Browsing: Arts & Entertainment

A Brief History On March 7, 1994, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that song parodies are “fair use” and that the original artist or writer of the song cannot prevent the parody from being recorded and aired. This settled any disputes, and the likes of “Weird Al” Yankovic were given a green light to continue amusing the public.  Earlier this year, we featured lists of great novelty songs (including parodies), and today we feature 10 more such great hits that amuse and entertain us.  Thank you, Supreme Court! Digging Deeper 10. “Pretty Woman,” 2 Live Crew, 1992. A parody…

A Brief History On March 3, 1951, music history was made when the first song deemed to be “rock and roll” was recorded.  Called “Rocket 88,”  the lively song was recorded by Chess Records at Sam Phillip’s studio in Memphis and is credited to Jackie Brenston and the Delta Cats who were actually Ike Turners’s band, the Kings of Rhythm.  In fact, the song was written by Brenston and Turner, though Turner was not originally credited.  Digging Deeper Based on the 1947 hit “Cadillac Boogie” and influenced by the instrumental hits “Rocket 88 Boogie” parts 1 and 2,” “Rocket 88” was also about the popular Oldsmobile model,  the…

A Brief History On March 2, 1962, Wilt Chamberlain, center for the Philadelphia Warriors, scored an National Basketball Association (NBA) single-game record of 100 points against the New York Knicks.  To put this in perspective, at that time, the only other player to have scored 70 or more points in a single game was Elgin Baylor with 71 points.  This performance put Chamberlain so far ahead of any other scoring flurry that he was truly in a class by himself.  In the 53 years since then, no other player has approached his record, with the closest effort being Kobe Bryant’s…

A Brief History On March 1, 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, returned to France from exile on the island of Elba to reclaim his empire.  Of course, his great comeback only lasted about 100 days, but in that time he reshook Europe.  Other people, teams and companies have also made impressive comebacks from near defeat, death, ruin or other calamities.  Here we list 10 of those that rank among the greatest.   Digging Deeper 10. John Travolta, 1994. After becoming a teen idol on television and having experienced success with movies such as Grease, Saturday Night Fever and Urban…

A Brief History In February 2014, the headlines were of censorship, the enemy of free people.   Digging Deeper In Australia, censors had banned the Swedish film Children’s Island because it contains scenes of naked children.  Far from pornographic, the film was first released back in 1980 and had won the most prestigious Swedish movie awards and was even submitted for consideration at the Academy Awards.  The threat of 10 years imprisonment for anyone showing or selling the film sparked animated debate in Australia. On the Internet, Muslims applied enough pressure to have the YouTube video of Katy Perry’s song “Dark Horse” edited to remove…