212 Fun Facts About 70s Music

Whose late-1970s hit 'Stayin' Alive' became shorthand for the disco era?

The Bee Gees lost their drummer mid-session, so the producers looped a snippet of drums from 'Night Fever' to build the track, and the loop sounded so good that it stayed.

What is Pink Floyd's influential 1973 album, with a prism refracting light on its cover, called?

The Dark Side of the Moon got its prism because keyboardist Richard Wright asked designer Storm Thorgerson to drop his usual photographs for something simple and graphic.

Which 1971 Led Zeppelin epic became US radio's most-requested song without ever being sold as a single there?

Stairway to Heaven reached American radio only on promotional discs, which became collectors' items; fans who wanted the song had to buy the whole album.

Which 1977 Bob Marley and the Wailers album was recorded in London after an assassination attempt in Jamaica?

Exodus came out of Marley's exile after gunmen attacked his Kingston home; the sessions were so productive that the gentler songs were held back for his next album.

Which 1971 Marvin Gaye concept album addresses war, poverty and the environment?

What's Going On was produced by Gaye himself; he sang it as a returning Vietnam veteran, drawing on the war stories his brother Frankie brought home.

Which band's 1976 debut album, built largely in Tom Scholz's basement, opened with 'More Than a Feeling'?

Boston's debut was mostly taped by Scholz, a Polaroid engineer, in his own basement while the label was led to think the band was recording on the West Coast.

Which 1975 Led Zeppelin double album mixed new songs with leftovers from earlier sessions?

Physical Graffiti doubled because eight new songs overran one LP, so outtakes filled the rest; within weeks all six Zeppelin albums were on the US chart at once.

What is Thin Lizzy's 1976 breakthrough album, featuring 'The Boys Are Back in Town', called?

Jailbreak nearly missed its hit: the band left 'The Boys Are Back in Town' off its shortlist, and the song only took off when two Louisville DJs kept playing it until nearby stations followed.

What is Joni Mitchell's acclaimed 1971 album featuring 'A Case of You' and 'River' titled?

Blue includes 'River', whose piano part borrows from 'Jingle Bells', so a song about a break-up has become a Christmas standard.

Where did the 1979 Disco Demolition Night riot take place?

Comiskey Park, home of the Chicago White Sox, hosted the 12 July 1979 promotion; thousands stormed the field after a crate of disco records was blown up between games of a doubleheader.

In which English seaside town did ABBA win the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest?

ABBA won at the Brighton Dome on 6 April 1974, Sweden's first Eurovision victory, even though the British jury gave their song no points at all.

Which ABBA single ended the nine-week run of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' at UK number one in January 1976?

Mamma Mia took over at the top on 31 January 1976, replacing a Queen song that had spent nine weeks pleading 'mamma mia, let me go'.

Fleetwood Mac's 1977 album Rumours was recorded amid the collapse of which two band members' marriage?

John and Christine McVie split during the sessions; Christine wrote 'You Make Loving Fun' about her new boyfriend, the band's lighting director, and reportedly told John it was about her dog.

Which rock and roll pioneer scored his only US number one in 1972 with the novelty song 'My Ding-a-Ling'?

Chuck Berry reached number one with a rude singalong taped live at an arts festival in Coventry, England, something none of his own rock and roll classics had managed.

'Rapper's Delight' (1979) borrowed its bassline from which Chic song?

Sugarhill Gang's 'Rapper's Delight' replayed the bassline of Chic's 'Good Times' (1979); Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards threatened to sue and were given songwriting credits.

Which disco hit began as an angry chant after its writers were turned away from Studio 54 on New Year's Eve 1977?

Le Freak started as a curse aimed at the doorman who refused Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, guests of Grace Jones; they softened it to 'Freak out!' and had a hit.

Which 1971 epic was the longest song to top the US Hot 100 until Taylor Swift beat it in 2021?

American Pie ran so long that the single was split across both sides of the 45; it stayed the longest number one until Swift's ten-minute 'All Too Well'.

Which 1973 debut album was Virgin Records' first release and took off after use in The Exorcist?

Tubular Bells was close to a one-man band: Mike Oldfield, 19 when recording began, played almost every instrument himself, and its success launched Virgin Records.

Which disco-tinged 1978 single was the Rolling Stones' last US number one?

Miss You was the Stones' eighth and final US chart-topper; their singer worked it up with keyboardist Billy Preston, whose demo bass part became the model for Bill Wyman's line.

Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell grew from a Jim Steinman musical that was a futuristic rock version of which story?

Peter Pan, reworked as Steinman's musical Neverland, supplied the core songs; record labels then turned the album down for years, Clive Davis among them, before it sold in the tens of millions.

Never Mind the Bollocks, released in October 1977, was the one and only full-length record by which band?

The Sex Pistols saw their only studio album banned by several big retailers, yet it entered the UK chart at number one; within three months the band had split.

Which musician organised the Concert for Bangladesh with Ravi Shankar in August 1971?

George Harrison staged it after his friend Ravi Shankar asked for help; Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton played, and it became the model for later rock benefits such as Live Aid.

Peter Frampton's best-selling 1976 live album made him synonymous with which guitar effect?

Frampton's talk box, a tube that feeds the guitar's sound into the player's mouth, was first shown to him by Nashville steel guitarist Pete Drake at a London session in 1970.

The word 'disco' is short for the French 'discothèque', which literally means what?

A record library is the literal sense: the word was coined on the pattern of the word for library, and it names a club where people dance to records.

Hip-hop is usually traced to a party DJ Kool Herc played for his sister in August 1973 in which New York borough?

The Bronx: at Cindy Campbell's party at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, Herc kept the dancers moving by stretching the drum breaks of funk records, the idea hip-hop grew from.

Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' (1977) was built almost entirely on which instrument?

A Moog synthesizer supplied almost the whole track; on first hearing it, Brian Eno told David Bowie he had heard the sound of the future.

Before disco fame, Donna Summer moved to Munich in 1968 to perform in which musical?

Summer joined the Munich production of Hair in 1968 and stayed in Germany for years, where she met the producers behind her 1975 breakthrough 'Love to Love You Baby'.

Which crime sent Studio 54 owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager to prison in 1980?

