Cracking covers, Ketchup and the Card Calendar

Episode 10 Timeline 

Season Two Kick-off: Cracking covers, Ketchup and the Card Calendar

Al and Marty return for season two of “Fun Facts and Sidetracks,” describing the show as light, non-political conversation about music, movies, history, and anything that makes them laugh. 

00:00 Season 2 Kick-off: What This Show’s About (Fun Facts, Sidetracks & No Politics)

01:21 Cover Versions 101: Why Covers Matter & What Counts as a Cover

02:48 From Slavery Songs to Ram Jam: The Wild History of “Black Betty”

03:43 Personal Faves: Joe Cocker, Beatles Covers & Making a Song Your Own

06:35 Deep Cuts & Classics: Ian Moss, Amy Winehouse, Talking Heads, Hendrix & More

13:22 When Covers Become Samples: Grammys, Pop Hits & “Sampling the Samples”

15:23 Listener Picks + Fun Facts: “Yesterday” as the Most-Covered Song Ever

21:00 New Segment: Famous Companies—The Origin Story of Heinz

23:36 57 Varieties & Superfactories: Heinz’s Branding, Worker Benefits & Growth

26:38 Heinz in Wartime & Royal Approval: Beans for the Queen

27:35 Ketchup Goes to Space: NASA, ISS, and Bean Jokes

29:48 Corporate Shake-Ups: Burger King CEO, McDonald’s Split & Kraft Heinz Merger

31:25 Challenger Anniversary Sparks a Time Travel Chat

34:00 Mind-Bending Timeline Facts: Dinosaurs, Mammoths & Ancient Civilizations

41:54 Deck of Cards = A Calendar? The Hidden Math & Fortune-Telling Origins

52:51 Sampling Gone Wrong: P. Diddy, Sting & $2,000-a-Day Royalties

54:39 Wrap-Up: Send Your Fun Facts & Favourite Covers

Check out some of our favourite covers:

Ray Charles – Eleanor Rigby (Check out the kooky set design and dancers too.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK2HF-5-b-Q

Ian Moss (Cold Chisel) - Georgia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhFXjzRRv4w&list=RDNhFXjzRRv4w&start_radio=1

Spiderbait – Black Betty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU1VfYYKMDk&list=RDnU1VfYYKMDk&start_radio=1

The Lemonheads – Mrs Robinson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C0sANgB9Qk&list=RD2C0sANgB9Qk&start_radio=1

David Byrne – Don’t fence me in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuMvkNDuOuQ&list=RDuuMvkNDuOuQ&start_radio=1

 The White Stripes – I just don’t know what to do with myself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzDG0jA3XVY

If you have a fun fact you’d like us to share, send us an email to: funfactsandsidetracks@gmail.com or leave us a comment online at our social pages on Facebook or Instagram Thanks for listening and never be afraid to get sidetracked.

The boring disclaimer: We do try to double-check all of the facts we talk about. If something isn’t quite correct, we humbly apologise. Credit to our many sources including, A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs, Tim from Kicking Harold, Mental Floss, Wikipedia and so many more.

