Unusual Rock Trivia?

[Richland123]

Drummer Chad Wackerman, who had recorded and toured with Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, Andy Summers, Albert Lee, Men At Work, Colin Hay, Dweezil Zappa, Allan Holdsworth, Barbra Streisand, Jeff Berlin, James Taylor, Jeff Lorber, Joe Sample, and John Patitucci, just to name a few, is the older brother by 17 years of drummer Brooks Wackerman, who has recorded and toured with Bad Religion, Avenged Sevenfold, Tenacious D, and many other acts.

 

[Skokiaan]

The last lyric line in The Doors song "Touch Me" is "Stronger than dirt", which they took from an Ajax laundry detergent commercial.

....and for 14 years it was my band's name. We even bought the servicemark for "Stronger Than Dirt." We were not a Doors band, but did play one or two of their songs.

 

[Richland123]

Before they became Black Sabbath, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne, and Bill Ward started playing together in a band called The Polka Tulk Blues Band. They reformed under the name Earth and then settled on Black Sabbath after the Boris Karloff horror movie of the same name.

 

[Bob_Ross]

Drummer Chad Wackerman, who had recorded and toured with Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, Andy Summers, Albert Lee, Men At Work, Colin Hay, Dweezil Zappa, Allan Holdsworth, Barbra Streisand, Jeff Berlin, James Taylor, Jeff Lorber, Joe Sample, and John Patitucci, just to name a few, is the older brother by 17 years of drummer Brooks Wackerman, who has recorded and toured with Bad Religion, Avenged Sevenfold, Tenacious D, and many other acts.

There's also a third Wackerman sibling who also plays the drums: Brother John has performed or recorded with Bill Watrous, Maynard Ferguson, Kazumi Watanabe, Bunny Brunel, Patrick Moraz, and Lindsay Buckingham.

What the hell was in the water when those guys were growing up?!?!

 

[Inky13]

Stanley Clarke quit being a session cat and went his own way after being called in to play one note (F#)
for a NAACP commercial.

 

[Bob_Ross]

Stanley Clarke quit being a session cat and went his own way after being called in to play one note (F#)
for a NAACP commercial.

Damn, those are the sort of calls that would have convinced me it was a viable career!

 

[Richland123]

The Choir - It's Cold Outside. Dave Smalley, Wally Bryson, and Jim Bonfanti (who grew up near where I live in Johnstown, PA) from The Choir went on to form The Raspberries with Eric Carmen. Wally Bryson then became a member of the band Fotomaker with former Rascals members Dino Danelli and Gene Cornish.

 

[Richland123]

"Yellow River" is a popular song recorded by the British band Christie; but, this song was actually Jeff Christie, who wrote the song, with The Tremeloes backing track. The Tremeloes recorded the song but did not want to release it. Producer Mike Smith (formerly with The Dave Clark 5) therefore took their vocals off the recording and added those of Jeff Christie.

 

[Richland123]

Born John Hendry Blair, this singer/songwriter wrote and co-wrote hundreds of songs recorded by many famous acts. However, he had recorded a lot of his own songs under various names including the big hits "Mr. Bass Man" as Johnny Cymbal with the bass vocal parts sung by Ronnie Bright (of The Cadillacs, The Valentines, and The Coasters during his career) and "Cinnamon" under the name Derek.

 

[Skokiaan]

The Beatles stopped touring nearly a year before Sgt. Pepper was released, but they did perform one song from the Sgt. Pepper album live before a paying audience. McCartney wrote "When I'm 64" in his teens. The Beatles performed it in their pre-fame days at the Cavern Club. No recordings exist.

 

[Richland123]

Mick Jones of Foreigner and Spooky Tooth Recalls Opening For The Beatles: They ‘Took Me Under Their Wing’

Mick Jones was 18 or 19 and had spent three weeks with them in Paris as they were preparing to come to the United States for 'The Ed Sullivan Show.'"

Before hits like "I Want to Know What Love Is" and "Feels Like the First Time" were even a thought in his mind, the British-born Jones moved to France at 18, where he was playing guitar for French singer Sylvie Vartan, who was on the same bill as the Beatles at the Olympia and how one encounter during a show at the Paris Olympia resulted in becoming part of their inner circle.