Tax evasion: tax agents raided the club in December 1978, and the pair later pleaded guilty after skimming about $2.5 million from its receipts.

In 1998, the former Studio 54 building at 254 West 54th Street reopened as what?

A Broadway theatre again: built as the Gallo Opera House in 1927, the former club took in the Roundabout company's revival of Cabaret in 1998.

Which 'Baker Street' singer's album ended the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack's long run at US number one in July 1978?

Gerry Rafferty's City to City took over at the top; he had only just been freed to record again, after three years of legal wrangles over his old band Stealers Wheel.

What did Nik Cohn admit in the 1990s about the 1976 article behind Saturday Night Fever?

He had invented most of it: Cohn barely knew Brooklyn when he wrote the piece, and he modelled its disco king on a mod he had known in 1960s London.

Which film critic bought John Travolta's white Saturday Night Fever suit at a charity auction?

Gene Siskel, the Chicago Tribune critic, loved the film so much that he bought its white suit when it came up at a charity auction.

At about 103 beats per minute, 'Stayin' Alive' is widely used to teach the rhythm for what?

'Stayin' Alive' runs at about 103 beats per minute, inside the 100–120 range recommended for CPR chest compressions, so the American Heart Association used it in training campaigns.

The disco group behind 'Macho Man' and 'Y.M.C.A.' took its name from which Manhattan neighbourhood?

Morali and Belolo named the group after Greenwich Village, whose gay scene inspired the costumed characters; their 1980 film Can't Stop the Music won the first Golden Raspberry for Worst Picture.

The arm-spelling dance to 'Y.M.C.A.' was born in January 1979 during a performance on which TV show?

On American Bandstand in January 1979, Dick Clark pointed out the audience spelling the letters with their arms, and the group adopted the gestures into its routine.

Which branch of the US armed forces considered using a 1979 hit by the 'Y.M.C.A.' group for recruiting?

The Navy lent the frigate USS Reasoner and its crew for the 'In the Navy' video, then dropped the idea of using the song in its recruiting ads.

Which director filmed The Band's 1976 farewell concert as the documentary The Last Waltz?

Martin Scorsese shot most of it at the Thanksgiving 1976 show in San Francisco, then filmed 'The Weight' with the Staple Singers afterwards on a soundstage.

Why did DJ Rick Dees's own radio station fire him over his 1976 chart-topper 'Disco Duck'?

Mentioning the song on air was enough: his station had barred him from playing his own record and called it a conflict of interest; a rival station then hired him and let him play it.

Van McCoy's 1975 chart-topper 'The Hustle' won a Grammy in which category?

'The Hustle' won Best Pop Instrumental Performance at the 1976 Grammys; McCoy wrote it after his partner Charles Kipps saw dancers doing the step at a New York club.

Which song won the only Grammy ever awarded for Best Disco Recording, in 1980?

I Will Survive began life as a B-side until club DJs flipped the record; it took the disco Grammy in 1980, and the Academy dropped the category a year later as the backlash grew.

Which 1976 ABBA single became the group's only number one in the United States?

Dancing Queen was sung at a televised gala for Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf and his bride Silvia the night before their wedding in June 1976, before the single had even been released.

Which album did the Beatles release in May 1970, a month after their break-up became public?

Let It Be reached the shops on 8 May 1970, weeks after the split, although most of it had been taped in January 1969, before Abbey Road was recorded.

Which act had a 1972 hit with the end-of-term anthem 'School's Out'?

Alice Cooper sent flowers to Mary Whitehouse to thank her for the publicity after the campaigner protested against 'School's Out', which topped the UK chart; the album sleeve opened like a school desk.

Which artist scored seven consecutive US number-one albums between 1972 and 1975?

Elton John's run began with Honky Château, named after the French château where he recorded it, and ended with Rock of the Westies in 1975.

The pianist behind Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was born under what name?

Reginald Kenneth Dwight borrowed his stage name from two bandmates in Bluesology, saxophonist Elton Dean and singer Long John Baldry, and later made it his legal name.

Which 1977 single was Fleetwood Mac's only US number one?

'Dreams' took Stevie Nicks about ten minutes to write: she slipped out of the Rumours sessions with an electric piano into a studio next door used by Sly Stone.

Which engineer of Pink Floyd's 1973 prism-cover album later led a hit 'Project' under his own name?

Alan Parsons was the Abbey Road staff engineer on the sessions; it was he who brought in singer Clare Torry for the wordless vocal on 'The Great Gig in the Sky'.

Which country star told her own life story in the 1970 hit 'Coal Miner's Daughter'?

Loretta Lynn cut four verses from the song on her producer's advice and later lost them; the hit went on to name her memoir and the 1980 film starring Sissy Spacek.

Which 1976 album was ABBA's first studio album to top the UK chart?

Arrival had its title before its title track did: the closing instrumental was renamed to match the album, whose sleeve shows the four posing in a helicopter at an airfield near Stockholm.

At Eurovision's 50th anniversary show in 2005, which ABBA song was voted the contest's best ever?

Waterloo won the 2005 anniversary vote; in 1974 it could be sung in English only because the contest had briefly lifted its rule that entries use a national language.

Which band's 'New Rose' (1976) is generally regarded as the first UK punk single?

The Damned open 'New Rose' with singer Dave Vanian deadpanning the spoken line that starts the Shangri-Las' 'Leader of the Pack'; Nick Lowe produced it for Stiff.

The punk single 'God Save the Queen' was released during which royal event of 1977?

Released in May 1977 to coincide with the Silver Jubilee, 'God Save the Queen' was banned by the BBC and stalled at number two amid claims the chart had been fixed.

Whose single kept 'God Save the Queen' at number two on the official UK chart in June 1977?

Rod Stewart's 'I Don't Want to Talk About It' stayed at number one that week, although it has long been claimed that the punk single actually outsold it.

Which band's 'Roxanne', a flop on its first release in 1978, became a hit when it was reissued in 1979?

The Police owe the song's opening to an accident: Sting sat down on a studio piano he thought was closed, and the stray chord and his laugh stayed on the record.

The Ramones formed in 1974 in which New York City neighbourhood?

The four met in Forest Hills, Queens, and took the shared surname Ramone from Paul McCartney's old alias Paul Ramon; none of the 'brothers' were related.

