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Song Stories

“Sweet Home Alabama”

Lynyrd Skynyrd | 1974

Ronnie Van Zant sang this pissed-off answer (“A Southern man don’t need him around anyhow”) to Neil Young's anti-Dixie diatribe “Southern Man” (“Southern change gonna come at last/Now your crosses are burning fast),” and even Young loved it. “I'd rather play 'Sweet Home Alabama' than 'Southern Man' anytime,” Young said. The admiration was mutual; Van Zant wore a Young T-shirt on the cover of Skynyrd's final album, Street Survivors, and according to legend, he was buried in the shirt.

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Song Stories

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry | 1984

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.

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