40 amazing music facts that will shake your ears

Or Mishal
8 min readFeb 4, 2022

Anyone who follows my articles knows that I usually write digging posts about the essence of music and its social connections and album reviews and blah blah blah. But I also have a massive hammer for facts and musical trivia details. Get 40 unique and fascinating facts that I have accumulated along the way.

1. Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody is, without a doubt, one of the most beloved songs in history. Maybe that’s why he came in first place in the British sales parade in 4 different years. How did this weird thing happen, you ask? The song first occupied the top of the charts on November 8, 1974, and stayed there for nine weeks, that is, until January 1975. After the death of Freddie Mercury, the song was re-released as a single (along with the song These Are the Days of Our Lives) on December 5. 1991 and stayed in first place for five long weeks until January 1992.

2. Before becoming famous: Elvis Presley was a truck driver, Sting an English teacher, Madonna, a waitress at Duncan Donuts, and Johnny Cash deciphering encrypted codes in the military. Axel Rose incidentally received $ 8 an hour to smoke cigarettes as part of an experiment at UCLA.

3. And if the angles work, the reason why Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit song clip features a server with a mop and a bucket (including a school atmosphere with basketball players, cheerleaders, etc.) is that Kurt Cobain had to work as a server at the school where he studied. A period that scarred him badly and shaped his rebellious personality.

4. The first clip ever aired on MTV is the Buggles Video Killed the Radio Star. The first clip ever aired on MTV Europe is Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing.

5. New Order’s Classic Blue Monday is the best-selling 12-inch single in history. How unfortunate that for every copy sold, the band lost money because the cost of producing its unique disk cover was higher than the cost of the sale.

6. And if it’s already New Order, then when five musicians from Las Vegas were looking for a name for their emerging band, they decided to use a fictional band from the clip for New Order’s Crystal song. Band Name: The Killers.

7. The name of the only player who does not show off his beard in the band ZZ Top is Frank Beard.

8. The International Animal Rights Organization, PETA, asked the Pet Shop Boys to change their name to Rescue Shelter Boys. The duo refused with the British politeness typical of the hallucinatory request.

9. Rick Allen, Daf’s drummer for Fred, has only one hand.

10. Victor Willis, the mythological lead singer and writer of most Village People’s famous hits is Straight. A bonus fact, his first wife, was Felicia Ayers-Allen, who played Claire Castell in “The Cosby Family.”

11. Paul Simon has won some Grammy Awards at least once during five consecutive decades. From the 1960s to the 2000s.

12. The death metal band Hatebeak has an exceptional vocalist named Waldo. What is unique about it? Well, Waldo is a parrot. Gray African Congo, to be exact, and I swear to you I did not invent it.

13. Morton Rocket, lead singer of A-Ha, holds the European record for singing the longest single note in a pop song. This happens in the band’s massive hit, Summer Moved On, from 2001, in which Rocket sings one single note without stopping for 20.2 seconds.

14. Elvis Presley is originally blond. He started dyeing his hair black only at 15 years old.

15. The fact that Michael Jackson’s Thriller is the best-selling album of all time everyone knows. But do you know the best-selling female (singer) album of all time? Well, that answer will surprise you: Shania Twain’s Come On Over from 1997.

16. Remember the One Hit Wonder band from the nineties: Chumbawumba? Well, those who sing Tubthumping. Not yet? Oh well, it’s not that you lost too much. Anyway, then so that you know, they hold the Guinness record for the album with the longest name in history (take a breath):

The Boy Bands Have Won, All the Copyists and the Tribute Bands and the TV Talent Show Producers Have Won, If We Allow Our Culture to Be Shaped by Mimicry, Whether From Lack of Ideas or Exaggerated Respect. It would help if you Never tried to Freeze Culture. What You Can Do Is Recycle That Culture. Take Your Older Brother’s Hand-Me-Down Jacket and Re-Style It, Re-Fashion It to the Point Where It Becomes Your Own. But Don’t Just Regurgitate Creative History, or Hold Art and Music and Literature as Fixed, Untouchable and Kept Under Glass. The People Who Try to ‘Guard’ Any Particular Form of Music Are, Like the Copyists and Manufactured Bands, Doing It the Worst Disservice, Because the Only Thing That You Can Do to Music That Will Damage It Is Not Change It, Not Make It Your Own. Because Then It Dies, Then It’s Over, Then It’s Done, and the Boy Bands Have Won. I did not touch it.

17. Metallica is the first and only band to have performed on all seven continents in the world after appearing in Antarctica in 2013.

18. Before the Fantastic Four from Liverpool called themselves “The Beatles,” they were called “Johnny and the Moondogs.”

19. Only three music companies are responsible for over 80% of the music you listen to Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, and Universal Music Group.

