Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Story Behind the Song

Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen & Jo-Ann Geffen
Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, LLC
978-1-935096-40-5


The Story behind the Song is a compilation of one hundred and one classic and popular well known songs. Spanning across decades of music, each chapter gives the artist or writers story along with the full lyrics. The book is packed full of interesting information and emotions attached to some of our favorite songs. If you have ever wondered how a song came to be, or if the lyrics mean anything personal to the artist, this installment of Chicken Soup for the Soul is for you.


The book is divided into chapters by each individual song. Each chapter has the artist picture, name and song title, followed by the written by and recorded by details. From here the narrative starts on how the song came to be or the story behind the development of the song. Immediately following the artists’ comments are the full lyrics to the song. There is no doubt that you will want to go find your old forgotten CDs or your new and favorite CDs to hear these songs. If you don’t have the songs on CD you will probably end up finding yourself on the internet like I did, searching for the song so that you can listen to it and be reminded of its’ tune and passion while you read this book. I also used the internet to search for the songs I was not as familiar with or had not heard before, though they were few and far between. It was amazing to hear the song after learning more about how it came to be.


Due to the setup of the chapters, the book leaves the reader with options on how they would prefer to read it. I started off reading cover to cover but quickly switched my tactic. I was finding each entry very intriguing and found myself wanting to read about some of my favorites first. It is very easy to read this book out of order. After grabbing a pencil and making a small mark next to the chapters I had read, I went through and chose the order I wanted to read in, making sure to mark each chapter on the table of contents page after reading it. One of my favorite stories was from Gavin Rossdale who talks about his song “Love Remains the Same”. I found that this story was one that every reader would be able to connect with. It is a beautiful song with beautiful lyrics and an honest story behind it. There were many great stories in this book that it is hard to choose just one favorite. I also really enjoyed Liz Phair’s “Divorce Song”. I was unfamiliar with this song, but it was great to read and then listen too. It is always great to find new music and new artist.


The Story behind the Song is a delightful look at generations of music and lyrics. It is heart warming and at times comical. The reader is given a glimpse at the blood, sweat and tears along with heartache, pain, enjoyment and pay off that goes into the writing process and success! I would love to see Chicken Soup for the Soul come out with a second installment of this book, or maybe even one about authors and their creative process or story behind their books. It was a fresh and new perspective to the Chicken Soup series.


reviewed for Bookpleasures