Go down a rabbit-hole of pop culture facts
James Best was born Jewel Franklin Guy on July 26, 1926 in Powderly, Kentucky, to Lark and Lena Guy.
Lena was the sister of Ike Everly, the father of the pop duo The Everly Brothers.
Lena died of tuberculosis in 1929, then three-year-old James was sent to live in an orphanage. He was later adopted by Armen Best and his wife, Essa and went to live with them in Corydon, Indiana.
Christina Ricci’s dad, Ralph Ricci was a primal scream therapist and would hold sessions in the basement of the family home; much to the mirth of Christina and her three siblings.
Her parents divorced when she was 13 and she has had no contact with her dad since she was 15.
Andre 3000 is the father of Erykah’s first child, her son Seven Sirius Benjamin, who was born in November 1997. Andre and Badu split in 1999.
He wanted Badu’s mother to hear his side of the story, as he felt he was being portrayed as a bad father, and that Badu kept him away from their child on purpose.
Andre 3000 explained in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “I probably would never come out and tell Erykah’s mom, ‘I’m sorry for what went down.’ But music gives you the chance to say what you want to say.”
The intro dedicates it to “my baby’s mamas’ mama.”
Badu’s mum wasn’ called Ms Jackson but apparently knew immediately, when she heard it, that it was addressed to her. Badu claims that her mother, Kolleen Maria Gipson, loved he so so much that she “bought herself a ‘Ms. Jackson’ license plate!”
Badu has two other children; a daughter named Puma to West Coast rapper The D.O.C. and another daughter named Mars to Jay Electronica.
To be clear not actually Bernard Sumner, but rather, the actor who portrayed Sumner in the 2002 film 24 Hour Party People – John Simm (who would also later play the main protagonist in the British TV show Life On Mars) was in a band called Magic Alex until they split in 2005 having toured twice with Echo & the Bunnymen and releasing one album.
Magic Alex was the nickname bestowed upon Yannis Alex Mardas by John Lennon who with the Beatles had employed as the head of Apple Electronics, a division of their Apple Corporation (not to be confused with the other Apple who make various electronic goods such as laptops and the iPhone).
Mardas had arrived in London in 1965 from Greece, and while earning a living as a self taught Tv repairman, as an artist exhibited his Kinetic Light Sculptures at the Indica Gallery, which is how he met Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones who he convinced to hire him to build a psychedelic light box which was to be used on a European tour but in the end disappointed.
Despite this (or because?) Jones introduced Mardas to John Lennon, who, after spending hours, under the influence of LSD, staring at a small plastic box with randomly blinking lights on it that Mardas had built – called The Nothing Box, would declare as his “new guru”, dubbing him “Magic Alex” and introducing him to rest of The Beatles.
Allegedly “Magic Alex” discussed plans of several inventions he was working on including a telephone that responded to its owner’s voice and could identify who was calling, a force field that would surround the Beatles’ homes, an X-ray camera, paint that would make anything invisible, car paint that would change colour by flicking a switch, and wallpaper speakers – although Mardas would later deny any such claims were ever made.
In 1967 he was commissioned by The Beatles to create one of his ideas; an “artificial sun” which would light up the night-time sky, as part of the opening event or their Apple Boutique. But when the time came for Mardas to demonstrate his artificial sun for the Beatles, he claimed that there was not a strong enough energy supply to power it which despite the great expense of the project, the accepted.
He also claimed, much to he chagrin of producer George Martin that the Abbey Road studio was “no good” and that he’d build an alternative, with a 72-track tape machine – and he was commissioned to do so in the basement of Apple HQ on Saville Row. In January 1969 when they came to use the new studio found no 72-track tape deck (Mardas had reduced it to 16 tracks), no soundproofing, no talkback (intercom) system, and not even a patch bay to run the wiring between the control room and the 16 speakers that Mardas had fixed haphazardly to the walls. The only new piece of sound equipment present was a crude mixing console which Mardas had built, which looked (in the words of Martin’s assistant, Dave Harries) like “bits of wood and an old oscilloscope”.
He finally left employment with The Beatles after Allen Klein was brought in to manage in 1969. It was later estimated that Mardas and his various projects cost the group in excess of 5 million pounds in todays money.
Mardas became a security consultant during the 1970s with many of his products and clients experiencing safety concerns.
