This is the twelfth in a series of examinations of music legends and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the previous eleven.

Let’s begin!

MUSIC LEGEND: A misheard word due to the accent of Tom Petty’s wife led to the Stevie Nicks’ song “Edge of Seventeen.”

STATUS: True

After a number of years having great success as a member of the band Fleetwood Mac, singer Stevie Nicks released her first solo album in July of 1981, titled Bella Donna.

The two biggest singles off of the album were “Stop Dragging My Heart Around” (which was co-written by Tom Petty, who duets with Nicks on the tune) and “Edge of Seventeen.”

“Edge of Seventeen” is a song about death, written by Stevie Nicks in December of 1980 when both John Lennon (who was a good friend of Bella Donna producer, Jimmy Iovine) and her Uncle Jonathon died during the same week that month.

It has the very famous refrain:

Just like the white winged dove…
Sings a song…
Sounds like she’s singing…
Whoo… whoo… whoo…
Just like the white winged dove…
Sings a song…
Sounds like she’s singing…
Ooo baby… ooo… said ooo

The white-winged dove, in this instance, symbolizes the soul leaving the body upon death.

In any event, while the song turned out to be about the death of the two Johns, originally the tune was going to be about the relationship of Tom Petty and his wife Jane.

As mentioned earlier, Petty wrote and played on the album, and Nicks toured with the group during 1980 leading up to the recording and release of her solo album, and Nicks became good friends with the couple during this time (Tom was married to Jane for 22 years).

Well, according to an interview Nicks did with Robert W. Morgan in 1981, the following conversation with Jane Petty ended up leading to the creation of “Edge of Seventeen”…

She was telling me about Tom, about when she met him, and she has an incredible Southern accent…and she said that she met him at the age of seventeen, but I thought she said “edge”, and she said “no…age” and I said “Jane, forget it, it’s got to be “edge”. The “Edge of Seventeen” is perfect. I’m going to write a song, ok? And I’m going to give you credit.” She didn’t believe me, you know? She couldn’t believe it when it came out on the album.

Later, Nicks noted about the song:

So it started out about Tom and Jane basically, who I have no idea what they were at 17, but I made it up. And, uh it went into being written about [her Uncle Jon and John Lennon].

Nicks IS right, the phrase “edge of seventeen” really IS a brilliant turn of phrase.

By the by, a misheard lyric like that is called a mondegreen, just in case you were curious.

Thanks to Richard Morgan for the interview, Stevie Nicks for the infromation, Jane Petty for the (inadvertant) awesome phrase and John Kinney, operator of the official Stevie Nicks’ website, The Nicks Fix, for the quotes!

MUSIC LEGEND: Morey Amsterdam wrote the song “Rum and Coca Cola.”

STATUS: False

“Rum and Coca-Cola” was a smash hit in 1946 for the singing trio, the Andrews Sisters, spending a stunning TEN weeks at the top of the pop charts.

If you look at the copyright today for the song, you’ll find three names listed as the writers of the song, Paul Baron, Jeri Sullavan and Morey Amsterdam.

Paul Baron is the fellow who did the arrangement for the Andrews Sister’s song.

Jeri Sullavan was the first performer of the song.

Morey Amsterdam…well, Morey Amsterdam has an interesting history with the song.

Morey Amsterdam during the 1940s was at the beginning of his stellar comedy career, which is probably most known today for his work on the Dick Van Dyke Show.

Morey Amsterdam performed for United States troops stationed in Trinidad during World War II. It was while he was in Trinidad that Amsterdam first heard the basic gist of the song, “Rum and Coca-Cola.”

He came back to the United States at the end of 1943 and in early 1944 he met Sullavan, who was looking for a novelty song to sing. He gave her “Rum and Coca-Cola” and the two added some new lyrics to the song, but basically, the song was the same exact song that was sung by Trinidad calypso singer Lord Invader the previous year when Amsterdam first came to Trinidad.

Since the Yankees came to Trinidad
They got the young girls all going mad.
The young girls say they treat them nice -
Make Trinidad like paradise.

Drinkin’ rum and Coca-Cola,
Go down Point Koo-mah-nah;
Both mother and daughter
Workin’ for the Yankee dollar.

When the Andrews Sisters had their smash hit recording, Amsterdam was soon a very rich man.

The public was interested in how a comedian had written such a hit song, and Amsterdam was pretty upfront about the fact that he had “picked the song up” while in Trinidad.

Eventually, though, legal representatives for Lord Invader took issue with Amsterdam’s position and sued him for copyright infringement in late 1946. After over a month of trial, where Amsterdam continued to plead that it was all just a striking coincidence, Amsterdam lost the suit.

However, as part of the large judgment against Amsterdam, Amsterdam arranged it so that he would acquire the copyright to the song, so to this day, Amsterdam is still listed as one of three writers on “Rum and Coca-Cola!”

MUSIC LEGEND: A singer once had a Top 40 song with 28 variations of the song depending on where the song was released!

STATUS: True

Tommy Facenda broke into the music industry while still in his teens, working as a member of Gene Vincent’s backing band, the Blue Caps, in 1957 (Facenda was 18).

Facenda was a strong guitarist, and a good singer, to boot, and soon he was pursuing a solo career, as well.

His solo career did not go particularly far, but he did have one Top 40 hit, and it was one of the more bizarre Top 40 hits that you’ll see!

Frank Guida, head of Legrend Records, gave Facenda a song based on the high schools in Guida’s home state of Virginia, called “High School U.S.A.” The song references a number of high schools in Virginia.

Then Guida had a stroke of genius (or madness?)!

First, he would have Facenda record a “national” version of the song (where he would name cities rather than high schools), then he would have him record a different version of “High School U.S.A.” for each region of the United States (well, a lot of them, at least)!

Each regional version of the song would mention high schools from that region - it was a very impressive job of editing to make all the various high schools fit into the basic song structure of the tune.

Here are the TWENTY-EIGHT regional versions of the song!

* Virginia
* New York City
* North & South Carolina
* Washington D.C.
* Philadelphia
* Detroit
* Pittsburgh
* Minneapolis/St. Paul
* Florida
* Newark, New Jersey
* Boston
* Cleveland
* Buffalo
* Hartford, Connecticut
* Nashville
* Indianapolis
* Chicago
* New Orleans
* St. Louis & Kansas City
* Georgia & Alabama
* Cincinnati
* Memphis
* Los Angeles
* San Francisco
* Texas
* Seattle, WA & Portland, OR
* Denver
* Oklahoma

Amazing, huh?

The song went to #28 on the Billboard Top 100.

Facenda ended up quitting show business during the 1960s and became a firefighter (and part time actor) for more than thirty years.

Okay, that’s it for this week!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com