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The all-time most nominated Grammy artist with 79 nominations is Quincy Jones.
The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA". The housefly hums in the middle octave, key of F. Most toilets flush in E flat. J.J. Abrams is the theme composer of all his hit TV shows. The compact disc was introduced in 1983, but only started to outsell vinyl records by 1988. Kelsey Grammar sings and plays piano for the theme song of Frasier. Beethoven's Fifth, was the first symphony to include trombones. Hungarian musician Franz Liszt received so many requests for locks of his hair that he bought a dog and snipped off patches of fur to send to admirers. The "think music" for Jeopardy's final round was written by the show's creator, Merv Griffin. The average medium size piano has about 230 strings. No one knows where Mozart is buried. The rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd took their name from a high school teacher named Leonard Skinner who had suspended several students for having long hair. At the tender age of 7, the multi-award-winning composer and pianist Marvin Hamlisch ("The Way We Were," "The Sting") was one of the youngest students ever admitted to the renowned Juilliard School of Music in New York City. The first pipe organ was made by Archimedes in 220 B. C. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Kurt Cobain all died at age 27. The song "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" was written by George Graff, who was German, and was never in Ireland in his life. Mariah Carey is the only artist ever to have a #1 hit in every year of a decade (the 1990's). The Gregorian chant was named after Pope St. Gregory I. Before the invention of the mechanical clock in the 14th century, the most complex machine was a pipe organ in the cathedral in Winchester, England. It was installed by Bishop Aelfeg around 950 A.D. It had 400 pipes, and 70 men were needed to operate the 26 bellows. The band Duran Duran got their name from an astronaut in the 1968 Jane Fonda movie "Barbarella." The band UB40 got its name from an unemployment form in England. The music group B'52's got their name from a southern expression used for a beehive hairdo. "House of the Rising Sun" by The Animals took all of 15 minutes to record (they were on a tight budget), and went all the way to #1 in 1964. Most cows give more milk when they listen to music. At age 14, George Harrison joined his friend Paul McCartney's band, the Quarry Men, led by John Lennon. John Lennon named his band the Beatles after Buddy Holly's 'Crickets.' The Beatles have sold more records than anyone else with over a billion worldwide. After the song "Penny Lane", became such a big hit, the actual street sign "Penny Lane" in Liverpool disappeared frequently. It has forced the town to paint the sign in the buildings instead of street sign. The album with the most Top Ten singles charted is Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814. The album the most #1 singles charted is Michael Jackson's Bad. "Hang On Sloopy" is the official rock song of Ohio. Only one person walked with Mozart's coffin from the church to the cemetery for its burial in an unmarked pauper's grave. In contrast to Mozart, who by his death at age 35 had written 41 symphonies, Johannes Brahms did not publish his first symphony until he was 43 years old. The song "Strawberry Fields Forever" sung by the Beatles refers to an orphanage located in Liverpool. When John Lennon divorced Julian Lennon's mother Cynthia, Paul McCartney composed the song "Hey Jude," to cheer Julian up. When the Yardbirds broke up in 1968, Jimmy Page was left to honor the band's commitments, performing as The New Yardbirds. The group eventually evolved into Led Zeppelin. Harry Connick Jr. was once busted for taking a firearm through the airport. Gloucestershire airport in England used to blast Tina Turner songs on its runways to scare birds away. The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American Pie" (thus the name of the Don McLean song). In 1939 Irving Berlin composed a Christmas song but thought so little of it that he never showed it to anybody. He just tossed it into a trunk and didn't see fit to retrieve it until he needed it for a Bing Crosby-Fred Astaire movie, HOLIDAY INN 10 years later. Bing Crosby was a staunch Catholic and at first refused to sing the song because he felt it tended to commercialize Christmas. He finally agreed, took eighteen minutes to make the recording, and then the "throw-away" song become an all-time hit. Crosby's version has sold over 40 million copies. All together, this song has appeared in 750 versions, selling 6 million copies of sheet music and 90,000,000 recordings, just in the United States and Canada. You might not recognize the song from the movie HOLIDAY INN...or from the composer's name of Irving Berlin. But you're bound to know it because it's on everyone's list of Christmas favorites: WHITE CHRISTMAS. Dark Side of The Moon (a Pink Floyd album) stayed on the top 200 Billboard charts for 741 weeks! That is 14 years. The shortest national anthem is the Japanese national anthem, which is only four lines long. The longest is the Greek national anthem, which is 158 verses long. (No one in Greece has memorized all 158 verses). Billboard's Hot 100 Chart debuted in 1958. The first recording to go #1 on this chart was Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool." Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) was the first documented conductor and the first musician to use a baton. His baton was a heavy, six-foot-long staff, which he pounded on the ground in time to the rhythm. One day, at a concert, he accidentally stuck the staff into his foot. He then developed gangrene and died. The first punk single is considered to be "Hey Joe" by Patti Smith. It was released in 1974. Mendelssohn left the score for his A Midsummer Night's Dream overture in a cab, and was able to rewrite every note from memory. The CBS news magazine 60 Minutes is the only television show that does not have a theme song. The intense ticking of a stopwatch suffices as the show's trademark theme. A violin actually contains 70 separate pieces of wood. The first singing telegram issued by Western Union was delivered by an operator named Lucille Lipps to American vocalist Rudy Vallee on July 28, 1933, in honor of his thirty-second birthday. She sang "Happy Birthday to You." The song "Happy Birthday to You" was originally written by sisters Mildred and Patty Hill as "Good Morning to You"; the words were changed when it was published in 1935. Annual royalties for the song average $2 million. Warner Communications paid $28 million for the copyright. The song "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was created in 1939 Chicago as a Christmas promotion for the Montgomery Ward department stores. The lyrics were written as a poem by Robert May, and weren't set to music until 1947; Gene Autry recorded hit hit song in 1949. The voice of Tony the Tiger is Thurl Ravenscroft, who also sang the "Rotten Mr. Grinch" song in the movie, "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas". He was also narrator for Disney's "A Spooky Night in Disney's Haunted Mansion" album. He performed for many Disney attractions including: voice of Fritz the parrot in "The Enchanted Tiki Room, " lead singer in "Grim Grinning Ghosts" in the Haunted Mansion, narrator on Monorail. He was the voice for the Disneyland LP based on the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride. The flip side of this LP contained a number of sea chanties he sang. Every person has a unique finger print, eye print and tongue print. A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why. EMI stands for ' Electrical and Musical Instruments'. At one time the group "Grateful Dead" were called "The Warlocks. Country music icon Shania Twain was born Eileen Regina Edwards; in 1990 she adopted her current name, a Native American Chippewa (or Ojibwa) a phrase meaning "I'm on my way." BIRTH NAMES: Akon.................................... Aliaune Damala Akon Thiam Alice Cooper........................ Vincent Damon Furnier Alicia Keys........................... Alicia Augello Cook B.B. King..............................Riley B. King Barry Manilow..................... Barry Alan Pincus Billie Holiday........................Eleanora Fagan Gough Billy Idol............................... William Michael Albert Broad Bob Dylan............................ Robert Allen Zimmerman Bono..................................... Paul David Hewson Boy George.......................... George Alan O'Dowd Brian Eno.............................. Brian Peter George St. Baptiste de la Salle Eno Bruno Mars........................... Peter Gene Hernandez Carmen Electra.................... Tara Leigh Patrick Cat Stevens.......................... Steve Demetre Georgiou (now known as Yusuf Islam) Chaka Khan...........................Yvette Marie Stevens Charlie Peacock.................... Charles William Ashworth Cher...................................... Cherilyn Sarkisian Chick Corea.......................... Armando Anthony Corea Clay Aiken............................ Clayton Grissom Courtney Love....................... Courtney Micelle Harrison The Edge.............................. David Evans Elton John............................. Reginald Kenneth Dwight Elvis Costello......................... Declan Patrick McManus Engelbert Humperdinck......... Arnold George Dorsey Enya...................................... Eithne Ni Bhraonian Falco..................................... Johann Hölzl Fergie.................................... Stacy Ann Ferguson Freddy Mercury..................... Farouk Pluto Bulsara Gene Simmons..................... Chaim Witz Howlin' Wolf.......................... Chester Arthur Burnett Ice-T..................................... Tracy Morrow Joni Mitchell ........................ Roberta Joan Anderson Julie Andrews...................... Julia Elizabeth Wells Katy Perry............................ Kate Hudson Lady Gaga........................... Stefani Joanne Angelina Leadbelly.............................. Huddie Ledbetter Madonna.............................. Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone Marilyn Manson.................... Brian Hugh Warner Meat Loaf............................. Marvin Lee Aday Muddy Waters....................... McKinley Morganfield Ozzy Osbourne.................... John Michael Osbourne Pat Benatar.......................... Patricia Mae Andrzejewski Pink...................................... Alecia Beth Moore Prince................................... Prince Rogers Nelson Queen Latifah....................... Dana Owens Reba McEntire..................... Natalie Renee McIntyre Ringo Starr........................... Richard Starkey Seal..................................... Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel Shania Twain....................... Eileen Regina Edwards Sid Vicious........................... John Simon Richie Slash.................................... Saul Hudson Spike Lee............................. Shelton Jackson Stevie Nicks......................... Stephanie Lynn Nicks Stevie Wonder...................... Stevland Hardaway Morris Sting..................................... Gordon Matthew Sumner Tina Turner........................... Anna Mae Bullock Wynonna Judd..................... Christina Claire Ciminella Francis Scott Key wrote the poem "The Star Spangled Banner" during the War of 1812. The poem attained wide popularity when sung to the tune of "To Anacreon in Heaven," a traditional British drinking song; it was officially named the U.S. national anthem in 1931. The leading female singer in an opera is called the prima donna. The only musical instrument you play without touching it is called the theremin. The technology is simple: when activated, the theremin generates a sonic field around a small antenna that sticks out vertically from the top. When you put your hand closer to the antenna, the sound field is broken and the unit emits a high-pitched, electronic wail-that's the music. Different varieties of pitch are achieved by placing your hand closer to the antenna and moving it away. When your hand approaches the antenna, a low pitch will be created. As your hand gets nearer the antenna, the pitch becomes higher. (It's easily recognized for its spooky "ooo-eee-ooo" sound. You know it if you've heard the Beach Boys song "Good Vibrations"). Bhutan issued a stamp in 1973 that looked like a record and actually would play the Bhutanese national anthem if placed on a record player. Creedence Clearwater Revival holds the record for most #2 hits (5 different songs) that never made it to #1. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola. Billy Joel's CD, "52nd Street" was the first CD to be released to the public. This occurred in Japan in October of 1982. Casey Kasem is the voice of Shaggy on Scooby Doo and Robin in the original animated Batman and Robin. The song with the longest title is "I'm a Cranky Old Yank in a Clanky Old Tank on the Streets of Yokohama with my Honolulu Mama Doin? Those Beat-o, Beat-o Flat-On-My-Seat-o, Hirohito Blues" written by Hoagy Carmichael in 1945. He later claimed the song title ended with "Yank" and the rest was a joke. SkyDome's Hard Rock Cafe, located in Toronto, Ontario, is the home of the largest electric guitar in North America. The clay tablet from Mesopotamia (now Iraq) dated 1800 BC has the oldest engraved music notation available to man. "Old King Cole" was a real person. Coel was a fourth-century British prince who is said to be the father of St. Helen, who was the mother of Roman emperor Constantine. Coel appreciated music, which may be why the nursery rhyme makes mention of "his fiddlers three". Cats can produce over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs can only produce about ten. Giraffes have no vocal cords. If you dial 3-0-7-5-6-6-6-5-5-5-6-6-6-3-0-7-5-6-6-6-5-5-3-2-1 on a touchtone phone you'll play 'Mary Had a Little Lamb'. "Billie Jean", the popular song by Michael Jackson, was the first video to air on MTV by a black artist. No word in the English language rhymes with "month", "orange", "silver" or "purple". Winston Churchill was born in a ladies room during a dance. The "Alphabet song," "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" all use the exact same melody. Studies indicate that surgeons who listen to music while they operate improve in their performance. In the deep ocean , the sperm whale uses sound to stun or kill its prey. It sends out giant grunts, immensely powerful bursts of sound that can disable nearby fish, squid and other victims. James Brown holds the record for most entries into the Billboard Hot 100 chart (99 total songs entered into the charts) without making it to #1. Los Angeles' full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula". And can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size L.A. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear ... (that's what I call a good ear for music :). Elvis had a twin brother named Garon who died at birth, which is why Elvis middle name was spelled "Aron" in honor of his brother. If you yelled for 8 years 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee. One musical piece has no sound at all. It is called 4 minutes 33 seconds. It was ' written ' by the American composer John Cage in 1954. A pianist sits at the piano and plays nothing for exactly 4 minutes and 33 seconds. The strongest muscle in the body is the TONGUE. Who's that playing the piano on the Mad About You theme? Paul Reiser himself. Mr. Rogers was an ordained minister. John Lennon's first girlfriend was named Thelma Pickles. The phrase "It ain't over 'till the fat lady sings: is derived from earlier versions, such as "The opera isn't over until the fat lady sings" and "Church ain't out 'till the fat lady sings." Dan Cook, a sportscaster in San Antonio, Texas, is credited with popularizing the current version in 1978 when he said it on national television during the NBA playoffs, after the San Antonio Spurs went down three games to one against the Washington Bullets. |