These are currently 53 facts about music and musicians ....
Harry Belafonte's 1956, Calypso, was the first album to sell 1,00,000 copies.
16 weeks at # 1 on the Billboard charts is the record, held by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men for One
Sweet Day (1995 - 1996)
LeAnn Rimes's How Do I Live lasted 69 weeks in Billboard's Hot 100 (1996-1997)
Michael Jackson's Bad Album had 5 number one songs, more than any other album. (1987-1988)
Akon's Smack That debuted at # 95 in October, 2006. The next week it was number seven. That jump of
88 positions was the single biggest jump in Billboard's history.
In April of 1964, The Beatles held the top 5 positions on the Billboard Charts. #1 - Can't Buy Me Love, #2 -
Twist and Shout, #3 - She Loves You, #4 - I Want to Hold Your Hand, #5 - Please Please Me
In February 2006, High School Musical generated the most simultaneous Hot 100 entries from any
album, with nine songs in the Hot 100 simultaneously, five of them in the Top 40. This was based on
downloads and sales: there was no significant radio airplay for any of the songs from this Disney
Channel movie.
James Brown had 99 Hot 100 Billboard entries, yet never had a number one Hot 100 hit.
When rural Pakistani folksinger Zarsanga sings in public, fans routinely mark the choruses of her most
popular Peshto-language songs with mass shotgun-firing.
The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American Pie." (Thus the name of the Don McLean song.
Hang On Sloopy is the official rock song of Ohio.
Michael Jackson's Thriller, is the biggest selling album of all time.
MTV went live August 1st, 1981. The first video was "Radio Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles.
Cydney Lauper sang the theme song for "Pee Wee's Playhouse".
Eddie Van Halen performs the guitar solo in Michael Jackson's "Beat It".
Compact Discs (CDs) were first introduced in 1983.
Wham! was the first pop group to perform in China.
By 1983, MTV was airing as many as 300 music videos a day.
It was way back in 1857 that Leon Scott (a French scientist) found a way to record sound on to paper
that had been blackened with candle wax. This invention was called a ‘phonoautograph'.
Twenty years later the phonograph was invented by Thomas Edison. It recorded the sound on to wax
cylinders.
It was 1952 when the first UK singles charts appeared. Listing only the sales of 78s. The first number
one on the chart was Here In My Heart by Al Martino.
Roger Daltrey (he of the ‘Who' fame) sang the song that was used as the theme tune for the TV
programme CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He also appeared in one episode as a Vegas boss called
Mickey Dunn.
The Droogs, Moloko, Orange Mecanique, Malchicks and Heaven 17 all took their names from the film ‘A
Clockwork Orange'.
The Jackie Wilson song ‘Reet Petite' was originally released in 1957 but eventually hit number one in the
UK charts in 1986. 29 years and 42 days after the original release.
Louis Armstrong holds the record of oldest chart topper. Having reached number one in the UK in 1968
with the song ‘What A Wonderful World'. He was 67 at the time.
Simon & Garfunkel, one of the most famous duos of all time, were originally called Tom & Jerry.
The first song recorded by rocker Jon Bon Jovi was actually a song called ‘R2-D2: We Wish You A Merry
Christmas' for an album called the Star Wars Christmas Album. He was only 17 at the time.
Diana Ross appeared on at least one hit single every year between 1964 and 1996, an incredible 33
years.
When the Yardbirds broke up in 1968, Jimmy Page was left to honor the band's commitments, performing
as The New Yardbirds. The group eventually evolved into Led Zeppelin.
At age 47, the Rolling Stones' bassist, Bill Wyman, began a relationship with 13-year old Mandy Smith,
with her mother's blessing. Six years later, they were married, but the marriage only lasted a year. Not
long after, Bill's 30-year-old son Stephen married Mandy's mother, age 46. That made Stephen a
stepfather to his former stepmother. If Bill and Mandy had remained married, Stephen would have been
his father's father-in-law and his own grandpa.
Most toilets flush in E flat.
The rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd took their name from a high school teacher named Leonard Skinner who
had suspended several students for having long hair.
Dark Side of The Moon (a Pink Floyd album) stayed on the top 200 Billboard charts for 741 weeks! That
is 14 years.
Mr. Mojo Risin" is an anagram for Jim Morrison.
No one knows where Mozart is buried.
Tommy James was in a New York hotel looking at the Mutual of New York building’s neon sign flashing
repeatedly: M-O-N-Y. He suddenly got the inspiration to write his #1 hit, 'Mony Mony'
Tickets for Frank Sinatra's first solo performance at the Paramount Theatre in New York City in 1942,
sold for 35 cents each.
The Granny Smith apple was used as the symbol for the Beatles' Apple Records label.
*****W Communications paid $28 million for the copyright to the song "Happy Birthday".
The Beatles played the Las Vegas Convention Center in 1964. Some 8,500 fans paid just $4 each for
tickets.
The song with the longest title is 'I’m a Cranky Old Yank in a Clanky Old Tank on the Streets of
Yokohama with my Honolulu Mama Doin’ Those Beat-o, Beat-o Flat-On-My-Seat-o, Hirohito Blues' written
by Hoagy Carmichael in 1943. He later claimed the song title ended with "Yank" and the rest was a joke.
Nick Mason is the only member of Pink Floyd to appear on all of the band's albums.
In every show that Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt (The Fantasticks) did there was at least one song
about rain.
Beethoven's Fifth, was the first symphony to include trombones.
Brian Epstein, a record store owner in London, was asked by a customer for a copy of the record, "My
Bonnie", by a group known as The Silver Beatles. He didn’t have it in stock so he went to the Cavern
Club to check out the group. He signed to manage them in a matter of days and renamed them The
Beatles.
In 1976 Rodrigo's 'Guitar Concierto de Aranjuez' was No 1 in the UK for only three hours because of a
computer error.
Elvis Presley received his U.S. army discharge on March 5, 1960.
The Japanese national anthem is expressed in only four lines. The Greek anthem runs 158 verses.
At age 15, Jerry Garcia swapped his birthday accordion for an electric guitar.
If you played all of the Beatles’ singles and albums that came out between 1962 and 1970 back to back,
it would only last for 10 hours and 33 minutes.
At age 4, Mozart composed a concerto for the clavier.
At age 22, Jerry Lee Lewis married for the third time. His bride? His thirteen year old cousin.
The most recorded song of all time - with more than 2,000 versions - is 'Yesterday'. Included on the
'Help!' soundtrack, it was number one for four weeks in 1965 ....