Transcript

Speaker 0:16

Hey, we're back. We're back. We're back. We are bad. And we're back, How are you mate. I'm terrific. Al what about yourself? Yeah. All right. What are we doing? Oh, well, we are back for the difficult second album. They want more. Well, you know, due to overwhelming, requests. Yeah. Oh, that's good. We thought we'd respond to both people and say, and say, well come back into a second season. Yeah. Lin did say she wanted us come back. That's your wife, right? Yeah. Alright, so, here we go. Yeah. Welcome to season two, everyone of fun facts and sidetracks. Look, we're just gonna talk about all sorts of stuff that interests us. Yeah. Nothing too serious. No, nothing too serious. Nothing political for sure. Just music and movies and history and anything that makes us laugh. Yeah. Yeah. And plenty of sidetracks along the way. And, funny stories from your good self. There's hope so. Alright. Alright, well with that by way of introduction, let's rip in. Let's do it now. Okay. Now first up today we always talk about music. Love to talk about music, love to talk about music, and there's pretty rich territory in talking about cover versions. Mm-hmm. And I have to add here that we are talking about our favourite cover versions. This is all opinion based. Mm-hmm. Like a lot of the stuff that we do on the podcast. We base it on the facts as we can find them online and what have you, but we don't claim to be experts. So please, if you think something is not quite on the money, then if we haven't got it right, which I usually don't. Only joking. So let's have a quick chat about some of our favourite, cover versions and I guess to cover off this sort of thing. Cover versions really can be anything from. Reinventing a song, sometimes they change so much that you don't even really recognise the original. And then other times I think plenty of artists have thought, I like that song. I'm gonna do a pretty faithful version of that. And of course there are other people who never really wrote their own stuff. Yeah. People like Frank Sinatra and Elvis and, you know, some of the world's biggest artists. Yeah, but they found songs and they went, I can make that my own with my own vocal stylings. You know what I like about it? It keeps the song alive. You listen to some of these songs, you know, and they go right back. You know, like Black Betty, Black Betty's an awesome song. It goes right back to slavery. Okay. You know, they used to sing that on the road or in the fields 'cause they weren't allowed to talk. So they used to communicate through song. And, woah Black, Betty Bamba Lam, I think it was, there was a few different… Black Betty wasn't a woman. It was, um, the whip apparently. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Or the van that used to truck them around in. Yeah. Or whiskey. That was three things that Black Betty was so, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well that's interesting. So yeah, there's lots of interesting stuff about that song and even from like Ram Jam in the seventies. Yes. Through to, Spiderbait who have done very well out of it Exactly. Black Betty is used on a few ads at the moment. I think so, yeah. It's, alive and well, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Very interesting song. What do you reckon is your favourite? If you had to go? What's my favourite cover version of all time? Uh, look, there's a lot of favourites. Like I say, when you think of people like The Beatles and who've covered songs like The Beatles, I love Ray Charles sings, sing The Beatles. Yeah, Yesterday. But. Eleanor Rigby’s gotta be up there, you know, awesome. He just changes it. He makes it such a depressing song, but it sounds so good. Yeah. You know, (singing) Eleanor Rigby, picks up the rice in a church where a wedding has been. And he, and he says to me, the man turned to me and he said. Yeah, it is an awesome version. Yeah. Well, talk about make it your own, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Cocker does great versions of stuff, you know? Um Yeah, of course. But that's great. Keeps the song Alive. Get By with a Little Help from My Friends was great, Yeah. Was huge, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah. You know, a, a Beatles cover that, I mean, I'm not necessarily a huge John Farnham fan. Yeah. But Help. Yeah. The way that he took that and just made it a completely different song. Yeah. And it's probably got all of the kind of emotion of what Lennon was writing about. Yeah. because it's pretty dark when you read the lyrics. You go far out. Yeah. There's a cry for help, you know? Literally. Yeah. Um, but I think. I think the Farnham’s version's pretty cool from that point of view. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, I love it. It really, he really rips into it and it's a pretty basic version, isn't it? Mm-hmm. It's just his voice. Yeah. Yeah. That, that makes it, I think Tina Turner did a version similar. Oh, look, she probably did. I mean, everyone's had a crack at the Beatles. Yeah. Like, and, and you listen to whether it's. Gosh, Stevie Wonder, you know, We Can Work It Out. Yeah. Um, certainly people like Roxy Music, you know, the Jealous Guy from John Lennon and Yeah. Um, you know, in later years. Guns and Roses - Wings, Live and Let Die, you know, so everyone's had a crack at it. Their version wasn't too bad. Yeah, well it was alright, but yeah, everyone's covered and, and I mean, the Beatles weren't averse to a cover, especially in their early years. Yeah, that's what they did. Right. Roll Over Beethoven and Yeah. Rock and Roll Music and, you know, Long Tall Sally and all that stuff. They, they were kind of going, yeah, well these are the people that influenced us. The, the Chuck Berrie’s and the little Richard’s and Yeah. You know, well that's why so much good talent came out of Liverpool. Mm-hmm. Because it was a port, it was one of the first places that the stuff from America was coming to England, Liverpool. Mm. So they were the first ones to get their hands on the rock and roll. And all these different people. That's why that's, that their music industry sort of flourished. