FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Quiz about The Top Hits of 1973
Quiz about The Top Hits of 1973

The Top Hits of 1973 Trivia Quiz


If lyrics are your bag, 1973 was not the best of years. However, we did manage to cull out 15 memorable songs from the top ranked Billboard hits for your pleasure. Let's see if you remember these!

A multiple-choice quiz by maddogrick16. Estimated time: 7 mins.
  1. Home
  2. »
  3. Quizzes
  4. »
  5. Music Trivia
  6. »
  7. 1970s Music
  8. »
  9. Music from 1973

Author
maddogrick16
Time
7 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
284,499
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
15
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
12 / 15
Plays
8374
Awards
Top 5% quiz!
Last 3 plays: Guest 152 (7/15), bermalt (13/15), mickeyp (14/15).
-
Question 1 of 15
1. The top ranked song for 1973 was a Number One song everywhere in the spring of 1973: four weeks in the U.S. and the U.K., seven weeks in Australia and two weeks in Canada. Just a couple of lines should be necessary for you to recall it and here they are.

"If you received my letter tellin' you I'd soon be free
Then you'll know just what to do if you still want me"
Hint


Question 2 of 15
2. The vocalist who recorded the song ranked second for 1973 gave it such an urgent treatment that you could feel the pain in his loins... and that's what it was all about. No other song that year spent more time in the Top 10, 13 weeks, with two of them at the top. Can you identify it if I give you the first stanza?

"I've been really tryin' baby
Tryin' to hold back this feeling for so long
And if you feel like I feel, baby
Come on, oh, come on"
Hint


Question 3 of 15
3. The song ranked fifth spent a couple of weeks at Number One during its 22 week chart run. Identify the title character from this lyrical description.

"He got a custom Continental
He got an Eldorado too
He got a .32 gun in his pocket for fun
He got a razor in his shoe"
Hint


Question 4 of 15
4. Ranked sixth for 1973 was a song that has bemused listeners ever since. It topped the charts for the first three weeks of the year. Decipher the title with this lyrical hint.

"You walked into the party
Like you were walking onto a yacht
Your hat strategically dipped below one eye
Your scarf it was apricot"
Hint


Question 5 of 15
5. "I felt all flushed with fever, embarrassed by the crowd
I felt he found my letters and read each one out loud
I prayed that he would finish but he just kept right on"

This lyrical segment comes from the song that spent five of its 17 charting weeks at Number One thus earning the seventh place ranking for 1973. What was the title of this gem?
Hint


Question 6 of 15
6. With 19 weeks in the Hot 100 including two weeks at Number One, a group which had just bolted from the Motown stable hit the jackpot with the tenth ranked song of 1973. Name it with help from these two lines that appear a couple of times within the lyric.

"I'd rather live in his world
Than live without him in mine"
Hint


Question 7 of 15
7. Just finishing outside the top 10 rankings for 1973, the 11th position was held by a three week Number One song. The lyrics recalled the good old days of rock & roll. Here's a sample:

"But the years went by and the rock just died
Suzie went and left us for some foreign guy
Long nights crying by the record machine
Dreaming of my Chevy and my old blue jeans"

Can you name it?
Hint


Question 8 of 15
8. Many of the more memorable song lyrics from 1973 did not come from the bigger hits from that year. The following lyric sample comes from a hit that only peaked at Number Five on the charts. However, with a 21 week run within the Hot 100, it managed to finish the year ranked 24th. Can you name it from these lines?

"Oh, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul,
I want to get lost in your rock and roll"
Hint


Question 9 of 15
9. Thwarted in its run to Number One by "The Morning After" by Maureen McGovern and "Touch Me In The Morning" by Diana Ross, our next hit spent three weeks at Number Two in 1973. Because it only charted for 14 weeks on the Hot 100, it finished the year ranked a rather disappointing 46th. Try to identify it with this lyrical assistance.

"What does it matter to ya
When you gotta job to do
You gotta do it well
You gotta give the other fellow hell"
Hint


Question 10 of 15
10. Nicely placed in 48th position in the rankings for 1973 was a Number Six hit that also peaked at Number Eight on the U.K. charts. It enjoyed a renaissance when it was prominently featured in a 1992 movie. I think you should be able to nail it with just this one line for a clue!

