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Song Stories

“Need You Tonight”

INXS | 1987

Singer Michael Hutchence wrote the lyrics for what would be the Aussie band's lone U.S. chart-topper in a Hong Kong hotel room the night before the arrival of keyboard player/songwriting partner Andrew Farriss, who came up with some music in the cab on the way to the airport. When they hooked up, Farriss played a tape of what he'd just composed for Hutchence, who pulled out his lyrics and started singing along. "It stopped at the end, and it was exactly how you hear it on the record," Hutchence noted. They were both stunned at this improbably perfect match, as Hutchence sang "I'm lonely" over Farriss' final note.

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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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