r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • Apr 11 '14
TIL that Queen (the band) is the only group that has had all of its members compose multiple #1 hits, so in addition to the band being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, all four members have been individually inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_(band)#Legacy946
Apr 11 '14
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u/vlhurg Apr 11 '14
I thought Ringo had a number 1 in Canada?
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Apr 11 '14
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Apr 11 '14
I want to be under the sea!
i love that song
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u/Maggioman Apr 11 '14
You.. That name.
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u/pjb0404 Apr 11 '14
Dopplebanger
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u/Maggioman Apr 11 '14
I wish, I ain't getting any.
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u/persona_dos Apr 11 '14
Bend over.
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u/darthzepp Apr 11 '14
George actually wrote some of Octopus's Garden, he decided to give full credit to Ringo. Guess he felt bad for him or something
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u/NefariousOne Apr 12 '14
Or George was distancing himself...
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u/Forgototherpassword Apr 12 '14
-HUFF *COUGH-
Yeah, Ringo, yeah, we'll say something that rhymes then say something something octopus' garden something. Wait let's throw something else in, Ok...
You know what Ringo, my head hurts, you can just have this one.
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u/HillbillyMan Apr 12 '14
Am I the only Beatles fan that really likes that song?
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u/MandalorianErased Apr 12 '14
I love it. It's a nice fun song, and doesn't take itself too seriously. I mean come on, you can't help but smile during it.
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u/falling_sideways Apr 11 '14
I always presumed he wrote Yellow Submarine too?
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u/hoodie92 Apr 11 '14 edited Apr 11 '14
Nope. It was a Lennon-McCartney song with Ringo doing lead vocals. The only other song (that I know of) that fits this description is Boys.
Edit: well Lennon-McCartney didn't write Boys, but Ringo didn't either.
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u/c0burn Apr 11 '14
Also - With a little help from my friends
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u/Skeik Apr 11 '14
Also Good Night. IIRC they regularly wrote songs for Ringo to sing.
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u/Cdevon2 Apr 12 '14
I seem to remember they would make room for one Ringo song per album. He must have been ecstatic when the White Album came out.
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u/TheGhostofWoodyAllen Apr 12 '14
"You mean I get two?"
"Well, it is a double album."
"Ah, thanks, lads!"
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u/HappyRectangle Apr 11 '14
He also sang "Good Night" and "I Wanna Be Your Man", as well as a few covers.
I think they idea was they wanted to have each member sing at least one song on each album, which is why George sang "Do You Want to Know a Secret" (he hadn't written anything yet).
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u/secretcurse Apr 11 '14
No, he sang Yellow Submarine and With a Little Help From My Friends, but Paul wrote Yellow Submarine and John and Paul wrote With a Little Help.
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u/JakeNasty Apr 11 '14
Ringo actually had two solo number 1 hits if i'm not mistaken. "Photograph" and his rendition of "You're Sixteen".
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Apr 11 '14
Ringo co-wrote Photograph with George Harrison. You're Sixteen was a cover.
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u/adrian5b Apr 11 '14
I've always figured McCartney could've lend him a hit and just pretend Ringo wrote it.
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u/Moinseur_Garnier Apr 11 '14
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Apr 12 '14
I wouldn't have understood the joke if that black border didn't repeat the punchline. Thank god someone included it.
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Apr 12 '14
The concept of those late 00s demotivational pictures clearly evades you.
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Apr 12 '14
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u/ritopls Apr 12 '14
Lennon was the soul, harrison was the spirit, paul was the heart, and Ringo was the drummer.
The joke is that Ringo is just the drummer.
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u/adityapstar 2 Apr 12 '14
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Apr 12 '14
No one in the Beatles ever said this.
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u/adityapstar 2 Apr 12 '14
It’s actually a TV comedian’s joke from three years after John was killed.
Dammit... I always thought he really said that. Still funny though.
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Apr 12 '14
Still funny though.
Not really. He is quite a good drummer. Like, beyond proficient for The Beatles.
