Entertainment For Lively Minds
Unwanted pop trivia
I have a great book in my, ahem, lavatory at the moment. It gives the background of the first 1,000 songs that reached number one in the UK charts. I'm only up to 1960 at the moment, but I've learned some fascinating facts. Problem is, the wife's not interested, the daughter is only three and my friends aren't bothered with trivia from songs which came out ten years before they were born. Which means, fellow Word readers, that I am going to enlighten you!
Did you know...
- That Bobby Darin took his surname from a faulty sign in a Chinese resteraunt window, when the 'Man' part of 'Mandarin' wasn't lit up?
- That Craig Douglas was one of three sets of twins in a family of 9? (I bet Mrs Douglas eventually locked Mr Douglas out of the bedroom)
- That my favourite Buddy Holly song (It Doesn't Matter Anymore) was actually written by Paul Anka? I just presumed he'd written it himself and never looked at the credits.
And the best one...
- That the "Ucka chunka" backing vocals on Running Bear by Johnny Preston were sung by country star George Jones and the Big Bopper, who had written the song.
Now isn't your life all the richer for knowing all that!
- More from Paul Wad.
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You're in the right place coming here!
Oh, and "the daughter is only three" is not a valid excuse - you're never too young to begin appreciating the pointless minutiae of popular music.
Can you enlighten us as to the name of this book?
Purely for the sake of completeness of information, of course, ahem.....
hah
evidently you're another person for whom that Harpic stained 'Best of the Far Side' has lost its allure and you also seek a new Loo Read
1000 UK number one hits
It's by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh. It's a great big book and I picked it up from HMV for a couple of quid.
Looking on Amazon it seems to get some stick for some inaccuracies. I haven't come across any yet, but as I say I am only up to 1960. Certainly what I have read so far has been good though, but I suppose the acid test will come as I get further into the 60s and the records I already know a bit about.
Full disclosure...
I know Kutner socially (OK, via pop quizzes he hosts (which I often end up almost winning)) and he does live the life. Given how poor the Guinness Book is this year, with no tallying of weeks on chart at all, I'd rather have his book.
He does know where the mistakes are, at least.
Thanks for that....
will see if I can track it down.
Pre-1960s errors
"I haven't come across any yet, but as I say I am only up to 1960."
I like your style, Wad. I'm cofident you will be an asset here.
Cant I ask a question?
How do we know that Bobby Darin got his name from a Chinese restaurant sign that wasn't lit up?
Can't see how we would know that was an inaccuracy or not? I heard that Bob Dylan got his name from The Magic Roundabout. Sounds like a fun book but not necessarily one to be taken seriously.