“The Paris Olympia is one of those kind old music hall setups where the curtain comes down in between acts, and one evening the curtain came down and snagged my guitar and pulled the guitar and me down to the ground,” he explained. “I issued a bunch of expletives in English and John Lennon came up behind and said ‘we didn’t know you were English, we thought you were a frog.'”

Mick says Lennon then invited him up for a drink with the lads after that encounter and says “from that point they kind of took me under their wing.”

"This event in Paris — I was just playing on the bill," he said. "I was struggling, hoping to get a gig, and I ended up opening up for the Beatles."

Over the three-week period, Jones spent a lot of time hanging out with the Liverpool lads and had a bird's-eye look at their megastardom.

"They pulled me into their world," he said. "It was like 'A Hard Day's Night.' Did you see that movie? Just like that. Really. I was running in and out of their cars — the big old cars they used to have — with all the girls screaming."

Jones was even staying with them at their hotel, marveling over how posh The Beatles's digs were.

"They had the whole floor of this hotel — the George V in Paris," he said. "I couldn't believe it."

But America was calling. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr soon left for New York — famously touching down on Feb. 7, 1964 — for their big date with Ed Sullivan two days later. And, despite bonding with the band for three weeks, Mick was left behind.

"I thought they were going to take me with them. I was so involved with them at that point. When they left, I was like: 'Oh, my god. What am I going to do? You forgot me,'" he laughed.

"I think that was just a little spiritual period of my life though — seeing that phenomenon," continued Jones, who went on to form Foreigner in 1976 and have his own major professional success. "I was so moved by it, too. I would stand on the side of the stage after our show and watch them every night. Tears were coming out of my eyes. You hear about people having spiritual, religious types of moments. This was it. It was unbelievable."

"And I wasn't a 15 year old girl — I was like a 19-year-old guy!" he added with a smile.
Jones called that period in music "historical," explaining, "It changed the world. Elvis Presley opened the door, but the Beatles came in and changed the world. It was amazing."

In the 1970s, Jones saw Harrison and they became friendly again. By that time, the Beatles had gone their separate ways and Harrison asked Jones to play guitar on his solo album "Dark Horse."

Jones also bumped into Paul and saw quite a bit of Ringo through the years. And, his stepson, acclaimed music producer Mark Ronson, was one of Sean Lennon's closest childhood friends.

 

[Bob_Ross]

...including the big hits "Mr. Bass Man" as Johnny Cymbal with the bass vocal parts sung by Ronnie Bright (of The Cadillacs, The Valentines, and The Coasters during his career)...

Ronnie Bright was also the deep bass singer on the original studio recording of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes"

 

[Skokiaan]

Born John Hendry Blair, this singer/songwriter wrote and co-wrote hundreds of songs recorded by many famous acts. However, he had recorded a lot of his own songs under various names including the big hits "Mr. Bass Man" as Johnny Cymbal with the bass vocal parts sung by Ronnie Bright (of The Cadillacs, The Valentines, and The Coasters during his career) and "Cinnamon" under the name Derek.

John Entwistle covered "Mr. Bassman" in 1973.

 

[Novarocker]

Mick Jones of Foreigner and Spooky Tooth Recalls Opening For The Beatles: They ‘Took Me Under Their Wing’

Mick Jones was 18 or 19 and had spent three weeks with them in Paris as they were preparing to come to the United States for 'The Ed Sullivan Show.'"

Before hits like "I Want to Know What Love Is" and "Feels Like the First Time" were even a thought in his mind, the British-born Jones moved to France at 18, where he was playing guitar for French singer Sylvie Vartan, who was on the same bill as the Beatles at the Olympia and how one encounter during a show at the Paris Olympia resulted in becoming part of their inner circle.

“The Paris Olympia is one of those kind old music hall setups where the curtain comes down in between acts, and one evening the curtain came down and snagged my guitar and pulled the guitar and me down to the ground,” he explained. “I issued a bunch of expletives in English and John Lennon came up behind and said ‘we didn’t know you were English, we thought you were a frog.'”

Mick says Lennon then invited him up for a drink with the lads after that encounter and says “from that point they kind of took me under their wing.”

