LATEST PHACTOID
The lady dancing in
Men Without Hats' 'Safety Dance' video is Louise Court, the current editor of UK's Cosmopolitan magazine.
CHRISTMAS
The first hit that contained the word Christmas was
Mantovani's - White Christmas in December 1952
The NYPD does not have a choir.
Actor
Frank Kelly released 'Christmas Countdown' in 1983, it reached number 26.
Wizzard's 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday' has the full credit : Wizzard featuring vocal backing by The Suedettes plus the
Stockland Green Bilateral School First Year Choir with additional noises by Miss Snob & Class 3C
Jona Lewie's 'Stop The Cavalry' hasn't anything to do with Christmas. It is an anti-war song and only released by the record company due to the line :
'Wish I could be home for Christmas'
POP
Abba have allowed their songs to be sampled only twice: by The Fugees & Madonna
In
Christina Aguilera's "Genie In A Bottle" video, one of her backing dancers is wearing a top, which disappears and reappears several times during the routine
00's
All Saints' Appleton Sisters are Canadian.
Appleton's 'Honest' film was directed by Eurythmic David A. Stewart
Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" was the first single to sell 1 million downloads
The first song to reach number one purely on download sales was
Gnarls Barkley's 'Crazy'.The first download inclusive number one album :
Morrissey - 'Ringleader Of The Tormentors'.
90's
Radio 2's Janey Lee Grace was the featured vocalist on Cola Boy's 1991 hit "7 Ways To Love".
INDIE & BRITPOP
Oasis' "What's The Story Morning Glory" had to be repressed with an extra songwriting credit after nearly being taken to court by...Gary Glitter.
DANCE
DISCO
As a session singer,
Tina Charles used to sing on the
Top Of The Pops albums. She even sang cover versions of her own songs on them.
Earth Wind & Fire's previous name was 'The Salty Peppers'.
ROCK
Lenny Kravitz's mother starred in the American sitcom "The Jeffersons"
The end of
Mike Oldfield's "Amarok" contained morse code. It reads "F@#k off Branson", a comment on his dispute with Virgin.
THE BEATLES
"Come Together" was originally banned by the BBC as it contained the name 'Coca-Cola',
infringing it's advertising ban. The same happened to the
Kinks who changed it to 'cherry cola' to release "Lola".
MISC
The shortest single released was 1 minute, 28 seconds long. It was
"Stay" by Maurice Williams And The Zodiacs. The longest : 39 minutes,
The Orb's "Blue Room"
Only 2 one-hit-wonders have sold more than 1 million copies -
Simon Park Orchestra's 'Eye Level' and The Teletubbies - 'Say Eh-Oh'
The Eurythmics have had 9 top 10 hits ; They have all reached different chart positions. The only position not reached: number 7.
The first band to be featured on the cover of
"Smash Hits was
Plastic Bertrand
The Who - "Pictures Of Lily", Divinyls -"I Touch Myself", Undertones - "Teenage kicks", Pointer Sisters - "Slow Hand" & Tori Amos - "Icicle" all songs about masturbation
All done military service :
Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, John Mayall, Billy Bragg & Shaggy.The fist song to chart with the word 'rave' in the title was from 1958. It was
Buddy Holly's "Rave On"
80's
The lady dancing in
Men Without Hats' 'Safety Dance' video is Louise Court, the current editor of Cosmopolitan magazine.
The 1st simulaeneous lp and cd relase in the USA was
Eurythmics - 'Touch'
Toni Basil co-produced Talking Heads' "Once In A Lifetime" video
Kraftwerk's "The Model"; Smiths' "How Soon Is Now" & Dire Straits' "Walk Of Life"
were all b-sides before being released as singles in their own right
The 12" single of M's "Pop Muzic" had a double-groove b-side. Depending on which groove you placed the needle on, you heard either the b-side or an extended remix.
Groups that put 'secret messages' on the run-out groove of their singles include Madness, The Smiths & Kirsty MacColl
During the final chorus of "Tempted" by Squeeze, after the line "Tempted by the fruit of another" the word 'lesbian' is slightly audible at 3:22 & every 5 seconds after.
NEW ROMANTICS
The Human league used to be called 'The Future'.
70's
10cc's 'I'm Not In Love' contains 256 multi-tracked backing vocals, all provided by the four band members. It took 3 weeks to record.
Lasse Hallstrom, director of 'The Cider House Rules' and 'Chocolat', was
ABBA's video director
David Bowie's "Jean Genie" was kept off the number 1 spot by
Chuck Berry's "My Ding-a-Ling"
When
The Police had their first number 1, guitarist
Andy Summers was 36
Peter Gabriel backwards. At the end of "Solsbury Hill" what sounds like jibberish is actually Gabriel shouting "you fool! you play records backwards?" backwards.
PUNK & NEW WAVE
Former
Clash drummer Terry Chimes is now a chiropractor.
60's
Tommy Facenda released a single called
High School USA in the US. It had different lyrics for different cities on release with
local high schools mentioned.
60's singer
Twinkle's niece is 'Cold Feet's' Fay Ripley
The Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody" only featured one 'brother' - Bobby Hatfield
Kris Kristopherson used to play American Football professionally.
MOTOWN
Marvin Gaye started his career as a session drummer
MYTHS
Rod Stewart never played harmonica on Millie's 'My Boy Lollipop'
KATE BUSH, the EMI rep & the cakes. Inviting a company rep (anticipating new material in the late 90's) around "to see what I've been working on", then producing a tray of cakes from the oven. It never happened. (Unfortunately)
Longest note held in a hit single is not by
Bill Withers. It's by
A-ha's Morten Harket on 'Summer Moved On' from 2000. It beat Bill Withers by two seconds.
People still believe that
Bob Holness played the saxophone on
Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street". He didn't, it was Raphael Ravenscroft
NAMES
David Gray's real name is Eric. Born in Manchester, he grew up in South Wales.
I don't know which name is worse - Rubbish rapper Ice-T was born Tracy Morrow.
TV & RADIO
Harry Shearer, who provides voices for 'Grandpa', 'Mr. Burns' & 'Smithers' (amoungst others) on The Simpsons, was Spinal Tap's bass guitarist.