Did You Know ? Interesting Music Facts !

[haiducii]

East 17 - Stay Another Day

East 17's classic hit is revived every Christmas. While many argue East 17's hit Stay Another Day isn't a Christmas song, it's constantly played on the radio in December and features on most festive playlists.

The song actually tells a heartbreaking story, as it was written by the group's lead songwriter Tony Mortimer about his brother's suicide. Mortimer explained to NME in 2012: "I'd grown up with the other guys in the band, so they knew it was about him, though it wasn't something I told anyone about until people started asking about it in interviews."

Stay Another Day was released in late November as the third single from East 17's second album Steam, and topped the UK Christmas singles chart in 1994, beating Mariah Carey's beast 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' to the number one spot, where it stayed for five weeks.

It was their first ballad, and was written by the group's lead songwriter Tony Mortimer. He was helped in writing the song by his co-manager Rob Kean and songwriter Dominic Hawken, who had once been Boy George's keyboard player.

 

[haiducii]

ABBA - The Day Before You Came

This song was recorded and released by Swedish pop group ABBA as the first new song from their double compilation album, The Singles: The First Ten Years.

Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA wrote this song, which deals in part with his divorce from his bandmate Agnetha Fältskog. It was only a minor hit, which Ulvaeus said was because it was "too different and ahead of its time for the ABBA fans."

The song was recorded and mixed on August 20, 1982, with the working title of "The Suffering Bird" featuring lead vocals by Agnetha Fältskog. It was the last song that ABBA ever recorded together. According to Michael Tretow, ABBA's long-time sound engineer, Fältskog sang her lead without the lights on. He added that the mood in the studio was sad and everybody knew that it was the end.

The song details the story of a woman's mundane life right before she met her lover. What happened after the guy "came" still remains a pop mystery. When The London Times March 26, 2010 asked Ulvaeus about it, he smiled enigmatically and replied. "You've spotted it, haven't you? The music is hinting at it. You can tell in that song that we were straining towards musical theatre. We got Agnetha to act the part of the person in that song. In retrospect, it might have been too much of a change for a lot of ABBA fans. The energy had gone."

 

[haiducii]

Heart - Pet Shop Boys

Heart is a song by Pet Shop Boys from their second studio album, Actually (1987). It was released as the album's fourth and final single on 21 March 1988. The song topped the UK Singles Chart for three weeks in April 1988, becoming the duo's fourth and final chart-topper to date in the UK.

The song is, unusually for a Pet Shop Boys number, a straightforward love song, with the "heartbeat" a double meaning: It's both the beat of the heart and the beat of the music. "It's actually pretty corny, to be honest, but I think the words are quite sweet and sincere," Neil Tennant said.

This track has an interesting origin. For instance, the Pet Shop Boys planned for it to be sung by Madonna before keeping it themselves. Moreover the Boys’ rendition was slated to be featured on Steven Spielberg’s 1987 film Innerspace. However, it ultimately could not fit into the particular scene it was intended for.

The video, directed by Jack Gold and filmed in Mokrice Castle (10 km southeast of Brezice, Slovenia), retells the story of Dracula and features Ian McKellen as Dracula. It was based on the 1922 film Nosferatu.

 

[dargelos]

East 17 - Stay Another Day

East 17's classic hit is revived every Christmas. While many argue East 17's hit Stay Another Day isn't a Christmas song, it's constantly played on the radio in December and features on most festive playlists.

The song actually tells a heartbreaking story, as it was written by the group's lead songwriter Tony Mortimer about his brother's suicide. Mortimer explained to NME in 2012: "I'd grown up with the other guys in the band, so they knew it was about him, though it wasn't something I told anyone about until people started asking about it in interviews."

Stay Another Day was released in late November as the third single from East 17's second album Steam, and topped the UK Christmas singles chart in 1994, beating Mariah Carey's beast 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' to the number one spot, where it stayed for five weeks.

It was their first ballad, and was written by the group's lead songwriter Tony Mortimer. He was helped in writing the song by his co-manager Rob Kean and songwriter Dominic Hawken, who had once been Boy George's keyboard player.

