Happy Aloha Friday,
Ask Jeeves about the Lunar Landing and you immediately get hit after hit of the American Moon Landing on July 20th 1969. But, Ask Jeeves about Walking on the Moon and…that same hit list is now focused on The Police and Sting and their hit Walking on the Moon. Worse yet, Ask him about the Moon Walk and things get even more dicey…LOL! Did you know: Walking on the Moon, by the Police, was born the morning after an evening of drunken debauchery in Munich. Sting recalls, “I was drunk in a hotel room in Munich, slumped on the bed with the whirling pit when this riff came into my head. I got up and started walking round the room, singing 'Walking round the room, ya, ya, walking round the room'. That was all. In the cool light of morning I remembered what had happened and I wrote the riff down. But 'Walking Round the Room' was a stupid title so I thought of something even more stupid which was 'Walking on the Moon'.”
It is a little known fact that history has muddled the dates for when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface in the sea of tranquility 54 years ago today. The landing of the lunar module did, in fact, happen on July 20th. But, depending on who you get your facts from, the actual walking on the moon took place some 7 hours later and according to UTC it was not until 2:56 on July 21st that Neil Armstrong actually stepped foot on the moon. However, according to the Smithsonian, they have it as July 20, 1969 2:51 UTC and 10:51 PM ET. To set the record straight, “The Moon doesn't currently have an independent time. Each lunar mission uses its own timescale that is linked, through its handlers on Earth, to coordinated universal time, or utc — the standard against which the planet's clocks are set.” So, by that calculation, the first steps on the moon were taken on 7/21.
Above is the link for The Police’s Walking on the Moon and below are a few more tracks as a musical tribute to the Moon Landing and Moon Walking (including a song by Cat Stevens, born today in 1948)! Enjoy.
Cat Stevens - Moon Shadow (1970)
David Bowie – Space Oddity (Official Video)
Elton John - Rocket Man (Royal Festival Hall, London 1972)
Frank Sinatra - Fly Me To The Moon (Live At The Kiel Opera House, St. Louis, MO/1965)