"Clowns to left of me, jokers to the right"
Hint


Question 11 of 15
11. Ranked 53rd in the year-end rankings for 1973 was a ballad that spent a commendable 19 weeks on the Hot 100 charts peaking at Number Nine early in the year. It marked a return to the Top 40 charts for an artist who debuted in 1971 and with this hit as a springboard, four of his next six singles would reach Number One over the next couple of years. Here are two lines of the song that epitomize the tenor of the whole lyric.

"I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky
The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullaby"

What is the song's title?
Hint


Question 12 of 15
12. A song that has become a rock classic garnered enough points to rank as the 58th biggest hit of 1973. If I could somehow play the opening guitar riff that lasts almost a minute long, I'm certain that everyone would come up with this hit instantly... but I can't. You'll have to identify it with these opening lines instead.

"We all came out to Montreux
On the Lake Geneva shoreline
To make records with a mobile
We didn't have much time"
Hint


Question 13 of 15
13. "When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school
It's a wonder I can think at all
And though my lack of education hasn't hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall"

These words come from the song that was ranked 62nd for 1973. It peaked at Number Two for a couple of weeks failing to reach Number One due to Billy Preston occupying that coveted position with "Will It Go Round In Circles". Again, its year-end position ranking suffered because of a relatively short shelf life on the Hot 100, only 14 weeks. What hit was it?
Hint


Question 14 of 15
14. A number of songs in 1973 revealed the "lighter" side of pop music. One such hit ended the year ranked 70th after peaking at Number Six during its 20 week tenure on the charts. Do you recall this hit?

"Well, we're big rock singers, we got golden fingers
And we're loved everywhere we go
We sing about beauty and we sing about truth
At ten thousand dollars a show"
Hint


Question 15 of 15
15. "Now you swear and kick and beg us that you're not a gamblin' man
Then you find you're back in Vegas with a handle in your hand
Your black cards can make you money so you hide them when you're able
In the land of milk and honey you must put them on the table"

This is the entire third verse from one of the more curious hits of 1973. It charted for 17 weeks peaking at Number Six early in the year. As such, it earned sufficient ranking points to finish 77th among that year's hits. Two more clues: 1. it marked the debut hit for this recording entity, and 2. although they would have a total of ten charting hits over the duration of their career, they are better remembered for a string of enormously popular albums. There you have it... your guess?
Hint



(Optional) Create a Free FunTrivia ID to save the points you are about to earn:

arrow Select a User ID:
arrow Choose a Password:
arrow Your Email:




Most Recent Scores
Today : Guest 152: 7/15
Today : bermalt: 13/15
Oct 27 2024 : mickeyp: 14/15
Oct 24 2024 : Guest 98: 14/15
Oct 21 2024 : Guest 71: 14/15
Oct 20 2024 : Gupster17: 15/15
Oct 20 2024 : Guest 147: 11/15
Oct 20 2024 : BarbaraMcI: 14/15
Oct 20 2024 : tater67: 13/15

Score Distribution

quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. The top ranked song for 1973 was a Number One song everywhere in the spring of 1973: four weeks in the U.S. and the U.K., seven weeks in Australia and two weeks in Canada. Just a couple of lines should be necessary for you to recall it and here they are. "If you received my letter tellin' you I'd soon be free Then you'll know just what to do if you still want me"

Answer: Tie A Yellow Ribbon (Round The Ole Oak Tree)

The toughest part of this question for me was to come up with three logical distracters!

The concept of yellow ribbons to remember those who were elsewhere was hardly a new one. It was common practice in the Civil War for spouses and girl friends of Union Cavalry men to wear them in their hair while their men were serving in battle and was the focal point in the 1949 John Ford movie "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon".

How it became a pop standard is a different story. In 1971, newspaper columnist Pete Hamill wrote an article about an ex-con who, upon his release, was heading home to be with his wife, if she would take him back. As the song relates, if a yellow ribbon was tied around the old oak tree in the town square, he knew he was welcome... if not, he would just stay on the bus. Allegedly, he heard the story from college kids who had befriended the ex-con on that bus. Songwriters Irwin Levine and Russell Brown registered a copyright on the song title and apparently wrote the song in just a few minutes. Hamill launched a lawsuit claiming that his story was the genesis of the song and that he deserved appropriate compensation. However, defense lawyers noted the previous history of yellow ribbons and Hamill dropped the suit. The song returned to the forefront in 1981 when American's tied yellow ribbons around trees during the Iranian hostage crisis, then again during the Gulf War in 1990. It remains a common practice to this day.

