2. "God Save the Queen" Wins Popular Vote, Finishes Second - England celebrated the Queen's Jubilee in the summer of 1977, in recognition of her 25 years of tireless service. At the same time the Sex Pistols released their single, "God Save the Queen," and it looked certain that the single would be number one on the charts the very weekend of the Jubilee. Yet the BMRB (British Market Research Bureau) declared that Rod Stewart's "I Don't Want To Talk About It" was the nation's number one single. Virgin Records then announced that its sales of stock exceeded the sales figures announced for "God Save the Queen," and even CBS, the distributor of the victorious Stewart single, believed that "God Save the Queen" was outselling their song by a two-to-one margin. Virgin Records owner Richard Branson later claimed to have received an anonymous phone call that the British Phonographic Institute had ordered the BMRB to remove the sales of all stores owned by record companies, thus eliminating sales count from the Virgin store where most copies of "God Save the Queen" were sold. The Sex Pistols record never made it higher than number two, but they're still around. So's the Queen for that matter, two years shy of 50 as the nation's number one figurehead. A re-release of "God Save the Queen" in 2002 anyone?

3. With 1% of Precincts Reporting, We Are Declaring WMMS the Winner ... - For many years Cleveland rock station WMMS was the reader's choice winner for the best radio station award in Rolling Stone's annual music poll. This winning streak should have raised some eyebrows, for listeners in Northeast Ohio rarely heard the punk/new wave explosion in the late 70s, while they did hear the likes of Yes, Deep Purple, Foghat, Pat Benatar, etc. Even local alt-heroes Pere Ubu were shafted in favor of local mainstream heroes the Michael Stanley Band, who received heavy rotation on WMMS in spite of being the dullest band yet imaginable at the time. A scandal in the late 80s ended the WMMS winning streak when it was discovered that the station itself was orchestrating a stuffing of the ballot box. Rolling Stone then discontinued the award. WMMS is still on the airwaves, and remains proud of having helped launch the careers of Bruce Springsteen and (I'm not making this up) Rush and Suzie Quatro.

4. And The Best Heavy Metal Performance Goes To ... a Flautist? - It was surprising enough when Jethro Tull's album Crest of a Knave was nominated in the Grammy's best hard-rock/metal category, but it was shocking when their album won the Grammy, beating out the likes of Metallica. Why the Tull album was even on the ballot remains a mystery. A few years later Metallica did win a Grammy, and during their acceptance speech thanked Jethro Tull for not releasing an album that year (tongue in cheek, of course), though Tull actually had released one.