CBS was incorporated in 1927 as United Independent Broadcasters, Inc. Its name was changed a year later to Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc., and in 1974 it adopted the name CBS Inc. In 1995, the company was bought by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, which, two years later, changed its name to the CBS Corporation.
“Life is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)” is a pop song, recorded by a group of studio musicians under the name Reunion, which reached #8 on the U.S. Billboard chart in 1974.
The song’s verses feature vocalist Joey Levine rapidly naming rock musicians, songs, lyrics, and other pop-culture references from the 1950s through the 1970s. The final verse ends with a line which name-checks several major record labels: “CBS and Warner Brothers, RCA and all the others.”
On January 4, 1936, Billboard magazine published its first music hit parade. The Hot 100 came into being in 1958.
The largest billboard in the world, in December 2018 and according to it being awarded a Guinness World Record, featured a Ford EcoSport SUV (images, https://is.gd/0tNUDR). It was displayed in Madrid ESP and it measured over 56,000 square feet – so if its height was 100 feet, then its width would be over 560 feet, or almost two American football fields long.
The Guinness Book of World Records came about when Sir Hugh Beaver, who was the managing director of the Guinness Brewery at the time, attended a shooting party in County Wexford in southeastern Ireland in 1954. A discussion/argument arose as to which was the fastest game bird in Europe, but they were unable to find an answer in any existing reference books of the time. Perceiving the need for something to settle questions like this, Sir Hugh tapped Norris and Ross McWhirter to compile a book of facts and figures, little imagining that he was laying the groundwork for a book — or more correctly, an on-going series of books — that would undergo countless revisions and become an all-time best-seller.
-“BB”-
Norris and Ross McWhirter are (or, were) twin brothers born in 1925. Ross died at 50 in 1975, and Norris was 78 when he died in 2004. They published The Guinness Book of World Records annually since 1955.
The book itself holds a world record — it is the best-selling copyrighted book of all time.
Whereas, The Book of Lists, first published in 1977 by David Wallechinsky, his father Irving Wallace, and sister Amy Wallace, is not published annually. The second volume came out in 1980 and the third appeared in 1983. Book of Lists for the 1990s was published in 1993; yet another volume, The New Book of Lists, was published in 2005. David Wallechinsky was born in 1948 and is currently 72 years old. His father Irving Wallace passed away in 1990 at the age of 74, and his sister Amy Wallace passed away in 2013 at the age of 58.
The books contain hundreds of lists (many accompanied by textual explanations) on unusual or obscure topics, for example:
— Famous people who died during sexual intercourse
— The world’s greatest libel suits
— People suspected of being Jack the Ripper
— Worst places to hitchhike
— Dr. Demento’s 10 Worst Song Titles of All Time
— People misquoted by Ronald Reagan
— Breeds of dogs which bite people the most, and the least
Barry Hansen, born in 1941, created the radio persona known as Dr. Demento in 1970 while working as a DJ at a Los Angeles radio station. A weekly show went into syndication in 1974 and ran until 2010.
Unsurprisingly, Dr. Demento helped bring “Weird Al” Yankovic to national attention.
Before becoming a DJ, and developing the Dr. Demento persona, Barry Hansen lived in a house for several years with the members of the Los Angeles-based rock band Spirit, and served as a roadie for both Spirit and Canned Heat.
The Load-Out is a Jackson Browne song that has the lyrics, “let the roadies take the stage”. The song was recorded live at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia MD in 1977 as part of the tour in support of the album The Pretender. The Pretender was released after the suicide of Browne’s first wife, Phyllis Major.
The theme song from the movie “MAS*H” is titled “Suicide is Painless”. Written by Johnny Mandel, it was only intended to be featured in the movie during the “Last Supper” scene. Director Robert Altman himself tried to write the lyrics to the song, which he insisted must be “the stupidest song ever written”, but when he was unable to do it he turned the task over to his 14-year-old-son Michael, who knocked them out inside of ten minutes.
On an episode of “The Tonight Show” in 1980, Robert Altman once claimed that he was paid only $70,000 for making the movie, but his son had made over a million dollars through royalties he received for being listed as a co-writer of the song.
-“BB”-
I inserted those 5 words (bold, italics). They are needed to clarify the post, Bicycle Bill. I hope you don’t mind.
NM
OK, here’s my play…
Fascinating story! Here is more, based on MASH Notes: The Story Behind “Suicide is Painless”. Amazingly, “Suicide Is Painless” became Johnny Mandel’s biggest hit… and Michael Altman’s only hit. Mandel also wrote The Shadow of Your Smile (also known as “Love Theme from The Sandpiper” — here’s a YouTube link for it, sung by Tony Bennett).
When MASH* producer Ingo Preminger asked Michael Altman what the teenager wanted for writing the lyrics, the 14-year-old kid said that all he wanted in return was a guitar. Instead, producer Preminger gave him a standard songwriter’s contract — luckily for Michael! The song has been recorded by dozens of musicians, from Henry Mancini to Marilyn Manson.
That’s my play. My wife loves MASH*. While growing up, she saw every single on of the show’s 256 episodes.
According to this2017 Business Insider article, the final episode of MASH* is the most-watched television episode of all time. Number 2 on this list is the finale of Cheers, and #3 is the Dallas episode where we all found out who really shot J.R.
No actor appeared in all 256 episodes of MASH*, though both Alan Alda (Hawkeye Pierce) and Loretta Swit (Margaret Houlihan) came close, as both of them appeared in 251 episodes.
Two other actors appeared in every season of the series, though in fewer episodes overall than Alda and Swit: Jamie Farr (Max Klinger, 216 episodes) and William Christopher (Father Francis Mulcahy, 213 episodes).
The actor Beulah Bondi played Jimmy Stewart’s mother in four unrelated films: It’s A Wonderful Life, Of Human Hearts, Vivacious Lady, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
During the 16th century, the French spelling “Stuart” (instead of the original “Stewart”) was adopted by Mary, Queen of Scots, when she was living in France. She made the change to ensure the correct pronunciation of the name, because retaining the letter “w” would have made it difficult for French speakers, who usually pronounced the w as a v.
Actress Donna Reed, who starred with Jimmy Stewart in * It’s a Wonderful Life*, was just 64 years old when she died of pancreatic cancer in 1986. She was just 25 years old when making It’s a Wonderful Life, while Stewart was 38.
A single-reed instrument is a woodwind instrument that uses only one reed to produce sound. Early single-reed instruments were documented in ancient Egypt, as well as the Middle East, Greece, and the Roman Empire. Examples of single-reed instruments are the clarinet and saxophone.
Double reed instruments are also woodwinds and include the Bassoon and Oboe. The bagpipe is also a double reed instrument. The Oxford History of Music says that a sculpture of bagpipes has been found on a Hittite slab at Euyuk in Anatolia, dated to 1000 BC.