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. So we've called cover versions. Well, we are to, and you know what I did think about this in readiness for this chat. Yeah. And I reckon mine is probably actually a cover of a song that is pretty synonymous with Ray Charles. Mm-hmm. And that's Georgia on my Mind. But it's Ian Moss from Cold Chisel. He did a version. Oh man. He does an awesome version. Really? He did a wailing version. It's on, sort of goes back to when Chisel we're playing, like on Swing Shift, the live album. But he plays it live now. He plays it acoustically. And I mean, that's a song that goes back to Hoagy Carmichael in the 1930s. Exactly. Um, again, great song kept alive, but you know, if, if we're talking about personal opinion. Valerie, you know, Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson. Yes. That's an awesome song and it that's a cover… Yeah…. of The Zoutons, um, Smooth Criminal Alien Ant Farm, when they covered Michael Jackson. Yes. And I think, I think one of the reasons that I love that so much is probably my favourite Family Guy moment is when the family goes to see, I think it's they're visiting Brian in hospital. And there's this lady in the bed next to him and, Lois is going, Annie, are you okay? Are you okay? Annie? And somebody says, What happened to her? And she goes, she was hit by, she was struck by a smooth criminal. So good. Oh, what a great show. Ah, so good. Yeah. Um, they're brilliant. They're geniuses. They are. And, and I mean, if you're talking covers then stuff like, you know, Talking Heads did. Did great covers of things like, Take me to the River. Yeah. Al Green, which is pretty faithful to.. yeah… terrific version. Yeah. And, David Byrne from Talking Heads did, Don't Fence Me In, you know, which is an old Very old Bing Crosby and Andrew Sisters sort of thing. Yeah. But he did like a Brazilian take on it. It's a Cole Porter song, but it's just great, you know. Wow. Um, the Lemonhead covering Mrs. Robinson. Yes. Yeah. Just a rock version of, of Simon and Garfunkle, which is pretty cool. There's, there's a mountain of this, of these covers that we could talk about. Yeah. Jimi Hendrix - All along the Watchtower Brilliant song that wasn't his, no, it was Bob Dylan. Ah, that's of course. But, but Dylan, when he heard it just went, oh wow. That's, that's my song. Like, that's making me a lot of money. I like it. But he kind of admitted like… there again, that's a pretty dark song. Yeah. But well, all these songs were dark, weren't they? Was there any happy songs he wrote? Yeah. Well, that's right. Yeah. So it's, it's pretty rich territory and it's fun to think about what your own, you know, your favourites are. Yep. I mean, I, I love Bowie obviously, and he covered Friday on my Mind. Did he really? He did, he did a great version of The Easy Beats. Yeah. I never heard that one. And, and his, All the Young Dudes, you know Mott The Hoople, he produced that. Yeah. So there's lots of occasions where people actually went. I'm gonna cover that song. But the person that wrote it, produced it. Mm-hmm. For them. Yeah. So, Elvis Costello, you know What's so Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding. So yeah. That was always with him and Nick Lowe. Um, yeah. Working together and, you know, Girls Talk, Dave Edmunds and Elvis Costello. Elvis Costello, doing all the Burt Bacharach stuff. Yes. You know, (singing) What do you get when you fall in love? Yeah. You know, it just, he does a terrific version of it from the movie. Oh, yes. Yeah. Baby from the Austin Powers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and he, also did that country album. And in, in my humble, I'm not a massive country fan, but, A Good Year for the Roses. Yeah. The version that he does of that. It's an old George Jones song, but, you know, he sings it better than anyone. Oh, you gotta love country, you gotta love some of it. Big Ray started in country. Well, he did. Yeah, that's very true. Mm-hmm. And Big Willie. Yeah. Why are they all called, big? I think you just call them big. I dunno that necessarily. Is it just me? It's just… Okay. But, well, Willie Nelson, I mean he did, Crazy. Yeah. With Patsy Klein. And that was when he was in black and white. If it would've been. Yeah. Yeah. And he looked pretty straight. He had a really straight haircut and Yeah. Yeah. Wore a suit, you know that real country look? Yeah. Where everything was black and white and it was like a barn and a post, A really cruddy set. Yeah. With one microphone. Yeah. A big thing. Yeah. Yeah. One of my all time favourites, I don't know if you know this one, but the White Stripes, did a cover of, I Just Don't Know What to do with Myself Really? Yeah. Dusty Springfield song. Okay. And it's about as far away from the original, as you can imagine, but it's just Jack White going bananas on the guitar, you know? It's terrific. Yeah, and that's, I reckon that's what makes a song pretty cool when it's covered, is when somebody sees the potential and they just go, I can change this a bit. Yeah. You know, to suit myself. Yeah. They either change it a lot Mm. And it's great. Mm. Or they try to stay true to the whole thing and it say it's great as well. Mm. Like Nirvana doing Man Who Sold The World. You can just tell that there's a massive. affection there for Bowie, you know? Yeah. To, to cover that. And all of a sudden there's a whole audience of people going, you know, how come David Bowie is singing this Nirvana song? Yeah. Hang on minute. Yeah. I've, oh, that was funny. Young friend of mine of all years back said to me, he was working with me and he went, you’ve got to listen to this. He said, this band's one of my favourite bands. And it was, (singing) com Compute, P-P-P-P-P, computer Games. And I listened to it. And I went, yeah. Okay. And I YouTubed, uh, uh, what, what was the name? They were, uh, Misex. Yeah. Misex. Yeah. In his cutoff sleeves, you know? Yeah. Standing in front of the camera. Steve Gilpin. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, played it to him and he went, who's that? I said, that are the guys who wrote it back in the seventies. And he went, damn. I know. So, yeah. There's, there's a version of Just like Firewood - The Saints. Yes. That, Bruce Springsteen does. I was gonna say, yeah. Bruce Springsteen liked that song, didn't he? Yeah, it did. Yeah. And it is a good song, isn't it? It's, it's a good song. I'd much rather hear Chris Bailey singing it than Bruce Springsteen any day. But again, personal opinion only. Yeah. But it is kind of interesting 'cause we're talking about. Cover versions here, but it's when you hear little drum beats and things that have been sampled. Yes. And I reckon that's just becoming, it's always been around. Yeah. But wow. It's becoming more prevalent now. Oh, it's overdone. It's just nuts. So, you know, they handed out the gongs at the Grammys recently. Yeah. And I was looking the other day at the awards for the, song of the Year, the nominees. And I think there's like seven of them and four of them are sampling old songs that go, like I'm, I'm sure you know Lady Gaga. Yep. You know, there's no denying how talented she is, but you know, she's sampling a, pretty old song. A Siouxsie and The Banshee song, in fact, yeah. You know, from the eighties, but like. Doechii that, that song Anxiety. Yeah. Which, which uses Somebody that I Used to Know. Yeah. Yeah. Everyone's done that one. Yes. And it's such a good song. It's, and that's why they do it. They think, well, we're on a winner here. Because as soon as they hear that in the background, they're gonna like it anyway. I know. It's like Sabrina Carpenter and Manchild. They've got bloody Doobie Brothers. What a Fool Believes. You know, and there's a Kendrick Lamar one. That', you know, samples Luther Vadross because it's like a tribute…… and who started this? Was it old baggy trousers, what’s his name? Can't touch this, was it him? Can't touch this. We'll blame him. Exactly. Can't touch this. But you know, I mean it's fine, but far out…….You do wonder if people will be sampling these songs, sampling the samples, in 40 years time. Yeah. Or if they'll be kind of consigned to the dust bin of mediocrity. Oh, I think they'll just go back a couple of generations. It's just …scratch that one. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, uh, enough old bloke ranting. Yep. So there's a mountain of cover versions and there's plenty of good stuff that we could, talk about in future episodes. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah. So have a bit of a think and if people have any favourites that they wanna share. Yeah. The more obscure, the better, I reckon then. Um, there's so many of 'em out there. Yeah. And it's, and it's nice to hear the original if you didn't know there was an original. Yeah. You know, when , like Simply Red, did you know, I can't remember which one it was now, but uh, now I find out it's some old soul tune. Yeah. You know, and think, wow. Yeah, yeah. Just keep the song alive. You're right. A new audience and yeah. And people don't know. And, and good songs will always last, probably doesn't matter. Tell you an interesting one that I found was, you know James Taylor? You've got a Friend. Carol King actually wrote and recorded that. Yeah, Because he'd written, Fire and Rain and he was talking in Fire and Rain about lonely times when I could not find a friend. Mm-hmm. And she wrote the song back to him. Basically to say you've got a friend. Yeah. Well that Fire and Rain was about a friend of his that was in a mental home was, you know, yeah. And committed suicide. I don’t know the full story, but that's why he wrote that song. Yeah. That's sort of his first big hit, wasn't it? It was the biggest hit he's ever had. So, yeah, pretty interesting. And then I had another one. Mm-hmm. Was The Doors. You know The Doors. Yeah. You know, like … do you know any Doors? I used to hear that at work all the time. You know, playing in piano bars. Yeah. Play some Doors, play Doors and Barnsey. Anyway, Doors - Light my Fire. Okay. Yeah, you know, when it was a hit in, uh, 1967, Jose Feliciano did a version and I just love it. I know we joke about it, but I remember when it came out, you know, with, (singing) Light my fire, Light my fire, Light my fire. Light. Light, light, light, light. My fire. You better light my fire. You better light. You better light. You better light my fire. Girl it can’t get much higher. And poor old Les. This is Al’s dad. He’d say…What's he raving on about? And I used to love the song. Then Les just sort of pulled at face and went, what is he raving on about? And I'm thinking, no, that's a pretty cool song. Yeah. Well, Jose, you know much to Les’s disgust. You probably didn't know, in 1968 he made a, a version of it and it was third on the US Billboard hot hundred. Okay. Yeah. And the 11th annual Grammy Awards Best. Contemporary male pop, vocal performance. Mm. Jose Feliciano won a Grammy award so, you know, for that, Light my fire, like my fire, like my fire, like, like light. Light. My fire. Girl, you better light my fire. You better light, you better, light,…. I think it's fair to say that my dad wasn't on the judging panel that year. Wheel him in. Oh God love him. He would be a great critic. That one. And, Are you old enough? Are you old enough? Yeah. Are they still playing this crap? Oh, Gosh, we're amusing each other. Sorry about that. Not including the audience at this point. Yeah. I just thought I'd bring that one up because I did like Jose and his version. Yeah, no, that's a great, even though we joke about it, but great shout. Mm-hmm. I'm a massive Pearl Jam fan, as you probably know. Yeah, I think Eddie is the king, but. Pearl Jam covered Last Kiss. Mm-hmm. You know about the car crash and all that sort of stuff. Yeah. I hate it. I just…Pearl Jam and You don't like it? I hate it. Yeah. Did you write a letter? I should. Look, I sent him an email and I haven't heard back, but (singing) Oh, where? Oh, where …. what? That one? Yeah. It doesn't sound good. I think Eddie Vedder is awesome, but I just think, why did they sing that song? But anyway, again, personal opinion. Yeah. But it's a famous cover version. Yeah. And I'm sure the people who owned it initially. Yeah. Or their estate. They're very happy about it. