Useless musical fact that sticks in your brain...

[Trufflehound]

I believe the reality is that Elvis's dad wrote teh jingle rather than sang it in the ad?

Ross McManus - Elvis Costello's dad - both wrote and sang "Secret Lemonade Drinker", so the orginal comment that he appeared in the ad is kind of true. But he wasn't the actor raiding the fridge - who was miming.

For the record, young Declan McManus, who would later become Elvis Costello, sings the backing vocals (the "R Whites.... R Whites..." bit). Rumour has it he also played the drums on it.

For really useless, non-musical, and slightly dull R Whites trivia, but with a Sussex connection, the house in Rustington my dad lived in from '78-'93 was originally custom-built for the then-owner of R Whites sometime in the late 1930s...

 

[Danny-Boy]

Dire Straits Money for Nothing was so similar to the police's 'don't stand so close to me' sting got a twriting credit and provides backing vocals (the 'I want my mtv').

In B-52's 'love shack' the section "you're what?!" "Tin roof, rusted" means nothing, though was thought to mean the woman was pregnant.

My alltime favourite pop video, it looks like they're all having a great party. One I would love to been at.

A mate of mine looks like Sting, but he farts a lot, so we call him "Stink".

Re the Carly Simon record, the general perception years ago was that it was Warren Beatty, but I remember a comment about him once that he was once having lunch with two young women in Hollywood (I thinK) and ran out saying he had to get back to Julie Christie, who he had parted from years before.

 

[Danny-Boy]

Mary Hopkins debut hit, 'Those where the days' was produced by Paul Macartney and was in fact originally a Russian folk song.

Ah but is it Henry Webb or Harold Webb for oor Cliff? I recently read through Eric Clapton's autobiog - in the library - he claims that although his birth surname was "Clapp" he was sired by someone called Clapton. Sounds very convenient.

 

[Icy Gull]

It was Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd who on hearing a demo of 16 year old Kate Bush managed to get her a record contract

 

[Barrow Boy]

Having been flamed for my 'Lemmy from Motorhead was in Wizzard' claim, I am blaming TOTP2 or some similar program on VH1 for supplying me with this erroneous fact! (I still like the thought of Lemmy in glitter though!)

Right, fact this time not fiction!

The Fountain Inn at Ashurst was used by Paul McCartney for the video of his 1979 Christmas hit 'Wonderful Christmas time'.

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[Barrow Boy]

Mike D'Abo, who replaced Paul Jones as the lead singer of Manfred Mann, wrote many famous TV Ad jingles including this classic. And his daughter played Kevin's older sister in the TV series 'The Wonder years'

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[Icy Gull]

Mike D'Abo, ]

Was, at the time and quite possibly is, the only pop star to have played in an Eton vs Harrow 1st cricket match.

 

[Dr. Notthenineo'clocknews]

Scritti Pollitti is Italian for 'political writing' (I think)

 

[cheeseroll]

The B-side of the original 7" vinyl version of Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division was designed to be played at 33 rpm in order to accommodate 2 tracks (These Days and an alternative version of LWTUA).

But old analogue jukeboxes were of course unable to discriminate playing speed, and played everything at 45 rpm regardless.

I never got tired of sitting in pubs playing it, and for some reason - I think beer may have played a part - always found this "Pinky & Perky" karaoke version of JD hilarious.

I guess we were easily pleased back then...

Yes, i requested it on hospital radio at the time and the dj had to interrupt to reset the speed. 'Simple Pleasures'.

 

[Gwylan]

Was, at the time and quite possibly is, the only pop star to have played in an Eton vs Harrow 1st cricket match.

Have you got a source for this? It's not mentioned in MD's profile on Wikipedia nor can I find reference to it in my Wisdens.

I so want this to be true as it's a fantastic bit of trivia but I can't find proof as yet.

(it is certainly true though that Mike D'Abo went to HArrow and that he plays cricket - in fact, I've seen him play in a charity match at the County Ground)

Mike D'Abo is probably best known now for having written Handbags and Gladrags aka the theme to The Office

 

[Icy Gull]

Have you got a source for this? It's not mentioned in MD's profile on Wikipedia nor can I find reference to it in my Wisdens.

I so want this to be true as it's a fantastic bit of trivia but I can't find proof as yet.

(it is certainly true though that Mike D'Abo went to HArrow and that he plays cricket - in fact, I've seen him play in a charity match at the County Ground)

Mike D'Abo is probably best known now for having written Handbags and Gladrags aka the theme to The Office

Sorry, no proof, just a bit of trivia that I remember from the time he joined Manfred Mann as a replacement for Paul Jones.

 

[The Large One]

Mike D'Abo, who replaced Paul Jones as the lead singer of Manfred Mann, wrote many famous TV Ad jingles including this classic. And his daughter played Kevin's older sister in the TV series 'The Wonder years'

Another Manfred Mann member, Mike Vickers, is responsible for The Albion Roar theme tune.

