Browsing: Lists

A Brief History Our radio waves and video channels are often assaulted by hit songs that are anything but upbeat, exciting or rollicking.  Some of these songs are either tear jerkers or so sickeningly sweet you want to gag when you hear them.  Some are just hokey girlie songs (no problem if you like them, as long as you are a girl), while others belong in a fairy tale.  Here we list 10 of the worst offenders, and, of course, since they were hit songs we realize there will be outraged defenders of each one.  Feel free to vent and…

A Brief History Whether pronounced “Lee-na” or “Lay-na,” Lena has never been a popular name in English-speaking countries, being more common in Germanic or Slavic regions.  Some of the more famous “Lenas” have one thing in common, however, at one point in time, they created a stir by going naked! In line with our series on women whose nudity had a historical, social or cultural impact, in this article, we present 5 Lenas who, by being unclothed, made the news. Due to the uncommonness of the name and the high rate of fame achieved with nudity by those called Lena, perhaps the…

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 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…