Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Do you remember these lines from the beautiful, "Killing Me Softly with His Song"?:
"Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song"
"Killing Me Softly with His Song" won three Grammy Awards in 1973. It was selected as Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and the artist who sang it won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Female Performer.
Can you remember the singer who took it to Number One on the "Billboard" chart?
2. What's a good music quiz without at least one novelty song, right? In 1958 we heard a tune about an extra-terrestrial creature who wanted to come to Earth and become a rock and roll star. The name of the ditty was "The Purple People Eater". Who was the singer-songwriter-actor who created the creature and also sung about it?
3. "Seasons in the Sun" became a "Billboard" Hot 100, Number one hit in 1974. It is one of only a few dozen singles to have sold in excess of ten million copies.
It's the poignant tale of a man about to face death reflecting back on his life. He sings: "We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun, but the hills we could climb were just seasons out of time".
"Seasons in the Sun" spent three weeks atop the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart in 1974; can you name the artist who took it there?
4. "Funkytown" was a Number One "Billboard" Hot 100 chart topper in 1980. The group who rode it to the top were led by singer Cynthia Johnson, and the disco band she headed was founded in Minnesota in 1979. Can you recall the name of the group who recorded this international best seller, which reached number one status in over half a dozen countries?
5. "He rocks in the tree tops all day long
Hoppin' and a-boppin' and a-singing his song
All the little birds on Jaybird Street
Love to hear the robin go tweet tweet tweet
Rockin' robin (Tweet x 3)
Rockin' robin (Tweet, tweedle-lee-dee)
Go rockin' robin
'Cause we're really gonna rock tonight"
The bouncy "Rockin Robin" peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, got to number one on the Rhythm & Blues chart, and sold over a million copies. Can you name the "one-hit wonder" singer-songwriter, who had a smash song about the cool bird in the late 1950s?
6. Talk about a heart-felt apology, 1959's, "Sorry (I Ran All the Way Home") is the tale of a person who has gotten on the wrong side of someone special and wants to get back on the right side. It was recorded in 1959 by a quartet of doo-woppers who had formed their band in Brooklyn just a year earlier. Do you know the name of the group who took "Sorry (I Ran All the Way Home") to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 list?
7. Talk about a gracious loser. A guy has just found out that the girl he's crazy about is about to get hitched to another guy. In the end, he figures if she's happy, then he's happy for her, as for himself, not so much. Little did the band who released "The Worst that Could Happen" (1968) as their very first single and see it peak at number three on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart, realize they would never have another recording make it into the Top 40. Who were these saddened singers?
8. In 1969, "Smile a Little Smile for Me", was a top ten hit for a British group that had almost as many name changes as Elizabeth Taylor. Formed in the mid-1960s, they were known at various times as Pinketons Assorted Colours, Pinkertons Colours, Pinkertons and The Liberators. They made their last alteration in 1969. What were they named when they recorded "Smile a Little Smile For Me"?
9. You know how it is when you get a song in your head and can't get rid of it?
A lot of folks felt like that when they heard this opening to a popular song in 1975:
"If only you believe like I believe, baby
We'd get by.
If only you believe in miracles, baby
So would I.
If only you believe like I believe, baby
We'd get by.
If only you believe in miracles, baby
So would I.
"Miracles" was the first song by a certain rock band to climb as high as number three on the "Billboard" Hot 100. It first appeared as track two, side one on the band's second album, "Red Octopus". The album reached made it to Number One on the "Billboard" 200. Can you remember the moniker of the makers of "Miracles"?
10. "MacArthur Park" (1968) is a seven minute plus metaphor for a broken love affair. It was track ten on the album "A Tramp Shining", which won a Grammy Award for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist. Written by the prolific Jimmy Webb, here is how it comes to a close:
"MacArthur Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh no, oh no, no, no, oh no"
Who was the singing-acting star of stage and screen who took "MacArthur Park" to number two on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart?
Source: Author
paulmallon
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor
agony before going online.
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