Unbelievable And Stange Facts In Music History

#1 Happy Birthday

The song "Happy Birthday To You" is copyrighted. The owners of the song, publisher Warner Chappell, charge each time the song is sang or played anywhere in the world. It costs filmmakers over $10,000 to use the song in a movie and $4,200 to be performed at a public event. The song earns the company about $2 million every year, though the copyright is set to expire in 2030 in the US and in 2016 elsewhere.

#2 The 27 Club

Whether due to overdoses, suicides, murders, or even natural causes, many iconic musicians never lived to see age 28. The apparent frequency with which artists have seemed to die when they are 27 years old has led to the idea of the so-called '27 Club'. Reportedly beginning as early as 1892 with the death of a famous Brazillian pianist and claiming the life of legendary blues performer Robert Johnson in 1938. But the 27 Clubs peak era was 1969 to 1971 as these years saw the passing of notable musicians like Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison. The 'Club' gained renewed attention in 1994 with Kurt Cobain's death, and then in the new millennium with the passing of Amy Winehouse in 2011.

#3 Tony Iommi

Tony Iommi's missing fingertips: At the age of 17, and working his very last day at a sheet metal factory, Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi cut off the tips of his right middle and ring fingers in a pressing machine. Being left handed this should have meant the end of his playing days but Iommi instead created new fingertips out of leather strips and melted dish soap bottles. For playability, the guitarist began tuning his guitar to D Flat instead of E Standard which had the additional effect of giving his music a deep, low, and menacing sound. It shaped what would become 'heavy metal music'.

#4 Celine Dione

Her huge song, and the theme to the movie Titanic, "My Heart Will Go On," was recorded in one take. Now viewed as her signature song, the ballad to sink a ship almost didn't happen. Celine didn't like it, and the film's director James Cameron didn't want to use it.Producer Simon Franklin, who had worked with Celine previously, opted to record a demo anyway, and her husband and manager Rene Angelil forced her to do the demo for his friend, and when they heard it played back they used the demo version for the film. It was perfect.

#5 Mariah Carey

Classified as an alto, Mariah Carey began singing an imitation of her mother, a mezzo-soprano opera singer, when she was just three years old. Her vocal range spans five plus octaves from E2 through G# 7 which includes a full and controlled whistle register on the high end of things put her in the Guinness Book of World records. The diva claims her increased ability in the higher octaves stems from nodules on her vocal cords which have allowed the singer to hit some of the highest notes ever produced by human voice.

#6 Elvis Presley

Not many know this but the King of Rock & Roll was a blonde. The most interesting fact about the man known to be full of facts is that his jet black hair came from a bottle. Miss Clairol 51D, to be exact. Born light blonde, Elvis' hair grew to a sandy blonde by high school and later changed to a chestnut color during his service in the army. He began coloring his hair black in the middle 50s and continued to do so until his death in 1977.

#7 Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Screamin' Jay Hawkins, a shock-rock pioneer, famous for his hit "I Put A Spell On You" is also know for something bigger. He claims to have at least 50 illegitimate children. Sources, however, claim he has around 75 children in total, and only six are with his wife. Following his death in 2000, a website was set up to help track his vastly sewn seed. There were over 2,000 submissions and of those, 33 were confirmed to be the performers offspring.In 2001 the offspring began holding an annual reunion to celebrate daddy dearest.

#8 The Beatles

By April of 1964 Beatlemania had arrived in America in full force. Although not yet bigger than Jesus, the Fab Four managed to take all five top position on the Billboard Hott 100 on April 4th. That week, Can't Buy Me Love was number one, followed by Twist And Shout, She Loves You, I Want To Hold Your Hand, and Please Please Me at number five. The Beatles are the only act to ever completely hold the charts top five spots. Can'tBuy Me Love's jump from #26 to the number one position was also the largest leap ever until Kelly Clarkson's 'A Moment Like This" hit number one from #52 in 2002.

#9 Rick Allen

Rick Allen of the band Def Leppard, nearly had his career cut short in 1974 when a car accident resulted in the drummer losing his left arm. Although the doctors were able to reattach the limb, gangrene set in and forced hit to undergo a full amputation. Alan discovered however that he could keep good time with his remaining limbs and set out to piece together an electronic kit with additional foot triggers, and then developed a modified playing style the vocalist Joe Elliot claims is actually superior to the drummers playing before his accident.

#10 Pink Floyd

The Dark Side Of The Moon had a 14-year chart run for the band Pink Floyd. Recorded in 1972 and 1973, material from The Dark Side Of The Moon was actually debuted by Pink Floyd while they toured prior to the album's release. The game-changing album stayed on the Billboard charts for a record-setting seven hundred and forty-one weeks starting with the number one spot on the top LP chart in March of 1973. It only finally dropped off in 1988 but the album has reappeared on the charts several times thereafter including during the middle 90s and in 2002. To date, the album has clocked in 867 non-consecutive weeks on the top album charts.

#11 Japan VS Greece

The not only compete against one another in sporting events, the two countries hold records for something extreme in the musical field as well. Japan has the shortest national Anthem, at just four lines,while Greece has the world's longest national anthem. The anthem has 158 stanzas!

#12 Rod Stewart

Rocker Rod Stewart holds a big record as well, for the largest audience at a concert ever! His 1994 New Years Eve concert in Rio was the world's largest concert to date with an audience of over 3.6 million in the streets and neighbourhoods around the outdoor stage!

#13 Michael Nesmith

The Monkee's Michael Nesmith has a famous mom. She invented Liquid Paper, or what we now call 'white out'.

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