Peter, Paul, and Mommy Trivia Quiz

Answer: WHIRRR

This is the chorus from the "Marvelous Toy", about just that! A father brings home a wondrous thing that makes lots of noises, and the child can't figure out what it is, but doesn't mind a bit. This song was the first on side 1 of the "Peter, Paul, and Mommy" album, which was called the Toy Side. (This was back in the days when albums were on vinyl records.)

A man named Albert Grossman put Peter, Paul, and Mary together. He wanted to create a folk group made up of a tall blonde woman, a handsome man, and a clown (that would be Mary, Peter, and Paul, in that order).

Answer: I really don't know

The chorus is: "And if you take my hand my son, All will be well when the day is done." This isn't the same "Day Is Done" that is played at military funerals; that one is also called "Taps". But it's a very sweet, haunting song all the same. In fact, it reached number 21 on the Pop Singles chart and number 7 on the Adult Contemporary Chart in 1969.

Peter, Paul, and Mary first played together in a New York City coffeehouse in 1961. Folk music was very important to New York culture back then, especially in a neighborhood called Greenwich Village.

Answer: fly

Peter, Paul, and Mary first covered tunes written by Pete Seeger -- like "If I Had a Hammer" and "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" -- before composing their own. They also did traditional English folk songs like this one, in which a bat, a blackbird, a woodpecker, and a turtle dove all have something to say about lost love. Burl Ives first recorded "Leather-Winged Bat" in the USA in 1941.

There are many versions with different flying creatures, but they all start with the bat! Here is a verse that is in the traditional song but not in the PP&M version:
"Hi said the bluebird as he flew,
Once I courted a young gal too,
She got saucy and wanted to go,
And I got me a new string for my bow."

Answer: Gilbert & Sullivan

W.S. Gilbert wrote the lyrics and Arthur Sullivan composed the music for many, many operettas for Her Majesty, Queen Victoria. "I Have a Song to Sing, O!" is from "The Yeomen of the Guard" (1888), their eleventh work out of fourteen. They are better known for "The Pirates of Penzance" and "The Mikado". Gilbert & Sullivan liked to create topsy-turvy worlds with lots of silliness. They were successful, but Sullivan was unhappy because he wanted to be taken seriously as a composer of "important" music, like Brahms, but it wasn't to be.

Answer: Wales

The folk song originally came from Wales. The first record of the tune is in a book of Welsh tunes collected by Edward Jones in 1784. Sir Harold Boulton wrote the lyrics that Peter, Paul, and Mary decided to use in their children's album, "Peter, Paul, and Mommy".

The second verse is altered slightly from Boulton, however. There are many English version of this song available. In Wales, this song remains very popular, and traditional Welsh male voice choirs will sing this song at festivals.

Answer: the zoo

It was written by Tom Paxton, who wrote folk songs for over fifty years and received honors in the USA and in Britain. The song was included in an episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" entitled "It's the Arts (or: Intermission)". The chorus:
We're goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo.
How about you, you, you?
You can come too, too, too.
We're goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo!

"Goin' to the Zoo" was the first song on side 2 of "Peter, Paul, and Mommy!", called the Zoo Side. (This was when albums were released on vinyl records).

Answer: a diamond ring

No one is quite sure where this song came from, but it probably came from the United States and not Europe, as mockingbirds are found only in the Americas. There are many variations, with Mama sometimes buying the presents.

Peter Yarrow was born in Manhattan and went to college at Cornell University. In the year 2000, he started a program called "Operation Respect" to combat bullying in school. He also thinks school should teach more than reading and writing. He likes to say, "As we Jews say, 'Let him be a mensch first; everything else will work out.'"

Answer: boa constrictor

Yet another song that many people have sung, including Johnny Cash! It was written by Shel Silverstein. The rest goes:
Oh, fiddle, oh, fiddle,
He's reached my middle, he's reached my middle.
Oh, heck, oh, heck,
He's up to my neck, he's up to my neck.
Oh, dread, oh dread
He's swallowed my upmmmmmmmmmmffffffffff . .

Mary Travers was born in 1936 in Louisville, Kentucky, home of the Run for the Roses. But she grew up in Greenwich Village, New York, the center of the folk music scene in the early 1960s. Mary died in 2009 of leukemia.

Answer: Paul

"Christmas Dinner" is about a poor little boy who has only bread and cheese to eat, but he sees an old lady who has even less, and he shares his food with her, in the spirit of the season.

Noel Paul Stookey was born in Michigan. His most famous work is "The Wedding Song (There is Love)" from 1971, which he wrote when Peter Yarrow got married. It became a ~very~ popular song played at American weddings for the next forty years.

Answer: Puff the Magic Dragon

Peter Yarrow based "Puff" on a poem written by Leonard Lipton in the 1950s, when they were both college students. Both men say that it is just about an ageless dragon and his playmate, who grows up. The song became enormously popular in the 1960s, even among adults! Marlene Dietrich performed a German version in 1963.

Peter, Paul, and Mary broke up in the 1970s to pursue solo careers, but they got together for special concerts, many televised by PBS, and to release more albums like "Peter, Paul, and Mommy"! This album won the 1970 Grammy Award for Best Album for Children.