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Um, a little fun fact to finish on with this. Okay. The most covered song of all time. What's that Al? It is Yesterday. I was gonna say, it'd have to be Yesterday. Yeah. Because I think even Cranky Frankie did a version of it. Oh yeah. Everyone's had a crack. Old Blue Nose. There's, see, there's a callback to, season one to Ren and Stimpy. Yeah. Old Blue Nose. One for the long time listeners. But um, yeah, the Guinness Book of Records estimates it's been covered 2,200 times. Wow. So that's amazing. That's some…. Paul McCarney would be laughing, wouldn't he? Well, I'm sure he is not hard up for a dollar, but that would not hurt. No, that would not hurt at all. I'd be happy with just that one song. Yes. Yeah. Goodness. Anyway, a lot more on, cover versions to come in future episodes. Yes. But that's been good. That's been awesome. Yeah. And if anyone's got a cover song they want to share, get in touch with us, get in touch with us….. Yep. We'd love to hear it …on the socials and on our email. Yeah. Fun facts and sidetracks@gmail.com. Yeah. And also if it's got some little story behind, it'd be awesome. Yeah. Terrific. Hey Mart. One of the things that I thought we could do in this season is talk about some famous companies. Mm. That's a good idea. Because there's companies around that we just, you know, hear of all the time, but you never really understand where they came from. Yeah. There's some interesting stories, isn't there? I reckon. Yeah. A few fun facts and a few sidetracks. Yeah. And they've been around for years. I mean, like hundreds of a couple hundred years. Yeah, totally. Yeah. A really good example, Is Heinz. Oh, everyone knows Heinz everybody. Uh, who doesn't? But it was actually started way back in 1869. Wow. By a fellow called Henry Heinz. What would that company be worth now? Yeah. More than when it started. I can say that. Yeah. Um, I wonder what he started off doing. Well, I'm glad you asked. That was a pretty stupid thing when you were going to tell me anyway. Okay. Sorry Al. No, no, no, no. So, Henry Heinz was, the son of a brick maker ah a man after my own heart Indeed. Okay. Yeah. I would've gone on with him. You would've ….Brickie Martin. And the family moved to, Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania, Sharpsburg. Mm-hmm. And at the age of eight. Yeah, he was already growing and selling produce, based on stuff that he'd grow in a little plot of land that his dad let him work. Wow. Don't tell me. What was it? What was he growing? Horseradish. Horseradish. Oh. Another one of my favourites. Growing horseradish in the garden patch. Yeah. And the thing that was cool about that was when he started selling it. He was putting it in clear glass bottles because everyone at that time was putting food in brown bottles. Okay. Why was that? Well, might have been of questionable quality, I think, but … okay…he was very keen for people to understand purity and quality and… Okay…..that kind of has lived through in that brand. …Yeah….that they're very proud of, you know, they've got nothing to hide. Yep. The produce is great. So after a few setbacks and starting the company up a few times he started the F and J Heinz Company. Yeah. With his brother John and a cousin called Frederick. And before long they weren't only selling horseradish, but of course they were selling tomato based products like ketchup. Ah, the good old ketchup or catsup as they were calling it back then. Catsup. Catsup, yeah. Why catsup? I don't know. Catsup. Okay. Yeah. But he started selling that internationally and, you know, the company really took off from there. Yeah. Key thing with this guy was he had seen how automated manufacturing work. He saw how the factories were basically electrified. Yeah. And he was very driven to produce these super factories, which is what he did. Wow. Um, and not only in terms of what they could produce, but how they looked after their staff. Yeah. So probably at a time when not many companies were focused on the HR side of things…. No…. Shall we say he had a library for staff. He had a dining room for Wow. Had gardens. Weekly manicures. That's great. Benefit packages and stuff. Wow. Yeah. Which is pretty cool. So he really valued the staff and he opened up the factories to the public to see, how the product was being made and how well the staff were treated and all that sort of thing. And eventually he passed away in 1919 and his son took over. And from there, of course they've produced not only baked beans, but baby foods and soups and all sorts of things. Okay. One of the key things though, about Henry was that he was driven by numbers. Mm-hmm. He saw an ad for a shoe company that said 22 kinds of shoes. Yeah. And he went. I want to do that. I want to talk about how many varieties we've got. And he actually had more than 57, but he loved the number five, seven. Yeah. Five's his lucky number. I think seven might've been his wife's lucky number. Oh, right. So it's like a lucky charm. Yeah. So even when he had more than 57, he just, they kept plugging this thing of 57 varieties. Wow. Yeah. So they had soups and you know, obviously baked beans came along, which was enormous. Cream of tomato soup and all that sort of thing. And the way it was produced was incredibly clean. Yeah. And he had the marketing to go with it. He was a massive adopter of branding and billboards and electric signs and all that sort of stuff. He was a real pioneer in terms of how he marketed yeah. So he is probably one of the first people to give people free samples in supermarkets. So his son Howard took over and he pretty well continued that same tradition. During the Great Depression in the thirties, the company wanted to make sure that. There was food for as many people as possible. So they created ready to serve soups and baby foods and that sort of thing. I suppose they would've been cheap. Well, they were cheap and actually he even dropped prices. And they wanted to keep all staff employed. Yeah. So, you know, it was a real philanthropic thing. Um, he understood how things worked. Yeah. He got it. Yeah. And, that seems to have been the case through the progression of the Heinz family. Pretty cool. Yeah, it is pretty cool. You know. Imagine going through a depression. I mean, like a serious one. No, I just can't. We'd have no chance. No chance. During World War II when, ingredients were in short supply, they stopped making tomato ketchup, but, they were producing food and were part of the war effort with baked beans being an essential food item. Wow. Yeah. In 1954, Queen Elizabeth 2 granted the company a royal warrant, which meant that Heinz baked beans were the, baked beans of choice for the royal family. Wow. So, if one was letting fluffy off the chain in Buck Palace or Sandringham, it was likely thanks to Heinz baked beans. 