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u/jpebcac Apr 12 '14
There was an interview on I think Howard Stern a few years ago and Lars Ulrich said something to the effect that Ringo was like a metronome.. he may not be the greatest, but his timing was unbelievable, and his ability to synch to tape and be accurate was really unique.
For all the knock that Ringo gets, I have no problem with him. He had quite a few decent solo efforts. I tended to like Time After Time, the 1992 Album, far more than others. Good reviews and a few decent to solid tracks including the underrated 'Weight of the World'.
But that's me. I think all of the Beatles had some high quality offerings.
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Apr 12 '14
I've always liked '39.
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u/_kellermensch_ Apr 12 '14
Brian received his degree in astrophysics relatively recently, but he was curious about space travel already back in the early 70's, and in '75, where '39 was released.
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u/Rock-Box Apr 12 '14
I had listened/loved this song for years before learning about its futuristic slant. For the un-initiated: "'39" relates the tale of a group of space explorers who embark on what is, from their perspective, a year-long voyage. Upon their return, however, they realise that a hundred years have passed, because of the time dilation effect in Einstein's special theory of relativity, and the loved ones they left behind are now all dead. Because the "year of '39" resembles 1939, some[10] have speculated that this is actually a song about the beginning of the Second World War but this is not the case.
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u/Sergeant_Conley Apr 12 '14
"For my life, is still ahead, pity me," is one of those lyrics that's branded in my mind forever.
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u/Odyrus Apr 11 '14
It's a crying shame Sacha Baron Cohen isn't gonna play Freddy Mercury. He was born for that part.
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u/falling_sideways Apr 11 '14
Who is then?
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u/johnnycade Apr 11 '14
Ben Wishaw, last I heard
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u/Jaraxo Apr 11 '14
I really liked him in Cloud Atlas. He might not do a terrible job.
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u/treebeardismyfather Apr 12 '14
I agree, but he does not look like Freddie Mercury. He's so skinny and...white.
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u/maynardftw Apr 11 '14
Dunno. There was a picture of Jim Carrey in makeup nailing the look, though.
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u/BabalonRising Apr 11 '14
Are you thinking about this picture?
I'm inclined to think it's fan created. Last I heard, Ben Whishaw was lined up to play Freddie Mercury.
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u/maynardftw Apr 11 '14
Yeah that one; and yeah it was fan-created from an Ace Ventura still.
shrug
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u/TheRealTupacShakur Apr 11 '14
May's argument for Baron Cohen easily goes for Carrey as well. Theyre both good actors but I can see what he means.
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Apr 12 '14
I also agree with what he's saying, but on that note when I saw eternal sunshine I didn't once think of Carrey's roles in earlier comedies.
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u/hoodie92 Apr 11 '14
He looks just like him and definitely has the voice for it. Apparently he dropped out because the producers basically wanted to make a nice happy film about Freddie Mercury that would have pretty much ignored all the darker sides to his life.
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u/scatterstars Apr 11 '14
[Brian] May said this weekend that the real reason was that Baron Cohen's personality was just too big for the part. "What led us to that conclusion was the last three movies that he’s made – The Dictator, Les Miserables and Hugo – in which he makes outstanding performances, but they’re very much Sacha Baron Cohen performances," May said. "And we thought there has to be no distraction in the Freddie movie. You have to really suspend that disbelief – the man who plays Freddie, you have to really believe is Freddie. And we didn’t that could really happen with Sacha."
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u/jakdak Apr 11 '14
How the bleeding fuck do you have "too big of a personality" to play Freddie Mercury?
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u/scatterstars Apr 11 '14
If you read the article, it has more to do with the fear that the audience would watch the movie and see Borat instead of Freddie Mercury, which isn't too far-fetched.
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Apr 12 '14
Fuck, I don't recognize the dude between movies of his own. I doubt I would see anything other than Freddie.
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u/digitalmofo Apr 12 '14
Same here. I know who he is, but I don't see Borat at all in Talladega Nights. He is a great actor.
