Fascinating Facts Behind Some Well-Known Songs Quiz

Answer: France

The story begins in Paris, where Franco-Egyptian Claude Francois (no, nor had I) arrived, having fled the Suez crisis. Francois made a name for himself, along with his improbably named dance troupe, The Clodettes, recording songs that would later become more successful for other artists once English lyrics had been added.

After splitting up with singer France Gall, Claude, along with Jacques Revaux (music) wrote "Comme D´Habitude" - although one Gilles Thibault is officially credited as the wordsmith. Francois must have been thinking of how he would spend the money the song was generating when, whilst in the bath changing a lightbulb (!), he faced the final curtain. Ole Blue-Eyes recorded the song in 1969, singing a lyric written (but not based on the original) by Paul Anka, who heard the late Francois´ rendition during a trip to Paris, and rushed home to put pen to paper, and to secure the rights to the tune. Canadian Anka was a star in his own right, with "Diana", "Lonely Boy" and "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" to his credit. Sinatra actually loathed the song that would soon become identified with him as "My Way".

Answer: Pawning an article to raise money

"Half a pound of tuppeny rice,
Half a pound of treacle.
That's the way the money goes,
Pop goes the weasel.

Up and down the City Road,
In and out the Eagle.
That's the way the money goes,
Pop goes the weasel."

The ditty's roots lie in 17th century England, and its melodic pattern is similar to other nursery rhymes and jigs, such as "Humpty Dumpty". There was an 1850 publication of "the new country dance Pop Goes the Weasel", and the song was also well known in America. The above lyrics, popularised in Victorian Music-Hall, refer to the purchase of food items, and a visit to "The Eagle" public house, on London's City Road. This thoroughfare runs through the East End, an area of hardship even today. There was, as well as the pub, a pawnbroker's shop on the City Road. Getting to the point; to pawn, or "pop", was to surrender items for a nominal sum, in the hope of redeeming them after payday. The "weasel" could be a domestic flat-iron, a device for spinning that made a popping noise, or Cockney rhyming slang for coat - "weasel and stoat". By the way; rhyming slang for beer is "pig's ear".

Answer: No

"Penny Lane" was released in February 1967, as a double A-side single, along with "Strawberry Fields Forever". You´ll find the street in Liverpool. The roundabout at Penny Lane Junction (where it meets Allerton Road and Smithdown Road) still has a shelter in the middle of it, and the bank and barber's shop mentioned in the lyrics also remain to this day. Lennon and McCartney hailed from this part of town, and would meet at Penny Lane Junction regularly to catch a bus into the city centre.

These days, it is a "must" for Beatles fans visiting Liverpool, and a problem the local council must deal with is constantly having to replace the street signs! The street has a dark side, though.

It is named after James Penny, a Liverpool merchant who made his fortune in the slave trade.

In 1792, he was rewarded for speaking out in favour of transportation of slaves from this busy port, warning of harm to the local economy if it were abolished. As far from the happy scenes portrayed in the song as you can get.

Answer: Paris

"Streets Of London" was first recorded as an album track by Ralph McTell in 1969, but it was not until 1974 that the single reached number two in the UK charts. It was selling at the rate of 90,000 copies a day at one point. In his early twenties, Ralph McTell travelled around Europe busking, and whilst in Paris, observed the scenes and characters described in the song.

He changed the location to London so as not to offend Parisians (Londoners´ sensibilities were, it seemed, fair game!), and the song is as much part and parcel of the folk music scene as beards, `ban-the-bomb` T-shirts stretched over beer-bellies, and sandals. Love ´em or hate ´em, the old men in the closed down market, café, and seamens' mission, together with the old girl carrying her home in two carrier bags, will be with us for a long time to come.

Answer: Their school forbade them to take part

You had to feel for the headmistress of Islington Green Comprehensive School, Margaret Maden, when she discovered - after the recording had taken place - that some of her charges were about to make headline news. A chance meeting between Pink Floyd's producer, Bob Ezrin, and music teacher Alun Renshaw, saw a bunch of North London teenagers marched (I suspect not unwillingly) out of school one afternoon in 1979 and into the charts. Renshaw popped his head round Mrs Maden's door later that day, and broke the news.

Her reaction was to forbid the kids to speak to the newspapers, who were quickly on the case, or have anything further to do with the song, on the grounds that a school could not be seen to sanction the sentiment that "We don't need no education" etc. Composer and band member Roger Waters expressed delight at the way the kids sounded, and was truly upset by the authorities´ reaction.

