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Song Stories

“White Winter Hymnal”

Fleet Foxes | 2008

Fleet Foxes songwriter Robin Pecknold revealed to Rolling Stone that his songs are "written from personal experience,” including “Hymnal,” which was about a time when his friends ditched him in middle school. The lyrics might have been about childhood past, but the melody came from a familiar source — namely, Walt Disney. “The idea was a song like “Whistle While You Work,” from Snow White, you know?” Pecknold said. “So it started with that very beginning thing, the first kind of like, melody. And then once the verse was done, it just seemed like it lent itself to the repetition, you know?”

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Song Stories

“Everyday People”

Sly and the Family Stone | 1968

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.

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