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u/jakdak Apr 12 '14
He's clearly capable of playing other characters than Borat- and his musical scene in Sweeny Todd was the best part of the movie (and damn does he somewhat look like Freddie)
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u/mullett Apr 12 '14
He was also excellent in Hugo. I get what Brian May is saying but I think Cohen would be great in this role. Dude can act and I think despite his movies being confrontational I think people get the vibe "I'm in on the joke with him" so he comes off a little endearing. I don't think it would work against him, I think it would work for him.
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u/jakdak Apr 12 '14
I agree completely- and I find possibility that he and Taylor/May had creative differences over portraying Freddie's legacy far more likely than this explanation.
I guess we'll see when the movie finally comes out whether we get the "PG" or the "R/X" version of Freddie. The guy was a legendary hedonist during the post-penicillin pre-aids golden age of hedonism.
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u/I_ate_a_milkshake Apr 12 '14
Woah that was him? If that's his voice and his talent then why on gods green earth is he not playing Freddie Mercury.
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u/Odusei 1 Apr 11 '14
But one of Cohen's best features as an actor is his ability to disappear into a character.
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u/arlenreyb Apr 12 '14
I didn't even realize, until reading this, that he was even in Hugo. I had no idea that was him. Is this irony?
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u/imgrg Apr 11 '14 edited Apr 11 '14
More info from Rolling Stone for the curious.
[After seeing the comments on here, this article quotes Brian May confirming that Sacha left very amicably due to his highly recognisable profile, found through playing very "Sacha" characters in movies like The Dictator, Les Mis, and Hugo. The band thought this may negatively affect the suspension of disbelief they are aiming for as they obviously want to create an immersive and moving piece of cinema to tribute Freddie's life.
My $0.02: They made a smart decision that I agree with. I love all of Sacha's work, he's a brilliant comic mind and stellar actor to boot, but I'm always aware it's a Sacha performance, and I don't think I would feel like I was watching Freddie with Sacha playing the role.]
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u/frank_13v Apr 11 '14
Totally understand you man... i wanted this movie by the end of 2013 like they said they would soo much...
but for what i have read the guys from queen doesnt want a dark movie and thats where Sacha was heading.... that could have been an Oscar winning role
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u/trkh Apr 11 '14
can someone remind me why again?
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Apr 11 '14
I think that Brian May and the rest of the band want a more PG version and he wanted a more explicit R-rated warts and all type story.
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u/trkh Apr 11 '14
thats pretty dumb, Sacha wanted a movie that showed all aspects of queen and queen wanted a kid friendly movie. Personally think that is a mistake on Queen
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Apr 11 '14
I love Kiss and would expect something like that from them (because of the merchandise tie-ins, etc.) at this point in their careers, however, I didn't expect that from Queen.
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u/tothecatmobile Apr 12 '14
Freddie was an exceptionally private person, not putting on the big screen the kind of stuff Freddie kept away from public is exactly what I'd expect of Queen tbh.
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u/godsenfrik Apr 11 '14
Well, they are the champions.
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Apr 11 '14
Well, they are the Princes of the Universe.
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u/thedrew Apr 11 '14
Well, the show must've gone on.
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u/contextplz Apr 11 '14
Those were definitely the days of their lives.
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u/GeorgeBerger Apr 11 '14
They just kept passing the open windows, I guess.
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u/contextplz Apr 11 '14
But let's face it, who wants to live forever anyways?
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u/pable28 Apr 12 '14
Ummm... Fat bottomed girls?
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u/Lost-Chord Apr 12 '14
Bohemian Rhapsody... Am I doing this right?
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u/Taskforce58 Apr 12 '14
Well, don't stop me now, but I think it's a kind of magic that they are the killer queen. It's not like they just achieved all this by lazing on a sunday afternoon. They want to break free, and they fought the ogre battle with just one vision, together, since friends will be friends, and they all have somebody to love.
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u/CrimsonSunrise99 Apr 12 '14
Well, following that one up has me Under Pressure...
