Top 10 Dark Facts About Songs You Love

MsMojo

Behind the catchy tunes and memorable lyrics lie some truly disturbing and heartbreaking stories. From tragic losses and armed robberies to nuclear war warnings and political protests, these beloved hits harbor dark secrets that might change how you hear them forever. Ready to uncover the truth?

Transcript

00:00Welcome back to MsMojo, and today we're looking at the sad and disturbing

00:06inspirations, meanings and backstories behind some beloved songs.

00:11Number 10. A myth about death. Love rollercoaster. At first listen, it sounds

00:21like a fun and funky love song.

00:22But a strange screeching sound heard early in this Ohio player's track

00:33inspired an urban legend that may have outlasted the song's cultural imprint.

00:37The story goes that love rollercoaster inadvertently captured a murder

00:46victim's dying moments. That bit of lore morphed over the years with the

00:50screech being attributed to the last gasp of the model who appeared on the

00:55album cover.

00:56Obviously, this didn't happen. But this tall tale went viral, or at least

01:07whatever the 1970s version of viral was, the Ohio players decided to let the

01:12myth ride for sales purposes.

01:14Number 9. It's about infidelity. Macarena. Back when a dance craze wasn't just

01:24confined to the internet, you were hard-pressed to get away from dance

01:28remixes of Los Del Rio's Spanish-language hit Macarena. The track and its

01:38accompanying dance caused an international sensation. The Bayside Boys

01:43added English lyrics to their version that spelled out what the song was

01:46really about for non-Spanish speakers. But we didn't even seem to notice.

01:50It wasn't until years later that a lot of us took a close look at those

02:02lyrics. Macarena is the story of a woman cheating on her boyfriend with

02:06two of his pals, which makes its presence at decades' worth of weddings

02:11hilarious and sickly ironic.

02:13Number 8. Inspired by tragedy. Tears in Heaven. This beautiful and moving

02:20single first appeared on the soundtrack of the 1991 crime drama Rush.

02:25Tears in Heaven topped charts and won several Grammys after its release,

02:33but it has an extra layer of pain that comes from a very real traumatic

02:37event. Eric Clapton wrote this enduring hit while he was deep in mourning.

02:46Its lyrics and overall perspective were inspired by the death of his

02:50four-year-old son, Connor, in a tragic fall. Since its initial release,

02:58the song has become one of Clapton's most successful, clearly illustrating

03:02the pain of losing a loved one.

03:04Number 7. Experiences with discrimination. Paper Planes. British rapper and

03:13songwriter M.I.A. found international success with this 2008 hit. Featuring

03:18a fusion of influences and styles, Paper Planes is a captivating piece of music.

03:23The song itself, though, is a critical look at the xenophobia and

03:32racism faced by immigrants, particularly in the United States.

03:36With lyrics satirizing the commonly held view of foreign people as

03:46criminals and scammers, M.I.A. was inspired by her own struggle to secure

03:50a work visa in the country. The insane hoops and mistreatment she faced

04:01in the entire process spurred her on to write what's become known as an

04:05anthem for outsiders and immigrants everywhere.

04:08Number 6. Inspired by a disgusting rumor. Barracuda. Sisters Anne and

04:20Nancy Wilson were accomplished musicians in their own right, and as the

04:24faces of the band Heart, they endured their fair share of misogyny.

04:31One particular event encapsulates their mistreatment by male colleagues

04:37and the record industry as a whole.

04:46When their old label Mushroom Records started a scurrilous rumor for

04:50publicity, the sisters were outraged. In response, they wrote and recorded

04:55Barracuda.

05:02Taking its name from the predatory fish, the Barracuda seems to represent

05:06every man in the industry who wielded power to minimize and dehumanize

05:10them.

05:15Number 5. The price of fame. Chandelier. Becoming famous might seem like

05:20a dream, but for this Australian singer-songwriter, it threatened to

05:24almost derail her life and career.

05:31When she came back to record her 2014 album, 1000 Forms of Fear, she

05:36donned her signature, face-obscuring wig, and made some of her most

05:40personal music yet.

05:47Chandelier feels like her quintessential party song. With its 1-2-3 drink

05:52refrain and soaring vocals, it's hard to notice how dark it actually is.

06:02Sia's inspiration for the song was her own hard partying lifestyle. After

06:09her career took off and launched her public profile, taking refuge in

06:13substances and wild nights out, the party girl at the center of the

06:17song turns out to be Sia herself.

06:21Number 4. Armed robbery. You learn. There's been a lot said about the

06:31sweat and tears that went into Alanis Morissette's breakout 1995

06:35masterpiece, Jagged Little Pill.

06:43From destructive breakups to personal demons, the album represented a

06:48new sound for the artist. But the song, You Learn, was teased out of a

06:52distinct personal trauma.

06:59Morissette was the victim of an armed robbery during the making of

07:04Jagged Little Pill. Though the robber only made off with cash, she was

07:07afraid at one point that he would steal the backpack she was carrying,

07:11which contained a lot of materials for the record.

07:18The incident gave her post-traumatic stress and panic attacks. She

07:23carried that experience into the song's overall message about even

07:27life's worst moments being valuable.

07:35Number 3. It's about nuclear annihilation. 99 Luftballons.

07:40West German singer Nina had a crossover hit with this song, which

07:50was recorded in English as 99 Red Balloons. The story often gets

07:55lost in its upbeat 80s pop stylings.

08:02In the 1980s, the Cold War was as hot as it ever got, and nuclear

08:07annihilation was the great existential fear of the age.

08:16Nina's song speaks to the paranoia of the time, narrating a fictional

08:20story about a bunch of balloons that mistakenly activate a country's

08:24air defense system. The end result is full-on nuclear war. Not exactly

08:28as upbeat as the bouncy music would suggest.

08:31Number 2. Response to a bombing. Zombie. This anti-war song's

08:41inclusion on Halloween playlists is baffling once you know what

08:44it's about.

08:49In the early 1990s, Cranberry's lead singer Dolores O'Riordan wrote

08:54this perennially misunderstood classic that, despite its name, is

08:58not about the living dead.

09:01During a tour of England, the band drove near the location of a

09:091993 London bombing by the IRA, which claimed the lives of two

09:13children. Zombie was inspired by O'Riordan's anger over the event,

09:17which was emblematic of the violence that occurred during the

09:20Troubles.

09:26Island Records actually tried to pay the band not to release such

09:30a politically charged track. O'Riordan refused a $1,000,000 check

09:34and released it anyway.

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09:58Number 1. The Loss of a Father – Wake Me Up When September Ends

10:03Green Day's mournful rock ballad from their American Idiot album

10:12was not only a hit, upon its release, fans speculated about its

10:16meaning. It has since gone on to inspire memes that always crop up

10:24around September. But in the years since, fans also take to the

10:28internet to remind us the reason Billy Joe Armstrong wrote it in

10:32the first place.

10:37He first came up with the title in 1982. In fact, it was something

10:42he said to his mother after his father passed away that month.

10:45Green Day released the song over 20 years later, capturing the

10:48feeling of grief and depression after a profound loss.

10:54Did these sad truths about these great songs surprise you? Let us

11:04know in the comments.

11:11Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from

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