20. The song for which the most cover versions in history have been performed is Yesterday of the Beatles. More than 3,000 of these already exist.

21. The voice behind I’m Loving it, McDonald’s famous jingle is none other than Justin Timberlake’s voice. The American singer received a modest sum of $ 6 million for the cause.

22. An Australian study found that rock stars live on average 25 years less than ordinary people.

23. Three Nirvana members were expelled from the launch party of their album Nevermind after launching a spontaneous food war.

24. The real name of Elton John is Reginald Kenneth Dwight, of Marilyn Manson is Brian Hugh Warner, of Lady Gaga, is Stephanie Joan Angelina Germanotta, and of the New Zealand Lord is these Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor.

25. Dexter Holland, lead singer of Offspring, is a doctor of molecular biology, while Brian May, guitarist of the legendary Queen band, boasts a doctorate in astrophysics.

26. Leo Fender, the inventor of the famous fender guitars, played throughout history by artists such as David Gilmore, Jimmy Hendrix, John Prussianta, Eric Clapton, and others, never knew how to play the guitar.

27. Baby One More Time was first offered to the girl’s band TLC, the song Toxic was offered to Kylie Minogue, and I’m a Slave 4U was offered to Janet Jackson. Which begs the question: Britney Spears, an artist with a sense of smell for hits or a musical trash can?

28. Oasis’ song All Around the World holds the title: The Longest Song (09:38) ever to reach number one on the UK Singles Chart.

29. Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA album from 1984 was the first to be released commercially in the US on CD.

30. Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer is the most aired clip in MTV history.

31. Eddie Van Helen plays guitar in Michael Jackson’s Beat It, Johnny Depp (yes yes, the actor) plays the slide guitar in Oasis’ Fade in-Out, Dave Grohl Pink on guitar David Bowie on cover for Neil Young I’ve Been Waiting For You and While My Guitar Gently Weeps would not have been so beautiful if it had not been for Eric Clapton who provided the famous guitar sounds.

32. Josh Home sings background vocals in Arctic Monkeys ‘Knee Socks song. Michael Jackson contributed his voice to Rockwell’s song Somebody’s Watching Me, Sting Whispers in Dyer Straits’ Money for Nothing, John Lennon Join David Bowie’s Fame. You can hear Bowie’s voice adorning Arcade Fire’s Reflector if you listen carefully.

33. Beyond being an acclaimed series watched by millions worldwide, it turns out that Game of Thrones has quite a few music fans. Among the bands and musicians who have been guests in the series as extras and guest roles, you will find Ed Sheeran, Will Champion from Coldplay, Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol, members of the Sigur Ross band, members of the metal band Mastodon, Of Monsters and Men and more…

34. The most famous jazz musician in history, Louis Armstrong, wore a necklace with a Star of David all his life and spoke fluent Yiddish even though he was not Jewish. The reason? Armstrong, who grew up in abject poverty (his father abandoned him as a child and his mother was a prostitute), found a warm home with the Jewish Karnofsky family, who adopted him as if they were their own and even employed him in the family business. As a tribute to family members, Armstrong decided to wear a Star of David for the rest of his life.

35. Madonna’s Like a Virgin song was written by a man trying to overcome a breakup. There is no real connection to losing a virgin. Songs with a completely different meaning than you thought you could find here.

36. Shane O’Connor’s huge nineties hit, Nothing Compares 2 U, was generally written by… Prince and recorded by his side project, The Family. You will not believe a few more songs are covers you will find in a post cover that you did not know were covers right here.

37. The first country in which Radiohead was a success is no less than Israel. Before becoming a stadium monster and one of the most esteemed bands of its generation, Creep caught on in Israel at insane levels and turned the band into a local sensation.

38. Have you ever wondered who “Annie” is who Michael Jackson asks her if she’s OK with his massive 1987 hit, Smooth Criminal? So for those who do not know, Annie Doll is the name of the doll that is practiced in first aid, and the first thing to do when giving first aid is to ask the patient, “Are you OK.” Hence anyone who has been through a first aid workshop knows that the first thing to do is ask:? Annie, Are You OK.

39. The heavy rock band, Rockbitch, which was composed mainly of women and operated between 1984–2002, used to perform in full nudity, perform explicit sexual acts on stage, and at the height of the evening, throw condoms to the audience and select from it spectators who will join the behind-the-scenes ensemble. Undoubtedly gives extra meaning to sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll.

40. Before Robert Zimmerman went with the stage name Bob Dylan, he called himself Alston Gunn.

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Have a pleasant listening.

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Or Mishal

Or Mishal is a composer, guitarist and is an enthusiastic supporter of young and anonymous musicians worldwide. For more, visit http://ormishal.net