# Share Some Little-Known Trivia About Popular Songs....... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 17, 2008, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494 "2008-12-17T01:11:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2023, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494/101 "2023-10-08T00:46:05Z")
Speaking of America, the late Phil Hartman was a graphic designer before he took off as a comedian. He created [several album covers](https://www.fastcompany.com/3044107/8-album-covers-designed-by-legendary-comedian-phil-hartman), including three for America. Also, I’m pretty sure I remember Penn and Teller, in one of their numerous Letterman appearances, talking, or at least Penn talked, about having been an opening act for America on tour. And (at the time) speculating about becoming songwriters if the comedy/magic act became unsustainable, because surely they could do better than “There were plants and birds and rocks and things”! ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2023, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494/102 "2023-10-08T04:10:15Z")
Elton John’s “Nikita” is about a gay guy in the GULAG. In the USSR (or Russia) you go to prison if convicted of homosexuality. ---
**Author:** ![anny\_m](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@anny\_m](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anny_m)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2023, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494/103 "2023-10-08T17:16:51Z")
The Mister Jimmy in the lyrics to the Rolling Stones song _You Can’t Always Get What You Want_ is claimed by Jimmy Hutmaker of Excelsior, MN to be about him. He said he met Mick Jagger in a drug store in Excelsior and told him, “You can’t always get what you want.” Others though say it’s a reference to Jimmy Miller who was the Stones’ producer from 1968 to 1973. I had always fancifully imagined it was Mr. Jimi after Hendrix or Mr. Jimmy after Jimmy Page. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2023, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494/104 "2023-10-08T22:49:17Z")
The group Radiohead is named after Stephen Tobolowsky. Yes Ned Ryerson in _Groundhog Day._ Stephen Tobolowsky was writing the Talking Heads movie _True Stories_ with David Byrne. Tobolowsky genuinely believes he is psychic. Byrne wrote the song _Radio Head_ when he heard Tobolowsky’s story. The group Radiohead took their name from that song. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2023, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494/105 "2023-10-08T23:33:54Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Elton John’s “Nikita” is about a gay guy in the GULAG. In the USSR (or Russia) you go to prison if convicted of homosexuality. - Sub-trivia:Anya Major, who played the guard, was the hammer-thrower in Apple’s ad [1984.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtvjbmoDx-I) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494/106 "2023-10-09T00:00:03Z")
Death Cab for Cutie is named after a Bonzo Dog Band song that they performed in the Beatles’s _Magical Mystery Tour._ ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494/107 "2023-10-09T00:07:02Z")
Electric Light Orchestra’s “Don’t Bring Me Down” uses, as its drum beat, a slowed-down tape loop of a different ELO song, “On the Run,” from the same album (_Discovery_). The “cha-clunk” sound at the very end of the song is the sound of a metal fire door closing, at Musicland Studios in Munich, where the album was recorded. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494/108 "2023-10-09T00:14:09Z")
The ELP song _Lucky Man_ was the first song Greg Lake ever wrote…when he 12 years old. ---
**Author:** ![slicedalone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slicedalone/32/12515_2.png) [@slicedalone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slicedalone)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494/109 "2023-10-09T00:29:56Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Joan Baez’s sister Mimi was married to folk singer Richard Farina, who became best friends at Columbia Univeristy with Thomas Pynchon, and wrote a song called “V” after Pychon’s first book. CORRECTION (15 YEARS LATER) Pynchon and Farina went to Cornell University (where Pynchon studied with Vladimir Nabokov). ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494/110 "2023-10-09T01:14:31Z")
“Torn”–most famously recorded by Aussie singer Natalie Imbruglia–was written for (and co-written by) the American singer Anne Preven; but first _recorded_ by Danish singer Lis Sørensen as “Brændt” (Danish for “burnt”) with Danish lyrics written by another Danish singer named Elisabeth Gjerluff Nielsen. Pulp’s (and Bill Shatner’s) “Common People” is rumored–apparently no one can prove this to be true–to have been inspired by a young Danae Stratou, who (unless you’re really into installation art) is now considerably less notorious than her husband, former Greek Minister of Finance and roving pundit Yanis Varoufakis. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494/111 "2023-10-09T03:05:00Z")
The chord progression in the Grateful Dead’s song _Franklin’s Tower_ is based on the “colored girls go” chorus in Lou Reed’s _Walk on the Wild Side_. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494/112 "2023-10-09T03:43:38Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Death Cab for Cutie is named after a Bonzo Dog Band song that they performed in the Beatles’s _Magical Mystery Tour._ Toad the Wet Sprocket got their name from a Monty Python sketch. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494/113 "2023-10-09T04:06:04Z")
[Ned’s Atomic Dustbin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned%27s_Atomic_Dustbin) is the name of a Goon Show episode. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494/114 "2023-10-09T06:53:45Z")
Duran Duran got their name from a character in _Barbarella (1968)._ ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494/115 "2023-10-09T13:41:46Z")
In the music video for Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing in the Dark, Bruce is on stage and he invites a young woman to come up and dance. The young woman was a then little-known soap opera actress named Courtney Cox. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494/116 "2023-10-09T13:43:03Z")
The 80s English pop band T’Pau were named after a Vulcan leader from an episode of Star Trek. (Amok Time - the one where Spock has to get married) ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494/117 "2023-10-09T14:26:41Z")
The lead singer for Cheap Trick once said, “We played a bunch of different gigs under a bunch of different names, and ‘Cheap Trick’ was the one where we didn’t get fired.” ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494/118 "2023-10-09T15:07:50Z")
Very similar to how Jethro Tull got their name. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494/119 "2023-10-09T20:38:24Z")
From the eighteenth-century agrarian who invented the seed drill, I believe. Similarly, Alice Cooper was supposedly a seventeenth-century witch who, as a Ouija board revealed, was reincarnated as Vincent Fournier, the lead singer in a 1970s band. Originally the name of the band, Fournier in subsequent years would change his name to Alice Cooper. And to round this all off: Three Dog Night is a term by Australian aborigines who bring their dogs with them to bed for warmth. The colder it is, the more dogs they bed down with. A three-dog night, needless to say, is pretty damn cold. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494/120 "2023-10-09T22:47:55Z")
Quarterflash named themselves after an Australian saying they claimed they heard, although I’ve never come across it myself. > The name came from an [Australian slang](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English_vocabulary) description of new immigrants as “a quarter flash, three quarters foolish”, which the Rosses found in a book at producer [John Boylan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boylan_(record_producer))’s house [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-some-little-known-trivia-about-popular-songs/477494.md?page=7)