SongManiac

Aaliyah Aaliyah and various members of her record company attempted to fly home after filming a video in the Bahamas...Against the advice of baggage handlers and the pilot, all the equipment from the shoot was loaded on the plane...The small light aircraft crashed killing Aaliyah and her entourage

AC/DC The song 'Hells Bells' was instrumental in rescuing imprisoned Black Hawk Down pilot Michael Durant in Somalia in 1993....He was shoved into prison...His back was broken...His pals knew that AC/DC was his favorite band so they hooked up a speaker to one of the Black Hawks and they were playing 'Hells Bells' over the rooftops....He took off his shirt and crawled up to the window and waved his shirt...That's how they got him out!

Air Supply At one time Russell and Graham were so poor that they were reduced to checking the backs of hotel sofas for change so that they could buy bread to make toast

Morris Albert French songwriter Loulou Gasté sued Morris for copyright infringement, claiming that 'Feelings' plagiarized the melody of his 1957 song 'Pour Toi'....Gaste won the lawsuit and was awarded 88% of the royalties generated by the song

Allman Brothers Greg was married to Cher... Twice!!

Paul Anka In 1967 Frank Sinatra was having dinner with Paul and said he was 'quitting the business…‘I'm sick of it‘… ‘I'm getting the hell out'...Paul went home and wrote the lyrics to 'My Way' specifically for Frank...The rest is history

The Archies Ron sang the lead for 'Sugar Sugar...He did it for the union scale wage...He did not get any royalties

Hank Ballard Hank got the idea of the twist by watching his band move on the stage...They looked like they were trying to put a cigarette out

Bee Gees Barry and Robin wrote 'To Love Somebody' for Otis Redding...He died in a plane crash before he could record the song

Black Sabbath Tony lost the tips of two fingers on his right hand in a factory accident...He took a plastic detergent bottle, melted it, and applied the stuff to his fingertips...He then trimmed and sanded away the excess plastic to provide better grip on the strings of his guitar

David Bowie David played John Merrick in the Broadway play The Elephant Man

Jackson Browne Jackson was one of the first members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Lindsey Buckingham Mick Fleetwood needed a guitarist to join his band...Lindsey insisted that he and girlfriend Stevie Nicks were a package deal...So they BOTH joined Fleetwood Mac in 1974

Johnny Burnette Johnny lived in a public housing project in the Lauderdale Courts area of Memphis....This was also the home of Gladys and Vernon Presley and their son, Elvis

Dion Dion was offered a seat on the plane that crashed carrying Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper…He declined because he could not afford the $36 cost of the flight

Duran Duran They had three members named Taylor....None of them were related

Eagles Started as a backup band for Linda Ronstadt

Marvin Gaye Because he left no will Marvin was unable to benefit his surviving children...All of his estate went to honor unpaid debts

Wilbert Harrison Wilbert was one of 23 children

Ron Holden You never know how a song can get produced....Ron supposedly had been heard singing 'Love You So' by a record producer while being held in prison after being arrested for marijuana and alcohol possession

Tab Hunter He tried out for the role of Tony in the film We

Billy Idol Billy was chosen to play the role of T-1000 in Terminator 2....A severe motorcycle accident prevented him from accepting Side Story

Iron Butterfly The title was supposed to be "In The Garden Of Eden'....Doug had written 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida', possibly while intoxicated...They would have performed the song at Woodstock, but they didn't make it because they were stuck at the airport

The Isley Brothers In 1964, the group hired a young guitarist who had been in several rhythm and blues groups as a backing guitarist.... He was homeless when O'Kelly saw him while at a store...His name?....Jimi Hendrix!

Jan And Dean Jan received severe head injuries in an automobile accident, just a short distance from Dead Man's Curve in Los Angeles, two years after the song had become a hit

Knack Doug is the older brother of Jeffrey Fieger, who defended assisted-suicide advocate Dr Kervorkian

Led Zeppelin 'Stairway To Heaven' is about 8 minutes long...It took Robert Plant and Jimmy Page less time to write the song

Mama Cass Cass died in a London flat owned by Harry Nilsson that the Who's Keith Moon would die four years later

Johnny Mathis Even though he was a gifted athlete Johnny chose a recording contract over the Olympic tryouts in 1956

Ricky Nelson Ricky wrote 'Garden Party' in disgust after a Madison Square Garden audience booed him when he tried playing new songs instead of just his old hits....It turns out they were in fact booing the police who were arresting unruly members of the audience

Olivia Newton-John Olivia's father was the officer who took Rudolph Hess into custody during World War II

Roy Orbison After leaving his thick eyeglasses on an airplane, Roy was forced to wear his prescription sunglasses on stage and found that he preferred them

The Righteous Brothers 'You Lost That Lovin' Feelin' is the most played song in the history of radio...Over eight million times!

Bobby Rydell In both the Broadway musical Grease and the film Grease, the high school was named 'Rydell High' after Bobby

David Seville 'The Chipmunk Song' received the lowest rating in the history of American Bandstand.…By Christmas it had risen to Number 1

Jim Stafford Jim's first road manager was the comedian 'Gallagher'

Steely Dan One of the original members of Steely Dan was comedy star Chevy Chase

Donna Summer Oasis Records made a spelling mistake on the label of Donna's first record...So Donna Sommer became Donna Summer for the rest of her career

Bill Withers Bill kept repeating 'I Know, I Know'...A total of 26 times during 'Ain't No Sunshine'...He was supposed to find some replacement words during the recording but never did

Warren Zevon Mick Fleetwood and John McVie of Fleetwood Mac sang backup for 'Werewolves Of London'