Some of pop music’s biggest hits were inspired by a songwriter’s personal experience. Click on a song title below to read the true story behind the song. Story Summaries are on the Story Previews page.

Key to Symbols:

L  = Reading level (Levels correspond to the reading levels in the True Stories reading series.)
🔹 = Click for a lesson plan for this song.

Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell, L 3
Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize in Literature, L 2
Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell, L 3/4  🔹
Breakaway, performed by Kelly Clarkson, L 2/3 🔹
A Change Is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke,  L 2 🔹
Don’t Stop Believin’: Ariel Pineda’s Story, L 3 🔹
Don’t Worry, Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin, L 2/3
Dreams by Fleetwood Mac, L 2/3
Easy on Me by Adele, L 2
Eyes Closed by Ed Sheeran, L 3/4
Fight Song by Rachel Platten, L 2  🔹 
Golden by EJAE (co-writer), L 3
Hello by Adele, L 2  🔹
Here Comes the Sun, L 2/3 🔹
Just Like That by Bonnie Raitt, L 3
Lean on Me by Bill Withers, L 3/4 🔹
Let It Be by Paul McCartney, L 2 + bonus L 1B
Lost Boy by Ruth B., L 2 🔹
Renegades by X Ambassadors, L 2  🔹
See You Again by Charlie Puth and Wiz Kahlifa, L 2  🔹
Sunny by Bobby Hebb, L 2
The Sound of Sunshine by Michael Franti, L 2/3 🔹
Tom’s Diner by Suzanne Vega, L 2/3 🔹
Vienna by Billy Joel, L 3
We Shall Overcome, L 2
Wichita Lineman by Jimmy Webb, L 3 🔹
You’re Beautiful by James Blunt, L 3 🔹