Burgernoodle

A fun little factoid before you run off and gorge yourself with turkey and butternut squash.  The No. 1 hit that was written 40 years ago is back on the singles chart with a little help from the Boston Red Sox, who play the tune at every home game.  And now we finally know what inspired Neil Diamond to write the single largest hit song of his career.  Caroline Kennedy.  Mum was the word for many decades, but when he had a chance to perform (via satellite) at Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg’s 50th birthday party last week, he decided to divulge the secret.  Diamond said he had “never discussed it with anybody - intentionally.”  He had hoped to tell her in person (or via satellite) someday, and he finally did.  According to the Baltimore Sun:

Diamond was a “young, broke songwriter” when a photo of the president’s daughter in a news magazine caught his eye.

“It was a picture of a little girl dressed to the nines in her riding gear, next to her pony,” Diamond recalled. “It was such an innocent, wonderful picture, I immediately felt there was a song in there.”

Years later, holed up in a hotel in Memphis, he would write the words and music in less an hour.

It’s pretty wild that the song has returned to the charts after 4 decades.  The Red Sox, of course, have since become the singing legend’s favortite baesball team.  Smart, smart guy.

Self-named Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens (and formerly formerly known as Steven Demetre Georgiou) is performing once again, nearly 3 decades after he converted to Muslim and retired from the music business.  I guess all that’s changed is that he’s sporting a little less denim and the fact that he entered into an arranged marriage, auctioned off his possessions, and founded a Muslim school near London.  Other than that, pretty much the same guy.  Cat Stevens reached pop success in the early 70s topping the charts with “Wild World”, “Moon Shadow”, and “Peace Train” (among others).  In the late 80s his music was banned by some radio stations and the 10,000 Maniacs took the cover of “Peace Train” off their record when he supported the death sentence against novelist Salman Rushdie for writing the book The Satanic Verses.  He later claimed the media misconstrued the whole thing.

Enough about Cat back in the day.  What’s every college student’s favorite songwriter up to now?? Tentatively returning to show business, apparently.  Last march he gave his first full length concert in 28 years.  In a recent interview brought to us by Yahoo News, Yusuf was asked what his biggest indulgence is.  This was his response:

“Let me think about this … tea. I have to say tea, because I love tea and I love to drink it.”

  Ooo baby, baby, it’s a wild world indeed.

For those looking to kill about 6 minutes of your workday, there’s a great website that tells you what song hit No. 1 on the day you were born. Or the day the microwave was invented.  Or any day that occupies a special little corner in your heart.  I was very pleased to find out that the No. 1 song on March 20, 1977 was “Rich Girl” by Hall and Oates.  Unfortunately for me, this wasn’t any kind of prophecy, just a really catchy pop song that suited the late 70s well (or the year 2007, check out the Gym Class Heroes next album release).  Curious to know what was No. 1 the day you walked in on your boyfriend and your ex-best friend?  Find out at This day in music… It’s incredibly fun.

This month marks the 20th anniversary of Appetite For Destruction, the album that gave us “Paradise City”, “Sweet Child ‘O Mine”, “Welcome To The Jungle” and so many more Guns N’ Roses classics.  Axl Rose may have been the biggest dick in rock, but everyone from teenage girls to hard rocking Crue lovers got his appeal.  The stringy strawberry blond hair, pythonic stage presence, and complete disregard for any kind of socially accpetable behavior just made the music that much better.  The legacy this album left was pretty huge.  Although it only sold 500,000 copies in the first year of its release, it is now the second highest selling debut record in the US.  A shocking, disturbing, and hilarious tid bit is that the album’s closer “Rocket Queen” features the very true orgasmic screams of drummer Steve Adler’s girlfriend and Axl having sex in a recording studio vocal booth.  She apparently was trying to get back at Adler for cheating on her, so Axl agreed to memorialize it in the studio recording.  This may be the most fitting rock album title of all time.