50 Facts on tracks!

Get your music trivia here!

1 Axl Rose is an anagram for “oral sex”.

2 The two largest concert audiences in history were both estimated at 3,5-million people. The one show was Jean Michel Jarre in Moscow in 1997 and the other was your favourite artist – Rod Stewart on Copacabana beach, Rio, in 1994.

3 On the day Princess Diana died, 31 August, 1997, the top song on the UK singles chart was Men In Black by Will Smith.

4 Croony singer-songwriters Tim Buckley and his son Jeff Buckley both died untimely deaths. Tim overdosed on heroin in 1975 at age 28 after completing a concert tour. Jeff drowned at 30 when he went for a spontaneous evening swim, fully clothed.

5 Terry Chimes was once drummer for The Clash. He later suffered severe arm pain, but was healed by the band chiropractor for Black Sabbath. Impressed, he later became a chiropractor and can be found at http://chimes-chiropractic.co.uk/

6 Iggy Pop is sometimes credited with inventing stage-diving at the 1970 Cincinnati Summer Pop festival. He later claimed he was retiring from stagediving after a 2012 show in Barcelona. At the age of 65.

7 The Beatles’ debut album, Please Please Me, was recorded in one day – three three-hour sessions on February 11, 1962. It went to number one in the UK for 30 weeks.

8 The song to spend the most time at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 was One Sweet Day by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men. It was there for 16 weeks.

9 Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham get his band signed by approaching Decca Records, who had recently passed up on signing the Beatles and were terrified of missing out on another big thing.

10 In 1983 Johnny Cash lapsed back into addiction when he was prescribed painkillers for an abdominal injury he sustained after being kicked by an ostrich.

11 The youngest-ever chart topper was Little Jimmy Osmond, who topped the UK charts in 1972 with Long Haired Lover from Liverpool. He was nine years and eight months old.

12 In August 1993, leader of Norwegian metal band Burzum, Varg Vikernes murdered rival band member Oystein “Euronymous” Aarseth of Mayhem by stabbing him 23 times. Vikernes got 21 years in prison.

13 South African jazz legend Bra Hugh Masekela won a Grammy award for Best Pop Performance in 1968 for the song Grazin’ In The Grass.

14 The first ever sound recording was by Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville in 1860 on a “phonautograph”. The recording is of a woman singing, but it sounds like a bumblebee under water.

15 Lil’ Wayne dropped out of school at 14 to try starting a career in rap music.

16 Miles Davis’s first recordings were in 1945 as part of Charlie Parker’s quintet. His last was in 1991 and contains samples of rappers Doug E Fresh and Slick Rick.

17 The 2013 Grammy for album of the year went to Mumford and Sons for their album Babel.

18 In 2002 the band Creed was sued for sucking by several disappointed fans. At a show, singer Scott Stapp had seemed drunk or wasted, left the stage several times and appeared to pass out. The suit was dismissed, though.

19 Bruce Willis released two R&B/Soul albums in the Eighties. The first album, The Return Of Bruno, reached number 14 on the billboard charts.

20 Because Thomas Edison invented his phonograph cylinder recording system in 1887 he was able to record famous 19th-century nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale in 1890.

21 The artist with the most Billboard Top 40 singles is Elvis Presley with 80, followed by Lil Wayne with 61.

22 Ace Ventura: Pet Detective features Jim Carrey attending a metal concert by Cannibal Corpse.

23 Prog-rock band Emerson, Lake And Palmer travelled with a carpet roadie, whose job was to sweep the Persian rug  upon which singer/guitarist Greg Lake performed.

24 Jay-Z’s legendary hip-hop album The Blueprint was released on September 11, 2001 on the same day as the World Trade Centre attacks, yet it still went on to sell two million.

25 Ozzy Osbourne has a tattoo of the word “thanks” on his left palm. He did it himself while in jail.

26 Danny de Wet, who played drums for SA ethnic rockers eVoid from 1977-1982, later played for Wonderboom until 2009.

27 When early rock ‘n’ roll single Rock Around The Clock by Bill Haley and the Comets was released in 1954, the genre was still unknown, so it was described on the label as “novelty foxtrot”.

28 In exile, SA singer Miriam Makeba lived in Guinea in the Eighties and was appointed Guinea’s official delegate to the United Nations.

29 The producer with the most number-one singles is Beatles visionary George Martin, who got 24.

30 In 1977 crooner Bing Crosby was advised by his doctor to cut his golf games to nine holes only. He ignored him and played 18 with his mates. He promptly suffered a massive coronary. His last words were, “That was a great game of golf, fellas”.

31 Funk singer Rick “Superfreak” James was jailed for two years for kidnapping a woman and assaulting her for a week while smoking crack cocaine.

32 In 1966, Bob Marley got married and lived in Delaware USA, where he worked in a car factory and called himself Donald.

33 Bryan Adams is also a photographer and took a snap of the Queen of England for a Canadian stamp.

34 Dubstep king Skrillex’s real name is Sonny John Moore and he was formerly lead singer for post-hardcore group From First To Last.

35 John Lennon had terrible eyesight and was apparently legally blind without his glasses.

36 Gangster rapper Ice-T’s real name is Tracy Lauren Marrow.

37 In 2012 Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO spent 68 weeks in the hot 100, the third longest of all time!

38 Stevie Wonder is not only blind, but also lost his sense of smell and taste in a car accident.

39 U2 aren’t 100 per cent Irish. Adam Clayton’s parents are English and he was born in England. The Edge was born in London and his parents are Welsh.

40 Paul McCartney of the Beatles spent ten days in jail in Japan when customs agents fount a massive 200g of weed in his luggage.

41 Jay-Z memorises all of his lyrics. None are written down.

42 In February, German Philip Lupke downloaded iTunes’s 25 billionth song. For that he received a 10 000 Euro gift card.

43 In August 2003 Pete Doherty of the Libertines burgled the flat of his own bandmate, Carl Barat.

44 The best-selling 12-inch single ever was Blue Monday by New Order. Sadly the packaging was so expensive that every copy sold lost the band money.

45 As a teen, Drake starred in 138 episodes of Canadian TV show Degrassi: The Next Generation.

46 Icelandic band Sigur Ros invented their own language, “Hopelandic” for their recordings. But not all songs are in it. Many are in Icelandic, apparently.

47 In his session-muso days, Jimmy Page, later of Led Zeppelin, played on the pop hit It’s so Unusual by Tom Jones.

48 Thomas Bangelter of Daft Punk had a hit with Music Sounds Better With You in 1998 with his side project Stardust.

49 Original Deftones bassist Chi Cheng fell into a coma following a car accident in 2008, and died in 2013.

50 The Weeknd’s album Trilogy sold 90 000 units in its first week, despite being made up almost entirely of songs that are available for free download elsewhere.

This first appeared in FHM.