99 Fun Facts About Classic Rock

Who played the riff that opens the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"?

Keith Richards said he recorded the riff on a cassette player in his sleep and found it on the tape the next morning; the single became the Stones' first US number one.

Which founding Pink Floyd frontman left the band in 1968?

Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd's original singer and guitarist, was eased out in April 1968 as his mental health collapsed; 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' (1975) is the band's tribute to him.

Which 1969 concept album by the Who included "Pinball Wizard"?

Tommy, the Who's 1969 double album about a 'deaf, dumb and blind' pinball champion, includes 'Pinball Wizard' and made the term 'rock opera' stick.

Who replaced Bon Scott as AC/DC's lead singer in 1980?

Brian Johnson joined AC/DC in April 1980, weeks after Bon Scott's death; Back in Black, his first album with the band, was released that July.

The Doors took their name from a book by which writer?

Aldous Huxley's 1954 essay The Doors of Perception, itself titled from a William Blake line, gave Jim Morrison's band its name.

What is Bruce Springsteen's nickname?

Springsteen was nicknamed 'The Boss' in his late-1960s bar-band days because he collected the gig money and handed out each member's share.

Which song did Jimi Hendrix drench in feedback and distortion at Woodstock?

Jimi Hendrix played 'The Star-Spangled Banner' in Woodstock's closing set on Monday morning, to a crowd that had dwindled to a fraction of its weekend peak.

Tom Petty was a member of which late-1980s supergroup?

The Traveling Wilburys formed in 1988 with Tom Petty alongside George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne; Petty recorded as 'Charlie T. Wilbury Jr.'

"Smoke on the Water" recounts a 1971 casino fire in which country?

The band had come to Montreux, Switzerland, to record Machine Head when the casino burned down in December 1971, so they recorded in the nearly empty Grand Hôtel instead.

"American Pie" mourns "the day the music died" — the 1959 crash that killed which star?

Buddy Holly died with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper in the February 3, 1959 plane crash; Don McLean, then a 13-year-old paperboy, learned of it from the papers he was delivering.

Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson is best known for playing which instrument?

The flute replaced Ian Anderson's electric guitar because he didn't want to be just another third-rate guitarist, and he learned it night after night on stage.

What was Elton John's birth name?

Reginald Kenneth Dwight legally became Elton Hercules John in 1972, borrowing from Bluesology bandmates Elton Dean and Long John Baldry; the other options became Sting, David Bowie and Cliff Richard.

Which 1964 single was the Kinks' international breakthrough?

'You Really Got Me', driven by Dave Davies' slashed-speaker guitar tone, topped the UK chart in September 1964 and reached the US top ten, the Kinks' first hit after two flops.

Billy Joel's nickname comes from which 1973 song?

'Piano Man' (1973) grew out of Billy Joel's stint playing a Los Angeles piano bar under the name Bill Martin after his debut album flopped; the nickname stuck for life.

Fans who followed Jerry Garcia's band were known as what?

Deadheads were free to tape the Grateful Dead's concerts and share the recordings, as long as nobody sold them; tapers even got a section behind the soundboard.

What were Led Zeppelin originally called?

Page, Plant, Jones and Bonham toured Scandinavia in September 1968 as the New Yardbirds to honour the Yardbirds' remaining dates, adopting the name Led Zeppelin that October.

On which Led Zeppelin album does "Kashmir" appear?

'Kashmir' closes side two of Physical Graffiti, Led Zeppelin's 1975 double album; Plant wrote the lyrics after a drive through southern Morocco, not the Kashmir region.

Which Dark Side of the Moon track became Pink Floyd's first US hit single?

"Money" opens with a seven-beat loop Roger Waters spliced from clinking coins, a cash register and tearing paper, and it reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Before Queen, Brian May and Roger Taylor played together in which band?

Smile featured Brian May, Roger Taylor and singer Tim Staffell; when Staffell left in 1970, his friend Freddie Mercury stepped in and renamed the band Queen.

Queen made the 'Bohemian Rhapsody' promo video so they wouldn't have to mime the song on which TV show?

Top of the Pops clashed with a tour date, and miming such a complex song would have looked odd, so Queen shot a promo; the single spent nine weeks at number one.

Which song opens the Who's 1971 album Who's Next?

'Baba O'Riley' opens Who's Next; its title fuses Townshend's guru Meher Baba with minimalist composer Terry Riley, and its looping intro was played on a Lowrey organ.

Which Grammy did "Hotel California" win in 1978?

'Hotel California' won Record of the Year at the 20th Grammy Awards in February 1978; Don Henley later summed the song up as 'a journey from innocence to experience'.

