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Special
Pop Music and Pop Stars Fact File
(Editor's Note
- Go on. Have a break from science for five minutes! All those
equations must be giving you a headache!))
3721/ Some names that some famous
Pop Bands adopted before they used the names for which they
became famous:
The Beefeaters - The Byrds
The Engaged Couples - ABBA
Feedback - U2
Smile - Queen
Tom and Jerry - Simon and Garfunkel
Touch - Spice Girls
Wee Johnnie Hayes & The Bluecats - The Bee Gees
3722/ The 'real' names of some
Pop Stars:
Irving Berlin - Israel Baline
Jon Bon Jovi - John Bongiovi
John Denver - John Henry Deutschendorf
Enya - Eithne Ni Bhraonain
Judge Jules - Julius O'Rearden
Stevie Wonder - Steveland Morris
Bill Wyman - William Perks
Tammy Wynette - Virginia Wynette Pugh
3723/ The girl referred to in the title
of Buddy Holly's 1957 hit was in fact Peggy Sue Gerron, a
pupil at Lubbock High School. At the time she was the girlfriend
of Crickets (Buddy's backing band) drummer, Jerry Allison.
This perhaps explains Allison's enthusiastic drumming on the
song.
3724/ The first significant awards ceremony
to be held which sought to specifically honour those working
in the music industry, was the Grammys on the 4th May 1959.
The Album of the Year on that first occasion went to Henry
Mancini for Peter Gunn.
3725/ The British equivalent, the Brit
Awards, began in 1977.
3726/ 'Gangsta's Paradise' by Coolio was
based on a Stevie Wonder album track, 'Pastime Paradise'.
3727/ The UK's first record chart was
on the 14th November 1952. The first ever number one based
on record sales was Al Martino for 'Here in my Heart'.
3728/ In 1964 in the UK, the Beatles single,
Can't Buy Me Love had over a million advance orders.
3729/ The Righteous Brothers, who recorded
amongst other classic tunes, 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin',
weren't brothers at all. They were Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield
and they met at a local club in California.
3730/ Lennon and McCartney wrote the song
'Lady Madonna' as a tribute to Fats Domino. And later, perhaps
to return the favour? Fats Domino recorded the song as a tribute
to The Beatles.
3731/ There have been more than two hundred
different versions of the song 'My Way'. Best remembered in
the Frank Sinatra hit of 1969. The lyrics were written by
Paul Anka to an original French melody performed by Claude
Francois.
3732/ 'American Pie' by Don McLean is
about the death of Buddy Holly.
3733/ 'Mull of Kintyre' by Wings was the
first record to sell over two million copies just in the United
Kingdom and held the record as the biggest seller until 1984.
3734/ The sax solo on 'Baker
Street' by Gerry Rafferty was played by Raphael Ravenscroft.
3735/ Mike Batt, who wrote the
music for The Wombles, also wrote and produced the chart topper
'Bright Eyes' by Art Garfunkel for the movie, Watership Down.
3736/ In the height of the punk
era, Bob Geldof wrote the song 'I Don't Like Mondays' after
reading about a young woman named Brenda who shot her children
because, she claimed, 'I Don't Like Mondays'.
3737/ 'Vienna' by Ultravox had
to be content to peak at number 2 in the UK charts. It was
held off top spot by the novelty hit, 'Shaddap You Face' by
Joe Dolce.
3738/ 'Africa' by Toto won six
Grammy awards in 1983 including 'Record of the Year'.
3739/ The oldest female singer
to reach the top of the UK charts was Cher in 1998 with 'Believe'.
She was 52. It took six British songwriters to compose 'Believe'
which was, in fact, constructed from two separate incomplete
songs.
3740/ Some Bitchy Pop Star Quotes:
"The guy's got
a girl's name, and he wears makeup. What an original idea."
- Alice Cooper on 'fellow rocker', Marilyn Manson
"The Spice Girls
are like heroin. You know somebody's doin it, but nobody is
willing to admit that it is them"
- Stand up comedian and actor, Chris Rock
"He's a great
singer - but he's not the most masculine guy, is he?"
Alexander O'Neal speaking about Michael Jackson
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