The first UK number 1 to have the word Sex in the title was 'I wanna sex You Up' by Color Me Badd
The First UK number 1 to use the word drugs was 'When the drugs don't work' by The Verve
The Beatles song "Because" is Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" backwards.
To win a gold disc,
an album needs to sell 100,000 copies in Britain, and 500,000 in the United
States.
Melba toast is
named after Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba (1861-1931).
Music was sent down
a telephone line for the first time in 1876, the year the phone was invented.
The CD was
developed by Philips and Sony in 1980.
About 2,4 billion
CDs are sold annually. The number of recorded CDs and blank CDs sold has been
about equal.
About one-third of
recorded CDs are pirated.
The Star-Spangled
Banner became the US national anthem in 1931. Prior to that, it was My Country
‘Tis of Thee," which had the same melody as Britian's national anthem God
Save the Queen, which is based on music written by John Bull in 1619. Bull's
melody has been used more than any song in national anthems.
The British anthem
was performed the most times in a single performance. In 1909, while waiting for
King Edward VII who was getting dressed a German band played the anthem 17
times.
Tap dancing
originates from Irish clog dancing and what is called the Irish reel and jig.
It was at a concert
in Minneapolis in 1954 that Al Dvorin first closed Elvis's concerts with:
"Ladies and Gentleman, Elvis has left the building. Thank you and good
night."
Elvis favourite
collectibles were official badges. He collected police badges in almost every
city he performed in.
Elvis was an avid
gun collector. His collection of 40 weapons included M-16s and a Thompson
submachine gun.
Duran Duran took
their name from a mad scientists in the movie Barbarella.
Bob Dylan's first
professional performance was as opening act for John Lee Hooker at Gerde's Folk
City in New York, 1961.
Before they were
known as Journey, Steve Perry called his band Golden Gate Rhythm Section.
Kenneth Edmonds was
nicknamed Babyface by funk guitarist Bootsy Collins.
The world's largest
disco was held at the Buffalo Convention Centre, New York, 1979. 13,000 danced a
place into the Guinness Book of World Records.
In August 1983,
Peter Stewart of Birmingham, UK set a world record by disco dancing for 408
hours.
Lebanon is the top
movie-going country - 35,3 movies per person p.a. China is second with 12,3,
followed by Georgia (5,6), India (5), Iceland (4,5), Australia is 6th at 3,9
then New Zealand and the US at just under 3,9.
The US has the most
cinemas (23,662) while India [the country that produces the most movies - about
800 a year, twice as many as Hollywood] has about 9,000 cinemas and China has
approximately 4,600 cinemas. - 326,000 people per cinema.
Indian comic
actress Manorama has played the most leading roles of any performer in movie
history. She began her career in 1958 and in 1985 had appeared in her 1,000th
movie.
Ireland has won the
most Eurovision song contests (7 times).
Annie Lennox holds
the record for the most Brit awards (8).
The Beatles holds
the top spot of album sales in the US (106 million), followed by Garth Brooks
second (92 million), Led Zeppelin (83 million), Elvis Presley (77 million), and
the Eagles (65 million). Worldwide The Beatles sold more than 1 billion records.
Klezmer music is
derived from two Hebrew words, clay and zimmer, meaning "vessel of
music."
The Ocarina, a
musical wind instrument, is also known as the Sweet Potato.
The LP
(long-playing) record was invented by Paul Goldmark in 1948. The LP is not dead
yet: more than 10 million LPs are sold every year.
The longest song to
reach number one on the Billboard charts on LP was "I'd Do Anything For
Love (But I Won't Do That)" by Meatloaf, the shortest: "Stay" by
Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs.
At the first Grammy
Awards, held on 4 May 1959, Domenico Modugno beat out Frank Sinatra and Peggy
Lee for the Record of the Year, with "Volare." More
The British, the
highest per capita spenders on music, buy 7,2% of the world music market.
The first pop video
was Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, released in 1975.
The Beatles song
"Martha My Dear" was written by Paul McCartney about his sheepdog
Martha. More
Jeanne Louise
Calment's CD was released on her 121st birthday in 1996. Titled "Time's
Mistress" it features Ms Calment reminiscing to a score of rap music and
other tunes.
A grand piano can
be played faster than an upright (spinet) piano.
A piano covers the
full spectrum of all orchestra instruments, from below the lowest note of the
double bassoon to above the top note of the piccolo.
The harmonica is
the world's best-selling music instrument.
The term "disc
jockey" was first used in 1937.
The last note of a
keyboard is C.
Themes from movies
Unforgiven, A Perfect World, The Bridges of Madison County, and Absolute Power
were all written by Clint Eastwood. More
The US share of the
world music market is 31.3%.
The only guy
without a beard in ZZTOP surname (last name) is Beard.
Since its launch in
1981 the song Memory of the musical Cats has been played on radio more than a
million times.
Paul McCartney was
the last bachelor Beatle when he married Linda Eastman in a civil ceremony in
London, 1969. Paul's brother Mike was his best man. No other Beatle attended the
wedding.
There are 6
versions of Franz Schubert's "Die Forelle" ("The Trout"),
simply because when friends asked him for copies of the song, he wrote out new
copies to the best he could remember at the time.
In 1952, John Cage
composed and presented ' 4'33" ', a composition consisting of 4 minutes and
33 seconds of silence.
The Carpenters
signature song, We've Only Just Begun, was originally part of a television
commercial for a California bank.
In 1972 Leslie
Harvey of Stone the Crows died after being electrocuted onstage in England. In
1976 Keith Relf, who used to play for The Yardbirds, was electrocuted by his
guitar while playing in his basement. During a mid-performance in 1994 Ramon
Barrero, a Mexican musician famous for playing the world's smallest harmonica,
inhaled the harmonica and choked to death.
U2 was originally
known as Feedback. To date, U2 have sold more than 70 million records, grossing
$1,5 billion.
In May 1997, Paul
McCartney broke his own world record by obtaining his 81st gold disc.
Global sales of
pre-recorded music total more than $40 billion.
The top selling
singles of all time are Elton John's "Candle in the Wind ‘97", at 33
million, Bing Crosby's "White Christmas", 30 million, and Bill Haley's
"Rock Around the Clock", 25 million.
The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the USA'