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On the day Elvis was buried over 3,000 orders of flowers covered the front
lawn of Graceland. It took more than 4 hours to move them to Forest Hill cemetary for the funeral
Elvis' 1965 hit "Crying In The Chapel"
was written by Artie Glenn for his son Darrell who first recorded it in 1953
According to Guinness World Records 2009, Led Zeppelin hold the record for "Highest Demand
For Tickets For One Music Concert". 20 million on line requests were made for their December 10th, 2007 reunion
show at the O2 Arena in London, England
In 2011 a team of scientists in England determined that
"We Are The Champions" was the catchiest song in the history of Pop music. "Y.M.C.A." was second
In 2006, to deter gangs of youth from congregating in a residential area late at night, Australian officials blasted
Barry Manilow songs every weekend
Both of the Left Banke's hits "Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina"
were written about Renee Fladen, the girlfriend of the group's bass player
In 1934, songwriter John Coots offered "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" to Eddie Cantor, who
sang it on his radio show in November. The morning after there were orders for 100,000 copies of sheet music and by
Christmas sales had passed 400,000
Roger Daltry's stammering on "My Generation" is said to have been
caused because he hadn't rehearsed and couldn't hear his voice through the monitors
Sonny Bono is the only U.S. congressman to have a number one song on the Billboard Hot
100. It was "I Got You Babe"
The
biggest selling album in the U.S. to not make it to number one is "Led Zeppelin IV", which sold over 23 million
copies but only made it as high as number two
The
four members of The Monkees were paid $450 each per episode in the first season of the show. In the second season they
received $750 each per episode
In the first
seven years following his death, Elvis' estate earned ten times more than he earned in his twenty three years of performing
America reached number 8 with their 1973 hit "Ventura
Highway". No such highway exists
Michael
Jackson said "Laughter In The Rain" by Neil Sedaka was one of his favourite songs
"Ticket To Ride" was written after John and Paul bought a ferry ticket
to the town of Ryde
"Hot Smoke And Sassafras",
released in 1969 by Bubble Puppy was inspired by an episode of the Beverly Hillbillies
Meat Loaf was offered "Making Love Out Of Nothing At All" and Total Eclipse
Of The Heart" but turned them both down.
The
group "The Playmates" were originally called "The Nitwits"
Only 2 songs written by Lennon and McCartney have topped the Billboard 100 by someone
other than The Beatles. "A World Without Love" by Peter and Gordon in 1964 and "Lucy In The Sky With
Diamonds" by Elton John in 1975
The opening
line to "Surf City" is "Two girls for every boy". It was originally written by Brian Wilson as "Goody
Connie won't you come back home"
When
Elvis' mother first heard "Be-Bop-A-Lula" she thought it was his latest single
When "Cover Of The Rolling Stone" was released by Dr. Hook, the magazine sold
more copies in the two weeks that followed than at any other time in their history
"Silhouttes" was recorded by The Rays in 1957 as a demo for The Diamonds.
The Rays took it to number 3, The Diamonds reached number 10 ... simultaneously
At a party, comedian Groucho Marx jokingly pointed his index fingers at Elton John, as
if holding a pair of six-shooters. Elton threw up his hands and said, "Don't shoot me, I'm only the piano player,"
which inspired the title of his 1973, US number one album
The flute solo in "California Dreamin'" was performed in one take by Bud
Shank, a jazz performer who just happened to be in the building when the song was being recorded
In 1968 an El Paso radio station deletes all records by Bob Dylan from its play list
because it is too difficult to understand the lyrics
The
1965 Grammy for Best Song By a Vocal Group was awarded to the Anita Kerr Singers for "We Dig Mancini"
In 1934 Walter Winchell coined the phrase "disc jockey"
for radio announcer Martin Block
A television censor said of Little Richards
lyrics, "How can I reject it when I don't even understand it"?
Elvis' version of "One Night" was originally an R & B song entitled "One Night
Of Sin"
Chubby Checker recorded a song in 1963 entitled
"Loddy Lo". It was written for Catharina Lodders, Miss World 1962. The two married in 1964
The inspiration for "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes
Blue" came from the songwriters dog, who had one brown eye and one blue eye
The Diamonds recorded "Little Darlin'" in 15 minutes
The Five Man Electrical Band were originally known as The Staccatos
Chuck Berry was sued in 1989 by a former cook of his restaurant for allegedly putting a video camera
in the ladies washroom
Calgary radio station CKXL banned "Elvis's
Christmas Album" calling it "one of the most degrading things we have heard in some time"
"The Chipmunk Song" received the lowest rating
possible on American Bandstand's "Rate A Record"
Smokey
Robinson and his group initially wanted to be called the Matadors but their record company objected. The members put
names in a hat and drew the Miracles
Billy Swan recorded "I Can Help"
with the organ that Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge had given him as a wedding gift
Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller once called "Love Me" the worst song they ever wrote
Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics to "Daniel" in the
morning, Elton John put them to music in the afternoon and by the end of the day their band had recorded the song
Roseanne Cash won a Grammy in 1985 for a song she had written
about not winning a Grammy in 1981
David Gates wrote the Bread hit "Everything
I Own" in honour of his father
The Bee Gees first UK hit was "Massachusetts".