Tupac was fatally wounded in a drive-by shooting 1996, and as he was dying on the hospital bed, his girlfriend slipped on a cassette of his favourite song to ensure it wad the last thing he ever heard. It was “Vincent” by Don McLean from his1970 American Pie album.
Lewis Collins who most famously played Bodie in the late70s/early80s British action TV show The Professionals, used to work at the same hairdressers, Andre Bernard Salon, on Ranelagh Street in Liverpool, as Paul McCartney’s younger brother, Mike.
He was a drummer, and had been in a high school band The Renegades. He was at the McCartney home with Mike writing songs when Pete Best was dropped from The Beatles.
Mike McCartney suggested Collins as a possible replacement to Paul, but Lewis turned down the opportunity to audition for the Beatles, Collins opted to continue drumming on a more amateur basis, playing for a number of local bands, including The Eyes and The Georgians.
He quit hairdressing in 1964 to become the bass player for The Mojos, performing on their charting singles “Goodbye Dolly Gray” and “Until My Baby Comes Home”.
Before they were Destinys Child they were, what TV host Ed McMahon awkwardly called a “hip-hop rappin’ group” – Girls Thyme – and appeared on Star Search but lost out to the perfect score achieved by Skeleton Crew.
In later years Skeleton Crew have said ““[We’ve] always said that Skeleton Crew will remain a footnote in the career of Beyoncé… This is Beyoncé’s story, and obviously our ‘destiny’ was to play a part in it. If that experience helped to shape her and make her into what she is now, then what more can we ask?”
Usher Raymond IV sang the longest single note ever held by a child, at 12 seconds, on the TV talent show Star Search; but still lost on the show.
However, his performance caught the attention of an A&R representative for LaFace Records and the rest, is, as they say, history.
In a report published in October 2013 it was revealed that supertankers off the east coast of Africa would routinely blast music by Britney Spears directly at would be pirate attackers as a deterrent.
The report claimed that her hits “Oops! I Did It Again” and “Baby One More Time” have proved to be the most effective at keeping the bandits at bay.
A merchant navy officer is quoted as explaining: “Her songs were chosen by the security team because they thought the pirates would hate them most. “, adding, “These guys can’t stand Western culture or music, making Britney’s hits perfect” and “As soon as the pirates get a blast of Britney, they move on as quickly as they can.”
The officer claimed that the practise was so effective that the ships security rarely had to resort to more more traditional firearms.
When questioned about the practise, a representative of the Security Association for the Maritime Industry confirmed “Pirates will go to any lengths to avoid or try to overcome the music,” adding rather wryly that, “I’d imagine using Justin Bieber would be against the Geneva Convention.”
That Dog formed in 1991 and dissolved in 1997; the Spike Jonze video featuring the anthropomorphic dog, called Charles, in a leg cast with a crutch carrying a boom box around New York was released 96/97.
Charles was portrayed by Tony Maxwell, in a dog suit, obviously, he wanders around the city blasting the Daft Punk song loudly on his boombox – apparently the volume control is broken – before he bumps into a woman named Beatrice who was once his childhood neighbour, and they agree to go back to her place for dinner.
That Dog are best described as a powerpop-punk band from Los Angeles who enjoyed little success. They did release three albums and toured with Blur, Beck and Weezer with whom they were friends. Lead singer and guitarist of That Dog was Anna Waronker, daughter of record producer Lenny Waronker and actress and musician Donna Loren. The other two members of That Dog were Petra and Rachel Haden, sisters (2/3tds of triplet daughters of jazz bassist Charlie Haden, the third triplet Tanya contributed Cello on many of the bands recordings but never toured or was an official member of the band).
Tanya Haden is married to Jack Black.
Rachel Haden was also in The Rentals.
Petra Haden joined the Decemberists for a while about 10 yer later.
Anna Waronker is married to Steven Shane McDonald of Redd Kross, who aside from insisting upon only answering to silly names (summer of 1997 as Mr Urbane, and then in summer 1999 Dr Swaddles; he is not a real doctor) is also quite notable for being so excited by The White Stripes 2002 album White Blood Cells he re-worked the whole record adding his only bass lines and uploaded it to the internet as Redd Blood Cells and it got downloaded over 60,000 times before the server went down. In 2015 he joined The Melvins.
Oh, and dog-guy, he composed music for a couple of movie soundtracks and also once was the body-double for Nicolas Cage (in the Spike Jonze 2002 film Adaptation).
pophole 