Rock & Roll Tidbits

While the Beatles were still struggling to establish themselves, they were turned down by five different British record companies.

Rock and roll fakers Milli Vanilli had a problem during one of their “live” performances. Apparently, the tape-loop jammed and kept repeating the same line over and over again. The boys danced a few steps and then both bolted from the stage to fix the malfunctioning equipment.

Cher was a background vocalist on the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling".

When Stu Cook and Doug Clifford reformed CCR as Creedence Clearwater Revisited in 1995, former band mate John Fogerty won a court injunction to prevent the use of the name and the live performance of CCR's hits. The pair toured as Cosmo's Factory until the injunction was overturned on appeal.

Pat Boone spent a total of 21 weeks at the top of the Billboard Pop chart with six different number one hits spread out between 1955 and 1961. His daughter Debby had only one hit, "You Light Up My Life" in 1977, but it stayed number one for 10 straight weeks.

"Beyond The Sea" by Bobby Darin was based on a song called "Le Mer", written by Louis Charles Augustin Georges Trenet in 1945. Bobby used the same melody, but the English words are not a translation of the original French lyrics.

When United Artists was preparing to release Electric Light Orchestra's debut album, a company representative tried to place a call to someone connected with the band to find out what the LP should be titled. The caller, having failed to reach the desired party, jotted down the notation "no answer," a phrase which was mistaken for an album title and assigned to the U.S. version of the LP.

In 1967, CBS-TV attempted to turn Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant into the next Tom Jones. In fact, Plant recorded a lushly orchestrated Italian ballad called “Our Song.” It actually sold over 800 copies.

The longest title of an album that actually made the Billboard chart is by Fiona Apple. Made up of 90 words, the album is called -
"When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He'll Win the Whole Thing 'Fore He Enters the Ring There's No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won't Matter, Cuz You'll Know That You're Right"

The motel that was the scene of Janis Joplin's death in 1970 was right across the street from where Bobby Fuller died in 1966.

1950s crooner, Pat Boone is the great, great, great, great grandson of American frontier hero Daniel Boone.

Led Zeppelin founder Jimmy Page played as a session guitarist on Tom Jones’ 1965 hit, "It’s Not Unusual".

The world's first jukebox was installed at the Palais Royal Hotel in San Francisco on November 23rd, 1899. At a nickel per play, the machine earned nearly $1000 during the first six months of operation.

While upset about a girl who had just left him, Joe Rock wrote most of the lyrics to The Skyliners 1959 number one hit, "Since I Don’t Have You", while sitting in his car between stoplights.

In 1931, George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacker designed and built the world's first electric guitar. Because of its odd shape, it was nicknamed 'Rickenbacker's Frying Pan'. The pair were granted a patent for their invention in 1937.

Paul McCartney originally wrote the first two lines of "I Saw Her Standing There" as "She was just seventeen, Never been a beauty queen." When he sang it for John Lennon, both realized that it was a poor rhyme. Finally, it was John who came up with "She was just seventeen, you know what I mean", which they knew was a perfect sexual innuendo for the song.