Here’s one piece of trivia not exactly related to songs or performances, but I’ll bet lots of people have never heard it before.
Know why the middle record speed is 45? Guitarist and technical wizard Les Paul was friends with the development team while the new format was being worked out. One day, one of them said to him, “Les, pick a number between 33 and 78.” He replied, “45.” That’s the number they went with.
If you were born in '45, in '78 you’d have been 33…
Paul Shaffer, David Lettermans band leader, played keyboards in the Blues Brothers Band (Ackroyd & Belushi), in 1978. 
Exapno Mapcase, I must have stopped by the wrong website. One full of lies.
This is the story I’m familiar with. I was gonna call “BS” and ask for a cite. I heard that his brother Jimmy pulled out “No. 1” once and brought the audience to tears. I heard it was a tribute show. Its locked up now, from what I recall.
Makes sense; Paul Shaffer was in the Saturday Night Live band when Ackroyd & Belushi came up with the Blues Brothers. He was not in the movie of that name, but was in the sequel (Blues Brothers 2000).
Related trivia: an early leader of the SNL band was Howard Shore, now multi-Oscar winning composer for Lord of the Rings.
Crapdoodles.
Oh, then somebody ought to have told Les to stop telling that lie in interviews. I’ve got him quoted as saying it in a Guitar Player magazine interview from the '80s, and I’ve seen it elsewhere listed under his “accomplishments”. I guess maybe the guy made so many innovations in the music industry, he couldn’t keep them all straight, and started to say he was responsible for feats which he hadn’t actually accomplished.
But thank you for setting the record (pun intended) straight.
Somebody previously mentioned Frank Zappa and the Mothers (of Invention). Did you know the Mothers took the name because they played their first gig on Mother’s Day.
Stevie Ray Vaughan was the guitarist on David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” album.
I thought the “real” name of the SNL band in the 70’s was The Not Ready For Primetime Players. Ya say Paulie was in THAT band.
Willie Nelson once wore a crewcut and did gospel albums.
Elvis once said that Roy Orbison was the greatest.
:smack:
She wrote if for the movie version of “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.” She also wrote “Sneaking Around With You” for that same movie. The rest of the songs were part of the original musical.
Not quite. The “I want my MTV” part was written by Sting. Though the music for it came at least five years earlier. The music is the same as the “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” line from Zenyatta Mondatta. For his “cowriting” efforts, Sting is contracted for half the royalties from that song.
Speaking of that song, in Al Yankovic’s parody of it in UHF about the Beverly Hillbillies, Knopfler would only yet Yankovic parody it if he agreed to one condition: Knopfler had to play on the parody. Needless to say, it didn’t take long for Al to agree to that one.
Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, the guys of ABBA, wrote the musical Chess. A vastly darker work than their more upbeat sugary stuff they did for ABBA. (And you knew that the groups name came from the initials of the four members, right? Anni-Fird and Agnetha being the women.)
The reason Angus Young was made lead guitarist of AC/DC in spite of his brother Malcolm being an overall better guitarist was that unlike his brother, Angus couldn’t do rhythm guitar.
Barry Manilow may have sang about writing the songs, but Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys really wrote “I Write the Songs.” He even won a grammy for it. (Why?)
The 4 Seasons did “96 Tears” under the name of Question Mark and the Mysterians.
The story I got with this bit of trivia was that someone made a bet with them that if they didn’t record under their own name (and fame) most of the stuff they were doing then would flop. So They took the dare.
At least that’s the story I heard while drinking some brews many years ago.
The Not Ready For Prime Time Players were the cast…Belushi, Ackroyd, Chevy Chace, Garret Morris, Jane Curtin et al.
To old to rock & roll, to young to die!
[QUOTE=SandyHook]
The 4 Seasons did “96 Tears” under the name of Question Mark and the Mysterians.
The story I got with this bit of trivia was that someone made a bet with them that if they didn’t record under their own name (and fame) most of the stuff they were doing then would flop. So They took the dare.
At least that’s the story I heard while drinking some brews many years
Sorry, wrong on that one. See here:http://www.tsimon.com/mysteria.htm
Yes, and I’ve heard he wrote it about Brian Wilson.
If you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that ? is one seriously weird dude.
He claims to be an alien.
Paul Shaffer was dropped from the Blues Brothers Band when, to honor a prior commitment he’d made to Lorne Michaels, he declined to play some shows with the Blues Brothers in favor of doing the music for Gilda Radner’s live show. Belushi threw him out of the band in pique.
When Sam and Dave and John Belushi say “Play it Steve” in their respective versions of “Soul Man”, they’re both calling to the same guitarist, Steve Cropper