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Song Stories

“Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”

The Beatles | 1967

It’s the quintessential Sixties acid song; the title’s words even spell out “L-S-D.” But John Lennon, who had always been candid about his use of mind-altering chemicals during the making of Sgt. Pepper, never relented from his claim that the song’s true and only inspiration was a picture his four-year-old son, Julian, painted of a classmate named Lucy O’Donnell. "I swear to God or swear to Mao or to anybody you like, I had no idea it spelled LSD," Lennon told Rolling Stone.

Find out what fellow British rock icon John Lennon singles out for praise in his final interview.
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Song Stories

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz | 2008

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."

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