The four founding Eagles had all been recruited as a backing band for which singer?

Frey, Henley, Leadon and Meisner were assembled as Linda Ronstadt's touring band in 1971 and all play on her self-titled 1972 album before signing to David Geffen's Asylum Records.

"Sweet Home Alabama" was written as a riposte to which musician's songs?

Neil Young's 'Southern Man' and 'Alabama' struck Lynyrd Skynyrd as blaming the whole South, so 'Sweet Home Alabama' answers him by name: 'I hope Neil Young will remember.'

Why is the cover of AC/DC's Back in Black entirely black?

The all-black sleeve was the band's sign of mourning for Bon Scott, who died in February 1980; they recorded Back in Black that spring at Compass Point in the Bahamas.

Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith are nicknamed what?

Steven Tyler and Joe Perry were the Toxic Twins for their hard-partying drug use; Perry quit Aerosmith after a backstage fight in 1979 and rejoined in 1984.

Journey was formed in 1973 by former members of which band?

Santana alumni Neal Schon and Gregg Rolie formed Journey in San Francisco in 1973, joined by bassist Ross Valory, a Steve Miller Band alumnus.

Who is Springsteen leaning on in the famous Born to Run cover photo?

Clarence Clemons, the E Street Band's saxophonist, shares Eric Meola's cover photo with Springsteen, and the picture wraps around both sides of the LP sleeve.

On whose dairy farm was the 1969 Woodstock festival held?

Max Yasgur rented his 600-acre dairy farm in Bethel, New York, to the promoters after the original site near Wallkill backed out weeks before the August 1969 festival.

Eric Clapton's "Layla" was inspired by his secret love for whom?

Pattie Boyd was married to George Harrison when Clapton wrote 'Layla' in 1970; she divorced Harrison in 1977 and married Clapton in 1979.

Which Led Zeppelin member missed a writing credit on "Kashmir" for arriving late?

John Paul Jones arrived after Page and Bonham had worked up the riff, so 'Kashmir' is credited to Page, Plant and Bonham, though Jones arranged its orchestral parts.

Which session singer wails on Pink Floyd's "The Great Gig in the Sky"?

Clare Torry, a session singer suggested by engineer Alan Parsons, improvised the wordless vocal in a few takes one Sunday in January 1973 for a £30 fee; a 2005 settlement added her as co-writer.

Who's Next grew out of which abandoned Pete Townshend project?

Lifehouse, Townshend's abandoned science-fiction rock opera, supplied eight of Who's Next's nine songs; only John Entwistle's 'My Wife' came from elsewhere.

Which 1968 instrumental gave Fleetwood Mac a UK number one?

"Albatross", Peter Green's languid guitar instrumental, reached number one in the UK in January 1969 and remains Fleetwood Mac's only UK chart-topping single.

Who produced both Highway to Hell and Back in Black for AC/DC?

Robert 'Mutt' Lange produced Highway to Hell (1979) and Back in Black (1980), the latter cut in seven weeks at Compass Point in the Bahamas and mixed at Electric Lady in New York.

Bruce Springsteen spent six months recording 'Born to Run', chasing the sound of which producer's records?

Phil Spector's Wall of Sound was the model: Springsteen wanted the album to sound like Roy Orbison singing Bob Dylan, produced by Spector.

Whose concert was under way when the casino fire in 'Smoke on the Water' began?

Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention were mid-set when a fan fired a flare gun into the ceiling, and the blaze destroyed the casino and all the Mothers' equipment.

Which band did the Guinness Book of World Records list as 'the globe's loudest band' for a 1972 London concert?

Deep Purple hit 117 decibels at London's Rainbow Theatre, a volume that reportedly left three audience members unconscious.

Bob Seger co-wrote which number-one Eagles hit?

'Heartache Tonight', a 1979 number one, was written by Henley, Frey, J.D. Souther and Bob Seger, Frey's old Detroit friend; Seger's own Hot 100 number one was 'Shakedown' (1987).

Which earlier radio format, known by a three-letter abbreviation, spawned classic rock?

AOR, album-oriented rock, played album tracks that never charted as singles, and some AOR stations became classic rock by mixing familiar older songs with current hits.

Foreigner's Ian McDonald had been a founding member of which prog band?

Ian McDonald played saxophone and Mellotron on King Crimson's 1969 debut In the Court of the Crimson King before co-founding Foreigner in New York in 1976.

Who wrote Kansas's "Carry On Wayward Son"?