Which Bowery club, where the Ramones played from August 1974, became the home of New York punk?

CBGB stood for Country, Bluegrass and Blues, the music owner Hilly Kristal meant to book; instead the Ramones played their first set there on 16 August 1974 and punk moved in.

Who became the first act to win the top Grammy record award two years running, in 1973 and 1974?

Roberta Flack won first with 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face', a 1969 album track that became a hit only after Clint Eastwood used it in Play Misty for Me, then with 'Killing Me Softly with His Song'.

Which group was the first act whose first four major-label singles all hit number one on the Hot 100?

The Jackson 5 did it with 'I Want You Back', 'ABC', 'The Love You Save' and 'I'll Be There'; Motown billed them as Diana Ross's discovery, though Gladys Knight and Bobby Taylor had championed them first.

Michael and his brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon grew up in which Indiana city?

Gary, Indiana, is where the brothers won their first talent show, at Roosevelt High School in 1966, with a version of the Temptations' 'My Girl'.

Which 1976 Stevie Wonder album was the first by an American to enter the US chart at number one?

Songs in the Key of Life went straight in at the top; its 'Isn't She Lovely' was never a US single because Wonder refused to cut the six-minute track down.

The Eagles' 'Hotel California' won which Grammy at the 1978 ceremony?

'Hotel California' won Record of the Year at the February 1978 Grammys, while the album itself lost Album of the Year to Fleetwood Mac's Rumours.

Which real Los Angeles building appears on the cover of the Eagles' 1976 album?

The Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard was photographed at dusk from a 60-foot cherry picker by David Alexander for the cover of the 1976 album.

Which guitarist joined the Eagles for Hotel California, replacing Bernie Leadon?

Joe Walsh, already a star with the James Gang, joined in 1975 and shares the title song's closing twin-guitar solo with Don Felder.

In October 1975 Bruce Springsteen appeared simultaneously on the covers of which two magazines?

Time and Newsweek both ran him on the cover on 27 October 1975, a first for a rock star; Newsweek's story, 'The Making of a Rock Star', was really about his label's hype campaign.

Who wrote 'I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen' after a 1974 show?

Jon Landau wrote the line in the weekly Real Paper after a May 1974 show at Harvard Square; he went on to co-produce Born to Run and become Springsteen's manager.

At which London venue did David Bowie retire his Ziggy Stardust persona on 3 July 1973?

At the Hammersmith Odeon on 3 July 1973 Bowie announced 'the last show that we'll ever do', widely misread as a retirement from music rather than of Ziggy.

Which 1992 film's car headbanging scene sent 'Bohemian Rhapsody' back up the US charts?

Wayne's World's Pacer scene drove 'Bohemian Rhapsody' to number two on the Hot 100 in 1992, higher than its original 1976 US peak of number nine.

'Bohemian Rhapsody' is famous for lacking which standard element of a pop song?

A chorus never arrives in the six-minute song; EMI thought it too long for radio until DJ Kenny Everett, handed a copy on the promise not to air it, played it again and again.

What did Led Zeppelin call the record label they launched in 1974?

Swan Song issued Bad Company's debut before any record by its owners; it was taped at Headley Grange, the Hampshire house where Zeppelin themselves recorded.

Led Zeppelin disbanded in 1980 after the death of which member?

John Bonham died in September 1980 and the band chose to end rather than replace him; when the survivors reunited in London in 2007, his son Jason sat in on drums.

Which 1971 album cover shows a barefoot singer-songwriter by a window with her cat, Telemachus?

Tapestry's sleeve was shot by Jim McCrary in the singer's Laurel Canyon living room; in her hands is a tapestry she had stitched herself, which gave the picture its link to the title.

Which singer-songwriter's 1971 album held US number one for 15 straight weeks?

Carole King had spent the 1960s writing hits for other singers; her own record then stayed on the US album chart for about six years.

Which German band, formed in Düsseldorf in 1970, broke through with the album Autobahn?

Kraftwerk sang 'fahr'n, fahr'n, fahr'n auf der Autobahn', which English ears heard as 'fun, fun, fun' and took for a Beach Boys nod; the 22-minute track still carried the album into the US top five.

Which 1979 Donna Summer double album, home to 'Hot Stuff', spent six weeks at US number one?

Bad Girls was the second of three straight chart-topping double albums, a first for any act; 'Hot Stuff', with its rock guitar solo, even won the disco star a rock vocal Grammy.

Which group's 'Boogie Oogie Oogie' topped the Hot 100 in 1978?

A Taste of Honey got the idea at a military-base show where nobody would dance; the hit then won them the Best New Artist Grammy over Elvis Costello and the Cars.

Which Chicago radio DJ led the 1979 Disco Demolition Night promotion?

Steve Dahl, 24, had lost his job when his station switched to disco; hired by the rival rock station WLUP, he took his revenge by destroying disco records on air.

Which duo's 1979 single 'Video Killed the Radio Star' later became the first video shown on MTV?

The Buggles' Trevor Horn took the idea from a J. G. Ballard story about a world in which music has become obsolete; MTV opened with the video on 1 August 1981.

A famous 1977 photo taken inside Studio 54 showed which celebrity sitting on a white horse?

Bianca Jagger posed on the horse at her birthday party at the club in 1977; she has long insisted she never rode it in and only climbed on for a moment.

Which city's lush 1970s soul sound, crafted by producers Gamble and Huff, was hailed in the Soul Train theme 'TSOP'?

Philadelphia: 'TSOP' is short for The Sound of Philadelphia, a title chosen because Soul Train's host would not let Gamble and Huff use the show's name on the single.

Elvis Presley died in August 1977 at Graceland, his mansion in which city?

Memphis: Presley bought Graceland in 1957, aged 22, for just over $100,000 and died there twenty years later; it has since become one of the city's biggest tourist draws.

Which 1973 Elvis Presley concert special was broadcast live by satellite?

Aloha from Hawaii went out live from Honolulu in January 1973; American viewers had to wait until April, because the live date clashed with the Super Bowl.

Bob Marley was wounded by gunmen in December 1976, two days before playing which free concert?

Smile Jamaica went ahead on 5 December 1976, two days after the shooting: Marley, still carrying his wounds, played a full set for a vast crowd and then left the island.