Tony Orlando and Dawn performed the song and it was their most successful hit ever. Virtually all their biggest hits came from the collaborations of Brown and Levine.
2. The vocalist who recorded the song ranked second for 1973 gave it such an urgent treatment that you could feel the pain in his loins... and that's what it was all about. No other song that year spent more time in the Top 10, 13 weeks, with two of them at the top. Can you identify it if I give you the first stanza? "I've been really tryin' baby Tryin' to hold back this feeling for so long And if you feel like I feel, baby Come on, oh, come on"

Answer: Let's Get It On

Marvin Gaye was in the studio recording a song entitled "Let's Get It On" written by Kenny Stover. It was in the same vein as a number of hits he had just recorded like "What's Going On" and "Inner City Blues", a politically oriented statement about the ills rampant in society. Gaye's friend Eddie Townsend, best remembered for the 1958 hit "For Your Love", happened to be listening in and exclaimed "Hey, 'let's get it on' should be about a man and a woman 'getting it on'". Immediately, Townsend and Gaye worked out a new arrangement for the song and this was it, Gaye's second biggest success after "I Heard It Through The Grapevine". Oozing with sexual tension, it shot straight to the top.

The songs that were ranked third and fourth for 1973 are being omitted from this quiz. Third was Kris Kristofferson's "Why Me" that only peaked at 16 but spent an astounding 38 weeks within the Hot 100. Largely forgotten today, it was his personal plea to Jesus to take him in his arms despite being unworthy. The fourth ranked song was "My Love" by Paul McCartney. It's tough to craft a lyrically oriented question when virtually every line contains the title.
3. The song ranked fifth spent a couple of weeks at Number One during its 22 week chart run. Identify the title character from this lyrical description. "He got a custom Continental He got an Eldorado too He got a .32 gun in his pocket for fun He got a razor in his shoe"

Answer: Bad, Bad Leroy Brown

Almost all of Jim Croce's compositions were experiential in nature... things he did and felt, people he encountered, situations he observed and so on. The real Leroy Brown was a fellow he met while in basic training for the National Guard in the mid-1960s. Something of a character, Brown went AWOL but returned to base later to pick up his pay cheque when he was promptly arrested and tossed into the brig. Croce knew he would write a song about him eventually and this was it.

Born in 1943, Croce dabbled in music until his freshman year at Villanova University when he started to take it more seriously. He performed with several bands during his college years and after graduation in 1965, continued to do so while also teaching and working as a laborer and truck driver to make ends meet. All the while, he continued to write songs. Finally, he was noticed, signed a record deal in 1972 and immediately released a couple of albums. The first album, "You Don't Mess Around With Jim" yielded his first top 10 hit, the title song, while the second album featured this hit. Unfortunately, Croce's great promise was only partly fulfilled. He was killed in a plane crash in September of 1973. Posthumously, his first album rose to Number One on the album charts and another song from that debut album, "Time In A Bottle", reached Number One on the Hot 100 in December. Other than compilation albums, Croce had only recorded enough material for two other albums but his songs are fondly recalled to this day.
4. Ranked sixth for 1973 was a song that has bemused listeners ever since. It topped the charts for the first three weeks of the year. Decipher the title with this lyrical hint. "You walked into the party Like you were walking onto a yacht Your hat strategically dipped below one eye Your scarf it was apricot"

Answer: You're So Vain

The opening bass riff sets up the mystery of this song beautifully. "Who is Carly Simon singing about?" was the question everyone was asking. James Taylor? Warren Beatty? Mick Jagger? Cat Stevens? Simon herself dismissed Taylor as a suspect and married him about a month before the song was released. Only one person knows the answer for sure other than her.

In 2003, a charity auction was held in Martha's Vineyard and Dick Ebersol, the president of NBC sports, paid $50,000.00 for the privilege of getting in on "the secret".

