Ask 411 Music 7.26.12: The Finale
Posted by Ron Martin on 07.26.2012
Did Bob Dylan co-write a song with Old Crow Medicine Show? Is Maya Rudolph referenced in the '70s hit "Loving You?" Did Montgomery Ward give away "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer?" All this and more covered this week in Ask 411 Music!
It's your weekly dose of Ask 411 Music…kind of.
Big announcement – this is going to be last Ask 411 Music written by me for the foreseeable future. I'll be starting a new job soon and the time just isn't there for this column. It's been a great ride for the last 16 months, however. I have learned a lot researching your questions over that time period and am not ashamed to admit that I've added quite a few songs to the ol' iPod because of this column. It's been a pleasure to write for you. I will continue writing A Fool's Utopia over in the movies section as well as maybe a periodic DVD review. Thanks for reading!
MICK JAGGER turns 69 years olds today…
BETTY DAVIS turns 67 years old today...
GARY CHERONE turns 51 today…
PORN STAR BIRTHDAY
ANDREA TRUE
IT CAME FROM MY IPOD
Since this is my last Ask 411 Music column, I think it's only appropriate that I pull five songs off my iPod about the last column.
1."Is This the End?" by Creed
2."Blaze of Glory" by Bon Jovi
3."Superman's Dead" by Our Lady Peace
4."Permanent Vacation" by Aerosmith
5. "Just a Ride" by Jem
The last…
THE QUESTIONS
Some more Urban Legends to finish us up…
Did Montgomery Ward give up the rights to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer for free?
I was saving this one for Christmas, but since I'm not going to make it that far, I'm going to bust it out right here.
ROBERT MAY was a copywriter for MONTGOMERY WARD in the 1930s when he came up with the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer story. May was assigned to write a story for a promotional giveaway during the 1939 holiday season. The store had given away 6 million copies of the story away by 1946, giving them away every holiday season with the exception of the years of WORLD WAR II.
In 1947, a book company wanted to commercialize the story and contacted May about purchasing it. The only problem was May didn't actually own the rights to the story. STEWELL AVERY, who was the CEO of Montgomery Ward at the time, gave the rights back to May free of charge. The thought was how much value could a book that had been given away for free for eight years have. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was published by MAXTON BOOKS in 1947.
The book sold well and May and his brother-in-law JOHNNY MARKS turned the story into a song. They shopped it around and GENE AUTRY agreed to record the song and released it in December 1949 and a smash holiday hit was created. It's the number two selling Christmas song of all time, just behind "White Christmas."
May retired from Montgomery Ward for awhile to manage Rudolph in his various incarnations, but eventually returned to the company that gave him back a classic Christmas character.
Was the song "Danger Zone" originally written for the band Toto?
Not specifically, but TOTO was involved.
GIORGIO MORODER and TOM WHITLOCK wrote the song along with "Take My Breath Away" for Top Gun. They offered the song to BRYAN ADAMS. Adams felt Top Gun was propaganda for the US Air Force and refused the song. Toto was trying to get "Only You" on the film's soundtrack and was offered the song next. When "Only You" was refused a spot on the soundtrack, Toto decided not to record "Danger Zone."
KENNY LOGGINS was already in studio to record "Playing with the Boys," so he was offered the song, took it, recorded and the rest, as they say, is history.
Did Old Crow Medicine Show write a song with Bob Dylan?
Yes.
Maybe?
Kind of.
The song in question is "Wagon Wheel" off of OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW's debut album, Old Crow Medicine Show.
The question arises in that it was supposedly written by BOB DYLAN…30 years ago. Dylan appeared in and wrote the soundtrack for the 1973 film, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. While writing the soundtrack, Dylan started writing a song called "Rock Me Mama."
The song was never officially recorded, but what you hear above got out amongst Dylan fans as a bootleg. Basically, 25 years later, Old Crow Medicine Show's frontman KETCH SECOR took Dylan's song and finished it, called it "Wagon Wheel" and put it on their first album. Dylan even has a writing credit for the song on the album.
Did Carly Simon auction off the identity of the person "You're So Vain" was written about?
Why yes, yes she did.
The topic of the song "You're So Vain," released December 2, 1972 has always been a matter of high speculations. Names like MICK JAGGER and WARREN BEATTY have been thrown around but the only person who has ever known for sure was the author of the song, CARLY SIMON. In 2003, Simon auction the answer to the much sought after question in the MARTHA'S VINEYARD POSSIBLE DREAMS charity auction.
The winner of said auction was Simon's longtime friend, TV executive DICK EBERSOL who paid $50,000 to find out the answer. He had to sign a confidentiality agreement and over peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Simon spilled the beans.
Since then, Simon and Ebersol have both given the world clues in the form of the letters "A" and "E" being in the name of the inspiration for the song.
Is Maya Rudolph referenced in "Loving you?"
It's strange to think that a song that was released in 1975 could actually reference a modern day comedienne, but it actually does.
The former SNL star is the daughter of producer RICHARD RUDOLPH and singer MINNIE RIPERTON. Unfortunately, Riperton passed away from breast cancer when she was only 31 and MAYA was six.
Riperton's biggest hit was "Lovin' You," released January 13, 1975 and quickly rose to #1. The song has it's origins as a lullaby that Riperton would sing to her infant daughter, Maya. Maya was with Riperton in the studio the day she recorded the song and on the album cut or unedited cuts of the song, you can hear Riperton fade with a chant of "Maya…Maya…Maya…Maya…"
With that I bid you adieu! I hope you enjoyed my stint as the Ask 411 Music guy because I did. May your week be blessed and always watch the skies!
