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27 Trivia Tidbits About the Songs, Albums and Musicians That Changed the World

You’re just dying to hear about Shaggy’s inspiration for ‘It Wasn’t Me,’ aren’t you?

27 Trivia Tidbits About the Songs, Albums and Musicians That Changed the World

March 30, 2024

Inspiration. What’s that even like? We hear that it can be some kind of light-bulb moment. Maybe we just got that idea from old cartoons. See! We can’t even muster up one original thought! Well, if you’re on the hunt for pure, unadulterated originality, what better place to look than a list of the greatest musical artists of all time? We’ll shut up now, and let you get to it.

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27

Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline is named after JFK's daughter. Diamond needed a three-syllable name to fit the song he was writing. Then he remembered a photo of 7-year-old Caroline Kennedy he had seen in a magazine. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

The Church of England co-owns Beyoncé's Single Ladies The church has invested in Hipgnosis, a company that owns the rights to thousands of songs. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

25

J. Cole was a first-chair violinist in high school. From 5th to 12th grade, the emcee played violin, earning the top spot at Terry Sanford High School. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

24

A-ha's TAKE ON ME blended live action and animation. Director Steve Barron and animators Michael Patterson and Candace Reckinger used a technique called rotoscoping, which involves tracing over live-action footage, frame by frame. Four months and over 3,000 drawings later, they had arguably the most iconic music video of all time. CRACKED — Source

23

Michael Jackson's THRILLER is so much more than a music video. In December 1983, the 13-minute short film was solely responsible for increasing MTV's ratings tenfold. It is the only music video to be inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant. CRACKED — Source

22

Rolling Stone said that Queen's BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY invented the music video. It only took four hours and £3,500 to make, but its success in 1975 had every record company thinking about video! Director Bruce Gowers became a star, and went on to make videos for the Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, Michael Jackson, and Prince. CRACKED — Source

21

MTV had a very fitting first music video. At 12:01a.m. on August 1st, 1981, Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles became the very first music video on MTV. The video was released in 1979, so the band definitely saw the changing of the guard and capitalized. CRACKED — Source

20

Sonic Youth FILING In 2011, after 27 years of marriage, Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore divorced when Moore cheated on her with Eva Prinz. Moore stated that he intended to keep the band together, but Gordon (and the rest of the band) clearly thought that was ridiculous. CRACKED — Source

19

Wham! George Michael wanted to grow out of the teen pop phase and write more honest music. In 1986, even though their latest hit The Edge of Heaven hit No. 1 in the U.K., they played a farewell show at Wembley called The Final, and called it quits. CRACKED — Source

18

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel MISTEL THE LUXU OF HOLLY Garfunkel felt that Simon's solo single True or False was a betrayal. They were hyper-competitive and envious of each other. Manager Mort Lewis said that Paul thought the audience viewed Art as the star, and Art felt inferior since Paul wrote the music. CRACKED — Source

17

Van Halen and Sammy Hagar. After their break up in 1996, Van Halen reunited with Hagar in 2004 and clashed immediately. Hagar even quit, but was legally forced to stay. The last show saw a drunk Eddie Van Halen smash his guitar, and yell You don't understand! to fans and storm off stage. CRACKED — Source

16

Billy Corgan and the rest of The Smashing Pumpkins. The band broke up in 2000 due to Billy Corgan getting the lion's share of earnings and credit. 18 years later, they reunited for a new album and a tour, but bassist D'arcy Wretzky bailed after learning Billy would make twice as much as every other member. CRACKED — Source

15

The Clash Drummer Topper Headon wrote Rock the Casbah but was fired over his heroin addiction before it became their biggest hit. At the height of their fame, Paul Simonon, Mick Jones, and Joe Strummer fought relentlessly over the direction of the band and broke up in 1986. CRACKED — Source

14

Axl Rose And Slash Glick Slash claimed that before a show, Axl refused to go onstage until the band agreed to sign away their rights to the band's name. After their 1993 tour, Axl referred to Slash as a cancer, the band broke up, and Axl didn't even attend their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. CRACKED — Source

13

CRACKED COM The iconic drum beats at the end of Livin' On The Edge by Aerosmith... were played on a bass drum that Steven Tyler stole from his high school after senior prom. — Source

12

Brad Arnold from 3 Doors Down wrote Kryptonite when he was 15 during his math class. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

During the shooting of the music video of Taylor Swift's Shake It Off, heavy-metal music was played around the perimeter of the studio so no-one could hear the unreleased song. € 99 محمد WW CRACKED.COM — Source

10

GRACKED.COM Shaggy's hit song It Wasn't Me was inspired by a skit Eddie Murphy did in Raw about men being unfaithful and denying it. — Source

9

Andre 3000 OUT KAST wrote OutKast's Ms. Jackson as an apology of sorts to the mother of his former partner MS. JACKSON Erykah Badu. Badu wasn't entirely thrilled with the track at first, but when asked how her mother felt about it she said She bought her a 'Ms. Jackson' license plate, she had the mug, she had the ink pen, she had the headband, she had everything... loved it. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

CUE The iconic disco hit Disco Inferno by The Trammps was actually inspired by the 1974 disaster movie, The Towering Inferno, with Steve McQueen. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

Ed Sheeran wrote Afire Love for his grandfather, who never really knew the singer due to Alzheimer's disease. Не began writing the song two weeks before his grandfather passed away. CRACKED.COM — Source

6

Keith Richards produced the guitar riff for (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction while asleep. Не woke up the next day without a clue until he heard a recording of about two minutes of guitar and then me snoring for the next forty minutes. CRACKED.COM — Source

5

Bad was originally going to be a collaboration between Michael Jackson and Prince. Producer Quincy Jones says it was his idea to put the two rivals together, and turn that antagonistic energy into pop gold. Apparently it was a hard pass, for Prince. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

Dolly Parton's Jolene came from the singer's two separate real-life experiences. She came up with the name during a show where she met a beautiful 8-year old girl named Jolene. And the 'homewrecker' angle came from a redhead bank teller who developed a huge crush on her husband. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

Michael Jackson was Kanye West's biggest inspiration for his album CRACKED.COM Heartbreaks And 808s. K E WE When Kanye played Heartless to Jackson, he complimented him (without knowing it was him singing on the track), and that made Kanye way more confident about his singing. — Source

2

Heart ICE-T METALLICA Kirk Hammett ganked part of the solo from Enter Sandman from Heart's Magic Man. But I didn't get it from Heart's version, explained Hammett. I CRACKED.COM got it from a cut off Ice-T's Power album, where he used it as a sample. The guitarist said he kept hearing the lick and thought, I have to snake this! — Source

1

CRACKED.COM Queen's collaboration with David Bowie on Under Pressure was pure impromptu. David Bowie just happened to be by the studio where Queen was recording tracks for their 10th studio album when both parties decided to work on an original piece during a 24-hour session. Mercury and Bowie even did their vocals separately without hearing each other as they sang their part. — Source

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