'If you can't do it with feeling, don't.'

'Voices ought not be measured by how pretty they are. Instead they matter only if they convince you that they are telling the truth.'

- Iconic singer Sam Cooke (1931–1964)

'Do something you really like, and hopefully it pays the rent. As far as I'm concerned, that's success.'

- Musician Tom Petty (1950–2017)

'You will never feel proud of your work if you find no joy within it; your best work is always joyful work.'

- Stevie Wonder (1950-present)

'A lot of singers think all they have to do is exercise their tonsils to get ahead. They refuse to look for new ideas and new outlets, so they fall by the wayside.' - Ella Fitzgerald

'You don't get to choose how you're going to die or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now.'

- Musician and activist Joan Baez (1941-present)

'All your life, you will be faced with a choice. You can choose love or hate … I choose love.'

-Johnny Cash (1932-2003)

'Until you're ready to look foolish, you'll never have the possibility of being great.'

- Cherilyn "Cher" Sarkisian (1946-present)

'I've come to the conclusion that life is for the taking and just too short to dwell on the negative.'

- Cranberries lead singer Dolores O'Riordan (1971-2018)

'Live a life so when I die, there's standing room only.'

- Tim McGraw (1967-present)

A Quote by Sandra Day O'Connor

"Do the best you can in every task, no matter how unimportant it may seem at the time."

'I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.'

-Comedian George Burns (1896-1996)

'If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.'

- Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

'It takes a lot of courage to be happy, but I've got courage, so I think I will be happy again.'

- Actress Florence Henderson (1934–2016)

'Don’t try to be young. Just open your mind. Stay interested in stuff. There are so many things I won’t live long enough to find out about, but I’m still curious about them.'

- Actress Betty White (1922-2021)

'Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results.'

- Willie Nelson (1933-present)

'Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.'

- Maya Angelou

'Mockingbirds don't do one thing except make music for us to enjoy ... That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.'

-Harper Lee (1926-2016) in "To Kill a Mockingbird"

'The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.'

- Poet Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)

'You only go around once, but if you play your cards right, once is enough.'

- Frank Sinatra (1915–1998)

'The good ole days weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems.'

- Billy Joel (1949-present)

Parton released her first recording at age 13

The song was written at the age of 11 with the assistance of her uncle, Bill Owens, and was released by Goldband Records in 1959, when she was 13. The rockabilly song doesn’t sound much like the country music that would make Parton famous in the next decade, but it does hint at the power of her voice.

'Without goals, training has no direction.'

- Twelve-time Olympic swimming medalist Natalie Coughlin (1982-present)

'If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry.'

- Marine biologist and author Rachel Carson (1907-1964)

Carole King regrets writing a song excusing domestic violence

While working at the Brill Building, Carole King became one of the architects of the classic girl group sound, penning hits like the Shirelles’ “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” and the Chiffons’ “One Fine Day.” One song she regrets writing, though, is the Crystals’ “He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss),” a song she now believes normalizes domestic violence.

Bob Dylan asked Patti Smith to perform in his place at the Nobel Prize ceremony

Dylan didn't attend the ceremony, citing "other commitments," and asked Patti Smith, the legendary poet and punk pioneer, to perform in his place. Smith sang "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," accompanied by an orchestra, though she had to request to restart one verse after stumbling over Dylan's dense lyrics.

Dolly Parton's 'I Will Always Love You' was written as a goodbye for her musical collaborator

The Whitney Houston cover is the greatest-selling song by a female artist ever. It also might be one of the most misunderstood songs in country music. The song wasn't written for a lover; Parton wrote it for Porter Wagoner, her musical partner, when she decided to pursue a solo career.

'The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.'

- Saint Mother Teresa (1910-1997)

Elvis Presley wanted to record 'I Will Always Love You,' but Dolly Parton refused

After scoring a hit with her own recording of the song, Presley made plans to record his own version, but stipulated that Parton would need to grant him 50% of the publishing rights—perhaps the most valuable asset for a songwriter. Parton politely refused.

'(Kids) don't remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.'