This record is one of those which I cannot listen to. Not because I don't like it, I do very much but this song tears me to pieces. The time it was a chart hit was a time when my boyfriend was in a terrible state. Every day was frightening. It felt like E17 were singing about us. For a boyband to get that intense is impressive. E17 were great but some memories you do not want to remember.

 

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Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars

Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cars has been named the most played song on British radio and TV over the last 20 years. It was also performed as the last live performance on Top of the Pops. You either love this song or you don't, I guess.

Released back in 2006, Chasing Cars was the second single to come from the Irish band’s Eyes Open, almost immediately becoming their biggest selling single to date. Then came a snippet on US hospital drama Grey’s Anatomy, and Chasing Car’s legacy was sealed.

Lead singer Gary Lightbody is said to have written the song after becoming sober following a binge of white wine, while sitting in the garden of song producer Jacknife Lee's Kent cottage. Speaking to Rolling Stone, he said: "It's the purest love song that I've ever written. All the other love songs I've written have a dark edge."

The phrase 'Chasing Cars' came from Gary's father, referring to a girl Gary was infatuated with: "You're like a dog chasing a car. You'll never catch it and you just wouldn't know what to do with it if you did."

In October 2013, it sold its millionth copy in the UK. The song racked up an amazing 111 weeks on the UK Top 75, making it the 2nd longest runner of all time, behind only Frank Sinatra's 'My Way'.

 

[haiducii]

Wham! - Last Christmas

Wham!'s 'Last Christmas' is an undisputed Christmas classic, and we always love hearing it every December. The song actually has very little to do with Christmas! It's mainly about a failed relationship, and coming face to face with them a year later. Only the phase 'Last Christmas' - when the relationship comes to a head - actually refers to the festive season. George Michael both produced and wrote the song, and it became part of a double A-side single with 'Everything She Wants'. What a deal!

Andrew Ridgeley later revealed that the song came about when they were visiting George's parents: "We'd had a bite to eat and were sitting together relaxing with the television on in the background when, almost unnoticed, George disappeared upstairs for an hour or so. When he came back down, such was his excitement, it was as if he had discovered gold which, in a sense, he had. We went to his old room, the room in which we had spent hours as kids recording pastiches of radio shows and jingles, the room where he kept a keyboard and something on which to record his sparks of inspiration, and he played me the introduction and the beguiling, wistful chorus melody to 'Last Christmas.' It was a moment of wonder."

The iconic video sees George and Andrew Ridgeley join their girlfriends to see friends at a ski resort. Some scenes were filmed at Saas-Fee, Switzerland. Andrew is dating a girl (model Kathy Hill), who was previously with George, and the song is aimed at her. A flashback shows George giving her a brooch, while in the present day Andrew is now wearing it. How dare she!

The video marked the last filmed appearance of a clean-shaven George, as he sported a beard in the video for 'Everything She Wants', and he kept the look going for the rest of his career.

The song has one of the most fascinating chart runs in UK history. Originally, the UK Christmas number one battle of 1984 looked to be between Wham! and Frankie Goes to Hollywood with 'The Power of Love'. However, the Band Aid project from Bob Geldof and Midge Ure came about, meaning that Wham! had to settle for second place that year.

For 36 years, it was the best-selling UK single ever to not hit the top, with over 2 million copies sold. In 2017, it reached number 2 (equalling its highest peak), after George Michael fans began campaigning for it to get the Christmas number 1 in tribute of the singer, after his death on Christmas Day, 2016. It felt like it was never going to happen, but Wham! finally achieved the number one with 'Last Christmas' in the first week of 2021. It then repeated the feat in December 2022.

 

[dargelos]

Chic, makers of the finest disco records, were basically Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. The two songwriters recieved a personal invitation from Grace Jones to her performance at Studio54, fave club of the NY elite. But the meathead bouncer on the door refused to let them in the club, even as their own records came booming out from the dance floor he told them to fuck off. So they picked up some booze from the allnite shop and, this being seventies NY no doubt some nose candy to go with it. Back in the hotel room they wrote a song abput their disappointing night out and called it Fuck Off. Later next afternoon when they had sobered up, they knew they had written another big hit. But no radio station is going to play a song called Fuck Off, so they changed the words to the ones you hear on the video and gave the world yet more dancefloor heaven.

