Love this. I'm a massive Bowie fan, too. And I found out a very similar fact recently. I can't believe it took me this long to stumble upon it. A certain song was being written at perhaps the exact time I was born. Would you like to know that song? "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." Sorry.
When Lefty Frizzell was on stage in Saginaw, Michigan, the town mayor surprised him on stage by going to present him with a silver hammer in recognition of his song Saginaw, Michigan, Lefty in fear of an attack by a stranger with a weapon got the mayor in a headlock and wrestled him to the ground.
David Bowie's "Major Tom" character was named after the father of former UK Prime Minister, John Major. Guitar and Bass on Eminem's "My Name Is" were played by lovable Cockney pub rockers Chas 'n Dave.
Donnie Iris keyboardist Marc Avsec became a copyright lawyer because he was sued frivolously for the song "Ah! Leah!" He won the lawsuit but lost all of the royalties paying for his defense.
One for our Scottish members, Alex Harvey and Sidney Devine were in a band together! Also no members of Big Country were actually born in Scotland.
Part of Bowie's deal with RCA mean they had to buy his previous two albums from Mercury give them to Bowie and lease them back from him. Tony Defries was the Tom Parker of his day.
8 track cassettes were originally developed by the Learjet corporation. Actually just to make it even more music related Roger Miller (King of the Road, etc) used to use Learjets like most people use a taxi.
XTC's loss (maybe he would've continued working with Andy?), but this is by far my favourite "what-if" rock story ever.
If he had gotten in, would "For What It's Worth" have been a Monkees song? Or would Don Kirshner have forbidden them to record such a "subversive" song? It's my guess that Stills would have joined in with Michael Nesmith in rebelling against Kirshner and insisting on more creative freedom.
According to California police records, Manson couldn't have auditioned for the Monkees because he was serving 2 years (1965-1967) in San Quentin for parole violation. The Monkees' auditions took place in 1966. However, Micky Dolenz insisted that Manson was there.
I also wonder if Dave, Richard, & Nick came to deciding to ask him after listening to The Dukes Of Stratosphere! There's so many "Syd-isms" on that record that they MAY have thought, "THIS could be a good match!"
Actually, Jennings just gave up his seat on the plane to the Big Bopper who had a cold and didn't want it to get worse from riding on the bus. As for who "lost" the coin toss to Richie Valens, it's a point of contention to this day between Dion and Tommy Allsup. Allsup's story sounds more plausible to me. Then there was the part where Buddy Holly jokingly yelled to Waylon, "I hope that damn bus freezes up again!" Waylon jokingly replied, "Well, I hope your plane crashes!"
Joey Ramone wrote "The KKK Took My Baby Away" about Johnny Ramone, who'd stolen Joey's girlfriend Linda (and later married her). Legend has it that Johnny never quite "got" that the song was about him and Linda, so Joey got a measure of revenge when the song became a set list staple and Johnny had to play it every night
Roy Bittan plays on two quite famous songs titled Tunnel Of Love (Dire Straits and Bruce Springsteen).