He was contractually bound never to reveal the answer but he was allowed to say that the culprit's name contained an "e". That lets me out! Most fingers point to Beatty.
5. "I felt all flushed with fever, embarrassed by the crowd I felt he found my letters and read each one out loud I prayed that he would finish but he just kept right on" This lyrical segment comes from the song that spent five of its 17 charting weeks at Number One thus earning the seventh place ranking for 1973. What was the title of this gem?

Answer: Killing Me Softly With His Song

Roberta Flack sang "Killing Me Softly With His Song" and it won three Grammys that year - Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Pop Female Vocalist of the Year. It was the first time in Grammy history that the same artist had recorded back to back Records of the Year, Flack having won the year before with "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face".

The song was originally recorded by a young lady named Lori Lieberman in 1971. She had seen a performance by Don McLean prior to his "American Pie" days and was so riveted by it that she wrote a poem about the experience. Songwriters Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox composed the song based on her poem. While on a flight, Flack heard the song on the in-flight music system, found the sheet music later and worked three months to jiggle it around to suit her vocal style.

Flack's success at this time was hardly serendipity. It was a product of hard work honing her skills. She had graduated from Howard University at the age of 19 in 1958 and had worked as a school music teacher and performed opera before singing jazz and soft pop for a number of years in various Washington, D.C, clubs. When she was finally "discovered" in 1968, it still took four years for her to gain recognition with these two songs. As she now approaches her 70th birthday, she still records and tours extensively.
6. With 19 weeks in the Hot 100 including two weeks at Number One, a group which had just bolted from the Motown stable hit the jackpot with the tenth ranked song of 1973. Name it with help from these two lines that appear a couple of times within the lyric. "I'd rather live in his world Than live without him in mine"

Answer: Midnight Train To Georgia

Let's review the options here. "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love" by the Spinners was not a Number One hit so it's out. "Touch Me In The Morning" was a Number One hit sung by Diana Ross but she was a Motown act at the time. Eliminated. The other two songs were recorded by Gladys Knight and the Pips but "Midnight Train To Georgia" was the one they recorded on the Buddah label. "Neither One Of Us" peaked at three on the charts and was one of the final hits they recorded for Soul records, a subsidiary of Motown.

The group was formed in 1952 when Gladys was only eight years old and by the time they had their first hit recording in 1961, it was a quartet - her and three male cousins. Although they were dependable hit producers for Motown from 1964 to 1973, they were still primarily a second tier act to the label's superstars - Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, The Temptations and Stevie Wonder. Their halcyon years were 1973 and 1974 when they had a series of four top five songs with Buddah starting with this one but their turn at the top was brief, their last top 40 hit occurring in 1975. The Pips retired sometime during the 1990s but Gladys continues to record an eclectic blend of music ranging from Gospel to jazz.

Rounding out the top ten ranked songs for 1973 were those in the eighth and ninth positions that I chose to skip for this quiz. The eighth ranked song was "Keep On Truckin" by Eddie Kendricks, a raunchy R&B dance number. At nine was a country crossover hit by Charlie Rich, "The Most Beautiful Girl". Both were Number One hits for a couple of weeks but neither were lyrically memorable.
7. Just finishing outside the top 10 rankings for 1973, the 11th position was held by a three week Number One song. The lyrics recalled the good old days of rock & roll. Here's a sample: "But the years went by and the rock just died Suzie went and left us for some foreign guy Long nights crying by the record machine Dreaming of my Chevy and my old blue jeans" Can you name it?

Answer: Crocodile Rock

"Crocodile Rock" was a lament to the long lost days of early rock and roll. It has been loosely compared to Don McLean's "American Pie" for that reason and indeed the core themes are similar. Needless to say, McLean's song was far more complex as he allegorically comments on what happened after the "day the music died" whereas John merely reminisces about those "good old days".

Elton John was burning up the charts between 1972 and 1976. During that period, he had 16 Hot 100 hits, 14 of them achieved Top 10 status and six were Number One, "Crocodile Rock" being the first. Curiously, his first solo Number One in the U.K. did not occur until 1990 with the double sided hit "Sacrifice"/"Healing Hands", neither of which were Top 10 on Billboard!
8. Many of the more memorable song lyrics from 1973 did not come from the bigger hits from that year. The following lyric sample comes from a hit that only peaked at Number Five on the charts. However, with a 21 week run within the Hot 100, it managed to finish the year ranked 24th. Can you name it from these lines? "Oh, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul, I want to get lost in your rock and roll"

Answer: Drift Away

Your other choices: "Brother Louie" was a two week chart topper for the one hit wonder The Stories although the hit version in the U.K. was recorded by Hot Chocolate. "We're An American Band" was Number One for Grand Funk. "Rock On" was a Number Five success for David Essex in 1974.

