*The video for "If I Could Turn Back Time" took place on board battleship USS Missouri, where Cher sang to a large group of sailors. The video was filmed on July 1st 1989 while the ship was stationed at the former Long Beach Naval Shipyard at Pier D along with the crew. The band played on the foredeck, and the whole vessel is rigged with spotlights, light racks and strobes and the crew is on the deck, waving with the rhythm. Cher's outfit, a fishnet body stocking under a very revealing black one-piece bathing suit, caused some controversy, and many TV networks refused to show the video.
*As well as being lead guitarist of the rock band Queen, Brian May is an animal activist. He formed the group, Save Me (named after the May-written Queen song), which campaigns for the protection of all animals against unnecessary, cruel and degrading treatment. As well as this, he is an astrophysicist and is the co-author of "Bang! – The Complete History of the Universe". Brian also has had a lifelong interest in collecting Victorian stereophotography and in 2009, with co-author Elena Vidal, he published his second book, "A Village Lost and Found", on the work of English stereophotography innovator TR William.*Clark Terry is one of the most prolific jazz musicians in history, having appeared on 905 known recording sessions, which makes him the most recorded trumpet player of all time. In comparison, Louis Armstrong performed on 620 sessions, Harry "Sweets" Edison on 563, and Dizzy Gillespie on 501.*Gene Autry's version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer holds the distinction of being the only No.1 hit to fall completely off the chart after hitting No.1 the week of Christmas, 1949. The official date of its No. 1 status was for the week ending January 7, 1950, making it the first No.1 song of the 1950s. None the less, it sold 2.5 million copies the first year, eventually selling a total of 25 million, and it remained the second best-selling record of all time until the 1980s
*The Doors drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger worked as technical advisers on the 1991 film, The Doors. John also had a cameo role in the film, he played the studio engineer in the booth urging Jim (Val Kilmer) to call it a night in the opening sequence. Although impressed with Val's performance as Morrison, John & Robby were unhappy with the film as a whole.*In 1957 at the age of 13, guitarist Jimmy Page appeared on BBC TV 's "All Your Own" talent quest programme in a skiffle quartet. They played "Mama Don't Want To Skiffle Anymore" and another American-flavoured song, "In Them Ol' Cottonfields Back Home". When asked by the host Huw Wheldon what he wanted to do after schooling, Jimmy said, "I want to do biological research to find a cure for cancer, if it isn't discovered by then"
*Carlos Santana spent several years working as a dishwasher and busking for spare change on the streets of San Francisco before becoming a full-time professional musician. After the band, Santana's first audition, at the Avalon Ball Room in the summer of 1967, promoter Chet Helms told the band that they would never make it in the San Francisco Music Scene playing Latin fusion and suggested that Carlos should keep his day job washing dishes at Tick Tock's Drive-In on 3rd St *U2 album covers: The child on the cover of 'Boy' is Peter Rowan, a nephew of a friend of the band. Then 2 albums later, Peter was used again for the cover of 'War'
*"Dueling Banjos" the instrumental composition by Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith made famous by the 1972 motion picture Deliverance. The song was composed in 1955 by Smith as a banjo instrumental he called "Feudin' Banjos". Smith recorded it, playing a four-string plectrum banjo and accompanied by five-string bluegrass banjo player Don Reno. The song went to No. 2 for four weeks on the U.S. pop chart in 1973 and topped the adult contemporary chart for two weeks the same year. BUT it also led to a successful lawsuit by the song's composer, since it was used in the film Deliverance without his permission.
*The front cover of E.L.O.s 4th album "Eldorado - A Symphony" officially known as simply Eldorado, was designed by Sharon Arden, later known as Sharon Osbourne (Ozzie's wife). It comprises a still from the popular 1939 film The Wizard of Oz... the ruby slippers.
*The Beatles's Help! album cover features the group with their arms positioned to spell out a word in flag semaphore, but it does not read "help", as many believed. On the UK Parlophone release, the letters formed by The Beatles appear to be 'NUJV', whilst the slightly re-arranged US release on Capitol Records appeared to feature the letters 'NVUJ'*While many people believe Eric Clapton is nicknamed "Slow Hand(s)" because of his style of playing or even because his fingers are slow on the guitar; it is actually because once during a concert he played his guitar so hard that one of its strings broke, and he took time out to re-string it. As he did, the fans in attendance began a "slow hand" clap.*When The Inspiral Carpets headlined Reading Festival in 1990, they brought on a pantomime cow. The band's then guitar roadie, Noel Gallagher - now of Oasis, was one half of that cow.*John Lennon and Paul McCartney both had their first 'Beatles' haircut during a trip to Paris in 1961. The pair hooked up with old friend Jurgen Vollmer who they knew from Germany, who wore his hair brushed forward. Vollmer had copied the style from actor Jean Marais in the 1959 Jean Cocteau movie 'Le Testament d'Orphee'
e US.
