21-25 Musicians Facts
21. John Roland Redd was an African-American musician who pretended to be an Indian named musician named Korla Pandit from 1944-1998. – Source
22. The oldest musicians ever in to have a hit on the charts were the Zimmers in 2007 with their version of “My Generation”. Lead singer Alf Carretta was 90, drummer Buster Martin was 100 and the combined age of their 40 members was 3120 years(average age of 78). – Source
23. Marc Cohn, the musician behind the 1991 hit song “Walking in Memphis,” was shot in the head in an attempted carjacking in 2005. He was released from the hospital 8 hours later. – Source
24. Sir Anthony Hopkins was a musician before becoming a world class talent in acting. This is his composition performed, for the first time, by Andre Rieu and his orchestra. – Source
25. The lyrics to Percy Sledge’s “When A Man Loves A Woman” were completely improvised by Sledge on the recording. He improvised so well that his the session musicians assumed that he had pre-written lyrics. – Source
26-30 Musicians Facts
26. Mozart had a sister (Maria Anna) who was also an accomplished musician and composer, sometimes even receiving top billing. She was no longer taken on tour with her famous brother once she reached “marriageable age”. – Source
27. The Funk Brothers were a group of session musicians who played on virtually all Motown recordings from 1959 – 1972. – Source
28. The musician Gary Numan, who had the hit “Cars” in 1980, became an accomplished aerobatic display pilot and performed at airshows. He finally hung it up after having kids. – Source
29. Critics complained that Indian musician Daler Mehndi’s music was only popular because his videos featured beautiful women. Mehndi’s response was to create a video featuring only copies of himself green-screened in, leading to the creation of the “Tunak Tunak Tun” video. – Source
30. Before he became Jon Bon Jovi, aspiring musician John Bongiovi made his recorded debut in a somewhat inauspicious manner, singing on a Star Wars-themed Christmas album. The song was called ‘R2-D2, We Wish You a Merry Christmas.’ – Source
31-34 Musicians Facts
31. Johnny Depp dropped out of high school to become a rock musician, and when he attempted to go back to school two weeks later, the principal told him to follow his dream of being a musician. – Source
32. During the Revolutionary War, fife and drum players would wear colors opposite from what their regiment wore in order to be easily distinguished as an unarmed musician. If a continental soldier fighting in the war had a blue coat with red cuffs, a musician would wear a red coat with blue cuffs. – Source
33. Musician Moby’s real name is Richard. He calls himself ‘Moby’ after Moby d*ck, which was written by his great-great-great-great uncle. – Source
34. It is common for musicians to use cocaine to maintain high-quality performance. – Source
You know that the world famous novel Moby-d*ck doesn’t have anything to do with penises?
I get it. Well, I guess this form of censorship makes a novel now unappropriated language …
#25 – There is absolutely nothing in the linked source to suggest that Percy Sledge improvised the lyrics of the song *during* its recording. In fact, it says quite the opposite, that the tune came out of improvisation, and the lyrics were written ‘that night’. After the original song had been written, suggestions were made by a local DJ which led to the changing of some of the lyrics. Sledge himself says that the story happened differently, and he had improvised some of the lyrics for a DJ at a show, but the final song was changed and improved before being written out. There is also nothing in the source that suggest that his session musicians “assumed” anything at all about the lyrics.