Kerry Livgren, Kansas's guitarist and keyboardist, wrote 'Carry On Wayward Son' at the last minute for 1976's Leftoverture; it became the band's first top-40 hit, reaching number 11.

Which manager refused Atlantic's requests to release 'Stairway to Heaven' as a US single?

Manager Peter Grant refused Atlantic's requests in both 1972 and 1973, so fans had to buy the fourth album to get 'Stairway to Heaven'; only a radio promo single was ever pressed.

Near which town did Lynyrd Skynyrd's chartered plane crash in October 1977?

The Convair 240 ran out of fuel between Greenville and Baton Rouge and came down in woods near Gillsburg, Mississippi, on 20 October 1977, killing Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines among others.

Which guitarist co-wrote "Free Bird" with Ronnie Van Zant?

Allen Collins had the music for 'Free Bird' two years before Van Zant added lyrics; released as a single in November 1974, it peaked at number 19 in early 1975.

Which band did AC/DC's second long-term singer front before joining in 1980?

Geordie, a Newcastle glam-rock band, reached the UK top ten in 1973 with 'All Because of You' before its singer left to join AC/DC.

Which Journey song plays over the final scene of The Sopranos?

'Don't Stop Believin'' took its title from advice Jonathan Cain's father gave him while he struggled in Los Angeles, and downloads soared after the finale.

Which Canadian band hired drummer Neil Peart two weeks before its first US tour?

Rush got a lyricist too: Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson had little interest in writing words, so Neil Peart took the job.

Which Aerosmith song peaked at number 59, then number six on its 1976 reissue?

'Dream On' was a big hit in Aerosmith's native Boston while stalling nationally, and the reissue became their best-charting single of the 1970s.

Which band's contract banned brown M&M's backstage as a test of whether promoters had read the technical details?

Van Halen buried the clause deep in a rider full of staging requirements. A brown M&M in the dressing-room bowl told the crew to recheck the whole production.

Lynyrd Skynyrd took their name from Leonard Skinner, who held what job at the members' Jacksonville high school?

Gym teacher Leonard Skinner strictly enforced the school's ban on long hair for boys, so the band mockingly borrowed his name. In 2009 he said he had only been following the rules.

Which singer bit the head off a bat during a 1982 concert in Des Moines, believing it was rubber?

Ozzy Osbourne said the bat was alive and bit him back, so he was vaccinated against rabies. In 2019 he marked the anniversary by selling a plush bat with a detachable head.

Which Chuck Berry song was launched into deep space in 1977 on the Voyager spacecraft's Golden Record?

Johnny B. Goode was a disputed pick for the disc. When Alan Lomax called rock music "adolescent", Carl Sagan replied, "There are a lot of adolescents on the planet."

Queen's Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara on which island, which his family fled during a 1964 revolution?

Zanzibar was a British protectorate when he was born in Stone Town to Parsi parents from India. He spent much of his childhood at boarding schools in India before the family settled in England.

Which Texas blues-rock trio kept the same three members for five decades, two of them sporting chest-length beards?

ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill came back from a late-1970s break wearing matching chest-length beards. The third member, the drummer, was named Frank Beard.

Which Fleetwood Mac album, recorded while the band's couples were breaking up, includes "Go Your Own Way"?

Rumours was made as the McVies divorced after eight years of marriage and the band's other couple fought constantly. Every song on it concerns a personal, often troubled relationship.

Which 1992 comedy film sent Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" back up the US charts with a head-banging car scene?

Wayne's World star Mike Myers threatened to quit unless the scene used the Queen song rather than a Guns N' Roses track. The film sent the 1975 single to number two in the United States.

Which instrument does Will Ferrell hammer in the Saturday Night Live sketch about recording "(Don't Fear) The Reaper"?

Cowbell really is on the Blue Öyster Cult record. It was overdubbed onto the original take, and the drummer, a bandmate and a producer have each been credited with playing it.

Which Beatles album cover shows the four band members walking single file, with Paul McCartney barefoot?

Abbey Road's cover was shot in August 1969 on the zebra crossing outside the studio, from an idea McCartney sketched. The crossing was given listed status in 2010 for its cultural and historical importance.

Which band's 1976 debut album, home to "More Than a Feeling", was largely recorded in guitarist Tom Scholz's basement?

Boston leader Tom Scholz called his studio a tiny space next to the furnace that flooded from time to time. The album became the best-selling debut LP in the US at the time.

Which future rock frontman studied finance and accounting at the London School of Economics in the early 1960s?

Mick Jagger abandoned his degree to commit to the Rolling Stones. Four decades later he was knighted for his services to popular music.