Which two rival Jamaican politicians did Bob Marley bring on stage in 1978 to shake hands?

Michael Manley and Edward Seaga, whose rival parties' gunmen were fighting in the streets, were called on stage during 'Jamming', where Marley joined their hands.

The 1971 Concert for Bangladesh, rock's first big benefit, filled which New York venue twice in one day?

Madison Square Garden hosted both shows on 1 August 1971; the gate went to UNICEF, but much of the far larger sum from the album and film was held up for years by the taxman.

Which Sony gadget went on sale in Japan in July 1979?

Walkman: a cassette player that could not record. Sony built the prototype from its Pressman, a mono recorder made for journalists, turning it into a stereo player for headphones.

Which two country stars led the 'outlaw country' movement of the 1970s?

Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson earned the 'outlaw' tag by breaking with Nashville's producers to make records their own way; their 1976 set Wanted! The Outlaws became country's first platinum album.

Which artist conceived the working-zipper cover of the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers?

Andy Warhol put a working zip on a close-up of a man in tight jeans; it was costly to make and caused trouble in shipping, because the metal damaged the vinyl.

The main sessions for the Stones' Exile on Main St. took place in a rented villa where?

Tax exiles from Britain, the Stones set up in Keith Richards's rented Villa Nellcôte at Villefranche-sur-Mer in the South of France in 1971, recording in its basement with a mobile studio.

The Who's 1971 album Who's Next grew out of which abandoned rock-opera project?

Lifehouse was Pete Townshend's science-fiction rock opera, abandoned when he neared a breakdown trying to make others understand it; eight of its songs were salvaged for Who's Next.

Which Who drummer died in September 1978?

Keith Moon died on 7 September 1978 from an overdose of Heminevrin, prescribed to curb his drinking; his decline was evident during the making of Who Are You.

Roger Waters modelled the character Pink in The Wall on himself and which former Pink Floyd member?

Pink's breakdown draws on Syd Barrett, the founder who left in 1968, and on Waters's own alienation after he spat at a fan on the 1977 In the Flesh tour.

Which Stevie Wonder album won Album of the Year at the 16th Grammy Awards in 1974?

Innervisions came out three days before a car crash left Wonder in a coma in August 1973; he had recovered by the time it won the following March.

Which guitarist's involvement in the Talking Book sessions led Stevie Wonder to write him a song?

Jeff Beck came up with the drum beat that sparked 'Superstition' and was promised the song in return for playing on the album, but Motown had Wonder release his own version first.

'Candle in the Wind', from the 1973 album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, was written about which film star?

Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jeane, is mourned in the opening line; lyricist Bernie Taupin later said the song could as easily have been about James Dean, since its real subject is fame cut short.

Paul McCartney and Wings recorded most of Band on the Run in which African city?

McCartney, Linda and Denny Laine recorded in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1973 after two bandmates quit on the eve of the trip; McCartney was mugged there and lost demo tapes.

'My Sweet Lord' was the subject of a copyright suit over its similarity to which 1963 hit?

The Chiffons' 1963 hit 'He's So Fine' was ruled in 1976 to have been 'subconsciously' copied; 'My Sweet Lord' was the first US and UK number one by an ex-Beatle.

Which glam-rock star died in 1977 when a Mini driven by his girlfriend hit a tree?

Marc Bolan of T. Rex died two weeks before his 30th birthday; he had never learned to drive because he feared an early death.

T. Rex's 'Get It On' was retitled what in America to avoid confusion with another band's song?

Bang a Gong (Get It On) became the American title because the jazz-rock band Chase had a 1971 hit called 'Get It On'; it reached number 10, T. Rex's only big US hit.

Which 1970 single was Black Sabbath's only UK top-20 hit?

'Paranoid' was written in minutes as a three-minute filler when the album ran short; it reached number four in the UK and the band never made the top ten there again.

Deep Purple's 'Smoke on the Water' recounts a 1971 fire at a casino in which Swiss town?

The Montreux Casino burned down on 4 December 1971 during a Frank Zappa concert, smoke spreading over Lake Geneva; Deep Purple had come to record Machine Head there.

Highway to Hell (1979) was the last AC/DC album to feature which singer?

Bon Scott died in London in February 1980, months after Highway to Hell became AC/DC's first album to crack the US top 100; their next album, Back in Black, was dedicated to him.

Kiss's 1975 live album Alive! was recorded partly at Cobo Hall in which city?

Detroit's Cobo Hall show of May 1975 supplied the live 'Rock and Roll All Nite' that became Kiss's first big hit; Paul Stanley later began 'Detroit Rock City' as a tribute to the city.

Van Halen's 1978 debut included a cover of 'You Really Got Me', originally by which band?

The Kinks' 1964 original got its snarl when Dave Davies slashed his amplifier's speaker cone with a razor blade; Van Halen's cover became their first single.

The Clash's London Calling was released in the UK in what format on 14 December 1979?

London Calling was a 19-track double album sold at a single-LP price after the Clash pressed CBS; its cover was among ten classic sleeves on Royal Mail stamps in 2010.

Blondie's 'Heart of Glass' began life in 1974–75 under what working title?

Recorded as a 1975 demo called 'Once I Had a Love', the song was reworked with a Roland CR-78 drum machine for Parallel Lines and topped both the US and UK charts in 1979.

Which former Velvet Underground member produced Patti Smith's 1975 debut Horses?

John Cale produced Horses at Electric Lady Studios in 1975, clashing with Smith throughout; it followed her two-month residency at a New York club alongside Television.

'Piano Man' retells Billy Joel's six months playing a lounge bar in which city?

Los Angeles was Joel's hideout: after his debut album flopped he spent six months playing a piano bar there as 'Bill Martin' while trying to escape a bad record contract.

Which producer worked with Billy Joel for the first time on The Stranger in 1977?

Phil Ramone produced The Stranger; by Joel's account the band nearly left 'Just the Way You Are' off it until Linda Ronstadt and Phoebe Snow heard the song in the studio and urged him to keep it.

Bob Dylan abruptly re-recorded half of Blood on the Tracks just before release in which city?

Dylan re-cut five songs at Sound 80 in Minneapolis in December 1974 with local musicians recruited by his brother David; the other five came from the September New York sessions.

Which single from the 1972 album Harvest reached number one in the US?

