Very Good Music Facts

A lot of people have stopped me in the street recently and said, “Jeff, you are gonna run out of cool music facts soon.” “Not yet, buddy!” I respond defiantly. In fact, my desire to bring you this nonsense has only grown stronger. Also, I don’t have a lot going on.

In this latest batch, I’m delving a little deeper into album art. Let’s start with this once-popular, laid-back aesthetic.

“Vivre” by Alice Dona – 1981
“It’s Time for Love” by Teddy Pendergrass – September 1981
“Scott Baio” by Scott Baio – March 1982
“Thriller” by Michael Jackson – November 1982

Most Played Live Songs

According to Setlist.fm, here are a random assortment of bands’ most-played songs in concert as of February 11, 2026.

Band	Song	Performances
Iron Maiden	Iron Maiden	2,435
Bruce Springsteen	Born to Run	1,877
Metallica	Master of Puppets	1,789
Goo Goo Dolls	Name	1,508
Weezer	Buddy Holly	1,422
Bad Religion	American Jesus	1,352
Coldplay	Yellow	1,197
The Cure	A Forest	1,195
Green Day	Longview	1,141
U2	I Will Follow	1,062
Pearl Jam	Even Flow	953
Blink 182	Dammit	872
Oasis	Cigarettes & Alcohol	692
Taylor Swift	Love Story	641
Beyoncé	Crazy in Love	588
Nada Surf	Inside of Love	547
Kendrick Lamar	m.A.A.d city	473
Shakira	Hips Don’t Lie	409
The Go-Go’s	We Got the Beat	224
Olivia Rodrigo	Drivers License	187

Homage Album Covers

Every good music nerd knows the type treatment for “London Calling” was an homage to the debut record by Elvis Presley, and some say Weezer’s Blue Album (1994) cover design is a nod to the 1980 debut album “Crazy Rhythms” by The Feelies (1980). There are many more cool design-based callbacks, and way too many bad parodies that I will ignore. I’ll be highlighting some of my favorites here and in upcoming issues.

Let’s start with this gem.

“Dig Me Out” is the third studio album by Sleater-Kinney, released on April 8, 1997. The cover design pays tribute to the Kinks’ 1965 album “The Kink Kontroversy.”

Here’s another favorite…

“Cheap Shots, Youth Anthems” is a 2002 album by Kid Dynamite. The cover is a tribute to The Who’s 1974 album “Odds & Sods.” They are both compilation albums.

Dan Yemin (of Paint It Black) was also in Kid Dynamite; he had previously been in the hardcore band Lifetime. The cover for their 1995 album “Hello Bastards” has a similar vibe to the classic Housemartins record, “London 0 Hull 4.”

And as we learned in an earlier issue of VGMF, The Housemartins’ bass player was Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim).

Moby has claimed to be the great-great-great-grandson of Herman Melville, the author of “Moby Dick.” In 2023, the Genealogy Detective podcast did an investigation and found no connection.

The “FKA” in FKA Twigs stands for “Formerly Known As.” She added it to “Twigs” after a dispute with another artist using the same name. The “XCX” in Charli XCX stands for “Kiss Charli Kiss”. It originated from her MSN Messenger screen name when she was 14 years old.

Early in his career, J Dilla was managed by former Detroit Pistons player John Salley.

The original, unreleased recording of “What’s Up Doc? (Can We Rock)” by the Fu-Schnickens featured a sample of Bugs Bunny saying the title, but they could not get sample clearance. Shaquille O’Neal stepped in, recorded the verse, and the song became a top-40 hit and went gold.

“Paperback Writer” was the first #1 hit for The Beatles that was not about love.

None of the four Beatles could read or write traditional musical notation.

Joni Mitchell wrote “The Circle Game” as a hopeful response to Neil Young’s “Sugar Mountain” after hearing Young’s sad song about turning 20 and losing the innocence of youth.

“Heart of Gold” is Neil Young’s best-selling and only #1 single in the U.S. and Canada.

The Orb and Orbital have performed at the same events on multiple occasions.

Aesop Rock and A$AP Rocky have not performed together, but they met once at the Rock the Bells festival in San Francisco in 2013.

