Did you know (music)?

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"All Along the Watchtower"/1968/Jimi Hendrix...was his only Top 40 hit in the US...the song was written and also recorded by Bob Dylan in 1968. He admired Hindrix's version so much, he changed the way he performed the song, in concert, to reflect Jimi's style.











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Boz Scaggs and Steve Miller both attended St. Mark's in Dallas and Scaggs originally played in the Steve Miller Band before going solo.

On the first line of with "With a Little Luck", Paul McCartney actually sings "with a little ****." As a DJ back when that song came out, I kept wondering when someone from the FCC was going to rain thunder down upon me everytime I played that song.
 
Elton John - "Bennie and the Jets"........The version that everyone has come to know and love was NOT done live. All the clapping and concert sounds in the song are studio tricks......cool song anyway!
 
the first person to ever WRITE and perform their own number one song (in the rock era) is texas-born buddy knox.
 
Tommy James(Tommy James and The Shondells), in 1968, was among the first artists to feature the newly developed Moog Synthesizer with the production of his classic LP "CELLOPHANE SYMPHONY". The instrument was owned by Hall of Famer Whitey Ford of The New York Yankees.
 
The whistling melody that Jeff Tweedy does on Loose Fur's "The Ruling Class" is taken from another song he wrote...a rejected version of a "King of the Hill" theme. Mike Judge asked him and a few other artists to write a song for the show.
 
About the Jimmy Buffett/Austin connection....Some people took me to see Jimmy Buffett in the 1975-76 time frame at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin. His big single was "Come Monday," and "Pencil Thin Mustache" was a known song. Anyway, at the end of the show, Jerry Jeff Walker got up on stage and everyone was quite fired up (so to speak). Now, with the above story, I wonder if this was the tour in Texas where Margaritaville was written.
 
Waylon Jennings, then a back up musician, gave up his seat on the plane to the Big Bopper.

John Lennon sings backup on Bowie's "Fame"

Former keyboardist for P-Funk and Talking Heads Bernie Worrell attended Juilliard when he was only 14 years old.

Eddie Van Halen played the guitar solo on "Beat It," but declined to be in the video because he thought the song would flop.

The "Funk Brothers" - those session musicians who played on all those Motown records - played on more number 1 albums than Elvis, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Beach Boys combined. (That one's for Fast Fred)
 
A few off the top of me head...

After "Dark Side of the Moon", Pink Floyd decided to record an album using nothing but "household objects" like rubber bands, scotch tape, empty bottles, etc. It was eventually scrapped, but you can hear some of it at the beginning of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and "Is There Anybody Out There" (the tinkling, wine bottle sounds...)

More Floyd: "Have a Cigar" is actually sung by Roy Harper, a British folk singer (also a friend of Led Zep, as in "Hats Off to Roy Harper")

Those great solos on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", it's really Eric Clapton. Also, George wrote the song "Savoy Truffle" for Clapton, who got a toothache after eating a whole box of chocolates (the different flavors are mentioned in the song)

On the Eagles "Heartache Tonight", the hand-clapping beat through-out is actually a snare drum distorted to sound like clapping (reminiscent of "Bennie and the Jets")

"Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" were both intended to be included on "Sgt. Pepper", but were pulled because their record label felt they were taking too long recording (a whole 5 months!) and needed to get a single out

The Kenny Rogers song "Something's Burning" used an actual heartbeat as a bass drum beat (actually reversed, a real heartbeat goes BUM-bum, whereas the song switches it to bum-BUM)
 
I vaguely recall reading an interview years ago where Buffet said he wrote "Margaritaville" on a napkin while sitting in Texas Chili Parlor with JJW.

some interesting music trivia with an austin connection -- on numerous weekends in the mid-to-late 1980s, the weekend music bill at Willie's Saloon in Stillwater, OK was the following:

Friday -- Here Comes Everyone (bandleader = Vernon Howell aka David Koresh)
Saturday -- Garth Brooks opening for Jimmy LaFave

Garth also was the doorman/bouncer.
 
"bob wills is still the king" was written by Waylon Jennings as a jab at Willie after one of willies dogs<?> got into Waylons chicken coop and killed a few. Hence the 'it dont matter who's in austin'.
 
Just finished to a 2-CD bootleg called the Alternate Sgt. Pepper which goes into some detail on that...

While we're still on the Beatles, "Strawberry Fields Forever" is actually a combination of 2 versions. The first is the first half, with mellotron (imitating flutes), the 2nd version was recorded with full brass ensemble and multiple drummers (up to 9, an almost tribal sound). John decided he liked them both and asked George Martin to combine them. The problem, the brass version was faster and a half-tone higher. The answer, slow down the 2nd version and splice them together (you can really tell on the 2nd half of the song, as John's vocals suddenly sound slower, like a tape dragging...) And yes, John is saying "cranberry sauce" at the end, not "I buried Paul"...

