These are the singers and bands recently nominated for enshrinement into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame…and some bizarre and interesting trivia about them. Rock on! Def Leppard The ‘80s heavy metal / hair metal band (“Photograph,” “Rock of Ages”) misspelled its name on purpose. The name was originally Deaf Leopard, but they got […]
If you think music today is weird, think of how many bands and singing groups in pop music history that had names where, after the name of the lead singer was given, the rest didn’t make any sense without a primer. Well, here’s that long lost primer, because what even is a “Shondell,” anyway? Gladys […]
Bohemian Rhapsody, a film about the life of rock legend Freddie Mercury, and his band, Queen, hits theaters soon. Before you see that eye-opener about the group’s impact on music, check out these unbelievable but true facts about Mercury and Queen. Naked bicycling In 1978, Queen released the hit single “Bicycle Race” and filmed a video […]
In which Uncle John corrects widespread grammatical and language abominations. Here are a few celebrity names that you may be pronouncing wrong. Martin Scorsese You can use a pneumonic device with this one to remember that the director’s last name is not pronounced “score-says-he.” When it comes to award nominations, Martin “scores easy.” Demi Lovato […]
Hey, just because he makes books for the throne room doesn’t mean Uncle John can’t also have a highbrow side. For instance, he loves dressing up in his fanciest leopard-print tuxedo and taking Mrs. Uncle John out for a night at the opera…even if it’s one of these really weird operas. A Brief History of […]
The Fab Four will probably always be the most popular rock n’ roll band of all time. And yet, more than 50 years after the rise of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, there are still some lingering questions about the band and tis songs. Did Yoko Ono really break up the Beatles? It has to […]
After a lengthy illness, Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul—and who Rolling Stone (among others) once called the greatest singer of all time—has passed away at age 76. Let’s all pay our R-E-S-P-E-C-Ts. Queen of Prodigies Music was a part of Franklin’s life from even before the beginning. She was born in the major American […]
Some rock stars fade into obscurity, what with changing trends and tastes. Others fade into oblivion. Here are some once-popular musicians who disappeared off the face of the Earth. The bassist from Loverboy If you listen to the radio, you’ve probably heard Scott Smith’s legacy very recently. As the original bassist for the Canadian band […]
Right now there’s probably a bar or club where a cover band is performing well-known songs originally made famous by other musicians. These stories are not about cover bands—they’re about people who tried to convince the world that they actually were those famous musicians…and they nearly got away with it. Fake Fleetwood Mac Before Fleetwood […]
There are certain tunes out there you’ve heard a million times but you never know the name of…because they don’t have any lyrics. But they’re just as familiar as “Hey Jude” or “White Christmas.” At long last, here’s what those songs are called. Black tie string quartet When a rough-around-the-edges character in a movie finds […]
…the opening act, who had a hard time on stage because the audiences gave them such a hard time. Royal Rejection To promote its album Tattoo You in 1981, the Rolling Stones set out on one of biggest tours in rock history to that point, playing some of the biggest stadiums in the country, including […]
Here are some fab facts about the most underrated, overlooked, and mocked Beatle, Ringo Starr. “Ringo Starr” is not his real name. The “Starr” is short for “Starkey” and “Ringo” comes from his habit of wearing rings. Somebody called him that once and it stuck, which the drummer himself liked because he thought it made […]
March 14 was “International Ask a Question Day,” and over on our Facebook page, we invited our readers to, well, ask a question and be entered in a giveaway. The response was overwhelming—hundreds of you BRI stalwarts posed a trivia conundrum. Unfortunately, we can’t answer all of them and not everyone can be a winner, but […]
Say you’re a musician and you work and toil for years and finally score a big hit song…but then you can’t ever manage another one. How to pay the bills? Write musical scores for film and television. Jay Ferguson Jay Ferguson is a double one-hit wonder. In 1968, his rock band spirit scored its only […]
How can you be a rock superstar and a one-hit-wonder at the same time? When you leave your successful group for a solo career…and it doesn’t work out. Nick Lachey There was a slew of “boy bands” in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. The one teeny bopper from the era who is still a […]
Some musicians are so associated with a certain style of music, it’s hard to believe that they wrote these very out-of-character songs for other people. “Stand Back” Stevie Nicks took a break from Fleetwood Mac in the early ’80s to record some spooky folk pop by herself for a while. One of her biggest hits, […]
You’ve probably stared at a few of these covers while you listened to the music with your headphones on and grooved, man. If you ever thought there was more than meets the eye to these pieces of classic album artwork…you were right. The one with the dancing witch and the dangling balls Just about everybody […]
Movie sequels succeed. Book sequels succeed. TV reboots do just fine. What’s the one thing in pop culture where a continuation of the story has almost never worked: stage musicals. Bring Back Birdie Bye Bye Birdie was a smash on the stage and the screen in the 1960s. A very thinly veiled adaptation of the […]