"This event in Paris — I was just playing on the bill," he said. "I was struggling, hoping to get a gig, and I ended up opening up for the Beatles."

Over the three-week period, Jones spent a lot of time hanging out with the Liverpool lads and had a bird's-eye look at their megastardom.

"They pulled me into their world," he said. "It was like 'A Hard Day's Night.' Did you see that movie? Just like that. Really. I was running in and out of their cars — the big old cars they used to have — with all the girls screaming."

Jones was even staying with them at their hotel, marveling over how posh The Beatles's digs were.

"They had the whole floor of this hotel — the George V in Paris," he said. "I couldn't believe it."

But America was calling. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr soon left for New York — famously touching down on Feb. 7, 1964 — for their big date with Ed Sullivan two days later. And, despite bonding with the band for three weeks, Mick was left behind.

"I thought they were going to take me with them. I was so involved with them at that point. When they left, I was like: 'Oh, my god. What am I going to do? You forgot me,'" he laughed.

"I think that was just a little spiritual period of my life though — seeing that phenomenon," continued Jones, who went on to form Foreigner in 1976 and have his own major professional success. "I was so moved by it, too. I would stand on the side of the stage after our show and watch them every night. Tears were coming out of my eyes. You hear about people having spiritual, religious types of moments. This was it. It was unbelievable."

"And I wasn't a 15 year old girl — I was like a 19-year-old guy!" he added with a smile.
Jones called that period in music "historical," explaining, "It changed the world. Elvis Presley opened the door, but the Beatles came in and changed the world. It was amazing."

In the 1970s, Jones saw Harrison and they became friendly again. By that time, the Beatles had gone their separate ways and Harrison asked Jones to play guitar on his solo album "Dark Horse."

Jones also bumped into Paul and saw quite a bit of Ringo through the years. And, his stepson, acclaimed music producer Mark Ronson, was one of Sean Lennon's closest childhood friends.

Wow that's amazing, thanks for the story!

 

[Richland123]

Before joining Deep Purple, Ritchie Blackmore recorded with a band called The Outlaws, The Lancasters, Screaming Lord Sutch, and others.

 

[Aberdumbie]

This may be common knowledge. I didn't know it and am adding it to my cool rock trivia knowledge...... Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell was an 8-track I wore out on the late 1970's... I just read that the multi talented Edgar Winter did the sax work on it.

 

[jamro217]

Wait, Rick "Super Freak" James and Neil Young together??

Yeah, talk about odd combinations. The Mynah Birds. Bruce Palmer, bassist for Buffalo Springfield, was in the group, also.

 

[jamro217]

And "Something" was about Pattie as well.

Jenny Boyd was also married to Mick Fleetwood at one time. Mick also had an affair with Stevie Nicks.

The bass player on the beginning of Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" is Klaus Voorman, bassist with Manfred Mann. Klaus also used to see the early Beatles play in Hamburg. His girlfriend at the time, Astrid Kirchherr, ended up being engaged to Stu Sutcliffe, the original bassist for the Beatles (who died of a brain hemorrhage in 1961). Klaus also designed the cover of the Beatles' "Revolver" album and played bass on many solo Beatles albums.

Paul McCartney owns the cufflinks Buddy Holly was wearing when he died in a plane crash. Buddy bumped his part-time rhythm guitarist off the flight so he could get to the next gig ahead of the rest of the band. That guitarist was Waylon Jennings.

Mick Fleetwood's wife allegedly had an affair with guitarist Bob Weston in 1973 and it nearly caused the band to break up. Weston left and Bob Welch was the only guitarist in 1974. Dave Mason was in Fleetwood Mac for a while in recent years.

 

[jamro217]

Bobby Caldwell, best known for his 1979 hit "What You Won't Do For Love" started off playing guitar for Little Richard.

 

[cool breeze]

In 1965 when the Dave Clark 5 recorded Over and Over the band left the studio. Dave stayed behind with the producer and in listening to the take determined it was too fast. Rather then call the band in for another take they decided to wrap a piece of tape around the capstan to slow the playing speed which worked quite nicely.
One added bonus was that the end result caused a unique wah-wah effect unheard of in its day to the harmonica solo.