Rock & Roll Tidbits

During the 1989 invasion of Panama, it is reported that U.S troops blasted AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” at top volume to try and drive Manuel Noriega out of the Vatican Embassy. After he heard that their music was being used as psychological torture, Brian Johnson wryly said, “I guess now we won’t get to play for the pope.”

While still a struggling young musician, Billy Joel recorded a pretzel commercial with Chubby Checker.

In October, 1963, when New York disc jockey Murray “the K” Kaufman played five records for his audience to vote on, The Beatles’ “She Loves You” came in third, behind a Four Seasons single and something called “Coney Island Baby” by The Excellents.

Iggy Pop of the Stooges was famous for his on-stage antics. After playing a concert in New York, he actually ran out of things to do onstage, so he pulled out his pecker. “I didn’t know what to do with it,” he explained. “So I zipped it back up and walked off.” Also, while in New York, he met David Bowie. After a long night of partying he declared: “The only good rock was a dead rocker,” and promptly smashed a beer bottle over his head and passed out.

Upon meeting the band Pink Floyd for the first time, a record company executive asked them "Which one's Pink?"

Terry Jacks recorded his 1974 number one hit, "Seasons In The Sun" in 1973, but the master tape sat on a shelf in his basement for more than a year. One day, a newspaper delivery boy heard Terry playing it and asked if he could bring some friends by to listen to it. Their enthusiasm convinced Jacks to release it on his own label and it soon topped the record charts in the US, Canada, and the UK and sold over six million copies worldwide.

It’s well known that Elvis loved animals. Why he even owned a pet chimpanzee that he named Scatter. Presley taught the primate to drink bourbon and pinch women’s behinds. For a while, the pampered chimp ate at the dinner table with a knife and fork. Why, he was even chauffeured around in a Rolls-Royce. But all good things must come to an end, as Scatter became nasty and was banished to his cage. The poor chimp finally died from cirrhosis of the liver.

In 1959, Tommy Dee reached #11 on the Billboard chart with a record called "Three Stars,” a tune dedicated to the memory or Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper. The song was meant for Eddie Cochran, but he was unable to complete the recording because of the overwhelming sadness caused by the death of his friends.

After enjoying a hit with "Red Rubber Ball,” Tom Dawes of The Cyrkle wrote the famous "plop plop fizz fizz" jingle for Alka-Seltzer.

On September 7, 1976, Eric Clapton wrote his hit song "Wonderful Tonight" for his wife, the former Pattie Boyd Harrison, while waiting for her to get ready to go out to Paul and Linda McCartney's annual Buddy Holly party.

The Osmond Brothers, Allan, Wayne, Merrill, Jay, and Donny had their first number one hit in the US in February 1971 with "One Bad Apple.” What most fans don't know is that there are two older brothers, Virl and Tommy, who have both suffered so much hearing loss that the entire family learned how to converse in sign language.

While dining at a London restaurant, Mick Jagger was confronted by a gentleman seated at a nearby table. “Are you a man or a woman? The puzzled eater inquired. Jagger stood up, unzipped his pants, and presented the evidence.

Disc Jockey Rick Dees, the morning man at WMPS in Memphis, recorded a novelty disco song called "Disco Duck" in 1976. After it became a US number one hit, he was forbidden to play the record on his radio show. He simply mentioned the record on the air one day and was promptly fired by the station's manager, who cited him for conflict of interest.

The only Mother and son to both have a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 are Shirley Jones, who sang on the Partridge Family's "I Think I Love You" in November, 1970 and her son Shaun Cassidy for "Da Do Ron Ron" in July 1977.

Glen Campbell, the country star who had a string of hits that crossed over to the pop charts in the late sixties and seventies, began his career as a highly regarded session musician, playing on hits by the Monkees, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, the Association, the Mamas & the Papas, Rick Nelson, the Beach Boys and many others. In 1969, he sold more records than the Beatles and began a three year run hosting his own TV variety series. Despite all of his musical success, he can neither read nor write music.

Depeche Mode took their name from a French magazine that vocalist David Gahan was reading. It means, “fast fashion.” But French detractors of the band liked to call the English rockers “Depede Mode,” which translated means “dirty pedophiles.”

In April 1909 Charles David Herrold, an electronics instructor in San Jose, California, constructed an early radio station. He coined the terms "narrowcasting" and "broadcasting" respectively to identify transmissions destined for a single receiver such as that on board a ship, and those transmissions destined for a general audience.