However; in the end, their wall withstood, and stage school kids were brought in to mime the anti-establishment lyrics.

Although the record was a huge success, it would be several years before the "choir" were able to obtain a fee for their services, such matters not having been discussed at the time. Be on a hit record or double maths - the agony of choice!

Answer: A pregnant woman

Although the anthem of Liverpool FC, and now several other clubs around the world, the song comes from the 1945 Musical "Carousel", written by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein. The leading man, Billy Bigelow, stabs himself to death, leaving his girlfriend, Julie Jordan, about to hold their baby.

It is to comfort her that the song is sung; "When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high...". Later, their daughter goes on to graduate from college, and it is reprised in the final scene to encourage the students in the class.

This is done in American graduation classes to this day. A bit cheeky, I know, but the pregnant woman wins by a short head! It has been recorded by artists as diverse as Mario Lanza, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Pink Floyd, and Gerry & the Pacemakers.

The song got its first football-related outing in 1958, when members of a local operatic society which was staging "Carousel", sung it at the memorial service for the Manchester United Munich air disaster. But those who follow Liverpool (the words You´ll Never Walk Alone are to be found at Anfield's gates) will tell you that the version that matters is the one sung as their team beat their opponents.

Answer: False

"There'll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover, tomorrow, just you wait and see..." The lyrics were written by Nat Burton, and the music by Walter Kent. Burton, an American, had never visited Dover, and was unaware that bluebirds are not found in Europe, let alone around the less than white cliffs on that part of the Kent coast.

But "There'll be seagulls over,,," just isn't the same! The song was first published in 1941, before American intervention in the War, and charted in the U.S. for bandleader Kay Kyser. Glenn Miller, Sammy Kaye, Jimmy Dorsey and Kate Smith also enjoyed success with it that same year.

But by far the most popular rendition must surely be Vera Lynn's, released in 1942. The references to a safe, cosy, free world summed up the feelings of the British and those of their allies, and make it probably the most memorable song from that period.

Answer: Salford

You may find yourself the recipient of some black looks if you tried to convince the audience at a gig in an Irish pub that this song is about anywhere other than Dublin. But you would have right on your side. Ewan MacColl wrote "Dirty Old Town" about Salford, the city within Greater Manchester in which he was brought up, in 1949. Written as part of MacColl's play "Landscape With Chimneys", it soon became a standard in the folk music genre.

The Dubliners and The Pogues are in no small part responsible for the belief that it is an Irish song, so huge was their success with it.

But it is, in fact, an English song about an English city, written by a Scot.

Answer: An anonymous suicide note

On January the 10th, 1956, a former truck driver from Tupelo, Mississippi, walked into RCA's studios in Nashville to record, amongst other things, "I Was The One" and the better-known A-side, "Heartbreak Hotel". Just over two weeks later, the record was released, and spent eight weeks at the top of Billboard's jukebox and best-seller charts. Elvis prepared to be crowned the king of rock & roll. One man's good fortune was, however, in part due to a photograph and headline in the Miami Herald, asking "Do You Know This Man?". Reading on, songwriter Tommy Durden learned that the picture was of an anonymous soul who had ended his life in a Miami hotel room. Police found a suicide note in one of the corpse's pockets, which read "I walk a lonely street". Durden quickly contacted his friend and fellow tunesmith Mae Axton, and it was she who decided to place a "Heartbreak Hotel" at the end of "(a) Lonely Street".

The song took less than an hour to complete, in part because the music is a simple blues format. Aston had once told Elvis that she would give him his first million-seller. How nice it must be to be right sometimes! The institutions mentioned in the question are referred to in many songs, but not this one.

Answer: False

Bernard 'Acker' Bilk wrote and recorded this number under the title "Jenny", for his young daughter. Originally a track on the album "Sentimental Journey", it wasn't long before the BBC decided that it was just what they were looking for as theme music for a new series called "Stranger On The Shore". First broadcast in September 1961, this was about a young French girl living as an au pair to a family in Brighton.

The closing credits showed her on the shore, staring longingly towards her homeland - for reasons known only to herself. Retitled and released as a single on Columbia Records in the UK in October 1961, with the sleeve proclaiming that it was the theme from the BBC TV series, "Stranger On The Shore" became the UK's best selling instrumental of all time. Most people would recognise this clarinet and strings piece on hearing just a few bars, although bringing the title to mind may be harder.

More difficult still to take on board is the fact that "Stranger" topped the US charts before the Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand", doing so in May 1962. Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazzband are still touring throughout the world, and this number, which Acker refers to as his old age pension, is greeted by a roar of approval at every gig.