Although there were earlier publicity stunts involving records sprayed with gold lacquer, the actual award recognized today as a Gold Record was first awarded to Perry Como in 1958 for his recording of "Catch a Falling Star".

Madonna became known as "The Material Girl" after her hit single of the same name hit the charts in 1984. She hates it, claiming she would never have done the song if she knew the name would stick.

"Personal Jesus" was inspired by Priscilla Presley's book Elvis And Me, in which she describes her relationship with Elvis Presley.

Each string has a tension of 160-200 lbs, resulting in a total combined force of up to 30 tons in a concert grand.

An ancient bone flute, estimated to be about 43,000-82,000 years old, was found by Dr Ivan Turk, a palaeontologist at the Slovenian Academy of Science at a Neanderthal campsite in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 1998. The oldest known musical instrument, it is made of an old cavebear femur segment with four holes (two complete and two partial).

The Detroit rapper achieved a world record with "Rap God". The six-minute track contains 1,560 words which means that Eminem is rapping a tongue-twisting 4.28 words per second.

On January 6, 1953, Gillespie threw a party for his wife Lorraine at Snookie's, a club in Manhattan, where his trumpet's bell got bent upward in an accident. He liked the sound so much he had a special trumpet made with a 45 degree raised bell, which became his trademark.

After breaking onto the hip-hop scene in 1990 with the chart-topping tune "U Can't Touch This", MC Hammer became synonymous with the flashy pants--billowy trousers that droop in the crotch and taper to the lower leg. But don't call them parachute pants in his presence. "I detest the term," he told Racked in 2016. "They're called Hammer pants."

Mercury was born with four extra teeth and attributed his enhanced vocal range to this. He refused to have his teeth fixed, fearing it would affect his vocal ability.

The first rock 'n' roll song to hit #1 was "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets. It held the top spot for 8 weeks.