It was written on a boat near the Statue of Liberty
Yes,
there really was an Eleanor Rigby. Her tombstone is in the cemetery of St. Peters Parish Church in Woolton, Liverpool
Reverend Ike was the inspiration for the John Lennon song,
"Whatever Gets You Through The Night"
When Elvis bought Graceland his mother Gladys
wanted to add a chicken coop and hog pen
"Cherry Cherry" by Neil Diamond
has no drum track because it was recorded as a demo, not intended to be released as a single
"Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers started out as the theme to a 1955 movie entitled
"Unchained"
Bruce Springsteen wrote "Dancing In The
Dark" after an argument with his manager who wanted a hit pop single for the "Born In The USA" album
Walter Mattheu, Rock Hudson, Sylvester Stallone and Burt
Reynolds have all recorded albums. They all flopped
The
Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame building has 7 levels. The actual Hall of Fame is on the third.
When Elton John made his American debut at the Troubadour
in L.A. he was introduced by Neil Diamond
Johnny Rivers real name is John Ramistella
Steve Alaimo holds the record for most charted Billboard
records without making the top 40. He had 14
"He
Ain't Heavy He's My Brother" was first used in 1924 as the title for a column in Kiwanis Magazine. In 1941
the phrase became the motto for Boys Town
Roy Orbison and Pat Boone both went to college
at North Texas State. Boone convinced Orbison to switch from country music to rock 'n' roll
Buck Owens played rhythm guitar on Gene Vincent's 1957
hit "Lotta Lovin"
Gale Garnett portrayed Aunt Lexy in the movie
"My Big Fat Greek Wedding"
Frank Sinatra topped both the U.S. and U.K.
charts in 1966 with "Strangers In The Night". Sinatra hated the song and called it the worst song he ever
sang
The Dixie Cups were originally called Little
Miss and The Muffets
The second video played on MTV was "You
Better Run" by Pat Benatar
The Ed Sullivan Show was on the air for 23
years
"A Whiter Shade
Of Pale" by Procol Harum has been recorded by more than 900 artists
"It's Now Or Never" was Elvis' best selling single
In 1963, after hearing "Devil In Disguise", John Lennon said Elvis was like Bing Crosby
now and that the song would not go anywhere. It wasn't long before the song was at the top of the charts
Ray Stevens got the idea for "The Streak" from an article about a college student who ran through
a crowd naked. The song reached number 1 just five weeks after it was released
When Apple Records opened, they
signed new act Badfinger but turned down an up and coming David Bowie
Johnnie Ray was almost completely deaf in
both ears, yet recorded more than 65 singles, including "Cry" and "Just Walking In The Rain" both of which
went to number one.
The Temptations placed 38 songs in the Hot 100 between 1964 and 1991
Wolverton
Mountain is in Arkansas, the home of the real Clifton Clowers, who lived to be 102
In 1964, The Beatles had
four different songs at number one for 16 straight weeks on the Cashbox Magazine charts
In 1974 The Guess
Who hosted a tennis tournament in Toronto to benefit the National Ballet
AC/DC got their name from a sewing
machine. It stands for Alternating Current/Direct Current
The Four Tops recorded "Reach Out I'll
Be There" in two takes
The first official gold record was awarded in 1958 to Perry Como for "Catch
A Falling Star"
Dick Clark was voted most likely to sell the Brooklyn Bridge by his senior class
Brian Wilson's mother told him that dogs barked at bad vibrations. He took the idea and turned it
into "Good Vibrations"
Bob Dylan played with Bobby Vee and his band under the name of Elston Gunnn
(yes 3 n's)
The original title of the Elvis movie "Flaming Star" was "Black Star"
From 1968 to 1970 Jim Morrison lived in a Los Angeles motel room with no phone
Paul Anka sang
"Lonely Boy" in the film Girl's Town
Lobo almost gave his biggest hit, "I'd Love You
To Want Me" to the Hollies
Ronn Moss, who was the bassist for the group Player on "Baby Come Back",
went on to star in the T.V. soap The Bold And The Beautiful
The slogan for the Werlitzer Jukebox company
in the 1940's was "The Magic That Changes Moods"
