Strange history of songs

An interesting thread at Music REDEF about how some songs came to life: Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Free Bird' turned from a four-minute ballad into a nine-minute guitar epic because singer Ronnie van Zant needed time to rest his voice so the other guys needed to fill in the space. Jay-Z had to lie to get the rights to a sample from 'Annie' for 'Hard Knock Life'. Rick Astley made a tea, producer Mike Stock sang the melody into his ear, Astley went into the studio, next day 'Never Gonna Give You Up' was a hit...