#400
We start Mountain by Numbers with the Roman Numeral for 400, which by the way is ‘CD’. The first CD to be manufactured in the Untied States for commercial release, when CBS Records opened its CD manufacturing plant in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1984, was Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. Before then, CDs had been imported from Japan.
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#399
The number of hours between the time the Temptations’ biggest hit ‘Just My Imagination’ was released in January of 1971 and the Temptations’ last televised performance (on the Ed Sullivan Show) with co-founder Eddie Kendricks. In March 1971, while "Just My Imagination" was on its way to becoming the number-one song in the United States, Kendricks officially received his release from the Temptations and signed a solo deal with Motown's Tamla label.
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#398
List price of Music from Big Pink by The Band in 1968. Music From Big Pink is generally considered one of the best albums by The Band, along with their 1969 second album The Band. The album follows the band's backing of Bob Dylan on his 1966 tour (as The Hawks) and time spent at a shared house in upstate New York recording what would become the Basement Tapes, also with Dylan. Most notable amongst the album’s tracks was The Weight.
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#397
The number of months between the time that Kate Pierson of the B52's lived in a cabin in Athens Georgia and the time it burned down in 2004. The cabin was where her band conceived their first hit "Rock Lobster" and was the focal point of their #3 hit, "Love Shack".
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#396
The month and year (March 1996) that Alanis Morissette swept the Juno Awards in her native Canada, winning Best Female singer, Best songwriter, Best Single, Best Album and Best Hard Rock Album for 'Jagged Little Pill' and “You Oughta Know.”
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#395
The number of days between the release of Bill Haley’s ‘Rock Around The Clock’ and when it was used as the backing music to the opening credits to Blackboard Jungle – when it truly took off. The song was chosen from the collection of young Peter Ford, the son of Blackboard Jungle star Glenn Ford. The producers were looking for a song to represent the type of music the youth of 1955 was listening to, and the elder Ford borrowed several records from his son's collection, one of which was Haley's "Rock Around the Clock".
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#394
The month and year Bruce Springsteen won his first and only Academy Award. He won it for Best Original Song For A Motion Picture for Jonathon Demme’s film Philadelphia, starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington. The song was ‘Streets of Philadelphia.’
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#393
The number of days David Bowie alter-ego Ziggy Stardust existed in rock music – ending on July 3, 1973 with Ziggy saying, “This show will be the longest in our memories, not just because it is the end of the tour, but because it is the last show we’ll ever do.” The audience thought Bowie was retiring. It was only Ziggy.
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#392
The number of copies the Beatles’ single “The Long And Winding Road” sold per second the first two days of its release in the US on May 11, 1970.
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#391
Number of hours between the time author John O’Brien met with movie producer Stuart Regan about turning O’Brien’s book into a motion picture and the time O’Brien committed suicide. O’Brien’s book was a book about the self destruction of a man – the title of which was used for a song on Sheryl Crow’s debut album Tuesday Night Music Club. One of the writers of the song (along with Crow), David Baerwald, was a friend of O’Brien’s which is how the title got into Crow’s hands. The song, was "Leaving Las Vegas".
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#390
The percent increase in the original budget for the film Reservoir Dogs from the eventual budget used. The increase was due to the inclusion of Harvey Keitel in the picture, not only as an actor but as a co-producer. This is the film that prominently featured "Stuck in The Middle With You" - a song introduced by comedian Stephen Wright who was playing the voice of a DJ on a radio station called K-Billy.
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#389
The number of days between the time Adam Duritz wrote a song for the band he was in (The Himalayans) and the time record execs got a chance to hear it. Towards the end of 1991 a record exec received two demos. One was The Himalayans' demo tape and the other was a tape of David Bryson and Adam Duritz playing a collection of songs in a stripped down acoustic format under the name Counting Crows. One of those songs was "Round Here" - the second single from the Counting Crows debut album, August and Everything After.
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#388
Population of Black Oak, Arkansas – The home and name of the band which produced the remake of Lavern Baker’s 1957 hit, "Jim Dandy".
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#387
The month and year that U2 performed from the roof of the Republic Liquor Store at the intersection of 7th and Main in downtown Los Angeles to make the video for 'Where The Streets Have No Name', attracting thousands of spectators and bringing traffic to a standstill. The police eventually stopped the shoot.
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#386
Jimmy Buffet was in a bar up near Daytona Beach and saw a group of guys crowded around some girls who were obviously in town for a beauty contest of some sort. Jimmy says he sat back and listened to their conversation and took notes. He pictured that these guys had fins coming out of their backs as they hit on the girls. It was a pure feeding frenzy. He scribbled down pieces of their conversation and wrote the song. Now it seems the 'land shark' population has increased tremendously. 386 is the area code for Daytona Beach. It also spells out the word ‘FUN’ on the phone. Something the men were having in the bar when Buffet wrote ‘Fins.’