 

[topdog]

Chic, makers of the finest disco records, were basically Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards...

Chris Molanphy, a pop-chart analyst and author, has a podcast for Slate called Hit Parade. In the Jan 19 2021 episode he did a two part look at the massive influence of Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards on 80s & 90s dance pop, called These Are the Good Times. It covers the Chic hits of the 70s, as well as their top 10 hits for Diana Ross ( "I'm Coming Out"), David Bowie ("Let's Dance"), Madonna ("Like a Virgin"), Duran Duran ("The Reflex") and the B-52’s ("Love Shack"). You can find it at the link, or wherever you get your podcasts.

 

[haiducii]

Berlin - Take My Breath Away

With Top Gun: Maverick out at cinemas in 2022, it has got us all nostalgic about the original 1986 action movie's incredible soundtrack. Kenny Loggins rocked out to 'Danger Zone', and there were tunes from Cheap Trick, Miami Sound Machine and the Righteous Brothers. Bryan Adams was also approached but he declined!

And then of course was Berlin's romantic power ballad 'Take My Breath Away'. It was a UK and US number one hit in 1986, and also topped the charts in Canada, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland and Belgium. It was also the fifth best-selling single of 1986 in the UK.

Super producer Giorgio Moroder wrote the musical backing to what would become the famous song. Lyricist Tom Whitlock wrote the lyrics while driving home from the studio, and then spent a few hours at home perfecting them. It was written specifically for the movie Top Gun, one of the movies that made Tom Cruise a star in 1986.

A demo of the song, sung by a background singer, impressed the film's director Tony Scott and producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson. Because of this, they decided to film more romantic scenes between Cruise and co-star Kelly McGillis in order to feature the song.

The song was first offered to American new wave band The Motels, who later released their original demo on their compilation album Anthologyland. Columbia Records suggested other artists, but Moroder thought of another Californian new wave band, who he had produced the song 'No More Words' for. Moroder has since said that of all the many hits he has had, he is most proud of this song.

 

[dargelos]

Everyone has heard of Little Richard, even if all they know is that he is John Waters favourite singer. But I bet you never heard of Esquerita (real name Eskew Reeder) before. Yet Richard would not have become the big name that he was without all that he learned from Eskew, who was doing that hammering piano style and miles over the top stage persona before anybody else.
It was hard enough to be young and black in late fifties America but the two men were also very very gay as well. That took some bravery to pull off back then.
It is sad that he has been so forgotten, depressing to read that this talented artist ended up washing car windshields, and dying, like so many others, from HIV related illness

At least you have heard of him now and can find more of his records on yt.

 

[haiducii]

Everyone has heard of Little Richard, even if all they know is that he is John Waters favourite singer. But I bet you never heard of Esquerita (real name Eskew Reeder) before. Yet Richard would not have become the big name that he was without all that he learned from Eskew, who was doing that hammering piano style and miles over the top stage persona before anybody else.
It was hard enough to be young and black in late fifties America but the two men were also very very gay as well. That took some bravery to pull off back then.
It is sad that he has been so forgotten, depressing to read that this talented artist ended up washing car windshields, and dying, like so many others, from HIV related illness

At least you have heard of him now and can find more of his records on yt.

Honestly, I've never even heard of this artist. Thank you for broadening my musical horizon!

 

[dargelos]

One night there was a veteran roadie on a sound forum reminiscing about his long career. He had been in the music biz since before the dawn of time so there was nothing that he hadn't seen. The subject of indulgent aftershows (parties) came up so he said that was the best part of the job. The free drugs were not to be sniffed at. Or maybe they were.
On the question of whose parties were the most debauched, this was the man to ask.
Was it;
The Who?
Fleetwood Mac?
Rolling Stones?
Led Zeppelin?
Cliff Richard?
No, the most excessive aftershow of them all was for Jimmy Sommerville's band The Communards.
Don't be surprised, of course a gay band can party harder than any straight band.
I hope someone told them the news so that they could celebrate all over again.