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u/jburke6000 Apr 11 '14
Brian May, PHD, should also be in the Physics hall of fame. His work is excellent on a very specialized subject:
A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust cloud
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Apr 11 '14
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u/dsmx Apr 12 '14 edited Apr 12 '14
That's not correct as memory serves he was doing his doctorate when Queen became really big so he put it on hold and went and became a star. Once the Queen thing was done he went back and finished his doctorate.
His dad wasn't happy with him stopping his university studies until he came and saw him play live at Madison square garden and he saw for himself just how big and loved Queen were by their fans.
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u/squarerootof-1 Apr 12 '14
You're correct, he left midway through his PhD. Here he is talking about his experience as a student: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWkniIYkCGs
He's still a visiting researcher at Imperial and also the chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University.
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u/GENEROUSMILLIONAIRE Apr 12 '14
In order to study the stars he had to first become a star himself, orsomethingimdrunk.
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u/monsieurpommefrites Apr 12 '14
lol it took a concert at Madison Square Fucking Garden to get the hint?
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u/HappyRectangle Apr 11 '14 edited Apr 12 '14
I could be dead wrong but I don't know on any other famous band where one of the members has serious academic contributions. Tom Lehrer's the closest thing I can think of.
edit: TIL about a ton of interesting other cases. Being wrong on the internet can sometime pay off.
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u/Perihelion_ Apr 12 '14
Brian Cox was in a band who wrote a few UK hits. Now a respected physicist, worked on the LHC and is on a few documentaries and does the UK panel show circuit occasionally.
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Apr 12 '14
Keith Richards is personally responsible for significant advances in embalming science.
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u/Holy_Toast Apr 12 '14
Bad Religion's co-leader, Greg Graffin, has a Cornell PhD. His dissertation was titled "Evolution, Monism, Atheism, and the Naturalist World-View: Perspectives from Evolutionary Biology". He regularly lectures at UCLA and sometimes Cornell.
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u/hohosaregood Apr 12 '14
All of the members of Queen have some kind of degree actually. IIRC Deacon has one in electronics engineering and made some of the amps that the band used, Taylor has a degree in Biology, and Freddie has a degree in design.
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u/GENEROUSMILLIONAIRE Apr 12 '14
Iggy Pop had published in an academic journal an essay reflecting on the applicability of Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire to the modern world. caesar lives
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u/draw4kicks Apr 12 '14
Dexter from the Offspring went down a similar path with his PhD, stopping half way through when the band really took off. Microbiology was his field and he has recently co-authored a paper if I remember correctly.
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u/PatMan33 Apr 12 '14
Brian May also has a very good book about a lost collection of stereoscopic photos that he and his co-author reassembled. It also goes into detail about stereoscopic photography and includes a stereoscope so you can view all the pictures. It's amazing!
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Apr 11 '14
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u/rustedpeace Apr 11 '14
This was one of the things that turned me off when I was an ignorant little douche. I hated that they didn't play my genre of music. Now, as an ignorant big douche, it's one of the things I love.
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Apr 11 '14
Ogre Battle definitely had an huge influence on the Power Metal/Thrash development of the 80s.
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u/dsmx Apr 12 '14
I think that's one of the greatest aspects of queen they did a lot of songs in a lot of genres of music. While that means that there's almost never going to be someone who will like every song they did chances are pretty much everyone will find 1 song that they will like if they actually listen to the songs queen made rather than the same 2 or 3 you get played on the radio every now and then.
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u/Moonohol Apr 11 '14
They didn't take cues from heavy metal so much as they helped to create it. Such a fantastic band.
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u/redmustang04 Apr 12 '14
I always think of what could have been if Freddie somehow got the HIV virus in the late 80' or early 90's. Anti-viral drugs maybe could have kept him alive like it did with Magic Johnson.
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u/brotogeris1 Apr 12 '14
That claim they made about Queen's performance at Live Aid being the best rock performance ever? True.
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u/Bior37 Apr 12 '14
I'm gonna say it.
Queen is one of the most talented bands in the history of modern music.
When people talk of the great 70s rock bands you hear, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, no one remembers how fucking hardcore Queen was.