'Heart of Gold' came about because a back injury left Neil Young unable to stand with an electric guitar, so he sat down with an acoustic instead; it became his only US number one.

Which 1977 Steely Dan album includes 'Peg', 'Deacon Blues' and 'Josie'?

Aja, pronounced like 'Asia', took its title from a Korean woman who married the brother of one of Donald Fagen's school friends; it became Steely Dan's biggest hit.

'Sweet Home Alabama' was written as a response to songs by which musician?

Skynyrd answered Neil Young's 'Southern Man' and 'Alabama', which they felt blamed the whole South; the single reached number eight in 1974, and Young later said he deserved the jab.

Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1977 plane crash near Gillsburg, Mississippi, happened because the aircraft did what?

The Convair 240 ran out of fuel on 20 October 1977 and crashed into a swamp short of an emergency landing; Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines were among the six killed.

Duane Allman died in October 1971 following what kind of accident?

A motorcycle crash in Macon, Georgia, killed Allman at 24; a year later the band's bassist Berry Oakley died in another motorcycle crash just three blocks from the same spot.

Which 1979 Supertramp album spawned 'The Logical Song' and 'Goodbye Stranger'?

Breakfast in America took its title from a song Roger Hodgson wrote in his teens in England about a boy dreaming of the United States; the album later topped the US chart for six weeks.

Peter Gabriel left Genesis in 1975 after touring which concept album?

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour had barely begun when Gabriel told the band, in Cleveland in November 1974, that he would leave at its end; 'Solsbury Hill' is his song about the break.

Jethro Tull's 1971 album Aqualung addresses which themes alongside homelessness?

Religion and spirituality run through songs such as 'My God', whose attack on organised churches led critics to call Aqualung a concept album, a label the band has always denied.

Queen's A Night at the Opera takes its title from a film by which comedy troupe?

The Marx Brothers' 1935 comedy was watched by the band during the recording sessions, and they went on to befriend its star, Groucho Marx; the follow-up, A Day at the Races, borrowed another of the films.

Earth, Wind & Fire's 'September' was co-written by Maurice White and which later Friends-theme songwriter?

Allee Willis begged Maurice White to replace the nonsense 'ba-dee-ya' hook, but he refused; she said it taught her never to let a lyric get in the way of the groove.

Parliament's Mothership Connection (1975) was the first of their albums to feature horn players from whose band?

James Brown's former horn players Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley joined for Mothership Connection, whose spaceship became a prop that landed on stage; a replica now sits in the Smithsonian.

Which soul singer's 'Let's Stay Together', produced by Willie Mitchell, topped the US chart in 1972?

Al Green wrote the words in minutes, but by his producer's count the recording took over a hundred hours, as he was coached to stop belting like other soul stars and sing in his own voice.

Which Academy Award did Isaac Hayes win for 'Theme from Shaft' in 1972?

Best Original Song went to Hayes for a score he had agreed to write only after being promised an audition for the film's lead role; the audition never came, but the Oscar did.

Whose 1972 soundtrack to the film Super Fly included the hit 'Freddie's Dead'?

Curtis Mayfield thought the film made cocaine look attractive and wrote his lyrics as a running commentary against it; 'Freddie's Dead' and the title track both reached the US top ten.

Which 1960s TV doctor first recorded '(They Long to Be) Close to You' in 1963?

Richard Chamberlain, then TV's Dr. Kildare, cut it in 1963 as a B-side; Herb Alpert later tried the song, shelved his version and handed it to the Carpenters, who took it to number one in 1970.

'Take Me Home, Country Roads' praises West Virginia, but its writers began it while driving along a road in which state?

Maryland's Clopper Road is where Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert began the song; Danoff knew West Virginia mostly from a Wheeling radio station he picked up as a boy in Massachusetts.

Which Jim Croce single reached number one after his death in a September 1973 plane crash?

'Time in a Bottle' was written the night Croce learned he was going to be a father; it stayed an album track until a TV movie used it, and demand after his death made it a number-one single.

Harry Chapin's only US number one, 'Cat's in the Cradle', began as a poem written by whom?

His wife Sandy wrote the poem about her first husband's distant relationship with his own father; Chapin joked that she had written it to zap him for missing their son's birth.

'Wild World' and 'Father and Son' both appear on which 1970 Cat Stevens album?

Tea for the Tillerman holds both songs; 'Father and Son' began as a number for a musical about the Russian Revolution, shelved when Stevens fell seriously ill with tuberculosis.

James Taylor's 'Fire and Rain' was partly a reaction to what event?

A childhood friend's suicide was kept from Taylor for months so it would not distract him from recording his first album; the song also takes in his addiction.

Barry Manilow's 'Mandy' was retitled from 'Brandy' to avoid confusion with a hit by which group?

Looking Glass's 1972 chart-topper 'Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)' forced the change; Scott English's original 'Brandy' had been a UK hit, and Manilow said he recorded the song against his own instincts.

Which Grease duet was a US and UK number one for John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John?

'You're the One That I Want' was not in the stage show: John Farrar, Olivia Newton-John's producer, wrote it for the film in place of the original number, 'All Choked Up'.

'Maggie May' was originally released as the B-side to which Rod Stewart single?

'Reason to Believe', a Tim Hardin cover, was the A-side until DJs flipped the record; 'Maggie May' topped the US and UK charts and John Peel mimed mandolin with the Faces on Top of the Pops.

Whose 'You Light Up My Life' spent ten straight weeks at US number one in 1977?

Debby Boone said she sang it to God, though its writer Joseph Brooks had meant a love song; the version heard in the film had been sung by Kasey Cisyk.

Bob Seger's 'Night Moves' was his first hit single since which 1969 song?

'Ramblin' Gamblin' Man' reached number 17 in 1969 with a teenage Glenn Frey on backing vocals; Seger then stayed a Michigan favourite for years until 'Night Moves' took him to number four.

Dolly Parton wrote 'I Will Always Love You' as a farewell to which mentor and business partner?

Porter Wagoner was the partner Parton was leaving when she wrote it in 1973; she later refused to let Elvis record it because his manager demanded half the publishing rights.

Which singer learned 'Rhinestone Cowboy' on a tour of Australia, then took it to US number one in 1975?