1959, uh, 1954. Oh, 1954. Yeah. Okay. So, hey, to say I was born in 1958. Well, that sounds pretty old. That's ancient. So it was only a couple of years after he'd been over there and got some award. Yeah, that's right. Could’ve been to, present the Royal Can of baked beans. Yeah. And then fast forwarding, I mean, they've, been involved in all sorts of things. In the nineties, Heinz tomato ketchup was officially approved by NASA for use on the International Space Station. Oh my God. Go easy on the beans, mate. It’d float in space, you know, floating around, just catching 'em as you're flying by. Yeah. Oh dear. Yeah, I don’t know if you want baked beans and spacesuits together. No, just ease up, will you? Anyway, very cool and very pr -able. Maybe that's the way they were, you know, fuel. Huh? The thruster burners on the side that go pshhhhh, you know, both sides. I love the fact that we cannot talk about baked beans without turning into 13 year old boys. Yeah, no one can. No, that's good. No one can. And it's worldwide. Beans means farts. It does. That could be the, very reason why they're still around. Yeah. They've been making school boys giggle since 1869. it's like when you talk about planets and somebody mentions Uranus, it's just a monty. There's nothing better if you're hungry. Yeah. And doesn't matter, morning, day, or lunch, or well at night. A quick fix. Bit of nice toast. A lot of butter. Oh yeah. Baked beans. Yeah. And fry an egg. Oh, put an egg on top. So it's the meal of champions. Yeah, it is. Because it gives you so much energy, so Yeah. And so much wind. But that must be such a like wealthy company to be around that long and lasted and that everybody in the world knows. I reckon most people in the world know…Heinz. Imagine if you went back and said to this 8-year-old kid, yeah, here's what it looks like now. Mm. Do you know your food's going to be eaten in a spaceship flying around the earth? And he'd probably say, I wouldn't do that. Probably go, do you want to buy some horseradish, Mister? They're in clear bottles. Mum. There's some weirdo from the future here! Oh, it would be terrific, wouldn't it? I reckon. Yeah. So, fast forward to the two thousands and they named a guy called Bernardo Hees as their CEO. Yeah, he was the former chief executive of Burger King worldwide. Okay. Bit of a problem because Heinz were the supplier of sauces to the McDonald's chain of restaurants. So, one of the first things that McDonald's did was to say, well, we don't want you as our supplier of sauce from now on. So they broke a 40-year-old relationship. Oh, wow. Purely because this guy from Burger King was appointed. Wow. Yeah. So I wonder what sauce they use now. They didn't take it personally, who knows? Who knows now. But, um, anyway, after a series of mergers and takeovers and what have you, in March, 2015, Kraft Food Group announced that it would merge with the HJ Heinz Company. So now it's the Kraft Heinz Food Company. So Wow. They're the number five food and beverage producer in the world. Wow. Yeah. So it started from a little veggie patch in the backyard in 1869. Ah. You know. Pretty cool. Imagine you upset an old Ronald McDonald there. You know, like no stuff you. No. We'll get that sauce somewhere else, Yeah, exactly. Don't upset Ronald. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, so we'll do more of those. Yes. That was good Al. Cool. When I was driving over to your house today, Mart, they were saying on the radio that it's the 40th anniversary of the Challenger Space Shuttle Tragedy. Can you believe that? 40th anniversary 40th. That's the one where all the just normal people like teachers. A teacher. Correct. You're kidding me. 40 years. 40 years. Yeah. Wow. So it was that one 40 years ago, and then the Columbia blew up 20 years ago. So, as a sidetrack, apparently there's a terrific, podcast about this, that the ABC are hosting. Yeah. and I think Dr. Karl might be one of the hosts. Wow. And it's, it's a five part thing that goes right into it. Yeah. Into the Challenger Space Shuttle and, how. it was made out to be….oh yeah. It's just like a shuttle - like driving a bus. Yeah. Go out to space, come back land. You know? Mm-hmm. But apparently there were lots of issues that they were kind of aware of and they were papered over. Oh. So, yeah. Apparently it's a really cool thing. Okay. Anyway, well Dr. Karl's good at that. Dr. Karl's awesome. Yeah. We should get him on the show one day. We probably should. He'd probably do it too. Um, but it got me thinking about time. Yeah. You know, like 40 years. That's just nuts. Uh, and I know that in the past we've talked about air flight. Yeah. And when you think about this, the Wright brothers. Yeah. Back in the early 19 hundreds and then only what, 66 years later? Man landed on the moon. 66 years. Yeah, so I'm 67. There you go. So my lifetime, at time of recording. Yeah. So, yeah, and like they were thinking like how many people would've thought that man could fly? Yeah, it's just the Wright brothers had a dream. Ah, had a dream. Yeah. Had a dream in, in, uh, really fast motion flickering video. Yeah. With some rice paper and a bit of bamboo. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Pretty well balsa wood. Yeah. Oh, we’ve flown 20 meters. Yeah. Anyway, so I think time is pretty cool and you see a lot of these things on social media these days where they say, oh, you know, 1970 and 2026 are as far apart as 1970 and 1914 or whatever it is. Wow. Bloody hell. Think back to, you know, 1914 and it's the start of World War I and it all seems so black and white and so long ago. It does. So I found a few little facts on time. What you got? Well, George Washington. George washing machine. George washing machine. Yeah. The first American president, 1732 to 1799 for those playing along at home. Yeah. He would never have known about dinosaurs. You mean, like he wouldn't have, well, there probably wasn't recorded history of that sort of thing at that time. Right. Wow. Yeah, because science hadn't really…. of course not. Yeah. Science hadn't really caught up with…. of course not the way that all of that stuff happened, so Wow. He was too busy running the country. Exactly. Yeah. But wow. Yeah, it sort of highlights what we've learned since, those days. Except they wouldn't even thought of that stuff. Like who? I wonder if there was anyone poking around finding stuff? Oh, probably, yeah. Look. they're probably finding big bones and things. Okay, look at this. Mm. Hey. Hey Al, come over here. Look at this. It doesn't look like any, any cat I've seen. It's a giant cow. Look. We can feed the world. It's, it's got two big legs. Is it a kangaroo? Yeah, exactly. Well, what a lovely segue that is. Mart into the T-Rex. Yeah, so. They reckon that the time difference, I don't know about you. Yeah. When people talk about dinosaurs, I just think, well, they're all there at the same time, right? Yeah, that's right. They're all there. The big sabre-toothed tiger and the woolly mammoth and…. everything from the Flintstones. Wilma! Well, no, but in truth, the time between when the Stegosaurus existed Yeah. Compared to the T-Rex. Yeah. Apparently is less than the time between the T-Rexes and us now. Holy doly. Yeah, that's, so there was a whole bunch of evolution going on with dinosaurs . Okay. So when did they, they were still around, but no….. they weren't around anymore. The Stegosaurus was around 155 to 150 million years ago, which is the late Jurassic period. But the T-Rex was around 68 to 66 million years ago. So there's roughly 90 million years between the two of them. I didn't realize that. It was probably quite a long time ago that the Stegosaurus became extinct, but, you know, replaced by the more agile and photogenic T-Rex. Oh wow. It's pretty wild. Hey, it is again. And you know, we're using the internet as our basis of fact here, but let's just go with it. They reckon that woolly mammoths Yeah. Would've been around when the Great Pyramids of Giza were being built. Those geezers. It's geezers. That's crazy. Hey, it is crazy when you think about it. Yeah. The geezers. Yeah. So yeah. So here's some more for you. Maybe they would've been using the woolly mammoth to drag those bloody things along. Well, I've watched some terrific shows about the pyramids lately. About building them? Yeah. Oh man. I don't want to build one. I'm just…. they're never gonna find out how they did that. No, probably not. Not in our lifetime Al. No. It'll be the time between when…… Oxford University. Yeah. Existed centuries before the Aztec Empire. So you think about the Aztecs and you, you know, you think that's really old? It was pretty old, yeah. In 1428 to 1521. Wow. Oxford University was around before then. So was it just one guy with a book? Saying one day, and an idea, it's just nuts. Harvard University has been around longer than Sir Isaac Newton published the Laws of Motion. Wow. Like it's, that doesn't make any sense, does it? Well, it doesn't if you put all this stuff on a timeline, it probably would. Okay, here's one for you. Mm-hmm. They reckon that there are Greenland sharks alive today that might've been around before Henry VIII was crowned King of England. Wow. They'd be pretty big, wouldn't they? They'd be very big and very tired. Very, because they live for that long. My back aches! Like, that's crazy. Let it end. Yeah. But so that's like, you know, the tortoises on the Galapagos Islands and stuff where Darwin was roaming around. Yeah. Riding them. It was a cheap source of transportation on the Galapagos. Jimoen does this bit where he talks about, Sir David Attenborough… Yeah. …and how he's always at the Galapagos Islands. Yeah. You know how all those specials, they're always like, oh, it's the seabirds of the Galapagos. Yeah. And he goes, he's always in the Galapagos Islands. I think he must have a woman there. He's a funny man. He's very funny. Yeah. Even though I did nearly fall asleep a couple of times when I went with you, to see him down at Twin Towns or wherever it was It wasn't that he wasn't funny. I was really tired. It's a long drive to get there totally. So here's another one. The Sahara Desert. Yeah. Only somewhere between five and 11,000 years ago it was actually green and lush with vegetation, so, yeah, I know. See, it's changing all the time. Yeah. But you see maps of the world and they say, oh, you know, there was this big inland sea here, or there was whatever. Like we were talking earlier about when you go to Ephesus, mm. And you drive there on a bus and you can barely see the water. Well, you don't even see the water. You drive inland for a couple of hours. Yeah. And it was a raging seaport. Yeah. And there's massive pylons there. And they say, oh, this is where the ships used to tie up. Yeah. But, but you think that was years and years ago. But with Sahara Desert, they're saying, you know, it is not that long ago that this thing that's just. Desert. So what is it? The world does a hiccup or something. Oh. You know, and suddenly water gets too much pushed in different areas. Too much for my tiny mind, but Interesting. Anyway, um, here's another one. So the Renaissance in Europe. Yep. So all of this learning and. Just this explosion of knowledge and knowledge. Knowledge and you know, theatre and all that. It was happening at the same time as the Aztec Empire in Mexico. Yeah. You think the Aztec thing's quite old. Yeah. because all the artifacts and things look ancient and sort of. