A Quiz About The Cranberries

Answer: The Cranberry Saw Us

Before The Cranberries were known under that name, the band was called The Cranberry Saw Us (which sounds like "cranberry sauce"). The band was originally made up of Noel Hogan, Mike Hogan, Fergal Lawler, and vocalist Niall Quinn. However, when Quinn left the band and Dolores O'Riordan replaced him, she persuaded the other members to change the band's name to The Cranberries.

Answer: Limerick

All of the original members of The Cranberries grew up in the Irish city of Limerick, which is located in southern Ireland. The Hogan brothers and Fergal Lawler were soon joined by Niall Quinn, the original lead singer of the band. Dolores O'Riordan, who substituted Quinn, was born in Ballybricken, which is part of the County Limerick that is pretty close to the city of Limerick.

Limerick is one of the biggest cities in Ireland in terms of population. Its name is often associated with a type of humorous, typically five-line poem popularized by English author Edward Lear.

Answer: Luciano Pavarotti

Luciano Pavarotti was a world-famous Italian tenor who won multiple Grammy Awards for his contributions to opera music, including multiple awards for "Best Classical Vocal Solo". In the 1990s and at the beginning of the 2000s decade, Pavarotti organized a series of concerts known as "Pavarotti & Friends" to support various humanitarian causes.

One of these benefit shows, "Together for the Children of Bosnia", featured the vocalist of The Cranberries singing with Pavarotti. The two artists gave a beautiful rendition of "Ave Maria". At the same concert, Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran joined O'Riordan to perform The Cranberries' "Linger".

Answer: Zombie

"Zombie" was one of the most popular songs ever released by The Cranberries. The song, which was part of their album "No Need to Argue", reached the top position on several international charts in countries like France, Belgium, the U.S., Germany, and Iceland. Dolores O'Riordan wrote the song inspired by the nearly 30-year violent events of The Troubles. Paramilitary organizations like the Irish Republican Army engaged in multiple bombings against political and infrastructural targets.

The song was particularly inspired by the deaths of two children in the Warrington bombings. Some of the most well-known and powerful lyrics from the song are: "they are fighting, with their tanks and their bombs, and their bombs and their guns, in your head, in your head, they are crying".

Answer: Free to Decide

The 1996 "Free to Decide" tour visited Australia, the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, and several countries in Asia. The tour lasted for a couple of months in 1996 and performed in various prestigious venues, such as New York's Madison Square Garden. The Cranberries also released a song called "Free to Decide" in July 1996, which was included in their album "To the Faithful Departed".

Answer: Crazy

Though most of the music performed during their tour was original work composed by band members Dolores O'Riordan and Noel Hogan, they occasionally performed songs by other artists to the delight of their audience. One of these songs was "Crazy", which was written by American musician Willie Nelson and made popular by Patsy Cline. Nelson's song has also been played by Linda Ronstadt, Colleen Peterson, and LeAnn Rimes. Throughout their career, The Cranberries also covered other songs, such as "In the Ghetto" (recorded by Elvis Presley and written by Mac Davis) and The Cure's "In Between Days". O'Riordan's unique vocal talent gave all of these covers a new meaning.

Answer: Turkey and cranberry sandwiches

When The Cranberries returned from their hiatus in 2009, they went on a North American tour that had them play in various cities in the U.S. One of them was Las Vegas, and while the band was there, guitarist Noel Hogan had an interview with a local newspaper, the Las Vegas Sun.

In the interview, Hogan (somewhat surprisingly, perhaps) revealed that he had never actually eaten cranberries until he visited the U.S. Hogan said that cranberries are not commonly consumed in his home country of Ireland, but that he tried a turkey and cranberry sandwich while touring in the U.S. and "thankfully, liked it."

Answer: John Lennon

The Beatles are arguably one of the most popular bands in history. In December of 1980, Mark David Chapman shot and killed John Lennon outside of his home in New York City. The murderer cited Holden Caulfield (a character from J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye") and Lennon's statement that "the Beatles were more popular than Jesus" as reasons why he committed this crime.

Many artists paid tribute to John Lennon following his assassination; for example, Stevie Nicks in "Edge of Seventeen", Queen and Freddie Mercury in "Life is Real", and The Cranberries with "I Just Shot John Lennon". The song by The Cranberries vividly tells the story of how Lennon was murdered and repeatedly calls the incident "a sad and sorry and sickening sight".

Answer: Cordell

"To the Faithful Departed" was the third studio album released by The Cranberries. While the album was better known for singles like "Salvation", "When You're Gone", and "Free to Decide", it also included some other songs like "Cordell" and "Bosnia". The former song was a tribute to Denny Cordell, a record producer (born in Argentina but of English nationality) who collaborated with many world-famous artists. Some of the musicians with whom Cordell collaborated included Joe Cocker and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Cordell also produced music for The Cranberries, which is why the group paid tribute to him with their 1996 song following Cordell's death in 1995 due to lymphoma.

Answer: Coffee

"Wake Up and Smell the Coffee" was released in October 2001 and was the last album by The Cranberries before they went on a long hiatus. The album was not as popular as some of their previous ones but did include the singles "Analyse" and "Time Is Ticking Out", as well as a song named for the album. Live versions of "Dreams", "Zombie", and other Cranberries hits were added as bonus tracks for some countries.

The album's producer was Stephen Street, who was also behind the band's first, second, sixth, and eighth studio albums.