The genre name “House Music” comes directly from The Warehouse, a legendary Chicago club where DJ Frankie Knuckles played soulful disco records and early electronic music.

The Minutemen named their album “Double Nickels on the Dime” (1984) as a reaction to the Sammy Hagar song “I Can’t Drive 55.” The cover shows Mike Watt driving at exactly 55 miles per hour (“double nickels” in trucker slang) on Interstate 10 (“The Dime” in trucker slang).

Mailing It In

The Postal Service’s name was chosen because collaborators Jimmy Tamborello and Ben Gibbard would mail tapes back and forth, but they did not use the United States Postal Service as a means of delivery. The recordings were sent through either FedEx or UPS.

Jen Wood provided the female vocals for the duet “Nothing Better” and backing vocals on “Such Great Heights,” not future band member Jenny Lewis, who provided backing vocals on other songs.

In 2006, an Apple commercial blatantly ripped off the Postal Service video for “Such Great Heights” using the same directors. After Ben Gibbard called them out, Apple promoted the “Such Great Heights” clip on the main page of the iTunes Music Store, prompting it to become the most-downloaded video on the site for a time.

Jethro Tull won the very first Grammy for “Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance” in 1989, beating favorites Metallica, who were nominated for “…And Justice for All.”

The instrumental version of “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want,” used in the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (1986), was performed by The Dream Academy, not The Smiths.

The version of “Wouldn’t it Be Good” on the “Pretty in Pink” soundtrack was performed by The Danny Hutton Hitters, not Nik Kershaw.

Drummer Josh Freese is currently a member of The Vandals, Devo, and A Perfect Circle. His brother Jason Freese has been the touring keyboard and saxophone player for Green Day since 2004.

Brand Loyalty

The band Prodigy is named after the Moog Prodigy synthesizer.

The band Sunn O))) is named after the Sunn brand of amplifiers. The “O)))” in the name represents the Sunn amplifier logo.

The band 808 State is named after the iconic Roland TR-808 drum machine.

The band The Flat Duo Jets was named after the 1951 Gretsch Duo-Jet guitar played by rockabilly musician Gene Vincent.

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone was named after the popular Casio portable keyboard.

“Body and Soul” is the sixth album by Joe Jackson (1984). The cover art pays homage to the 1957 album “Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2” by legendary jazz artist Sonny Rollins.

Old Friends

Peter Frampton and David Bowie knew each other as schoolboys in the early 1960s. They both attended Bromley Technical High School in the UK, where Frampton’s father, Owen Frampton, was the head of the art department and taught Bowie.

Legendary soul singers Sam Cooke and Lou Rawls were childhood friends from Chicago and sang gospel music in church together. They transitioned to secular music in the late 1950s.

Johnny Marr (The Smiths) and Billy Duffy (The Cult) have been friends since the mid-1970s. They met in Manchester when Marr was around 12–13, and Duffy was 15. Duffy mentored the younger Marr and sold him his first amp.

“Only Wanna Be With You” by Hootie & the Blowfish is a tribute to Bob Dylan, but because they used the following exact Dylan lyrics, the band had to pay him $350,000 to avoid a lawsuit.

“They say I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy
She inherited a million bucks, and when she died, it came to me
I can’t help it if I’m lucky.”

“The Cherrytree Sessions” is an EP by Lady Gaga released in 2009. The design looks a good bit like “Spring Session M,” the debut studio album by Missing Persons, released in 1982.

Comics-Related Band Name Origins

The Teardrop Explodes took their name from a panel in a 1970s Marvel Daredevil comic book (specifically issue #77).

Daniel Dumile’s stage name, MF DOOM, comes from the Marvel Comics supervillain Doctor Doom and the artist’s own nickname, “DOOM,” the first syllable of his last name. “MF” stands for “Metal Face” (representing the Doctor Doom mask he wore when performing) or “Metal Fingers” (used for his production work).

The Thompson Twins took their name from the bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson in the comic strip “The Adventures of Tintin” by Belgian cartoonist Hergé.

The Mekons took their name from “The Mekon,” the archenemy of the comic book hero Dan Dare, featured in the British 1950s–1960s “Eagle” comic.

Header Image: The Housemartins Culture Box, Reynoldson Street, Hull by Ian S. Courtesy of Wiki Commons.

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