Dobie Gray recorded the moody "Drift Away" and it was his biggest chart hit ever. His only other notable recording was his rendition of "The 'In' Crowd" which charted at Number 13 in 1965. Primarily an R&B singer in his early days, he slowly "drifted away" into country music by the 1980s and most of his success in that genre has been as a songwriter rather than as a performer.
9. Thwarted in its run to Number One by "The Morning After" by Maureen McGovern and "Touch Me In The Morning" by Diana Ross, our next hit spent three weeks at Number Two in 1973. Because it only charted for 14 weeks on the Hot 100, it finished the year ranked a rather disappointing 46th. Try to identify it with this lyrical assistance. "What does it matter to ya When you gotta job to do You gotta do it well You gotta give the other fellow hell"

Answer: Live And Let Die

Like Elton John, Paul McCartney was having one heck of a run of hits at this point in time. Despite his miss with this hit, he would have six Number One songs for the decade and another nine which would peak within the top 10. In one resource, Joel Whitburn lists McCartney as the leading recording act of the 1970s but in another, he gives Elton John the nod and I can't clear up this discrepancy. Suffice to say it was one or the other!

As this was the theme song to the eighth James Bond movie, I was curious as to how those sorted out by rank. Altogether, there have been 21 Bond movies and here's how the title/main song of each made out.

1."View To A Kill" - 1985 - Duran Duran - charted at Number One for two weeks.
2."Nobody Does It Better" from "The Spy Who Loved Me" - 1977 - Carly Simon - charted at Number Two for three weeks, 25 weeks on the Hot 100.
3."Live And Let Die" - 1973 - Paul McCartney - charted at Number Two for three weeks, 14 weeks on the Hot 100.
4."For Your Eyes Only" - 1981 - Sheena Easton - charted at Number Four
5."Die Another Day" - 2002 - Madonna - charted at Number Eight
6."Goldfinger" - 1964 - Shirley Bassey - charted at Number Eight
7."Thunderball" - 1965 - Tom Jones - charted at Number 25
8."All Time High" from "Octopussy" - 1983 - Rita Coolidge - charted at Number 36
9."You Only Live Twice" - 1967 - Nancy Sinatra - charted at Number 44
10."Diamonds Are Forever" - 1971 - Shirley Bassey - charted at Number 57
11."You Know My Name" from "Casino Royale" - 2006 - Chris Cornell - charted at Number 64.

The following theme songs were never hits: "James Bond Theme" from "Dr. No" by John Barry in 1962, "From Russia With Love" by Matt Munro in 1963, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" by Louis Armstrong in 1969, "Man With The Golden Gun" by Lulu in 1974, "Moonraker" by Shirley Bassey in 1979, "The Living Daylights" by a-ha in 1987, "License To Kill" by Gladys Knight in 1989, "Goldeneye" by Tina Turner in 1995, "Tomorrow Never Dies" by Sheryl Crow in 1997, and, "The World Is Not Enough" by Garbage in 1999.

Now we all know!
10. Nicely placed in 48th position in the rankings for 1973 was a Number Six hit that also peaked at Number Eight on the U.K. charts. It enjoyed a renaissance when it was prominently featured in a 1992 movie. I think you should be able to nail it with just this one line for a clue! "Clowns to left of me, jokers to the right"

Answer: Stuck In The Middle With You

This song provided one of the lighter moments amidst the violence in Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs". "Coconut" by Harry Nilsson was also used to similar effect in that blood and gore flick.

