- Stairway to Heaven, Led Zepplin
Over one million copies of the sheet music for Stairway to Heaven have been sold. For other popular songs, the number is between 10,000 and 15,000 copies.
When Freddie Mercury began to write this song, he referred to it as "The Cowboy Song" because of its western feel
The founder of the "Hotel California" the Eagles sang about was a Chinese immigrant named Mr. Wong. He changed his name to Don Antonio Tabasco, wanting locals to believe he was Mexican
- Free Bird, Lynyrd Skynyrd
MCA Records didn't want to include this song on the band's first album; they thought it was too long for radio stations to play
- Purple Haze, Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix's public career lasted less than four years total, but his music still remains popular today
- Comfortably Numb, Pink Floyd
David Gilmour, the lead singer of Pink Floyd, performed two hugely popular shows in 2016, 45 years after the band first formed
- I Can't Get No (Satisfaction), The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones lyrics refer to sexual frustration and commercialism
Back in Black is a tribute to AC/DC's former lead singer, who "died of misadventure" after a night of partying
Kerry Livgren, a guitarist for Kansas, wrote this song about his spiritual search for meaning (Keenanrocks / Creative Commons)
- Smoke on the Water, Deep Purple
This song was inspired by a fire at a Switzerland rock concert (from a flare gun) which started on stage shortly before Deep Purple was meant to perform