Glen Campbell fell for Larry Weiss's little-noticed original and learned it on the tour; back home, his label offered him a 'great new song' that turned out to be the very same one.

Which singer made 'The Gambler' his signature hit in 1978?

Kenny Rogers had the hit after Bobby Bare and Johnny Cash had both recorded the song; Don Schlitz wrote it at 23 while working nights as a computer operator at Vanderbilt University.

Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger (1975) was his first album for which label?

Columbia signed Nelson in 1975 with total creative control and nearly rejected the sparse album as a demo; the concept came from a song he used to play as a Fort Worth DJ.

Which band joined the Allman Brothers and The Band at Watkins Glen in 1973?

The Grateful Dead played to an estimated 600,000 people on 28 July 1973; only a fraction had bought tickets, so the gates were left open and most of the crowd got in free.

Which 1970 festival is often acknowledged as larger than Woodstock?

The Isle of Wight Festival drew an estimated 600,000 people in August 1970, so many of them without tickets that the organisers gave in and declared it a free event.

Which two bands co-headlined the 1974 California Jam at Ontario Motor Speedway?

Deep Purple and Emerson, Lake & Palmer closed the ABC-televised show: Ritchie Blackmore attacked a TV camera with his guitar, and Keith Emerson played a grand piano as it spun end over end.

In which city did Jim Morrison die in July 1971?

Paris: he was found in the bathtub of his apartment, witness accounts of the death conflict, and his grave at Père Lachaise cemetery is one of the city's most visited.

Which Kris Kristofferson song gave Janis Joplin a posthumous US number one in March 1971?

'Me and Bobby McGee' topped the Hot 100 in March 1971, five months after Joplin's heroin overdose at 27; Kristofferson wrote it with Fred Foster, who supplied the title.

Which 1971 album was the first Jimi Hendrix release to appear after his death?

The Cry of Love, assembled by Eddie Kramer and Mitch Mitchell from Hendrix's final sessions, came out in March 1971, six months after his death in London at 27.

Three Dog Night's 1971 hit 'Joy to the World' was written by whom?

Hoyt Axton wrote it for a children's TV project that never happened; Three Dog Night's version, opening with 'Jeremiah was a bullfrog', topped the Hot 100 for six weeks in 1971.

Captain & Tennille's 1975 hit 'Love Will Keep Us Together' was written by which duo?

Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield wrote it, and Sedaka's own 1973 version preceded the hit; the fade-out chant 'Sedaka is back' was Toni Tennille's tribute to the writer.

'Silly Love Songs' (1976) was written as a rebuttal to critics and which former bandmate?

John Lennon had mocked his old partner's sentimental songs; McCartney's reply asked what was wrong with that, and it became one of the biggest hits of 1976.

Which band's debut single 'My Sharona' was Billboard's top pop single of 1979?

The Knack's Doug Fieger wrote it about Sharona Alperin, a high-school student he had fallen for; she appears on the single's sleeve and later became an estate agent to celebrities.

Which group's 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree' topped US and UK charts in April 1973?

Tony Orlando and Dawn's ribbon song topped the Hot 100 for four weeks and the UK chart for four, and its yellow ribbon became a symbol for absent loved ones, later for the Iran hostages.

Which composer co-wrote Barbra Streisand's 'The Way We Were' with Alan and Marilyn Bergman?

Marvin Hamlisch, once Streisand's rehearsal pianist on Funny Girl, ignored her request for a minor key and wrote the melody in major so the sad lyric would not give itself away too soon.

The 1977 single '"Heroes"' was recorded at Hansa Studio 2 in which city?

West Berlin's Hansa studio stood beside the Wall; Bowie watched his producer Tony Visconti kiss a backing singer there and wrote the lovers into the song.

Which singer's 1978 debut single 'Wuthering Heights' topped the UK chart for four weeks?

Kate Bush wrote it at 18 in a single evening after catching the end of a TV adaptation, before she had read the novel through; she later found she shared a 30 July birthday with its author, Emily Brontë.

Which band won a record deal after DJ Charlie Gillett played their 1977 demo of 'Sultans of Swing' on BBC radio?

Dire Straits made the demo cheaply in July 1977; Gillett's plays on his BBC Radio London show set off a bidding war, and the band re-recorded the song for their debut album.

Which disco group topped the UK chart in 1978 with 'Rivers of Babylon', a cover of a Jamaican reggae song?

Boney M.'s cover spent five weeks at UK number one; the Melodians' 1970 original, drawn from Psalm 137, had been a Rastafarian anthem and was heard in the film The Harder They Come.

Which Aerosmith song stalled at 59 in 1973, then made the top ten in 1976?

'Dream On' grew from chords Steven Tyler traced to lying under the piano as a small boy while his father played classical music; the 1976 reissue carried it to number six.

Three of Talking Heads' four members first met at which institution?

Rhode Island School of Design is where David Byrne and Chris Frantz formed a band called the Artistics; Frantz's girlfriend Tina Weymouth became their bassist once the three had moved to New York.

Lou Reed's 'Walk on the Wild Side' (1972) was produced by Mick Ronson and which star?

David Bowie, a long-time fan of Reed's, co-produced it in London and booked Ronnie Ross, the jazzman who had taught him saxophone as a boy, to play the closing solo.

The Bay City Rollers, the 'tartan teen sensations', came from which city?

Edinburgh's Rollers reportedly chose their name by throwing a dart at a map of the United States, rejecting Arkansas before a second throw landed near Bay City, Michigan.

10cc's 'I'm Not in Love' is famous for a backing track built mostly from what?

Multitracked vocals: the band sang single notes again and again to build a wordless choir on tape loops, after their drummer dismissed the first bossa nova version as rubbish.

Which actor did Carly Simon confirm in 2015 inspired a verse of 'You're So Vain'?

Warren Beatty is the subject of the second verse only, Simon said in 2015, adding that he 'thinks the whole thing is about him'; she did not name the other two men.

Which rock star sang uncredited backing vocals on Carly Simon's 'You're So Vain'?

Mick Jagger, visiting Trident Studios in London in 1972, joined the chorus uncredited; Simon has said the song is not about him.

On which Great Lake did the Edmund Fitzgerald sink in 1975, inspiring Gordon Lightfoot's ballad?

