1Bruce Springsteen
Chrysler (Automobile company) offered Bruce Springsteen $12 million to use "Born in the U.S.A." in an ad campaign. Springsteen turned them down and has still never let his music be used to sell products.
2. 1989’s “Batman” soundtrack album was mainly composed by Prince and is considered to be his 11th studio album, but since Prince had to agree to sign the publishing rights over to Warner Bros, none of the high-charting “Batman” songs appear on future hits compilations.
3. David Bowie performed at the Berlin Wall, while East Germans gathered to listen behind. He recalled, “And we would hear them cheering and singing along from the other side. God, even now I get choked up. It was breaking my heart. I'd never done anything like that in my life, and I guess I never will again.”
4. Weird Al Yankovic has asked permission from Prince to parody his songs on numerous occasions and has always been refused. When the two were assigned to sit in the same row at an award's show, he got a telegram from Prince's lawyers demanding that he not make eye contact.
5. During an interview in 2012, Canadian singer Neil Young said “Piracy is the new radio. That’s how music gets around.”
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6Emancipation album
Prince used the heartbeat of his unborn son as part of the percussion in one track on the 'Emancipation' album. By the time the album was released, his son had died of a congenital birth defect.
7. Bruce Springsteen's classic, ‘Born to Run’, almost became the official song of New Jersey until legislators heard the lyrics and realized that the song was about wanting to get out of New Jersey.
8. The lyrics of Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry" are officially credited to his childhood friend Vincent "Tata" Ford, who ran a soup kitchen in the Jamaican ghetto where Marley grew up. Marley gave Ford credit for writing the song so that the royalty payments could keep the soup kitchen open.
9. Prince would play concerts as a "cover" in areas affected by natural disasters so that he could be in cities where he could offer help. Because of his faith as a Jehovah’s Witness he couldn’t, and wouldn’t, ever speak publicly about any of his charitable acts.
10. In 1971, when Frank Sinatra couldn't get a ringside ticket to Ali and Frazier's "Fight of the Century", he managed to get a press pass to shoot photos for the LIFE magazine instead.
11Kanye West
During a 2014 concert, American Rapper Kanye West halted the performance of “Good Life,” saying “I can't do this show until everybody stands up…” pointing at the only person in the audience who wasn’t standing up and dancing. That person was in a wheelchair.
12. Bob Marley's last words to his son Ziggy were "Money can't buy life."
13. A Chicago reporter once asked Frank Sinatra's first wife what she saw in him, calling him "a 119-pound has-been." She told him, "Well, I'll tell you — nineteen pounds is cock."
14. In 2011, during a Vancouver concert, Kanye West and Jay-Z performed "N*ggas in Paris" 11 times in a row.
15. There was some controversy to the inclusion of Chuck Berry's 'Johnny B. Goode' on the Voyager Golden Record. Carl Sagan was told that rock music was adolescent. Sagan responded, "There are a lot of adolescents on the planet."
16Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra has three stars on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. One for film, one for music and one for television.
17. Lyrics to the Rihanna’s song 'Diamonds' were written by Sia in 14 minutes. By May 2013, it had sold over 7.5 million copies worldwide and became one of the best-selling singles of all-time.
18. Beyonce's hit song "Run the World (Girls)" is a heavily sampled version of a song by 3 men, and was co-written by 2 other men. The only female writer or producer involved in the song was Beyonce herself.
19. For the album cover for “Breakfast Can Wait,” Prince used the photo of Dave Chappelle dressed as Prince and serving pancakes, which was from a 2004 sketch from an episode of Chappelle's Show.
20. ‘Hit Me Baby (One More Time)’ is mistranslated. The Swedish writer for this Britney Spears song thought that “hit me” was American slang for “call me.”
21Trent Reznor
Trent Reznor felt his song "A Warm Place" was too good to be his own work. After the song had been released, he was horrified to discover that he had indeed copied the melody from a piece by David Bowie called "Crystal Japan", written for a Japanese gin advertisement. Bowie found this hilarious.
22. After David Bowie released his album "Low", Nick Lowe responded by releasing an Extended play called "Bowi".
23. Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" is about the negative effects of the Vietnam War on Americans but it is often misunderstood to be a patriotic or nationalistic anthem.
24. Bob Dylan missed Woodstock, after being invited, because he didn't like hippies.
25. Kanye West once ordered a curry to be delivered from London, UK to New York City, at a price of $3900.