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#385
The number of individual bootleg titles featuring Led Zeppelin performances, making them Britain’s most bootlegged artists of the last century. (The Beatles were #2, followed by the Stones and Dylan.) The BBC Sessions – which came out as an official album in 1997 – was their most bootlegged performance, including "Going To California".
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#384
The number of days prior to the release of the Beatles Sgt. Peppers album that the Beach Boys released Pet Sounds, which Paul McCartney cited as a major influence on the Beatles’ legendary album, calling Pet Sounds “a total, classic record that is unbeatable in many ways.” Paul said “God Only Knows” “is a big favourite of mine ... very emotional, always a bit of a choker for me, that one.” (GOD ONLY KNOWS)
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#383
The number of months that passed between the time poet Anne Sexton died and Dave Matthews wrote a song that was inspired by Anne Sexton’s life. Born Anne Gray Harvey, she battled with bipolar disorder and was the modern model of the confessional poet. Dave wrote ‘Grey Street’ about the life of Anne Sexton.
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#382
The number of seconds in Peter Gabriel’s “Mercy Street.” On the theme of Anne Sexton, the title came from her 1969 play 45 Mercy Street. She was also working on a poem with the same title at the time of her death. Peter Gabriel was moved by the fact that Sexton wrote her poems as a form of therapy – writing for herself instead of an audience. The lyrics of Mercy Street even mention Anne’s name in the song - at 5:53.
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#381
The Month and year (3/81) that Blondie's "Rapture" topped the charts - largely responsible for introducing rap music to Top 40 radio, mainstream America, and music buyers around the world. It was the first #1 hit song with a rap. Artists like Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, and Kurtis Blow had been rapping since the mid-'70s, and The Sugarhill Gang had the first Top-40 hit earlier in 1980 with "Rapper's Delight," but until "Rapture", rap had never been incorporated into a hit Pop song. Debbie Harry did the rap, and it was really ridiculous, with lyrics about the "Man from Mars eating cars," but the novelty helped the song become a hit.
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#380
The address of the last home Janis Joplin lived in – 380 West Baltimore in the San Francisco suburb of Larkspur, California. This 3 bedroom, 3,341 square foot home is currently on the market for $1,950,000. This is where she lived when she wrote "Mercedes Benz" with the poet Michael McClure and Bob Neuwirth, as a social commentary on how people relate happiness to money and material possessions.
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#379
The month and year that Elvis Costello was on tour with his Armed Forces album (March, 1979). On March 16th, he, Stephen Stills and Bonnie Bramlett (of Delany & Bonnie fame) were enjoying a late night drink at a Holiday Inn in Columbus, Ohio. Costello said disparaging remarks about James Brown and Ray Charles. Bramlett took a punch at him and the ensuing brawl was explained away at a press conference a few days later. A contrite Costello apologized at the New York City press conference, claiming that he had been drunk and had been attempting to be obnoxious in order to bring the conversation to a swift conclusion, not anticipating that Bramlett would throw a punch at him and bring his comments to the press. According to Costello, "it became necessary for me to outrage these people with about the most obnoxious and offensive remarks that I could muster." (Accidents WILL happen!)
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#378
The number of days between the death of Allman Brothers member, Duane Allman, after crashing his motorcycle while returning home from band colleague, Barry Oakley’s birthday party and Barry Oakley’s death after colliding with a bus on his motorcycle. Duane Allman was killed only a few months after the summer release and great initial success of At Fillmore East. Allman was riding toward an oncoming truck that was turning well in front of him but then stopped in mid-intersection. He lost control of his Harley while trying to swing left - less than one month shy of his 25th birthday. In a bizarre coincidence, bassist Berry Oakley would die 378 days later in a similar motorcycle crash with a city bus, just three blocks away from the site of Duane Allman's.
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#377
The number of days between the time Jewel’s song “Foolish Games” was released as a single, and Fastball’s “The Way” was released as a single. At the beginning of “The Way” is 8 seconds of a radioswitching stations. At the :07 second point, you can hear a snippet of the pre-chorus to “Foolish Games.”
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#376
The month and year that Jackson Browne's wife Phyllis Major committed suicide. At the time, Jackson was working on his album ‘The Pretender.’ After her death, Jackson, and his mother-in-law Nancy Farnsworth, co-wrote the song"Here Come Those Tears Again" using lyrics Phyllis had written.
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Mountain By Numbers goes on....
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