 

[slimjim]

Ahh yeah, The Communards - Jimmy with that amazing countertenor/falsetto on vocals and Richard Coles on keyboards ....... whatever happened to him?

still dancing...

 

[haiducii]

Culture Club - Karma Chameleon

Boy George became one of the most iconic popstars of his generation when Culture Club burst onto the scene in the early '80s. Their song 'Karma Chameleon' was a huge hit around the world. In the UK, it was their second number one after 'Do You Really Want to Hurt Me', staying at the top for six weeks and becoming the UK's biggest-selling single of 1983. It is still one of the best-selling songs of all time, selling 1.52 million copies in the UK alone, and over 5 million globally.

The song was written by Culture Club members Boy George, Jon Moss, Mikey Craig, Roy Hay and Phil Pickett. Boy George once explained about the song: "The song is about the terrible fear of alienation that people have, the fear of standing up for one thing. " It was recorded for the group's second album Colour by Numbers, released in 1983. Directed by Peter Sinclair, the video filmed at Desborough Island in Weybridge during the summer of 1983.

Boy George wrote most of the band's lyrics, and many of his words were inspired by his relationship with the group's drummer, Jon Moss. Their difficult romantic / professional relationship was also the inspiration for the line: "You're my lover, not my rival" in 'Karma Chameleon'. The relationship was hidden to the public, so it became an outlet for Boy George to communicate with him through their songs.

Speaking to 60 Minutes Australia, Boy George revealed he wrote the song while he was on holiday in Egypt. The other members of Culture Club weren't too pleased about recording it at first, as they felt it sounded like a country and western song. The harmonica was played by Judd Lander, who was also a member of Merseybeat group The Hideaways in the 1960s. Lander also provided the harmonica on Culture Club's 'Church of the Poisoned Mind' and 'Say You'll Be There' by Spice Girls.

In response to claims from singer-songwriter Jimmy Jones that the song copies his hit 'Handy Man', George said: "I might have heard it once, but it certainly wasn't something I sat down and said, 'Yeah, I want to copy this.'"

 

[haiducii]

Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On

In the history of cinema, it is rare that a soundtrack gains just as much of a cult following as the film it was composed. for. “My Heart Will Go On” ends Titanic with a firework display of emotions and lyricism. The song, performed by Céline Dion, became a classic in the singer's repertoire, after the film's tsunami of success when it was released in 1997.

Céline Dion never wanted to sing “My Heart Will Go On.” Actually, she hated it. “When I recorded it, I didn’t think about a movie; I didn’t think about radio,” she tells Billboard on the phone from her limo en route to her long-running show at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. “I thought, ‘Sing the song, then get the heck out of there.’”

James Cameron, the director of Titanic, wasn’t exactly a fan, either: He was dead set against ending his epic with a pop song. When James Cameron called on James Horner to compose the music for Titanic, he decided to only commission an instrumental score. The producers felt that a vocal artist would be too expensive (!!!) for the film's already enormous budget.

But “My Heart Will Go On” didn’t just take off - it became synonymous with Cameron’s - blockbuster movie, and a signature for Dion. Written by composer James Horner and lyricist Will Jennings, “My Heart Will Go On” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on Feb. 28, 1998. By then, the Titanic soundtrack had already begun its 16-week run atop the Billboard 200 album chart. The LP has since been certified 11 times platinum in the U.S. and sold some 30 million copies worldwide. This was a major win for Sony, as the label had paid a mere $800,000 for the rights to the soundtrack back in 1996, before Dion was attached, and it was just going to be the film score.

The song was also included on Dion’s album Let’s Talk About Love, so naturally, that LP reached No. 1, too. All told, “My Heart Will Go On” has sold more than 18 million copies globally. It is the second-best-selling physical single by a woman in music history, and one of the best-selling physical singles of all time. It was also the world's best-selling single of 1998. The song also dominated both the 1998 and 1999 award seasons, earning the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Original Song, as well as four Grammys.

