in Vietnam." Burt Bacharach, who co-wrote "I Say a Little Prayer" with Hal David, worried, "I thought I blew it. The tempo seemed too fast."

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Song Stories

“Time to Pretend”

MGMT | 2008

Listening to MGMT’s breakthrough song, one might interpret it as being about the excesses of rock stardom, but it’s actually about the duo’s pet praying mantis. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden told Rolling Stone they got the idea from the insect's jerky movements. The mantis died, but the two bandmates kept the egg sack and allowed the hundreds of eggs to hatch. “We tried to name them all, but they died after a day,” said Goldwasser, with VanWyngarden chiming in, “But the praying mantis dance inspired us.”

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