 

[ezzoud]

Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi lost the tips of three of his fingers on his right (fretting) hand in an industrial accident in the 1960s.

Undeterred he made himself some leather thimbles which contribute to his unique sound...

 

[WATFORD zero]

Having been flamed for my 'Lemmy from Motorhead was in Wizzard' claim, I am blaming TOTP2 or some similar program on VH1 for supplying me with this erroneous fact! (I still like the thought of Lemmy in glitter though!)

You may be getting confused with the Useless musical fact that Lemmy borrowed Roy Wood's guitar to write the song Motorhead when he was with Hawkwind

and another

Larry Wallis of the Pink Fairies (and first Stiff live tour) fame was in the original line up of Motorhead who were then called Bastard

 

[Barrow Boy]

One for Huple,
Deep Purple used the guitar riff from Ricky Nelson's version of 'Summertime' for their classic hit 'Black Night'.

Roger Glover's words,
Ritchie and I (Roger) left the others and went back to the studio and he picked his guitar up and started playin. It sounded pretty good to me. Ritchie said it was borrowed (from Ricky's Nelson's SUMMERTIME) so I said "you can't use that!" and Ritchie said, "Why not? Have you ever heard of it?" And I said "No," so he said "Fine!". (Taken from the sleeve notes on the 'In Rock' anniversary edition).


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[NMH]

Actually he did.

Jimmy Page was purported to have played on so many 60's records, but he's not always on the ones cited. However- Shel Talmy who produced The Kinks 'All Day and All Of The Night' used Page for that tune, and since The WHO wanted the same sound for 'Explain' it's quite likely he will have been hired again for that. Townshend wasn't well pleased though, to see a young cherubic kid taking his place in the studio and soon fell out with Talmy because of it.
It's actually not been properly corroborated that Page played the main rhythm chords on 'I Can't Explain' but he apparently did contribute something to the session.

Jimmy Page's first session was on 'Diamonds' by Jet Harris and Tony Meehan.
The song 'Dazed and Confused' that Led Zeppelin 'adopted' was first introduced to Jimmy Page by the original writer Jake Holmes, when he supported The Yardbirds at Greenwich Village NYC. The Yardbirds' version was entitled 'I'm Confused' and had somewhat different lyrics to Zep's later rendition. Page and the other Yardbirds claim that Jake *gave* them the song, but then that might be arguable as to how knowing he was in handing them complete rights over it, or whether he just allowed them to cover it by giving them permission. If nothing was put in writing, I believe the copywrite still rests with the original songwriter - and proof was on Holmes' own 1967 LP where it first saw release in any form.

 

[bhaexpress]

Jimmy Page was purported to have played on so many 60's records, but he's not always on the ones cited. However- Shel Talmy who produced The Kinks 'All Day and All Of The Night' used Page for that tune, and since The WHO wanted the same sound for 'Explain' it's quite likely he will have been hired again for that. Townshend wasn't well pleased though, to see a young cherubic kid taking his place in the studio and soon fell out with Talmy because of it.
It's actually not been properly corroborated that Page played the main rhythm chords on 'I Can't Explain' but he apparently did contribute something to the session.

Jimmy Page's first session was on 'Diamonds' by Jet Harris and Tony Meehan.
The song 'Dazed and Confused' that Led Zeppelin 'adopted' was first introduced to Jimmy Page by the original writer Jake Holmes, when he supported The Yardbirds at Greenwich Village NYC. The Yardbirds' version was entitled 'I'm Confused' and had somewhat different lyrics to Zep's later rendition. Page and the other Yardbirds claim that Jake *gave* them the song, but then that might be arguable as to how knowing he was in handing them complete rights over it, or whether he just allowed them to cover it by giving them permission. If nothing was put in writing, I believe the copywrite still rests with the original songwriter - and proof was on Holmes' own 1967 LP where it first saw release in any form.

Wikipedia's good isn't it ?

 

[bhaexpress]

Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter of Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers fame got his name after he arrived at a friends apartment, very drunk and dying to urinate. The person opened the door at which point Baxter urinated all over him and he screamed 'You Skunk !'

 

[NMH]

Horrible music fact;

The US Department of taxes 'IRS' stopped the charitable funds from The Concert For Bangladesh for several years - so that the apparent $11 million raised for that crisis was useless in helping the cause in any way. In that time it was estimated that so many millions died that it outnumbered those killed by the nazis in WWII. Indirectly it could be claimed then, that the IRS were as culpable as Hitler was in causing death.
Of course, there's no proof that so many WOULD have been saved by the funds, but obviously many COULD have been helped or prevented from dying.

 

[NMH]

Wikipedia's good isn't it ?

I didn't use wiki. I'm a long-time fan of The Yardbirds, have every squeak they produced on vinyl, and know these mostly useless facts and stories.

So there