Which American rock singer died in Paris in 1971 aged 27 and is buried in the city's Père Lachaise Cemetery?

Jim Morrison shares the cemetery, one of the most visited sights in Paris, with Oscar Wilde and Édith Piaf. The Doors carried on briefly as a trio without him.

Which singer's cover of "Me and Bobby McGee" reached number one in 1971, months after her death?

Janis Joplin recorded it for Pearl, which became the biggest-selling album of her career. Its co-writer, Kris Kristofferson, had been one of her lovers.

David Bowie stunned fans at London's Hammersmith Odeon in 1973 by retiring which alien rock-star persona on stage?

Ziggy Stardust was dropped just before the final song, when Bowie called it "the last show that we'll ever do". He had modelled the character partly on Vince Taylor, a singer who believed himself part god, part alien.

At which 1967 California festival did Jimi Hendrix set his guitar on fire before smashing it on stage?

Monterey Pop found him hiding a can of lighter fluid behind his amplifiers before the set, determined to outdo the Who's explosive finale.

Which guitarist was known for playing his guitar with a bow during live versions of "Dazed and Confused"?

Jimmy Page developed the trick in his days as a session musician, years before Led Zeppelin existed. The bow adds a droning texture to the sound.

Which Pink Floyd double album follows a jaded rock star named Pink as he shuts himself off from the world?

The Wall began after bassist Roger Waters spat on a noisy fan at a 1977 Montreal show, then pictured a barrier across the stage between band and audience.

Which city won the right to host the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by arguing a local DJ named the genre?

Cleveland built its case on disc jockey Alan Freed, who promoted the new music on local radio, and pledged $65 million in public funds. The museum was dedicated in 1995.

Which band's members performed as comic-book characters called the Starchild, the Demon, the Spaceman and the Catman?

Kiss hid their faces behind the makeup for a decade, first appearing in public without it on MTV in 1983.

Which Led Zeppelin drummer's death in 1980 led the surviving members to disband rather than replace him?

John Bonham died after a day of heavy drinking. That December the band announced that, out of respect for him and his family, they "could not continue as we were".

Which singer joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975 because Lindsey Buckingham insisted the two of them were "a package deal"?

Stevie Nicks came along only because the band wanted her boyfriend as its new guitarist. Its drummer had heard the couple's duo album while looking over a California studio.

Which group, Bruce Springsteen's main backing musicians since 1972, is named after where an early member's mother lived?

The E Street Band rehearsed in that mother's garage in Belmar, New Jersey. It went without a formal name for its first two years.

Which Birmingham band renamed itself after a Boris Karloff horror film showing at a cinema opposite its rehearsal room?

Black Sabbath's bassist watched people queue for the film and found it strange that they would spend so much to be scared. The band, then called Earth, took the hint.

Queen's celebrated twenty-one-minute set at Wembley Stadium in July 1985 was part of which charity concert?

Live Aid put Queen on stage at 6:41 pm. Twenty years on, a poll of artists, journalists and industry executives voted their set the greatest live performance in rock history.

Which Bruce Springsteen song about a Vietnam veteran's bitter homecoming is widely mistaken for a celebration?

Born in the U.S.A. sets desperate verses against an anthemic chorus. Ronald Reagan invoked Springsteen in a 1984 campaign speech in New Jersey, though the singer did not support him.

Which songwriter said Jimi Hendrix's cover of "All Along the Watchtower" overwhelmed him and reshaped his own version?

Bob Dylan released his sparse original months before the cover. He later said that singing it always felt like a tribute to Hendrix in some way.

In which subject did Queen guitarist Brian May earn a PhD in 2007, for research he began in 1971?

Astrophysics was his field before the band took off: he had been studying interplanetary dust at Imperial College London, and went back to finish the thesis over three decades later.

Which British band's drummer, Rick Allen, kept his place by relearning the drums after losing an arm in a car crash?

Def Leppard waited while he learned to play his left arm's parts with his foot on a custom electronic kit. The band then entered its most commercially successful phase.

Which band, fronted by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, scored hits with "Barracuda" and "Crazy on You"?

Heart left Mushroom Records after the label ran an advert showing the bare-shouldered sisters above the caption "It was only our first time!"

Which singer's 1977 album Bat Out of Hell grew out of a futuristic rock musical based on Peter Pan?

Meat Loaf and composer Jim Steinman spent two and a half years being turned down by record labels. The album they could not sell became one of the best-selling of all time.

Which guitarist's 1976 double live album made the "talk box" effect famous and became that year's best-selling album?

