Comments on: Music Urban Legends Revealed #19

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 02:42:40 +0000

I wonder if the modern rom-com formula, which often casts as “romantic” behavior that would get a person arrested in real life, has anything to do with the popular misinterpretation of “Every Breath You Take.”

By: onion3000

onion3000 — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 02:32:14 +0000

My bad, that should have been Sanford and Son up there, not the Jeffersons, though both shows were ‘created’ by the producer Norman Lear.
He also ‘created’ “All In The Family”, based on British sitcom “Till Death Us Do Part”.
That UK show featured Ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair’s father-in-law, Tony Booth, who was often called (in the show) a ‘randy Scouse git’.
Which became the title for a single for the Monkees, a group created due to the effects of Beatlemania.
That was convoluted but I got it back on track.

By: onion3000

onion3000 — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 02:03:55 +0000

“…In October of 1963…” – “…(heck, you could argue that Beatlemania had already begun in England by this point in time)…”

The actual term ‘Beatlemania’ was first coined by the Daily Mirror on November 2nd 1963 – just a few weeks later – but that was in reaction to the already enormous popularity of the band.

One of my favourite gags in the film A Hard Day’s Night was the constant reference to Paul’s grandfather (Wlfred Brambell) as being “a very clean old man”; At the time (and for many years later) Brambell was best known on British television as the father in rag-and-bone-men comedy “Steptoe and Son”, where Harold’s catchphrase referred to his father being a “dirty old man”. I have to assume this allusion was lost on the US audience.
(I seem to recall US series “The Jeffersons” was based on “Steptoe and son” – Did they use the phrase?)