Lake Superior took the freighter and all 29 crew in a storm in November 1975; Lightfoot wrote the ballad after reading a Newsweek report, and in 2010 changed a line that implied crew error.

Which Heart single did Ann Wilson write in fury at a sleazy rumour?

'Barracuda' came after a promoter asked Ann Wilson about her 'lover', meaning her sister Nancy; the rumour traced back to a publicity stunt by the band's label, Mushroom, which Heart soon left.

Dolly Parton's 'Jolene', inspired by a bank clerk who flirted with her husband, has 'flaming locks' of what colour hair?

Auburn hair, like Jolene's green eyes and her name, came from a young fan who asked Parton for an autograph; only the jealousy came from the red-headed bank clerk.

Which Bill Withers single topped the Hot 100 in July 1972?

'Lean on Me' came to Withers as he ran his fingers up and down a newly bought piano; it draws on the neighbourliness of the West Virginia coal town where he grew up.

Which Billy Joel song from The Stranger sold faster once radio stations dropped it as anti-Catholic?

Only the Good Die Young, about a boy pursuing a Catholic girl named Virginia, was languishing until the bans; Joel said the album started shooting up the charts the minute they banned it.

On the cover of Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen leans on the shoulder of which E Street Band member?

Clarence Clemons, the 'Big Man' on saxophone, is the shoulder Springsteen leans on; the album took from January 1974 to July 1975 to make, six months of it spent on the title track alone.

In 'Sweet Home Alabama', which Alabama town 'has got the Swampers', its famed studio session players?

Muscle Shoals was where Skynyrd made their first recordings, and the line salutes its studio band; none of the song's three writers came from Alabama, and Ed King was a Californian.

Which London landmark appears on the cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals, with an inflatable pig floating above it?

Battersea Power Station had the inflatable pig tethered between its chimneys for the photo shoot; it broke its moorings, drifted over Heathrow and caused flights to be cancelled.

Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson is famous for playing which instrument, often while standing on one leg?

Flute became Anderson's instrument after he gave up electric guitar, reportedly sure he would never match Eric Clapton; the one-legged stance began as a way to balance while playing harmonica.

Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' came from an album in which each track evoked a different what?

On I Remember Yesterday (1977) each track evoked a different musical decade, from 1940s swing to 1960s girl groups, with 'I Feel Love' as the closing glimpse of the future.

'Fire and Rain' (1970) was the second single from which album?

Sweet Baby James took its title from a cowboy lullaby Taylor wrote for his newborn nephew, who had been named after him; 'Fire and Rain' reached number three.

Michael Jackson's first solo number one, 'Ben', is a ballad from a 1972 horror sequel sung to which kind of animal?

A rat called Ben befriends a lonely boy in the film, a follow-up to the killer-rodent hit Willard. The tender theme went on to win a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination.

In Rupert Holmes's 1979 chart-topper 'Escape', a bored man answers a personal ad seeking a lover of which cocktail?

Piña coladas were a last-minute swap: the refrain first named Humphrey Bogart. The ad turns out to come from the man's own partner, and the single was the final number one of the 1970s.

In the Charlie Daniels Band's 1979 hit 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia', Johnny duels Satan on which instrument?

Fiddle playing saves Johnny's soul and wins him a golden instrument from the Devil. Charlie Daniels wrote the song after noticing that his band's new album had nothing to show off his bow.

Which 1970 Joni Mitchell song protests against a paradise being covered over to make way for a car park?

Big Yellow Taxi was written on her first trip to Hawaii, after she threw back the hotel curtains to see green mountains in the distance and a vast parking lot below.

In Barry Manilow's 1978 hit 'Copacabana', which job does the showgirl's doomed sweetheart Tony hold at the club?

Bartender Tony dies after a brawl with a wealthy patron named Rico, and the showgirl grows old drinking at the same bar. The song won Manilow his first Grammy.

Paper Lace's 1974 number one 'The Night Chicago Died' imagines police in a gun battle with which gangster's men?

Al Capone's gang never fought the battle: the song's British writers invented it, loosely inspired by the St Valentine's Day Massacre, in which no real police took part.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's 1970 protest single 'Ohio' was written in angry response to which event?

The Kent State shootings, in which National Guardsmen killed student protesters, moved the song's writer as soon as he saw the photographs in Life magazine. Some AM stations banned it.

Labelle's 1975 number one 'Lady Marmalade', with its French refrain, was written after Bob Crewe visited which city?

New Orleans also supplied the groove: local producer Allen Toussaint recorded it with the city's funk band the Meters. Patti LaBelle said she had no idea what the song was about.

Bob Dylan's 1975 protest song 'Hurricane' argues that which boxer was wrongly convicted of a triple murder?

Rubin Carter got a prison visit from Dylan, who had just read his autobiography. The murder conviction the song attacks was eventually overturned.

Whose 1971 show at the Troubadour club inspired the lyric of the 1973 number one 'Killing Me Softly with His Song'?

Don McLean so moved the young singer Lori Lieberman that she began scribbling notes on a napkin during his set. Her lyricist turned the idea into the ballad.

Melanie's 1971 number one 'Brand New Key' is sung by a girl trying to catch a boy's eye on what?

Roller skates gave the tune its nickname, The Rollerskate Song. Melanie said she wrote it in about fifteen minutes, and some radio stations banned it for supposed innuendo.

C. W. McCall's 1976 number one 'Convoy' is narrated in the slang of which trucker craze of the time?

CB radio chatter drives the story of truckers defying the 55 mph speed limit, and the hit was big enough to inspire a 1978 Sam Peckinpah film of the same name.

Which 1972 Cat Stevens hit, with piano by Rick Wakeman, is a Christian hymn first published in 1931?

Morning Has Broken has words by the children's author Eleanor Farjeon, set to a Scottish Gaelic tune. Wakeman adapted a piano piece he had been saving for his own solo album.

Some US radio stations banned America's 1972 number one 'A Horse with No Name', hearing a reference to which drug?

Heroin is nicknamed horse, which was enough for stations such as WHB in Kansas City. The band said the song simply evoked the hot, dry desert of a Salvador Dalí painting.

Which Randy Newman hit of 1977 drew threats from listeners who missed that its bigoted lyric was a satire on prejudice?