Peter Frampton had made four studio albums with little success before the concert set broke through. It sold at a discount, costing only a dollar more than a single disc.

Which 1960s power trio teamed Eric Clapton with bassist Jack Bruce and is widely considered rock's first supergroup?

Cream came together in a car: when Clapton made Bruce's hiring his condition for joining, the drummer was so surprised that he almost crashed, by Clapton's account.

George Harrison and Ravi Shankar staged 1971 benefit concerts at Madison Square Garden for refugees from which country?

Bangladesh's plight appalled the Bengali musician Shankar, who brought it to his friend's attention. The two shows were the first benefit of such magnitude, with the proceeds administered by UNICEF.

Which Rolling Stones album arrived in an Andy Warhol sleeve with a working zip on a pair of jeans?

Sticky Fingers reportedly drew complaints from retailers because the zip dented the vinyl in stacked shipments. The fix was to ship it pulled halfway down, where it did less harm.

Which drummer of the Who passed out mid-concert in 1973 and was replaced on stage by a fan from the audience?

Keith Moon had taken a mixture of sedatives and brandy before the California show. Scot Halpin, a drummer in the crowd, came up and played the rest of the set.

Which lyricist teamed up with Elton John after both answered the same 1967 advert in the New Musical Express?

Bernie Taupin was 17 when he replied to the Liberty Records notice seeking new songwriters. He has been the singer's main lyricist ever since, apart from a break in the late 1970s.

The Rolling Stones recorded much of Exile on Main St. as tax exiles in a villa basement in which country?

France took the band in after years of underpaid British taxes forced them out of England. Finding no suitable studio, they turned a villa cellar near Nice into one, using their mobile recording truck.

Which TV host cancelled six further bookings of the Doors after the word "higher" was sung on live television?

Ed Sullivan's network had asked for the word to be cut from "Light My Fire" as a possible drug reference, by the keyboard player's account. It went out on national television anyway.

Which Illinois band took its name from a 1915 truck after a founder saw the words written on a blackboard?

REO Speedwagon spell out the three letters, the initials of the truck's designer Ransom Eli Olds. His motor company pronounced them as one word, "REE-oh".

Which band did Donald Fagen and Walter Becker name after an object in William S. Burroughs's novel Naked Lunch?

Steely Dan's founders were fans of Beat Generation literature. Rolling Stone magazine later called the pair "the perfect musical antiheroes for the seventies".

Which Martin Scorsese concert film captured the Band's star-studded show on Thanksgiving Day 1976?

The Last Waltz was billed as the group's farewell concert and staged at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom, the same hall where it had made its debut in 1969.

Which nickname does "Sweet Home Alabama" give the Muscle Shoals session players who backed Aretha Franklin?

The Swampers also worked on hits for the Rolling Stones, Paul Simon and Rod Stewart. A 2013 documentary film was made about them.

Which design studio, named after a word scrawled on its founders' door, made Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon sleeve?

Hipgnosis loved a visual pun, and one angered Led Zeppelin's guitarist: a tennis racquet offered for Houses of the Holy, hinting that the band made a racket.

At which former Hampshire workhouse did Led Zeppelin record the booming drums of "When the Levee Breaks" in a hallway?

Headley Grange also supplied a song title: "Black Dog" was named after a black Labrador found hanging around the house during recording.

Which promoter, who fled Nazi Germany as a child, ran San Francisco's Fillmore and New York's Fillmore East?

Bill Graham reached the United States as one of the One Thousand Children, Jewish child refugees from Nazi persecution. He first booked the Fillmore in 1965 for a mime troupe's benefit.

Which prairie city produced both the Guess Who and Bachman–Turner Overdrive, linked by guitarist Randy Bachman?

Winnipeg guitarist Randy Bachman left the first group and built the second with his brothers. Its last word came from a trucker's magazine the band spotted at a steakhouse.

Which Doobie Brothers guitarist, nicknamed "Skunk", later advised members of the US Congress on missile defense?

Jeff Baxter taught himself the subject after a neighbour who had worked on the Sidewinder program got him reading Aviation Week. A short paper on adapting the Aegis system launched his consulting career.

Which Greenwich Village studio did Jimi Hendrix commission, only to record there for ten weeks before his death?

Electric Lady rose from a defunct nightclub he had bought with his manager. It went on to host sessions by Led Zeppelin and David Bowie.

At which English university's refectory did the Who record their celebrated live album on Valentine's Day 1970?

Leeds was one of two dates the band booked purely to tape a concert album. The original record label carried a handwritten note telling engineers not to remove any crackling noise.