Pulp - 'Disco 2000': "Well we were born within one hour of each other / Our mothers said we could be sister and brother / Your name is Deborah. Deborah. It never suited ya." It might not have suited her, but Deborah Bone, whose mother was close friends with Jarvis Cocker's mother, stuck with the name. Cocker performed the song at Bone's 50th birthday party last year, but the mental health worker died at the start of 2015 just days after being included on the New Year Honours list.

The Beatles - 'Eleanor Rigby': Though Paul McCartney initially insisted "I just liked the name," it was later discovered that the graveyard of St. Peter's Church, where McCartney first met John Lennon, contains the gravestone of a woman named Eleanor Rigby. He eventually admitted that he was probably subconsciously influenced by the name. The real Eleanor Rigby didn't lead the sad, lonely life of her musical counterpart, but she died from a brain haemorrhage aged just 44.

Franz Ferdinand - 'Michael': Franz Ferdinand's intriguing, homoerotic single includes the lyrics, "Michael you're the boy with all the leather hips / Stucky hair, sticky hips, stubble on my sticky lips." The real-life Michael is a friend of Alex Kapranos, who is delighted to have been namechecked. "It was a very debauched night," says Kapranos, "and these two friends got it together in a very sexy way." As for the identity of the other friend, his name was deliberately left out. "This guy's girlfriend will kill him. Well, she won't kill him, but she's very jealous of the fling he had with Michael. So it's a bit of a sticky situation."

Glasvegas - 'Geraldine': Geraldine Lennon was working as a social worker alongside James Allan's sister Denise when he wrote the lyrics, "I will turn your tide / Do all that I can to heal you inside / I'll be the angel on your shouler / My name is Geraldine, I'm your social worker." Speaking of the song, Lennon said, "Usually the only time you hear about social workers is when something's fucked up and has been horrendous. It's probably one of the most special things anyone will ever do for me."

The Knack - 'My Sharona': One of very few songs by The Knack that are still remembered now, 'My Sharona' was written after Doug Fieger walked into a clothes shop and saw 16-year-old Sharona Alperin working there. Despite being with his girlfriend, he invited Alperin to come and see his band. Later, when Alperin dropped in during her lunch hour, she heard the band rehearsing an unfinished song with the chorus, "my-my-my Sharona." Though the two eventually married other people, they remained friends, and Alperin was at Fieger's bedside when he died of lung cancer in 2010.

The Band - 'The Weight': The "young Anna Lee" refers to Anna Lee Williams, a childhood friend of Levon Helm, who cooked Southern meals, such as cornbread and friend green tomatoes, for him whenever he came to visit.

Neil Diamond - 'Sweet Caroline': 42 years after the horribly catchy song was released, Diamond revealed that the song was inspired by a photograph of Caroline Kennedy (JFK's daughter) on the cover of Life magazine. Caroline was four years old in the pictures, so the line, "reaching out... touching me... touchin' you" becomes a little concerning. According to Diamond, "It was such an innocent, wonderful picture, I immediately felt there was a song in there."

Kiss - 'Plaster Caster': This song refers to the infamous artist 'Cynthia Plaster Caster', who now describes herself as a "recovering groupie." In the 1960s, Cynthia would go round plaster casting penises of rock musicians. She's now expanded her subjects to include other types of artists, including female artists' breasts.

Manic Street Preachers - 'Kevin Carter': One of the last songs written by Richey Edwards before his disappearance, 'Kevin Carter' refers to the famous photographer Kevin Carter, whose photograph of a starving Sudanese toddler trying to reach a feeding center won the Pulitzer Prize. Carter committed suicide three months after winning the prize, and his suicide note told of how he was "haunted by the vivid memories of killing and corpses and anger and pain."

Leonard Cohen - 'Suzanne': Written about the platonic friendship between Cohen and the artist and dancer Suzanne Verdal, 'Suzanne' says of its subject, "And you know that she's half crazy / But that's why you want to be there/ And she feed you tea and oranges..." Speaking of the song, Verdal said, "Leonard would come over and I would serve him jasmine tea with mandarin oranges, and light a candle. We were never lovers of the flesh but on a very deep level we were. I felt flattered [by the song], but I also felt there was an invasion of privacy."

Bob Dylan - 'Hurricane': There's absolutely no mystery behind the lyrics to one of Dylan's greatest songs. Listen to 'Hurricane', and you'll learn the story of boxer Rubin Carter, who was wrongfully jailed for 20 years for murder. With tensions between the US police and black Americans lingering well into the 21st century, lines such as, "That's just the way things go. If you're black you might as well not shown up on the street, 'less you wanna draw the heat" continue to resonate.

Arctic Monkeys - 'Brianstorm': 'Brianstorm' was written about a man named Brian, who turned up in the band's dressing room after a gig in Osaka, Japan. "When he left the room, we were a bit freaked out by his presence. So we did a brainstorm for what he was like, drew a little picture and wrote things about him. He definitely left a mark on us. He might have been a magician. He might even be here now. But if we ever find out who he was, it might spoilt it" - Alex Turner