Short People was meant to mock bigotry, yet a Maryland legislator tried to outlaw playing it on the radio. Newman later called the hit a bad break.

Dolly Parton's 1971 song 'Coat of Many Colors' recalls a childhood coat her mother stitched together from what?

Rags given to the family became the coat, and as she sewed, Parton's mother told her the Bible story of Joseph. The proud child was then laughed at in school.

Stevie Nicks used to introduce Fleetwood Mac's 'Rhiannon' on stage as a song about an old witch from which country?

Wales gave the name: Rhiannon is a goddess of Welsh legend, though Nicks found her in a 1970s novel and only learned of the myth years after writing the song.

The Eagles' 1972 debut single 'Take It Easy' made a street corner famous in which Arizona town?

Winslow is where co-writer Jackson Browne's car broke down on a road trip. In 1999 the town answered the song with a life-size bronze statue and a park named for the lyric.

Which New York Yankees announcer calls the baseball play-by-play in Meat Loaf's 'Paradise by the Dashboard Light'?

Phil Rizzuto insisted he never realised his commentary stood in for a teenage couple's fumbling in a parked car. Meat Loaf said he knew exactly what he was recording.

The Police's 1978 single 'Roxanne' borrowed its title name from the heroine of which play, seen on a hotel poster?

Cyrano de Bergerac was advertised on an old poster in the foyer of the band's seedy hotel, where Sting had been struck by the prostitutes working the streets outside.

Which teen idol sang lead on 'I Think I Love You', the 1970 number one by TV's fictional Partridge Family?

David Cassidy and his real-life stepmother Shirley Jones were the only cast members who sang on the records. The single came out a month before the sitcom first aired.

Which rock and roll pioneer scored his only Hot 100 number one in 1972 with the novelty song 'My Ding-a-Ling'?

Chuck Berry never topped the chart with Johnny B. Goode or Maybellene. He managed it with a 1952 Dave Bartholomew ditty so cheeky that some stations refused to play it.

Minnie Riperton's 1975 number one 'Lovin' You' began as a tune to occupy her baby daughter, which future comedian?

Maya Rudolph was in the studio the day it was recorded, and her mother can be heard singing her name as the album version fades out.

Barry Manilow's 1976 number one 'I Write the Songs' was actually written by Bruce Johnston, a member of which band?

The Beach Boys' Bruce Johnston says the 'I' of the song is God. Manilow hesitated to record it, fearing listeners would think he was bragging about himself.

Edwin Starr's 1970 number one 'War' was first recorded by which Motown group, whose version stayed an album track?

The Temptations cut it first, but Motown withheld their version as a single for fear of alienating the group's more conservative fans, and had the song remade with Starr.

Gladys Knight & the Pips' 1973 number one 'Midnight Train to Georgia' began as a song about a plane to which city?

Houston was where Farrah Fawcett told the songwriter she was flying that night to see her family. The train and Georgia arrived when the song was recut for the singer Cissy Houston.

MFSB's 1974 number one 'TSOP', the first TV theme to top the Hot 100, opened which dance show?

Soul Train host Don Cornelius refused to let the single carry his show's name, so the writers Gamble and Huff fell back on the initials of The Sound of Philadelphia.

Harry Nilsson's 1972 number one ballad 'Without You' was written and first recorded by which British rock band?

Badfinger's Pete Ham and Tom Evans wrote it for their 1970 album No Dice. Nilsson heard it at a party, and Mariah Carey made it an international chart-topper again in 1994.

Terry Jacks's 1974 number one 'Seasons in the Sun' reworked a song about a dying man by which Belgian singer?

Jacques Brel's dying man goes out heartbroken. Poet Rod McKuen wrote the English words, and Jacks changed them again so that the narrator slips away peacefully.

The Four Seasons' 1976 number one 'December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)' was first written about which event of 1933?

The repeal of Prohibition was the original theme, but the band disliked the lyric, so first-time lyricist Judy Parker rewrote it as a man recalling a first romance.

Which singer gave her final performance with the Supremes at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas in January 1970?

Diana Ross's replacement, Jean Terrell, was introduced to the audience at that same show, and a live recording of the night was later released under the title Farewell.

Karen Carpenter, lead singer of the Carpenters, started out as the duo's full-time player of which instrument?

Drums came first: she took them up in high school after admiring a classmate's playing, and wanted a Ludwig kit like Ringo Starr's. Singing out front came only gradually.

Which shock-rock singer, born Vincent Furnier, used a stage guillotine designed by the magician James Randi?

Alice Cooper was at first the name of the whole band; Furnier took it legally as his own in 1975. Randi sometimes appeared on stage as the executioner.

Which singer fled her husband and stage partner in Dallas in 1976 with just 36 cents and a gas credit card?

Tina Turner ran across a freeway to a Ramada Inn after Ike had fallen asleep at their hotel. The divorce left her with her stage name, which she carried into a solo career.

Queen singer Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara on which island, then a British protectorate off East Africa?

Zanzibar was home until 1964, when his Parsi family fled its revolution for Middlesex. He had been sent to boarding schools in India from the age of eight.

In the face-paint line-up of Kiss, which character did the fire-breathing bassist Gene Simmons play?

The Demon breathed fire and spat fake blood on stage, and the eye design of his makeup was borrowed from the wings of the comic-book character Black Bolt.

Which singer's early 1970s backing band included Glenn Frey and Don Henley, who went on to form the Eagles?

Linda Ronstadt's band also held Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner, the rest of the Eagles' first line-up. She later joined them on stage to sing lead on their song Desperado.

Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi forged his heavy sound after a sheet metal factory accident cost him what?

Two fingertips were sliced off on his last day in the job, when he was 17. He kept playing by fitting home-made thimbles melted down from a washing-up liquid bottle.

Which bass-playing rock singer had a recurring role as Leather Tuscadero on the sitcom Happy Days from 1977?

Suzi Quatro turned down a Leather Tuscadero spin-off for fear of being typecast. Her only American top 40 hit, the duet Stumblin' In, followed the television role.

Queen guitarist Brian May built his 'Red Special' guitar as a teenager with his father, using wood from what?

A fireplace mantel about a century old, which a family friend was about to throw away, became the guitar's neck. The instrument is sometimes nicknamed the Fireplace or the Old Lady.