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| America Trivia |
Did you know...
* The cover artwork on the album History: America's Greatest Hits was the work of Phil Hartmann, who later became famous as a comedian on Saturday Night Live. Hartmann later dropped an "n" off his last name prior to achieving fame. His brother John was America's manager for many years.
* Many people mistake "A Horse With No Name" for a Neil Young song, due to the remarkable similarity of Bunnell's vocals to Young's. Ironically, "Horse" replaced Young's single "Heart of Gold" at US #1 in 1972. Bunnell would later comment that for a while he even made a conscious effort not to sound like Young when singing in concert.
* Contrary to popular belief, the choice of the name "America" had no political overtones, and the group has consistently avoided political or patriotic use of its name.
* The album Human Nature takes its name from Beckley's home recording studio in addition to the fact it begins with the traditional letter "H".
* America recorded Homecoming in the studio next to Stevie Wonder, who was then recording his classic album, Innervisions.
* Bunnell has claimed that America's label toyed with the idea of the group going country during the late 1970s, and that he and Beckley soundly rejected the idea.
* Bunnell has suggested that the "alligator lizards in the air" in "Ventura Highway" are references to cloud shapes.
* America and their label could not agree on which side of the Alibi LP should be considered Side One, so they came to a unique compromise. The sides would be labelled "Our Side" and "Their Side." The album's unusual cover photo, featuring a severed doll's head, does not have any special meaning. Bunnell recalled that he and Beckley simply stumbled upon it while looking through music photographer Henry Diltz's photo collection and decided to use it.
* Bunnell has remarked that the setting for "A Horse With No Name" was inspired by the area around Vandenberg Air Force Base, where he spent some time as a child.
* Dewey and Gerry are playing Chinese checkers on the cover of Your Move.
* The building behind Dewey and Gerry on the cover of Perspective is 100 Wilshire in Santa Monica, California. The building, tallest in the city, was completed in 1971, and was originally known as Lawrence Welk Plaza.
* The legendary rock photographer Henry Diltz is also a skilled banjo player, and was featured on the America tracks "Don't Cross The River" and "Submarine Ladies."
* When Garth Brooks covered "Don't Cross The River" on his Scarecrow album, he apparently wasn't aware that it was an America song. His version was based upon a bluegrass cover of the song by Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver from the late 1970s.
* Around 1976, the Soviet Union expressed interest in having the trio perform in that country, but the deal collapsed before it could come to fruition.
* A group of country music all-stars (Vince Gill, Faith Hill, Terri Clark, Trisha Yearwood, and Tim McGraw) recording under the name of "Project Hope" covered Beckley's "Hope" for a charity single in 1996. Many of them later performed the song live for that year's Academy of Country Music awards telecast.
* America was briefly caught up in controversy in 1981 when they broke the anti-apartheid international cultural boycott against South Africa and played several concerts in that country. However, America was not alone, as black artists such as Tina Turner and Curtis Mayfield did the same. It has been rumored that the group suffered from a low-key industry backlash for several years after the incident.
* Janet Jackson's 2001 hit "Someone To Call My Lover" was focused around the guitar riff from "Ventura Highway". The riff itself was re-recorded for the sample to reduce royalty fees. One of her earlier hits, "Let's Wait A While", was supposedly inspired by "Daisy Jane" and has often been compared to it.
* Budding comedian Jay Leno was the opening act for several America shows in the early 1970s.
* When played backwards, the lyrics on "Moon Song" from Homecoming say, "All good men come to the aid of their country."
* "I Need You" is supposedly the first song Beckley ever wrote.
* "A Horse with No Name" was placed on the soundtrack of the controversial video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It also makes an appearance in the sprite webcomic 8-Bit Theater.[1]
* "A Horse with No Name" has often been cited among both the best and the worst songs ever recorded.
From Wikipedia under the GNU license
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