The true meaning behind some of the most iconic songs

Sinéad O’Connor made this song a massive global hit in 1990, but it was Prince who wrote it. His sound engineer Susan Rogers says the song wasn’t about a break-up: it was an ode to Prince’s young housekeeper, Sandy Scipioni, who had to leave suddenly after her dad died of a heart attack. “Sandy ran Prince’s life,” explains Susan and with her gone, his life fell apart. “There was no romantic relationship with Sandy. It’s, ‘You’re gone and I miss you’, which is probably why he felt comfortable giving the song away.”

Taylor and John Mayer dated from late 2009 to early 2010. Later in 2010, Dear John – a song about a toxic relationship – appeared on her album Speak Now. John said he felt “really humiliated” by the song. “It made me feel terrible,” he says. “Because I didn’t deserve it. I’m pretty good at taking accountability now and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do.” Taylor, meanwhile, says it was “presumptuous” of John to believe the song was about him.

Graham Nash wrote this sweet ballad when he was living with singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell in Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon. Graham says one winter’s morning in 1970, while they were out for breakfast, Joni bought a vase from an antique store and brought it home. “It was a kind of a cold, grey morning and I said, ‘Why don’t I light the fire and you put some flowers in the vase that you just bought?’” At the time, the pair’s careers were skyrocketing and Graham was struck by the pleasing ordinariness of the moment. “I sat down at Joni’s piano and an hour later Our House was written.

Queen frontman Freddie Mercury penned this ballad in 1975 for his then-girlfriend Mary Austin. The pair lived together for several years but ended their relationship in 1976 when Freddie realised he was gay. But they stayed close until his death in 1991, with Freddie leaving her half his $165 million estate. Freddie once said of his soulmate, “The only friend I’ve got is Mary and I don’t want anybody else. To me, she was my common-law wife. To me, it was a marriage. We believe in each other and that’s enough for me.”

Back in the ’70s, Elton struck up a surprising friendship with tennis great Billie Jean King. It inspired him to collaborate with his lyricist Bernie Taupin on a tribute song to her, which went on to become a huge hit in 1975. The “Philadelphia Freedoms” was the name of Billie Jean’s tennis team at the time.

Love songs don’t get more heartfelt than John’s All of Me, which he wrote in 2013 for his future wife, model Chrissy Teigen. Right from the first time she heard it, Chrissy knew it was about her. “The first line of it is, ‘What would I do without your smart mouth’, so if that’s not about me, I don’t know what is,” she laughs. John has since revealed, “The first time I sang it for Chrissy, I whispered it into her ear and she cried.” These days, the love song is a favourite at weddings. “I’m so grateful for what this song has meant to my life,” says John.

In 1969, the last thing Keith Richards wanted was to go on tour with the Stones. His girlfriend Anita Pallenberg had just given birth to their son Marlon. “I didn’t want to go away,” says Keith. “It was a very delicate moment – the kid’s only two months old.” He picked up his guitar and as he began strumming, two words entered his mind: Wild Horses. “What’s the next phrase you’re going to use? It’s got to be, ‘Couldn’t drag me away’. The song was about being a million miles from where you want to be.”

When German band the Scorpions released Wind of Change in 1990, many assumed it was an anthem to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of east and west Germany. But singer Klaus Meine actually wrote it in 1989, following the band’s visit to the Soviet Union. The last leader of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, asked Klaus to a meeting as his Glaznost reform policies took shape and the Scorpions sang the song in Red Square. A fortnight later, on Christmas Day, the Soviet Union flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the final time.