Rock & Roll Tidbits

Friends of The Raiders leader, Paul Revere, say that in high school, his name was Revere Dick and he had a brother named Sly.

Little Richard's 1958 Top Ten hit "Good Golly Miss Molly" says that Miss Molly "sure likes to ball..." At the time it was on the charts, Richard was enrolled a bible college.

Producer Terry Melcher called upon song writers Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil to come up with something for Paul Revere And The Raiders. They sent him a song called "Kicks", which they had originally written hoping it would help get a friend of theirs off drugs.

In 1962, Mersyside Newspaper held a contest to see who was the most popular band in Liverpool. The Beatles were the winners, partly because they called in posing as different people, voting for themselves.

In 1972, David Bowie declared that he was a homosexual, only to deny it in the 1980’s. Finally, Bowie admitted what he really was-a ‘trisexual’. He explained: “I’ll try anything once.”

Shock rocker Sid Vicious died in February, 1979 from an overdose of heroin that was bought for him by his mother, who was present when he injected it.

George Martin, who produced The Beatles most successful recordings, first rose to prominence by recording comedy records.

In 1962, when Johnny Carson took over the NBC "Tonight Show" from Jack Parr, he commissioned Paul Anka for a new theme song. Paul suggested a song that he had already written called "Toot Sweet". After a lyric was added in 1959 it was re-named "It's Really Love" and under that title, was recorded by Annette Funicello on her LP, "Annette Sings". Under a deal with Anka, Johnny became the "author" for copyright purposes and got a piece of not only the publishing but the composer's share too. Both Anka and Carson's names were listed as writers and the two began collecting BMI performance royalties. The pair got $200 in royalties every time the show aired...and it ran for 32 years, 52 weeks a year, 5 nights a week -- which works out to $1,664,000.00 -- not bad for an old tune that had been re-cycled twice before.

According to the Amusement & Music Operators Association, Patsy Cline's 1962 hit, "Crazy" is the most played song on jukeboxes across the United States. It is followed by "Old Time Rock and Roll" by Bob Seger and "Hound Dog" / "Don't Be Cruel" by Elvis Presley.

There is a five way tie for the shortest title of a song to make it to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The songs are: The Jacksons' "ABC", Edwin Starr's "War", Frankie Avalon's "Why", and Michael Jackson's "Ben" and "Bad".

Roberta Flack recorded "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" as an album cut for her 1969 debut LP "First Take". Three years later, Clint Eastwood remembered hearing the song and included it in his film "Play Misty For Me", causing Atlantic Records to re-edit and rush release the song as a single. Six weeks later, it was the number one song in the US, where it stayed for six weeks.

During a December, 1974 interview, TV talk show host Dick Cavett asked David Bowie what his mother thought of his act. He replied "She pretends I'm not hers."

When he thought that the crowd needed a wake up call, Butthole Surfer Gibby Haynes occasionally fired off a shotgun over the heads of the fans.

In the early years the Butthole Surfers enjoyed performing while medical-curiosity films played in the background. These ‘films’ were so gory and graphic (e.g. scenes of sex-change surgery), that some people at the concerts would actually vomit; which was not always a bad thing at a Butthole gathering.

When Frank Sinatra Jr was kidnapped in December, 1963, his abductors demanded $240,000 ransom. His father offered one million dollars for his safe return, but for some un-explained reason, his captors turned the offer down and settled for the original amount. Three men were later caught and sent to prison.

Walter Murphy's 1976 disco hit, "A Fifth Of Beethoven" was based on Ludwig van Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5 in C Minor", composed in 1807.

After Capitol records had rejected “Love Me Do”, “Please Please Me” and “From Me To You” for American release, label president Alan Livingston sent a memo to their parent company, EMI in Britain that said: “We don’t think The Beatles will do anything in this market.” A year later, in January, 1964, when “I Saw Her Standing There” was issued, it became the fastest selling single in the history of recorded music and Capitol’s pressing plant was forced to run 24 hours a day, trying to fill more than one million orders.

Although it says Diana Ross on her birth certificate, her parents and friends called her Diane until her early 20s

When Dennis Edwards of The Temptations first sang "Papa Was A Rolling Stone", he was upset by the line "It Was The Third Of September / That Day I'll Always Remember / 'Cause That Was The Day My Daddy Died", because Edwards father actually did die on September 3rd.

Robin and Barry Gibb wrote "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart" for crooner Andy Williams. When he declined, the Bee Gees recorded the song themselves and scored the first of their nine number one records with it.

Listen carefully to the beginning of The Beatles' song "Come Together", from their Abby Road album. The bass guitar riff nearly obliterates John Lennon saying "Shoot me".