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Napoleon XIV - "!aaaH-aH ,yawA eM ekaT ot gnimoC er'yehT"

This is the reverse side of the novelty hit "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" -- and I mean reverse. It's the A side played backwards. According to legend restauranteurs and bar owners would play this over and over on the jukebox if they wanted to clear out the crowd.

Linguists maybe be interested in listening, as the English played backwards sounds kind of Russian.

In 1959 Portsmouth VA singer Tommy Facenda cut a record called "High School USA", wherein he rattled off a list of VA high schools.

As a publicity stunt his record label had him cut 28 different versions, each tailored for a specific radio market. It ended up making the national top 25.



Tommy Facenda - "High School USA" (New Orleans version )

He goes beyond greater NO and covers the Gulf Coast region, mentioning Gulfport and Biloxi, predictably mispronouncing the latter -- he also gets Pass Christian wrong.

Istrouma was the only BR school I caught -- of course, there weren't as many HSs in BR in those days. Donaldsonville also gets a shout out.

He also mentions Lafayette, though that may not mean the city. Was there a Lafayette High around NO at the time?

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That's pretty weak trivia

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this

It's not even the best bit of Toto trivia

Jim Morrison’s dad was the Naval Captain who started the Vietnam War.

Yes, that Jim Morrison.

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Alex Lifeson was about 17 yrs old, he participated in a documentary where a guy took 10 Toronto teenagers to a farm to live for 2 1/2 months free of parental supervision, and filmed it.

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That was like a Real World, years and years before Real World was ever even thought of.

Trivia stuff:

'Jet Airliner' by Steve Miller Band is a cover song.

- The song was written and recorded by Paul Pena, a blind blues guy. His album never got released and somehow Steve Miller heard it and decided to record it and it was a huge hit. Paul Pena was able to live the rest of his life on those royalties. His version is phenomenal and I think better than the Steve Miller Band version.
There is a great documentary on Paul Pena called 'Ghengis Blues'. In later life he learned Tuvan throat singing and went to the tiny part of Mongolia where it is performed.

Paul Pena - Jet Airliner


Don't know if it is common knowledge, but Alanis Morrisette owes her career, in my mind anyways, to Flea and Dave Navarro. Flea and Dave were recording the Chili Peppers album in the same studios where Alanis was recording 'Jagged Little Pill'. The producer asked Flea and Dave to listen to 'You Oughta Know' and then asked them if they could try recording bass and guitar parts for it. They did and the rest is history. That song may have never been what it was without that outstanding bass and great guitar work.

The Paul Pena story is great. I saw Genghis Blues when it was released and was captivated by it.

Trivia point on THAT. The Nobel Prize winning physicist, Richard Feynman, who's a personal hero of mine and best known for succinctly demonstrating why the Challenger space shuttle blew up ( the frozen o-ring demonstration) formed an organization with his friend Ralph Leighton called Friends of Tuva. FoT was responsible for sponsoring Paul Pena to actually travel to Tuva for the annual competition he participated in that's documented in Genghis Blues.

Richie Valens "won" the spare seat from Waylon Jennings on the plane that crashed with Buddy Holly.

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Richie Valens "won" the spare seat from Waylon Jennings on the plane that crashed with Buddy Holly.

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There is some debate about that.

The most widely told story is that Waylon gave up his seat to Big Bopper, who had come down with the flu. This is the version that ends with Buddy telling Waylon "I hope your old bus freezes up," and Waylon responding "I hope your old plane crashes." In this story, Valens wins the coin flip with Tommy Allsup (Buddy's guitarist).

There is another story, told by Dion DiMucci of Dion and the Belmonts, that says Holly leased the plane for the four stars of the tour (Holly, Bopper, Valens, DiMucci), but they only had room for three of the four. In this version, Valens was the one who was sick, and he and Dion flipped for the last seat.

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There is another story, told by Dion DiMucci of Dion and the Belmonts, that says Holly leased the plane for the four stars of the tour (Holly, Bopper, Valens, DiMucci), but they only had room for three of the four. In this version, Valens was the one who was sick, and he and Dion flipped for the last seat.

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Dion is full of shite. He started claiming he'd been in on the coin toss in order to pimp a book he'd written.

If it matters, I saw an interview with Valens' sister, where she stated she believed it was Allsup.