- "Muppets" creator Jim Henson (1936-1990)

'All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much.'

- Musician George Harrison (1943–2001)

'I succeeded by saying what everyone else is thinking.'

- Comedian Joan Rivers (1933-2014)

'There's a hell of a distance between wise-cracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wise-cracking is simply calisthenics with words.'

- Writer Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)

‘Torch songs’ are passionate expressions of unrequited love

The term comes from an idiom about dedicated romantics carrying torches for their love interests. The style was especially popular for female vocalists before the rise of rock ‘n’ roll and significantly influenced early girl group records.

'Love planted a rose, and the world turned sweet.'

-Author and poet Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929)

'Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else even cared.'

- Rapper Tupac Shakur (1971-1996)

'A lion never roars after a kill.'

-Coaching legend Dean Smith (1931-2015)

'In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.'

-Poet Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Judee Sill's admirers hear a legend gone before her prime

The singer-songwriter released only two albums in her lifetime: 1971's self-titled and 1973's "Heart Food." Critics and contemporaries (including Graham Nash and David Crosby) praised both, though they were commercial flops. She died of a drug overdose in 1979 and had grown so obscure by then that no obituary was published. In the early 2000s, her recordings were reissued and found a new generation of fans.

Billie Holiday ensured performances of 'Strange Fruit' had the right context

In the song's earliest performances at Cafe Society in New York, one of a few truly integrated nightclubs in the society, the song was always performed last, after bar service had stopped, with a single spotlight on Holiday so audiences would pay close attention to the lyrics. Later, Holiday included her ability to perform the song in her concert contracts, allowing her to sing it even if venue owners were nervous about its protest message.

'For it would seem—her case proved it—that we write, not with the fingers, but with the whole person. The nerve which controls the pen winds itself about every fibre of our being, threads the heart, pierces the liver.'

- Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) in "Orlando: A Biography"

Before becoming a country superstar, Dolly Parton recorded girl-group-style singles

Parton signed with Monument Records in the mid-1960s and released a few singles that were distinctly not country music. Instead, they sounded like Phil Spector productions, in the vein of records by the Ronettes and the Crystals. Although they weren't hits in the United States, songs like "Don't Drop Out" took off in England's Northern Soul scene, which celebrated American records that had slipped through the cracks.

'Unfortunately, many people do not consider fun an important item on their daily agenda. For me, that was always a high priority in whatever I was doing.'

-Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier (1923-2020)

A research study found that Springsteen's popularity is due to his lyrics' authenticity

The Penn State study compiled lyrics from 18 albums and analyzed the words that "convey genuineness and honesty" and those that suggest cognitive activity. They found that Springsteen's songs are often focused on the present and "tend to express positive emotion," which they believe might explain why his fans are so devoted.

'Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics.'

- Jane Addams (1860-1935)

The music theory behind a lonesome country classic

Townes Van Zandt's "I'll Be Here in the Morning" might read like a clever inversion of a standard country music trope. But Cush, a musician in his own right, walks through the song's structure to show how its story is far more complicated than its lyrics suggest.

Mark Twain once panned 'A Christmas Carol'

The American writer was not a fan of the book, finding it shallow. In an 1867 review, he wrote, "There is no heart. No feeling—it is nothing but glittering frostwork."

Sylvester's 'You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)' is a definitive LGBTQ+ anthem

The 1978 dance hit was all about self-acceptance, inspired by the artist's difficult experience growing up gay in a Pentecostal church. The song has influenced numerous contemporary artists and inspired an off-Broadway musical.

The 'Old Guitarist' challenged art's standards of beauty

For much of Western art history, the definition of “beauty” in art was dictated by academies rather than personal taste. Artists like Picasso challenged these standards with works considered “ugly” for discarding anatomical accuracy or linear perspective in favor of a feeling.

'A penalty is a cowardly way to score.'

-Soccer legend Pelé (1940-2022)

Dolly Parton wrote the song '9 to 5' on the set of the movie '9 to 5'

She’d agreed to star in the film if she could write its theme song, which she began while shooting the movie. As Parton tells it, the song’s genesis was clacking her long acrylic nails together.