Billy Corgan wrote "1979" as a love letter to his own childhood, he was 12 years old in 1979 and spent his summers cycling around the city, causing trouble.
It was the biggest hit by Smashing Pumpkins in the US (#12 on the Billboard Hot 100) and helped the album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness sell over 10 million copies.
Billie Joe Armstrong wrote the lyrics of Basket Case inspired by the very panic attacks he suffered in his teens and early career, he would wake up in the middle of the night in a panic, walk around the neighborhood to calm down and think he was really going crazy (only years later did he discover it was panic disorder).
The track spent 5 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, helped Dookie win Grammy for Best Alternative Album, and became one of Green Day's biggest hits.