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Amazing. Well, I went to these temples in, um, in Thailand. Mm-hmm. And I thought, you know, they're all Buddhist temples and they got these covered in millions of little ceramic tiles. And, and I'm thinking they go back, way back. Mm-hmm. But it's like seven, eight. It was like around the time when Captain Cook came to Australia. Yeah. That they were building them. Yeah. And I'm thinking, no, this has got to go back further than that, but no. Yeah, no. Yeah. You need a timeline? Hey, just to, yeah. Here's, here's one for you. So Jack the Ripper, he was a ripper. He was a ripper. He was racing around, you know, wreaking havoc on the Streets of London. Um, he was still on the run when the Nintendo company was founded in 1889. Go figure. So, so they, they used to make playing cards. Yeah. Right. They were long, long before, obviously computer games and all that. Yeah. They were playing cards. So, so Jack the Ripper was….. Nintendo made, playing, playing cards? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Okay. That's where it started. Hmm. That's amazing. I do have a little sidetrack for you on playing cards. Mm-hmm. Which I thought was pretty cool. If you think it's cool, well it must be cool. Give it. We'll give it a go. Okay. And my fact is this. Did you know that a deck of cards is a mini calendar? Really? How's that? Well, when you think about a deck of cards. It's got 52 cards. And it's 52 weeks in a year. Okay. There's 13 weeks in each quarter. Yeah. i.e. each season. Yeah. There's four suits. Yeah. One for each season. Yeah. There's two colors for day and night. Yeah. There's 12 court cards. That's the 12 face cards, jack, queen, king of each suit. And that's 12 months. There's 365 days in a year, so if you add up the cards, counting an ace as one, and then the jack as 11, the queen as 12, the king is 13. If you add up those cards and add one joker, that's 365. And if you add the second joker, that's 366 for your leap year. That's your leap year. Yeah. Wow. Fun fact. So I wonder if that was meant to be like that? Well, I think it was, there's too many similarities there. There's a whole study of cards, which is called Cartomancy, and that traces it all back to 14th century Europe when. Playing cards were amongst the earliest tools for fortune telling. So, wow. You know, so there's, obviously not just your standard deck of cards, but there's tarot cards and all that sort of stuff. Wonder if they used to play bullshit back then? Probably. Well, you may be saying that about this now, but it's pretty cool because, you know, the similarities don't end there. So there's a meaning behind the suit. Yeah. So hearts kind of symbolizes emotions. Yeah. Family, love, home life, all that kind of stuff. Then you've got diamonds, which is associated with like material concerns, like money and communication. Clubs relates to work and ambition and learning and creativity. Mm-hmm. And then you've got spades, which is kind of signifying challenges and transformation and endings. Often there's kind of conflict and stuff built around spades. But even down to every one of the cards Yeah, in every suit has a suggestion. So there you go. Wow. So you've got your four seasons. You've got your four quarters, and there's all sorts of stuff based around this. So the card reading first came first, do you think, the card reading dates back to 14th century. So they had the pack of cards back then and they were doing the Oh, the ace of hearts. That means you're going to get love in your life. Mm-hmm. And then someone got sick of it. And going, oh, I'm sick of this. Hey look, we've got a great idea. I'm gonna pass you out four cards. I have four, then three, then three. Going to play this little game called poker. That's right. Got any matchsticks? Yeah. I reckon if that was in the 14th century, I reckon by the late 14th century, somebody decided we can make money out of this. Yes. Yeah. I'm sick of playing for Matchsticks Al. Absolutely. Yeah. Hey, I can play patience. Yeah, I can play solitaire. 'cause this is the only game in town. There's always a song, isn't there? Anyway, so there you go. Wow. That's fun facts ,yeah. I didn't realize that. Yeah. You got one more Last fact. I've always got one more last fact. Have you, I do you, I guarantee you would, and this is a connection to, we're talking about sampling before. Yes. This is from the Good People at the Music Fun Facts podcast. So thanks to them. And it is all about the Puff Daddy song. I'll be missing you. Oh, P Diddy? Yes. Oh, what a legend. So this is 1997. Yeah. One of the biggest songs that year. And this is the song that he wrote a tribute to his murdered friend and rapper. Notorious. BIG. But it features this lady called Faith Evans, and she's singing to the tune of every breath you take. Ah, that's right. I'll be missing you. Uh, apparently that song earns about $2,000 a day in streaming royalties. Yeah. So it's still super popular, but who for? Well, I'm very glad you asked. Apparently they didn't ask Sting. Or The Police, P Diddy, you gotta feel sorry for…. what? So didn't ask for permission. So $2,000 a day approximately goes into Sting's back pocket for writing every breath you take. P Diddy doesn't get anything. You would've thought a music. Manager or the record company or someone would've said….he's just too big for anything…..we better just check that one. Imagine getting $2,000 a day just because somebody failed to lodge a form Yeah. To share the royalties or whatever. Yeah. So that's been good. That's great. Al covered off some, you always got some good facts there. I love it. Fun fact. Yeah? We're back. Yeah. And that's one episode down already. I can't believe it. That was easy. That was good fun. Yeah. Alright, well, um, as we've said folks, if you have any fun facts you want to share, if you want to tell us about your favourite cover version, flick us an email. Yes, just flick us an email to fun facts and sidetracks@gmail.com. Yeah. And of course you can, check us out on Facebook and Instagram. Yeah. Okay. See you next time. See ya. Bye.