Beatles nut, I could go on all day...
 
Richard Edson (parking garage attendant in Ferris Beuller's Day Off) was the original drummer for Sonic Youth.

Buster Poindexter (David Johansen) was lead singer of the New York Dolls. -- everyone should know this.

Chaka Khan originally shared lead vocals with Robert Palmer on "addicted to Love" but her vocals were removed for the final mix.

Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols, although a member of the band at the time, did not play on the recorded sessions for "Never Mind the Bollocks". Steve Jones did the bass parts.

YMCA by the Village People is about gay sex. But what the hell, lets play it at Round Rock Express games anyway!

Glen Campbell played guitar on the Beach Boys "Pet Sounds" and played with them on tour in 1965 and 1966.

Other songs featuring Glen Campbell playing guitar: Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night", Righteous Brothers "You've Lost that Loving Feeling" and The Monkees "I'm a Believer"

Win Butler of the Arcade Fire grew up in the Woodlands, TX and attended Phillips Exeter Academy prepschool in New Hampshire.

Exene Cervenka of X was married to Viggo Mortensen.
 
"Stop Draggin my Heart around" was never intended to be a duet. TP and the heartbreakers laid down the music and TP did the vocals as a demo for Stevie Nicks. The TP vocals were supposed to be removed during the production. She thought it was great so she left them in.
 
Neil Young joined the Rick James fronted Mynah Birds. They were signed to Motown, but Rick was arrested for deserting the Navy and no album was ever recorded.

Easy bar bet.
Bing Crosby is one of only five recording artists to have sold over 500 million records (the Beatles, Elvis, Sinatra, and Michael Jackson)

The Eagles Greatest Hits 71-75 and not Thriller is the biggest selling album of all-time. (29 ml vs. 27 ml).

Skid Row's "Slave to the Grind" was the first metal album to debut at #1 on the Billboad Top 200.

Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" was supposed to be titled "In the Garden of Eden" but the lyrics were slurred by the drunking lead singer.

Hendrix, Joplin, and Morrison all died at the age of 27 within months of each other (1970 and 1971).

Other who have died at that age: Kurt Cobain, Peter Ham (Badfinger), Gram Parsons, Brian Jones, Robert Johnson, and Chris Bell (Big Star)

Another surefire bar bet:
The artist that has appeared on the most number one hits: drummer, Hal Blaine
 
I don't know if this is too commonly known for this thread, but:

Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney were good friends. Paul told Michael a good way to invest his money was by purchasing the rights to other artist's songs. Michael took his advice and outbid Paul on The Beatles catalog, and that ended their friendship.
 
Promotions gone wrong...

Right when "Hey Jude" was about to come out, someone wrote "HeyJude" all over the windows of the Apple Boutique clothing store the Beatles ran. Thinking it was a slur against Jews (Juden), the windows were smashed.

(History repeats itself...) The giant pig on the animals cover was actually anchored over the Battersea power plant, but broke free and floated away. It drifted into (I believe) Heathrow airspace and several flights were delayed until the pig could be wrangled.

The cover of Led Zeppelin's "Presence", with that weird black obelisk on it? For the album's release, the plan was to leave small statues of that obelisk at prominent places, like outside Parliament and the White House, to cause a mystery and of course create promotion for the album (after the album came out, the mystery would be solved.) The day before the release, some dimwit released the cover art to the press, thus spoiling the plan. The guy was fired the next day...
 
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Michael Nesmith's(The Monkees) mother invented 'White Out'. When she passed away, he inherited around $30,000,000. Also he was the only member of The Monkees who was a truly gifted musician and songwriter. He also was a huge part of the success of MTV, as his video "Cruisin" was the FIRST video aired on a show called Pop Clips on Nickelodeon, which was later purchased by Time Warner/AMEX and developed into MTV. He also won the first Grammy Award for 'Video of the Year', for his hour long "Elephant Parts".











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Neil Young got sued by David Geffen for making music that was unrepresentative of Neil Young.

Another reason to get the rights to your songs: John Fogerty was sued for self-plagiarism by Fantasy Records. Fantasy claimed that "Old Man Down the Road" was a copy of the Fantasy-owned CCR song, "Run to the Jungle."

Interesting history to the case. Fogerty v. Fantasy went all the way to the Supreme Court (Fogerty wanted Fantasy owner to pay for his legal costs to defend against the plagiarism charges).
 
John Belushi singing Louie Louie in Animal House is an anachronism, because the movie is set in 1962, and the Kingsmen song came out in 1963.
 
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