Curated playlist
Elektra Records artists
- MetallicaIn 1986, a tour bus overturned in Sweden and killed Metallica bassist Cliff Burton.
- Queen (band)A DJ was told not to play Queen's song "Bohemian Rhapsody", then played it fourteen times in one weekend.
- Bruno MarsBruno Mars was five years old when he wet himself on a Honolulu stage in the middle of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love." His parents wondered whether they were making a mistake by putting him in front of crowds. He never…
- AC/DCAC/DC is an Australian rock band, and its name began as a label on a household appliance. When Malcolm and Angus Young were hunting for a name, their sister Margaret pointed to a symbol printed on the AC adapter of her sewing machine.…
- Brand NubianBrand Nubian's name came from a book Lord Jamar read at a demo session. The word "Nubian" jumped out at him.
- Ed SheeranEd Sheeran bought a thirty-pound guitar two days after hearing Eric Clapton. He was eleven years old.
- Jim MorrisonOn live TV in 1967, Jim Morrison sang a lyric censors had told him to change. Ed Sullivan then banned the Doors.
- The DoorsThe Doors sang the banned word "higher" on The Ed Sullivan Show. Network executives had asked the band to cut it.
- Missy ElliottMissy Elliott and Timbaland wrote and produced nine tracks on Aaliyah's 1996 album One in a Million.
- Jane FondaJane Fonda sat on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun during a 1972 visit to Hanoi, and a photograph of that moment outraged a large number of Americans. It earned her a nickname that has followed her for decades: Hanoi Jane. For many…
- BjörkBjörk had a record deal before she finished primary school. A teachers' recording of her singing aired nationally.
- Mark RonsonMark Ronson was twelve years old when he pestered Jann Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone, until the magazine gave him an internship. By his own description he was a music nerd, and the persistence paid off. Decades later he had won ten…
- Grandmaster Flash and the Furious FiveA performer named Cowboy chanted "hip/hop/hip/hop" at a South Bronx party in 1978, echoing Army drills.
- Carly SimonCarly Simon, an American singer, songwriter and author, recorded a line that strangers still sing back at her: "You're so vain, I bet you think this song is about you." Listeners have argued about the target of that accusation ever since.…
- KraftwerkKraftwerk did not own a computer when recording Computer World. The 1981 album was about computers.
- Jackie ChanOn the 25th of June 2013, Jackie Chan had to announce that he was still alive. A hoax Facebook page, created a few days earlier, had claimed that he was dead. Several people contacted him to congratulate him on a recent engagement. Soon…