Top Pops facts
While investigating facts about Top Pops, I found out little known, but curios details like:
Neither the Spice Girls themselves or their management came up with the Scary, Sporty, Baby, Ginger, Posh aliases. They were devised by Top of the Pops magazine in 1996 and later adopted by the group
When a hurricane is expected, Wal-Mart's top-selling items are strawberry Pop-Tarts and beer
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 45 of the best facts about Top Pops I managed to collect.
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Mrs. Miller, a middle-aged housewife with no formal music training, whose first album "Mrs. Miller's Greatest Hits" consisted of badly sung covers of popular pop songs from bands such as The Beatles. Her album reached #15 on the Billboard's Top Albums chart in 1966.
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The song "Everything is Awesome" used in "The Lego Movie" as a satirical criticism of mindless corporation-endorsed pop music won over 12 awards and reached the Top 10 in multiple US and UK charts.
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When a hurricane is expected, Wal-Mart's top-selling items are strawberry Pop-Tarts and beer.
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When Nirvana performed "Smells like teen spirit" on TOP OF THE POPS they were required to sing live vocals over pre-recorded back tracks, so they butchered it.
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Former TV host and pedophile Jimmy Savile was so vile that it is claimed that he set up his TV shows such as Top of the Pops and Jim'll Fix It just for the purpose of abusing children.
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Chip Taylor, who composed the pop songs "Angel of the Morning" and "Wild Thing" (which both hit the Billboard Top 40 Hit Singles list over the years by a variety of artists), was born James Voight and is the brother of Academy Award-winning actor Jon Voight.
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Immediately following Michael Jackson's death, works related to him occupied all top 9 position in the Billboards Pop Albums chart. By the third week, it occupied all 12 top spots. He became the best selling artist of 2009, earning his estate a revenue of one billion dollars.
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Ricky Gervais' career started in a synth-pop 80's duo who's top single was aired on a Phillipines radio station under a false artist/title to prevent other stations from playing the song.
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Popcorn that has been air-popped has 31 calories per cup (not including toppings) and is likely the healthiest type of popcorn.
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As of 2008, Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon has been on the charts for over 1,630 weeks, or approximately 31 years. Consecutively, the album spent a record 930 weeks on the Billboard 200. The other weeks were spent on the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart.
What is true about top pops?
You can easily fact check it by examining the linked well-known sources.
Popcorn that has been popped in oil has 55 calories per cup (not including toppings).
The bubblegum pop song "Sugar, Sugar" topped Billboard magazine in 1969, beating out legends like the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, and the Rolling Stones. - source
All of the original Beatles performances on the TV Programme "Top of the Pops" were deleted in order to reuse the tape. - source
The Spice Girls nicknames; Sporty, Scary, Baby, Ginger and Baby Spice were not given to them by the record company, nor were they self inflicted. They were given to them by the BBC top of the pops magazine in 1996 - 2 years after they were established in '94.
Strawberry Pop-Tarts sales increase 7x in sales before a hurricane hits, and the pre-hurricane top seller is beer! - source
Nirvana punked the music TV show "Top of The Pops" when they were asked to sing over prerecorded instrumentals, having Cobain change the lyrics, and blatantly not play the instruments
On November 25, 1991, Nirvana was set to perform "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on the British music chart television program "Top of the Pops." At the time, the show had a policy that required artists to sing live vocals over pre-recorded back tracks. The band gave a special performance in protest.
Stevie Wonder was only 13 when he had his first #1 song, becoming the youngest artist to ever top the chart and also the first artist to top the pop and R&B charts simultaneously
The Spice Girls didn't come up with their nicknames themselves. "Top of the Pops" magazine came up with mnemonics to tell them all apart during an editorial meeting. They brainstormed ideas and then ran the names in the magazine; the girls thought it was a joke but it caught on.
When Nirvana weren’t allowed to play their instruments live on Top Of The Pops, Kurt Cobain responded by singing the song in a deep Jim Morrison baritone. The band also made it very clear that they were not playing their instruments.
When Nirvana appeared on Top of The Pops for Smells Like Teen Spirit, Kurt begged to be able to actually sing instead of miming the lyrics. This lead to the band not trying to mimic their own playing and lead to Kurt singing the lyrics in a lounge singer sort of way.
