Beech Tree News Network

This week, I’ll bring you another music facts “Oh you didn’t know” piece.  I’ll begin with this gem.  The Jackson 5 didn’t start out on Motown Records.  The legendary family group signed with Steeltown Records in 1967 and released two singles.  They soon left Steeltown and signed with Motown.  It was with that legendary label that they were the first group to debut with four straight #1 hits, their first being on October 7, 1969, with “I Want You Back”.  They followed that chart-topper with three more: “ABC” (1970), “The Love You Save” (1970) and “I’ll Be There” (1970).  They achieved 17 top 40 singles in 5 years, including 6 Motown #1 hits.  The group left Motown Records for Epic Records in early 1976.

The ’80’s group the B-52’s did, in fact, get the “52” in their name from a hairstyle that looks like an aircraft.  The ladies’ hairstyle resembles the cone of a B-52 airplane.  Going back to Motown, the Four Tops are one of the greatest Motown groups to come out of the 1960’s.  The Four Tops started their musical career as the Four Aims at a house party in Detroit in 1954.  Members included Levi Stubbs, Abdul “Duke” Fakir, Renaldo “Obie” Benson and Lawrence Payton.  They changed the group’s name to The Four Tops to avoid confusion with a popular group of the day, the Ames Brothers.  I’d say it worked well for them.

Led by the falsetto power of Franki Vali, the Four Seasons became synonymous with ‘60’s doo-wop pop.  Bob Crew helped Franki come up with his falsetto.  The group was originally called The Four Lovers.  They changed their name after being turned down by a bowling alley called The Four Seasons.

Four Dublin kids won a talent show in 1978.  They’d go onto win 22 Grammy awards.  Their name comes from a list of names that none liked.  They finally settled on the name they despised the least.  They’ve withstood the test of time.  That band is U2. 

I’ll close with this fact.  The Traveling Wilbury’s were a British-American supergroup active from 1988-1991 consisting of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty.  Roy Orbison died of a heart attack December 6, 1988, in Hendersonville, TN.  He was 52 years old.  He died after recording his vocals for the Traveling Wilbury’s song “End Of The Line” but before the video was shot.  A shot of a guitar sitting in a rocking chair and a photo of him are shown when his vocals are heard in the video.  Coincidentally, that’s the “End of the Line” for my column this week.  Below are the links to my podcast, Blendertainment.

https://open.spotify.com/show/61yTPt9wXdz37DZTbPUs16?si=lw4gR-7xQ22E-zhyGDyHyg

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blendertainment/id1541097172

Reference for my column info was AXS TV Top Ten Revealed