The song was performed by the short lived group Stealers Wheel. Formed in 1971, it essentially was a duo of Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan with a variety of sidemen instrumentalists filling in behind them. The union between Rafferty and Egan was always a fractious one and after a follow-up LP, they parted ways in 1975. Unfortunately, it was rather an acrimonious parting and during the three year period of litigation it took to settle their affairs, neither was able to initiate a solo career by court order. When the dust settled, Egan released a couple of LP's in 1979 and 1981 to little fanfare then left the entertainment business altogether. Rafferty had a bit more success. His 1978 single "Baker Street" did very well as did the LP it was featured on. His next two album projects were also successes, albeit not to the same level, but all his work subsequent to 1982 has largely been overlooked. His last studio crafted CD, as of this writing, was released in 2000. Given that he much preferred recording to performing live, that may be a hint that he has now settled into retirement as well.
11. Ranked 53rd in the year-end rankings for 1973 was a ballad that spent a commendable 19 weeks on the Hot 100 charts peaking at Number Nine early in the year. It marked a return to the Top 40 charts for an artist who debuted in 1971 and with this hit as a springboard, four of his next six singles would reach Number One over the next couple of years. Here are two lines of the song that epitomize the tenor of the whole lyric. "I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullaby" What is the song's title?

Answer: Rocky Mountain High

In 1963, a young folk singer named Henry John Deutschendorf adopted the stage name of John Denver in honor of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado that he grew to love as a child. This song was an autobiographical, heartfelt ode to those environs.

In the summer of 1972, Denver, his wife and a few close friends went to Williams Lake in Colorado to witness the Perseid Meteor Shower. In his autobiography, he recalls that it was a moonless night and the light from the stars were so intense that they created shadows - "The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullaby". Around midnight the meteor showers began. The cavalcade of "falling stars" elicited the thought that it was "rainin' fire in the sky". Denver was in the midst of recording an album at the time and this experience compelled him to write a song about it. "Rocky Mountain High" became the centerpiece of the LP and the single became his first hit since "Take Me Home, Country Roads" in 1971.
12. A song that has become a rock classic garnered enough points to rank as the 58th biggest hit of 1973. If I could somehow play the opening guitar riff that lasts almost a minute long, I'm certain that everyone would come up with this hit instantly... but I can't. You'll have to identify it with these opening lines instead. "We all came out to Montreux On the Lake Geneva shoreline To make records with a mobile We didn't have much time"

Answer: Smoke On The Water

Recorded by Deep Purple, this Number Four hit has become their signature song. The lyrics recall a true story. Deep Purple were in Montreux, Switzerland on Lake Geneva in 1971 to record an LP at a studio that was located in the casino there. During a Frank Zappa concert at the venue "some stupid with a flare gun burned the place to the ground". Time was of the essence so the band quickly found alternate accommodation at the Grand Hotel and recorded the album at a mobile recording studio owned by the Rolling Stones that was located just outside the hotel.

The album, "Machinehead", was their biggest ever, went Platinum and sold over two million copies. The group started to splinter in 1974 and dissolved entirely in 1976. They re-formed in 1984 and with several personnel permutations over the years since, they continue to record and perform as of 2008.
13. "When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school It's a wonder I can think at all And though my lack of education hasn't hurt me none I can read the writing on the wall" These words come from the song that was ranked 62nd for 1973. It peaked at Number Two for a couple of weeks failing to reach Number One due to Billy Preston occupying that coveted position with "Will It Go Round In Circles". Again, its year-end position ranking suffered because of a relatively short shelf life on the Hot 100, only 14 weeks. What hit was it?

Answer: Kodachrome

Following the break-up of Simon and Garfunkel in 1970, "Kodachrome" was Simon's biggest solo hit up to this point in time. Eventually, he set the bar higher in 1976 with his Number One smash "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover". This song was not released in the U.K. since the BBC had, and probably still does have, a policy that they would not air music with direct commercial references. This song had two of them - Kodachrome and Nikon cameras. The Beatles were ensnared by the same regulation with "Come Together" which mentions Coca-Cola in the lyric.

Paul Simon rarely writes softball lyrics and the intent of this song or the story behind it is somewhat unclear to me. On the face of it, it appears to be an indictment of the education system in the U.S. where perhaps, in his view, things are taught as being "black or white", where there is no room for interpreting other views between those extremes. Some analysts have concluded that it's a whack at the music industry that placed shackles on the artist's right to artistic expression, the opportunity to use other colors on their palette besides what the industry perceived as proper. Who knows!
14. A number of songs in 1973 revealed the "lighter" side of pop music. One such hit ended the year ranked 70th after peaking at Number Six during its 20 week tenure on the charts. Do you recall this hit? "Well, we're big rock singers, we got golden fingers And we're loved everywhere we go We sing about beauty and we sing about truth At ten thousand dollars a show"

Answer: The Cover Of The "Rolling Stone"

Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show recorded this light hearted romp and they got their wish... just after the song peaked, they were indeed featured on the cover of "The Rolling Stone" on March 29, 1973! Among the other unusual hits of 1973 were these "classics": "Dead Skunk", a Number 16 hit for Louden Wainwright III; "Uneasy Rider", a Number Nine hit for The Charlie Daniels Band; and, "Basketball Jones Featuring Tyrone Shoelaces", a Number 15 hit for Cheech and Chong.