 

[dargelos]

The absurd claim that 'Karma Chameleon' was copied from 'Handyman' was not the only doomed legal action that Boy George had to put up with.
Kirk Brandon went to court to deny the stories that he had an affair with George. Stupid move. Everybody (even the judge) knew that butch Kirk was shagging camp George but the butch singer was desperate to make the claim 'I'm not gay' The saying 'yeah right' had not yet been invented at the time.
'Course you're not, Kirk. When you are a horny boy a fuck is a fuck is a fuck. Who cares. Nobody did.
That farce did not change the fact that I was besotted with Kirk. He was in my eyes a godlike beauty. Sex on two legs whether completely staight or not and I loved his music as well. Which is a good excuse to play some of it now, lousy vhs quality but that is all there is on YT.
Hypocrite or not , he still looks and sounds awesomely awesome.

 

[haiducii]

Dead Or Alive - You Spin Me Round

Dead Or Alive were formed in Liverpool, England, in 1979. At the height of their 1980's success, the band was made up of (founder) Pete Burns on vocals, Mike Percy on bass, Steve Coy on drums, and Tim Lever on keyboards.

"You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" is a song featured on their second album, Youthquake (1985). Released as a single in November 1984, it reached No. 1 in the UK in March 1985, taking 17 weeks to get there. It was the first UK number-one hit by the Stock Aitken Waterman production trio. In 2012, producer Peter Waterman revealed that this hit song was completed in a 36 hour recording session. And, he admits that he had some help in the form of cocaine. The only time in his life, adding: "Well, you know, how do you stay up for 36 hours?"

In a 2018 interview with The Guardian, Pete said: "My first number one with Matt and Mike was Dead of Alive’s You Spin Me Round which took more than four months to get to number one which is an incredible amount of time. I remember on the Sunday night we just couldn’t believe it had happened. We were at The Swan in Winwick because the band were from Liverpool so we had that as our meeting point. We certainly thought it was a top 20 and when it got in the top 20 it went straight to number one. I can’t remember that week. I remember the champagne on the Monday night but I don’t remember anything else. We were too busy. But what was interesting was that my phone stopped instantly. The minute we got to number one nobody was offering us any work. It just stopped like that. It was the most unbelievable thing. When you’re underground and nobody knows who you are they think you’re cheap. When you’re number one they think you’re going to charge a million pounds so they don’t ring you. But we never changed our fee from the minute we started to the day we walked out of the studio. It was always the same £500. "

The song has been re-released three times since its original release in 1984. Each time of its release, it achieved success, but failed to match the success of the original. However, after lead-singer Pete Burns's appearance on Celebrity Big Brother in 2006, the single was re-released and managed a Top 5 peak on the UK Singles Chart.

The band "Dope" did an "industrial" version of the song for the "American Psycho" soundtrack in 2000. Jessica Simpson recorded a pop version in 2006. In "pop culture," Adam Sandler sings it in the opening of 1998's "The Wedding Singer." It was sampled by Flo Rida in his 2009 hit "Right Round". In 2020, The Guardian ranked the song number five in their list of "The 100 Greatest UK No 1s". BTW, The Guardian selected West End Girls by Pet Shop Boys as the greatest UK number-one single.

 

[dargelos]

Which musician can be heard on more hit records than any other? The winner, by a million miles, is John Bonham who played for Led Zeppelin.
But these thousands of big hit songs were all recorded long after the alcoholic drummer had drank himself to death. How did he play on all these songs despite having ascended his own personal stairway to heaven?
The answer is sampling. For the last 40 years electronicaly sampled drums have been supplanting real drums in pop music. If you are going to take drum samples, take the best. The best drum sounds were made by John Bonham, his beats are the ones that have powered all kinds of music, sometimes very far removed from the hard rock that gave birth to them. His secret, just thrash the fucking living daylights out of those skins. Hit them hard and hit them harder. It is impossible to imagine how any newcomer could come along and beat his record.
They would have to play better than this:

And to do that is not humanly feasible.