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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"