Dr. Hook, as they renamed themselves after this hit, began as a bar band in New Jersey in the late 1960s playing mostly country music but developing a reputation as a zany bunch apt to do most anything during their gigs. Their big break occurred when their manager hooked them up with Shel Silverstein, cartoonist, author and composer, who was looking for the right band to be an outlet for some of his compositions. At the time, he was best known for writing "A Boy Named Sue" for Johnny Cash. Right out of the gate, the group scored a hit with "Sylvia's Mother" and this song, both Silverstein's handiwork. The following years were mostly lean ones, recording-wise anyway, until the end of the decade when they were re-invented as quasi-disco oriented balladeers. They scored with such hits as "Sharing The Night Together", "When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman", and "Sexy Eyes" but lead singer Ray Sawyer, the "Dr. Hook" of the group with his distinctive eye patch, was disenchanted with the artistic direction the group was taking and chose to leave. With that, the band seemingly lost their identity and eventually called it a day in 1985. Today, Ray Sawyer tours as Dr. Hook, leasing the name from the other original co-founder of the group, Dennis Locorriere.
15. "Now you swear and kick and beg us that you're not a gamblin' man Then you find you're back in Vegas with a handle in your hand Your black cards can make you money so you hide them when you're able In the land of milk and honey you must put them on the table" This is the entire third verse from one of the more curious hits of 1973. It charted for 17 weeks peaking at Number Six early in the year. As such, it earned sufficient ranking points to finish 77th among that year's hits. Two more clues: 1. it marked the debut hit for this recording entity, and 2. although they would have a total of ten charting hits over the duration of their career, they are better remembered for a string of enormously popular albums. There you have it... your guess?

Answer: Do It Again

Steely Dan made this their first Billboard hit. Like Stealers Wheel, the "group" was really a duo consisting of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen backed by session musicians. Frequently though, those sidemen were the same guys like guitarist Denny Dias and drummer Jeff Porcaro. Apparently, actor Chevy Chase was frequently a drummer in the earliest days of the group.

Like most of Steely Dan's songs, what this one is about is open to conjecture. The interpretation that seems most apt to me is that we humans tend to act habitually. The criminal becomes recidivist, people repeat the same mistakes when choosing mates and then there are those chronic gamblers. We just "do it again"!

From 1972 to 1980, they would conjure up an album a year, eight all together and every one of them went gold and seven went platinum, quite an achievement. They decided to part ways amicably in 1981 but have reunited twice since then. In 1994, they toured together very successfully but the "live" album release was their first miss. It only charted for five weeks. Then, in 2000 they returned to the studio for the first time in 20 years and released yet another platinum disc, "Two Against Nature", that was awarded a Grammy for Album of the Year. We may not have seen the last of them yet!
Source: Author maddogrick16

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Dalgleish before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
Related Quizzes
This quiz is part of series The Top Annual Hits 1970 to 1979:

Quizzes on the highest rated Billboard hits based on chart performance for each year of the 1970s decade.

  1. The Top Hits of 1970 - Volume I Average
  2. The Top Hits of 1970 - Volume II Average
  3. The Top Hits of 1971 - From 1 to 10! Average
  4. More Top Hits From 1971 Easier
  5. The Top Hits of 1971 - Final Chapter Average
  6. The Top Hits of 1972 Average
  7. The Top Hits of 1973 Average
  8. The Top Hits of 1974 - Volume I Average
  9. The Top Hits Of 1974 - Volume II Average
  10. The Top Hits of 1975 Average
  11. The Top Hits of 1976 (Sort Of) Average
  12. The Top Hits of 1977 Average

10/31/2024, Copyright 2024 FunTrivia, Inc. - Report an Error / Contact Us