Rock/Pop Tidbits

While he was with Van Halen, David Lee Roth spent tens of thousands of dollars designing enormous inflatable statues of the devil that was able to ‘pee’ Jack Daniels a distance of fifteen feet out into the audience. It became an expensive gimmick, so he filled the statues with cheap bourbon in order to save money.

Three Dog Night's 1971 smash, "Joy To The World" was written by Hoyt Axton especially for an animated children's show called "The Happy Song" that never made it to production.

The Allman Brothers were never fond of ‘picture time.’ In fact, when one particular photographer tried to take a photo for the group’s 1971 album cover, “The Allman Brothers Band at Filmore East,” all the band members could do was scowl and glare. But when a friend of Duane’s stopped by with a bag of coke, the band was all smiles. In-the-know fans of the group enjoy pointing out that Duane was hiding dope in his hands on the album cover.

The song "Bye, Bye Love" had been turned down by 30 other artists before The Everly Brothers recorded it. It became their first big hit, rising to number 2 in the US in 1957.

After recording a number of demo songs on January 1st, 1962, The Beatles received a rejection letter from the Decca Recording Company that said "We don't like their sound and guitar music is on the way out."

Although The Ed Sullivan Show was the first TV program in America to host the Beatles, it was not their first US TV appearance. On December 7, 1963, The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite featured footage of Beatles fans at a concert. The Beatles' first US television appearance was on The Jack Parr Show on January 4th, 1964 when Parr showed a film of the band playing "She Loves You.” Before showing the performance, one of Parr's comments was "I understand science is working on a cure for this."

"The Twist" by Chubby Checker is the only song to climb to number one on Billboard's Hot 100 in two separate chart runs. The first was in September, 1960 and the second in January, 1962. The hit version is take number three in a 35 minute recording session.

While performing the song “Lithium” at the 1992 MTV Music Awards, Nirvana bass player Chris Novoselic threw his guitar up into the air. It came down hitting smack in the head, knocking him silly. Band leader Kurt Cobain, who had not seen the mishap screamed at Novoselic for losing the beat.

The only US number one single to be re-recorded by the same artist and become a Top Ten hit all over again is "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" by Neil Sedaka. The original, up-tempo version topped the Billboard chart in 1962, while a ballad rendition reached number 8 in 1975. Other songs have made a second appearance on Billboard's Hot 100, but it was the original version that came back.

Drummer John Peterson played for The Beau Brummels on their 1965 hits "Laugh Laugh" and "Just A Little" before leaving in 1966 to join Harpers Bizarre in time to record their 1967 hit "Feelin' Groovy.”

Rocky Burnette's "Tired Of Toein' The Line" was written in half an hour and was originally released as the "B" side of a single called "Clowns From Outerspace.” After EMI Records re-released it as an "A" side, the song became a #8 hit in the US.

The inspiration for Tommy Tutone's 1982 hit "867-5309 / Jenny" actually came from a girl named Jenny whose parent's phone number really was 867-5309.



In the late 60’s, Maurice Gibb (of the Bee Gees) loved to drive his cars, especially his Rolls-Royce. However, he had a problem; he was so short that he had to sit on a phone book to see over the hood.

Danny and The Juniors got their big break when they were called to fill in for a group that failed to show up for Dick Clark’s American Bandstand show in Philadelphia. They lip-synced "At The Hop,” which then took off like a rocket to #1 in the US. A few years later, Chubby Checker was invited to make his first TV appearance on Bandstand when Danny and The Juniors didn't show.

When Bob Dylan became a born-again Christian in 1978, he tried to convince his record producer Jerry Wexler to join the flock. No matter how hard he tried, Dylan’s efforts were futile as Wexler explained: “Bob, you’re dealing with a sixty-two year old confirmed Jewish atheist. I’m hopeless. Let’s just make an album.”

Elvis Presley was always known as a spiritual person. In fact, he always wore a Christian cross, a Star of David and the Hebrew letter Chi. As Presley stated: “I don’t want to miss out on Heaven due to a technicality.”

For a religious man, Elvis had some odd quirks, including shooting at television sets whenever annoying performers were on. One of his favorite ‘shoot the TV’ episodes was whenever singer Robert Goulet was on a show.