Music Trivia Thread

[Attyla]

I have been putting this in other threads, but am afraid I am just cluttering up those threads, so I will stop doing that and just do stuff in this one. Care to join in? I am all about learning more about music. So here we go.

Here are five artists from the UK who are really well known, and they had hits on both sides of the Atlantic, but had a lot more success in the US than in their home countries. There may be more and if you know one, feel free to join in.

First, we start with Ringo Starr of the Beatles. He had a lot of success as a solo artist in the US with a number of top 40 singles, far more in the US than in the UK. Songs like Photograph did quite well in the US, but not so much over seas

Second, Sheena Easton, she did well on both sides, but had a lot more success in the US with songs like Sugar Walls

Third, the Alan Parson's Project. They did OK in the UK but had a lot of success in the US, with songs like Games People Play

Next we have Steve Winwood who was quite successful as a solo artist, but much more so in the US

And finally, we have George Harrison, another Beatle. Had a lot of success as a solo artist in the US and was also a part of the Traveling Wilbury's.

[Hellbound]

So what does Maurice Gibb, of all people, have to do with saving a song from destruction. And not only a song, but one of the biggest hits of the early 80's? And not even a song that he wrote, or sang on? And how did an emerging technology play into it?

Well this one comes from a small town for sure.

He was writing his first big hit and he could play it perfectly on his acoustic guitar and he thought this would break him out from the rest and start his career flying. He was not wrong, so he brought it to his band. They also thought it was great so they tried to lay it down. But the drummer, Kenny Aronoff was having a hard time with the changing time signature on the track which caused them all to speed up. Frustration set in and John was set to scrap the song and move on. But the band pressed him to find a way to make it work. Enter Maurice Gibb. The technology they needed was very new, and very rare. But Gibb owned a prototype of the Linn LM-1 Drum computer capable of creating drum loops. John's people contacted Gibb and he agreed to let them use it. The original plan was to create hand claps and use that to keep the group in time and then remove it from the final mix. And it worked, they laid down the track and then removed the artificial drum parts. But then the song sucked again without those tracks. So it was added in, and the world now knows what "sucking on a chili dog" means. John Cougar Mellencamp went on to fame and fortune all because of a disco star.

Bonus, there is a tie to David Bowie on the track as well. Mick Ronson who played for Bowie as part of the Spiders from Mars era was brought in to save the track yet again. He suggested adding a baby rattle sound to the percussion which confused Mellencamp at first until Ronson himself laid it down. He also knew the song needed a sharp bridge and he personally pushed the "Let it rock, let it roll" lyrics to add a flavor to the song.

Jack and Diane was most definitely a collaboration and its unusual time signature is rarely found in rock music. I am personally not a huge fan of John's but that does not take away from the creative efforts that went into that particular song

That song was originally about an interracial couple but the record label said no way. Lyrics got re-wrote and became what it is now