*Johnny Cash was given the name "J.R." because his parents could not agree on a name, only on initials. When he enlisted in the United States Air Force, the military would not accept initials as his name, so he adopted John R. Cash as his legal name. In 1955, when signing with Sun Records, he took Johnny Cash as his stage name *According to the band, the song "Black Sabbath", released February 13th 1970, was inspired by a frightening experience that Geezer Butler had related to Ozzy Osbourne. In the days of Earth, Geezer painted his apartment matte black and placed several inverted crucifixes on the walls. Ozzie gave him a book about witchcraft. He read the book and placed the book on a shelf before going to sleep. When he woke up, he claims he saw a large black figure standing at the end of his bed. The figure disappeared and Geezer rushed to get the book, only to find that the book was gone. He then told Ozzie, who wrote the lyrics to the song*In 1986, David Gilmour purchased the houseboat Astoria which is moored on the River Thames near Hampton Court, and transformed it into a recording studio. The boat was built in 1911 for impresario Fred Karno, who wanted to have the best houseboat on the river. He designed it so that there could be an entire 90-piece orchestra playing on deck. The majority of the two most recent Pink Floyd albums, A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell, as well as Dave Gilmour's 2006 solo release On an Island, were recorded there.*Elvis Presley has had the most Hot 100 entries with a total of 151 and Paul McCartney has written the most number-one hits with a total of 32
*Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys died in 1983, he drowned while swimming near his boat in California, US; Ronald Reagan, then President of America gave special permission so Dennis's body could be buried at sea
chart).*As of 2005, according to The Guinness Book of World Records, Queen albums had spent a total of 1,322 weeks or twenty-seven years on the UK album charts; more time than any other musical act. In 2006 the Queens Greatest Hits album was the U K's all-time best selling album, with sales upwards of 5,407,587 copies, over 604,295 more copies than its nearest competitor, The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The band has released a total of eighteen number one albums, eighteen number one singles, and ten number one DVDs worldwide making them one of the world's best-selling music artists. Their total album sales have been estimated at over 300 million worldwide including 32.5 million in the United States alone as of 2004..*English rock band, Black Sabbath, formed in Birmingham in 1968 by Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward, was originally formed as a heavy blues-rock band named "Earth", the band began incorporating occult and horror-inspired lyrics with tuned-down guitars, and changed their name to "Black Sabbath". The band has since experienced multiple lineup changes, with a total of twenty-two former members.
*George Harrison originally wrote "All Those Years Ago" for Ringo. Although he recorded it, Ringo thought it too high for his voice. When John Lennon got murdered, George altered the words and made it a tribute to John. Although the band had split up, all 3 remaining Beatles plus Linda McCartney are are featured on the track.
*The famous long guitar intro to Led Zep's "Stairway To Heaven" is taken from the track "Taurus", which was composed and played by guitarist, the late Randy California when he was only 16 in 1967. The instrumental was dedicated to his Taurian girlfriend and recorded a year later by his band "Spirit". Led Zepplin heard it while on tour with Spirit in USA. (Randy Wolfe, was named "California" by his great friend of Jimi Hendrix, who tried to bring him to the UK, but Randy was too young at the time).*Elvis Costello worked as a computer operator for a cosmetics company while trying to make it as a musician and in 1977 he was arrested for performing outside a Hilton Hotel where there was a conference of Columbia Records executives. Shortly after he was signed to that label.
*Composer, Tchaikovsky was financed by a wealthy widow for 13 years, and at her request, they never met.*Eric Clapton removed the JJ Cale song, Cocaine from his set list because he felt it gave people the wrong message about cocaine. He started playing it again after he had re-arranged the song so the backup singers repeated the line, "that dirty cocaine." through the chorus
*The Beatles song "Dear Prudence" was written about Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence, when she wouldn't come out and play with Mia and the Beatles at a religious retreat in India.*Sonny and Cher were initially known as Caesar and Cleo.
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