Rock & Roll Tidbits

In 1980, Texas rockers ZZ Top wrote to NASA and formally requested that they be booked as the lounge act on the space shuttle. NASA actually responded saying that the band’s request would, “receive all due consideration.” Unfortunately, the band did not get the gig.

A popular fad of the 50's, the jukebox used to be known as 'the nickel in the slot machine'. The first of these were created when a coin operated slot was added to an Edison phonograph in San Francisco in 1889. In its first six months of service, the Nickel-in-the-Slot earned over $1000.

In 1966, a record company actually hired Frank Zappa and his band, The Mother’s of Invention, to cut a record with Burt Ward, who portrayed Robin on the TV series Batman. The result was a single appropriately called, “Boy wonder, I Love You.”

One night in 1968, while Gary U.S. Bonds was playing at a club in New Jersey, he thought he'd give a local kid a break and invite him up onstage to do a number. That kid turned out to be rock superstar Bruce Springsteen.

Prior to becoming rock and rolls most notorious lip synchers, Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan of Milli Vanilli tried their hand at modeling. Alas, they were not tall enough, so they switched to ‘singing,’ well, sort of.

Elvis Presley's 1958, number one smash, "I Beg Of You" took 34 takes to get it right.

As a youth, Billy Joel once contemplated suicide. “I went into the closet and said, ‘I’m gonna fill myself.’ There was chlorine bleach and I said, ‘Nah, that’s gonna taste bad.’ So I took the furniture polish Pledge- all I ended up doing was farting furniture polish.”

While we are on the subject (farts that is), it’s reported that comedian Sandra Bernhard was once romantically involved with Madonna, although the affair probably had more to do with publicity than passion. The ‘couple’ had a very public breakup with Bernhard stating: “Every time Madonna farts, the press picks up on it. They want to see how it smells. I hate to break the news, but it smells like everybody else’s farts.”

At the Argentina/Brazil border in 1981, while Queen traveled through Latin America on their “Gluttons for Punishment” tour, a customs official suffered a heart attack when he saw Queen’s equipment- all 110 tons of it.

At the end of a 1992 tour, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett lowered his pants and mooned a TV camera shouting, “that’s what I think of the Guns N’ Roses tour!”

In 1970, Jeff Christie offered his composition "Yellow River" to the Tremeloes. They recorded it to release as a single, but when they changed their minds, they allowed Jeff's own band to use the backing track themselves. The result was a UK number one hit in May 1970 and subsequently #23 in the US.

When Angus Young of AC/DC first started performing he wasn’t quite sure what to wear onstage. He tried a gorilla suit, then a Zorro outfit, when his sister suggested that he don an Australian schoolboy’s outfit- and a rock start was born!

Rod Stewart was always known as a ladies man. But his girlfriend Britt Ekland had a very stern warning for the loose lover: “If you screw another woman while you’re with me, I’ll chop your balls off.” We can only presume that the overly friendly Rod was on his best behavior while with Ekland.

It was rough going in the beginning for Axl Rose. In fact, in 1985, Axl and his band mates rented a small apartment in Los Angles. To cook dinner, the resourceful rockers had to set fire to a set of drum sticks and proceeded to roast hamburgers over the improvised flames.

Before joining the Monkees, Davy Jones was both a stage actor and a racehorse jockey.

Joey Dee, who had a US number one hit in January, 1962 with "Peppermint Twist" was surrounded by future recording stars at various stages of his life. He attended Passaic Highschool in New Jersey at the same time as the Shirelles. A female trio that was part of his act at the Peppermint Lounge went on to become The Ronettes. When he opened his own club, his backup band included Felix Cavaliere, Gene Cornish, and Eddie Brigati, who would form the Young Rascals. After Joey sold the club and went on the road, his guitar player was Jimi Hendrix.

After his short fifteen minutes of fame, former Partridge family actor Danny Bonaduce landed a gig as a DJ. So he had the call letters and the name of the station tattooed on his rear end. His thinking? He was under the impression that it would help him keep his job- it didn’t work.