© Getty Images

Michael Jackson - ‘Billie Jean' -

Michael Jackson came up with ‘Billie Jean’ while driving his car. Jackson joked that the song was so good that it was the reason that his car’s engine caught fire.

© Getty Images

Elvis Presley - ‘Heartbreak Hotel' -

Elvis Presley’s hit song ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ was inspired by a story he read in a newspaper.

© Getty Images

The Rolling Stones - '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' -

Inspiration hit guitarist Keith Richards in the middle of the night when he woke with the idea for the Rolling Stones' '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.' He dragged himself from his bed and recorded a short demo of the guitar riff.

© Getty Images

Coldplay - 'Yellow' -

Chris Martin recalls writing Coldplay’s smash hit and breakthrough single ‘Yellow’ between vocal takes while recording a different song. Martin left the vocal booth and played the song for the band, who all shrugged dismissively and returned to watching soccer.

© Getty Images

The Beatles - 'Hey Jude' -

Paul McCartney wrote ‘Hey Jude’ as a message to Julian Lennon when his parents John Lennon and Cynthia Lennon were divorcing.

© Getty Images

Adele -

Throughout her career, Adele has delivered heartbreaking, powerful songs that would give anyone goosebumps. One of her most famous ballads is 'Hello,' a tragic love song in keeping with her usual style. While her songs are deeply emotional, Adele is one of the more private celebrities when it comes to talking about her personal life and relationships. However, she broke her silence in an intimate interview with Oprah Winfrey and spoke about the circumstances under which she wrote the song. "The song, to me, was the beginning of me trying to find myself. And I hadn't figured out yet what it was that I had to do for that," she said. "When I wrote it, it was a real ode to like, little me, older me, all of these things. It's just a song about, like, I'm still here." 

© Getty Images

Nirvana - ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit' -

When Kurt Cobain played the riff for ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ to the band, they didn’t like it. But Cobain was adamant about its potential and forced the band to practice it for hours until they felt inspired.

© Getty Images

Stevie Wonder - ‘Superstition' -

While guitarist Jeff Beck (left) and Stevie Wonder (right) were hanging out at a studio, Beck playfully got behind the drums and started playing. It was enough to get Stevie Wonder’s creative juices flowing and he instantly improvised ‘Superstition’ to the beat.

© Getty Images

Lady Gaga - 'Poker Face' -

Lady Gaga wrote the song to relieve herself of the emotional weight that she was carrying due to hiding her bisexuality from her boyfriend.

© Getty Images

Joni Mitchell - ‘Woodstock' -

Joni Mitchell feels that she was only able to write the song ‘Woodstock’ and understand the significance of the Woodstock festival of 1969 because she never actually went to the event.

© Getty Images

Elton John - ‘Philadelphia Freedom' -

Elton John took it as a challenge when Bernie Taupin, his long-time songwriting partner, told him that he couldn’t write a song about tennis and responded by writing 'Philadelphia Freedom.' The song is an ode to his close friend Billie Jean King, who was the best female tennis player in the world at the time and part of the Philadelphia Freedoms professional tennis team.

© Getty Images

Guns N’ Roses - ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine' -

‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ by the Guns N’ Roses started as a joke. Axl Rose wrote lyrics and worked out a structure to make it a song. Slash has gone on record saying that he hates the song and what it stands for.

© Getty Images

Eric Clapton - ‘Layla' - Eric Clapton was inspired to write ‘Layla’ after reading the old Arabic story of Layla and Majnun.

© Getty Images

Queen - ‘We Will Rock You' -

‘We Will Rock You’ was written very consciously by the band in response to their audience becoming so big that they had the potential to drown the music out. They wrote it to get the audience to sing along.

© Getty Images

Paul Simon - 'Mother and Child Reunion' -

At a Chinese restaurant, Paul Simon saw a dish called "Mother and Child Reunion" on the menu. He was humored to discover that it was a dark reference to a chicken-and-egg dish and named a song after it.

© Getty Images

Ray Charles - ‘What’d I Say' -

When Ray Charles ran out of songs to play at a concert, he turned to his band and asked them to follow his lead. Charles improvised ‘What’d I Say’ on the spot.

© Getty Images

John Lennon - 'Remember' -

The John Lennon song 'Remember,' released in 1970, was heavily influenced by his primal therapy sessions with psychotherapist Dr. Arthur Janov (photographed).

© Getty Images

Pink Floyd - ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond' -

‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ was written by Pink Floyd about Syd Barrett, a former member of the band who struggled severely with his mental health.

© Getty Images

Paul McCartney - ‘Yesterday' -

Paul McCartney woke up one morning in his youth and wrote a song about scrambled eggs, which had lyrics that sang, “Scrambled eggs, oh my baby how I love your legs.” The lyrics were changed, and the song became the Beatles’ ‘Yesterday.’

© Getty Images

Neil Diamond - ‘Sweet Caroline' -

‘Sweet Caroline’ by Neil Diamond was inspired by Caroline Kennedy (pictured), the late US President John F. Kennedy’s daughter. Diamond was inspired by the innocence and purity of a photo of the child riding a horse.

© Getty Images

Cream - ‘White Room' -

The success of ‘White Room’ by Cream shocked Pete Brown because he wrote lyrics for it merely describing an apartment that he was living in.

© Getty Images

Deep Purple - ‘Smoke on the Water' -

‘Smoke on the Water’ by Deep Purple came to be after a Roman candle was fired into the ceiling at one of their concerts in Geneva, burning the building down. The title was thought of while the band watched Lake Geneva engulfed in flames from their hotel following the accident.

© Getty Images

The Drifters - ‘Save the Last Dance for Me’ -

Polio-stricken Doc Pomus scribbled down the lyrics for ‘Save the Last Dance for Me’ at his wedding while watching men line up to dance with his new wife.

© Getty Images

The Who - ‘Tommy' -

When Pete Townshend was writing the Who’s song ‘Tommy,’ he played it for music critic Nick Cohen who told him that the character in the song, Tommy, was dull. In response, Townshend made the character a pinball champion.

© Getty Images

Dire Straits - ‘Money for Nothing' -

While in New York, Mark Knopfler took a trip to an appliance store where he witnessed an employee watching MTV and commenting harshly. Knopfler noted what the employee was saying, which inspired ‘Money for Nothing.'

© Getty Images

REM - 'What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?' -

Michael Stipe from REM wrote the song after hearing the story of newsman Dan Rather being attacked and repeatedly asked “what’s the frequency, Kenneth?”

© Getty Images

Bonnie Raitt - ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me' -

A story in the news about a man shooting at his girlfriend’s car inspired Bonnie Raitt’s 1991 hit song  ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me.’ When he was asked what he learned by the judge in court, he replied that “you can’t make a woman love you if she doesn’t.”

© Getty Images

Harry Nilsson - ‘One' -

Inspiration struck Harry Nilsson to write ‘One’ after hearing a user busy signal that resembled the word “one” being repeated when trying to make a phone call. He began singing along to it. The user busy signal became the intro to the song.

© Getty Images

Tame Impala - ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards' -

Kevin Parker of Tame Impala came up with ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’ while watering the grass at his rented home in Perth, Australia to avoid further conflict with his landlord, and immediately ran inside to record it.

Sources: (Official Charts)(Scribol)

See also: Star singers who hate their own songs

© Getty Images