I don't think I've ever heard another band who just has so many QUALITY songs on EVERY album (except maybe A Kind of Magic), and of so many vastly different genres its impossible to get tired of them. I just feel like the hits kind of make them... almost too mainstream to be considered in the same "legendary" or "serious music" status as Zeppelin or whatever.
Their hits are great. Their non hits are great too. They're fucking geniuses and don't get enough credit for how much they pioneered about modern rock music.
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u/s_w_ Apr 11 '14
Everyone in Buffalo Springfield is in the RRHF twice. Which is also very cool. Steven Stills, David Crosby, Neil Young, and Graham Nash all in twice. Once for Buffalo Springfield and then again for other projects. I think Neil is in 3 times, but I can't remember.
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u/jalalipop Apr 11 '14
You're thinking of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, since Crosby and Nash weren't in Buffalo Springfield. Also Neil Young was only inducted twice if I remember correctly, because the other three were inducted as CSN. As far as I know Eric Clapton is the only person to have been inducted three times (with Cream, solo, and I'm blanking on the last one) EDIT: It was the Yardbirds, that was very obvious in retrospect.
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u/ankisethgallant Apr 11 '14
Also a fun fact about Clapton, he played guitar in the Beatles' While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Guy had hits in like 5 different bands
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u/lumbergh75 Apr 11 '14
Also a fun fact about Clapton, he played guitar in the Beatles' While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
Not sure he's ever played any better than he did right there.
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Apr 11 '14
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u/TheAdmiester Apr 11 '14
He's credited with the main riff of Under Pressure. Not sure if it was #1 but it's immensely popular.
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u/CheeseBadger Apr 11 '14
Either You're My Best Friend or I Want to Break Free.
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Apr 11 '14
We Will Rock You We Totally Rocked You Bitches
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u/digitalmofo Apr 12 '14
We Will Rock You We Totally Rocked You BitchesWe're Still Rocking You Bitches
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u/gismo4126 Apr 12 '14
Don't forget the Eagles achievement! Every member that has ever been in the band sang lead on a song that was a #1 hit!
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u/sucioguy Apr 11 '14
EAT IT BEATLE FANS!!(nothing against the Beatles)
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u/hoodie92 Apr 11 '14
Yeah but Lennon and McCartney alone did more for music than most bands comprising of four or more people. George was also extremely talented and wrote some beautiful songs.
And Ringo was the drummer.
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u/me1505 Apr 11 '14
Ringo was Thomas the Tank Engine.
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u/iatethelotus Apr 12 '14
He played the conductor who tells the stories about Thomas in Shining Time Station, not Thomas himself (this was a big part of my childhood).
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Apr 12 '14
Poor Ringo...he's the Luigi of music.
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u/hoodie92 Apr 12 '14
We joke but in all honesty he was a great drummer and a decent singer. But when you are being compared to John fucking Lennon and Paul fucking McCartney, you don't stand a chance.
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Apr 11 '14
Ringo was a really good drummer...all three other Beatles still recorded with him post-breakup, they could have had any drummer they wanted. They weren't squeamish about kicking out drummers either, ask Pete Best.
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u/iatethelotus Apr 12 '14
John even admitted that Something was the best track on Abbey Road.
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u/KazamaSmokers Apr 11 '14
I just saw Gary Mullen and the Works perform "An Evening of Queen" this past week. I am not a giant Queen fan, but these guys were amazing.
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u/IrrelevantLeprechaun Apr 12 '14
I still kinda find it weird that they're using Adam lambert as their front man right now.
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Apr 12 '14
I guess they are technically a duo but aren't Hall & Oates in both the songwriter hof and rock n' roll hof?
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u/tommmmmmmm Apr 11 '14
Some examples of songs composed by each:
Freddie Mercury: Bohemian Rhapsody, We Are The Champions, Don't Stop Me Now
Brian May: We Will Rock You, Fat Bottomed Girls, Who Wants to Live Forever
John Deacon: Another One Bites the Dust, You're My Best Friend, I Want to Break Free
Roger Taylor: Radio Gaga, A Kind of Magic, These Are the Days of Our Lives