Dec 14

Guinness Book of World Records

GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS (GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS)

 
Guinness World Records, known from its inception in 1955 through 1998 as The Guinness Book of Records and in previous U.S. editions as The Guinness Book of World Records, is a reference book published annually, listing world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world.  The book itself holds a world record, as the best-selling copyrighted book of all time.  The organization employs official record adjudicators authorised to verify the authenticity of the setting and breaking of records.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
You might remember the direct-to-disc recording technique that was briefly popular among audiophiles toward the putative end of the vinyl era in the late 1970’s; the recorded music from the studio is transferred directly to a master disk without intervening taping and overdubbing and such.  Warsaw Pakt has the distinction of performing on the first such transfer among rock recordings and even got an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for their trouble.  Of course, this was also the standard means of recording music after Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, well into the 1950’s.
 
(August 2011)
 
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With some limitations for articles having highly contentious positions on all sides (such as the one on evolution), anyone at all can edit any of the articles in Wikipedia and put in whatever they want.  In some instances, the changes are malicious (known in the wiki-world as “vandalism”), but they are normally changed back rather quickly; I have done some of that myself on occasion (again just this morning as a matter of fact).  It takes a while in some cases for the vandalism to be corrected; but then again, there is an item in the Guinness Book of World Records about the longest time that a painting has been mistakenly hung upside-down in an art gallery – and that wasn’t just for a couple of days either.  
 
(August 2012)
 
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After being drafted into the Army for two years, J. P. Richardson, Jr. went into the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest continuous on-air period as a disc jockey.  From April 29 to May 4, 1957 (a total of more than 122 hours), he played a mind-boggling 1,821 songs, ending with “Cattle Call” by Dinah Shore.  

 

(June 2013/1)

 
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During the tributes to Glen Campbell at this year’s Grammy Awards and Academy Awards, it occurred to me that I am more of a country music fan than I usually let on to other people – or even to myself.  Besides the June 2012 concert appearance by the Flaming Lips as part of their mini-tour to set the Guinness World Record for the largest number of concerts in a 24-hour period (and travelling by bus no less), the only live concerts that I have been to in the past four (maybe five) years are the “Queen of Rockabilly” Wanda Jackson in February 2013 and Glen Campbell in August 2011.  The latter concert was at the IP Casino in Biloxi after he publicly acknowledged being afflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease and was a warm-up concert for Glen Campbell’s Goodbye Tour, which extended from August 31, 2011 through November 30, 2012.  Part of the intention of the Goodbye Tour was to help ease the social stigma associated with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. 

 

(February 2015)

 
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That bit of doggerel is something that nearly everyone hears at least once a year.  This song too has songwriting credits.  As explained by Wikipedia:  “According to the 1998 Guinness World Records, ‘Happy Birthday to You’ is the most recognized song in the English language, followed by ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow’.” 

 

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Diana Ross left the Supremes in 1970 to start a solo career, though Berry Gordy had been thinking about that as early as 1966.  Guinness World Records lists Diana Ross as the most successful female recording artist in history; combining her recordings with the Supremes and individually, Diana Ross has had 70 charting hit singles and sales of more than 100 million albums.  In 1976, Billboard magazine named Diana Ross the “female entertainer of the century”. 

 

(April 2015/1)

 

Last edited: March 22, 2021