If you sang the blues it was to get yourself out of being blue.

BBC: World: Analysis

If you sang about starting a nuclear war via making out, you are Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.

FORBES: Nuclear New Wave

You sang background for years with Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick.

NPR: '60s Singer Darlene Love Takes on 'Hairspray'

Indeed, if you ever sang about "The Muffin Man" as a child, you were singing their praises.

WSJ: For Great Eggs Benedict, Make the Muffins From Scratch

Do you remember what she sang that day?

NPR: Carly Simon's 'Never Been Gone'

Barely a woman with only a song, I sang to keep you smiling and held you all night long.

NPR: Judy Collins, From Both Sides Now

And then we all sang the, you know, Mr. Rogers' theme song, the whole audience, and it was really fantastic.

NPR: Help 'Ask Amy' Write A Commencement Speech

The sisters sang the now classic, You Brought the Sunshine.

NPR: The Sheards: A Mother-Daughter Gospel Duo

Such was the level of humor that when he sang of his love's beauteous cheeks, you could be sure it wasn't her face he was fondling.

WSJ: Baroque opera in burlesque house

Before his sweet and pink-themed performance, Justin Bieber sang an acoustic version of his song As Long As You Love Me.

FORBES: Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars Join Angels For Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

With a uniformly white audience in attendance, Ms. Simone sang unsmiling and diffident versions of "Love Me or Leave Me" and "I Loves You, Porgy, " which she scored a rare top-40 hit with in 1959.

NPR: A Posthumous 'Soul of Nina Simone'