Help My Ear Worm, Please! Trivia Quiz

Answer: No

According to the official lyrics, the first line of "Love Potion Number Nine" has the love-sick singer going to see a gypsy named Madame Ruth for help. For years, I mis-heard her name and thought he was going to see Madame Rue. A "mondegreen" is a term used to describe the mis-hearing of the lyrics of a song. Another example is "Sweet dreams are made of cheese" instead of the correct "Sweet dreams are made of this" from the Eurythmics song of the same name

The first line of "Love Potion Number Nine" is actually:

"I took my troubles down to Madame Ruth"

Answer: A gold-capped tooth

The first two lines of this song rhyme. The first line discusses the gypsy Madame Ruth. The second line describes her with a gold-capped tooth. Thomas Zumbroich (2010) found that the capping of teeth with gold for cosmetic purposes goes back thousands of years. There is archeological evidence from the Philippines of gold decorations on teeth that dates back to the 1300s CE. Scientists have also found gold dental appliances that were used by the Etruscan people of Italy as far back as the 600s BCE. It seems that Madame Ruth was right in style. The first two lines of this song go:

"I took my troubles down to Madame Ruth
You know that gypsy with the gold-capped tooth"

Answer: A pad

According to etymologists, the term "pad" has been used to describe a living space since the beginning of the 20th century, but was most common in the middle of the century. "Love Potion Number Nine" was written and recorded in 1959, then recorded again in the early 1960s and the early 1970s, just when the term "pad" was most often used.

The third line of the song begins, "She's got a pad down on ...".

Answer: Thirty-Fourth and Vine

According to the lyrics of "Love Potion Number Nine", the third line of the first verse state that the gypsy is located at "Thirty-Fourth and Vine". The use of numbered streets is common in North America, Columbia, and the Middle East. The first known use of numbered streets was in Philadelphia in the US in 1863. That said, many cities around the world would have an intersection similar to the one in the song, so it's not possible to determine the actual city given the lyrics. The final line of the first verse ends with the word "nine", so the cross streets must rhyme with that. The lyrics go:

"She's got a pad down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine
Sellin' little bottles of Love Potion Number Nine"

Answer: Since 1956

In the first two lines of the second verse, the singer states that he is having troubles with women. The lyrics use the hippie slang term "chicks" for women in this song. That word is a handy rhyme for "six". Given that the song was recorded in 1959, again in the early 1960s, and finally in the 1970s, the singer had been having problems with women for a few years. The first two lines of the second verse are:

"I told her that I was a flop with chicks
I've been this way since 1956"

Answer: False

The gypsy actually used palmistry and a magic sign to figure out the best treatment for the singer of this song. Palmistry is a practice that is common in some areas of the world. It is also known as palm reading, and is used by practitioners to help determine the future of the person whose palm is being read. However, there is very little evidence that palmistry actually works to determine future events. As a result, many think of it as a pseudoscience. The gypsy in the song didn't seem to worry about that, though. The middle of the second verse of "Love Potion Number Nine" states:

"She looked at my palm and she made a magic sign
She said 'What you need is Love Potion Number Nine'"

Answer: A wink

According to the song's lyrics, as soon as Madame Ruth determined what the singer needed, she bent down. She then turned around and gave him a wink before she made up his bottle of the potion. A wink is the voluntary or involuntary quick closure of one eye. Sometimes, winks are not meant to have any meaning, and are a result of facial tics. In many cultures, the subtle twitch is meant to be produced by the winker, and is seen as a romantic gesture. It can also be used as a sign of an inside joke, or to get a laugh from those around. In some cultures such as those in Asia or Australia, winking can be considered rude or vulgar, so it is best to check winking traditions if you are a travelling winker. ;-)

Midway through verse two, the lyrics state:

"She bent down and turned around and gave me a wink
She said 'I'm gonna make it up right here in the sink'"

Answer: Turpentine and Indian ink

When Madame Ruth prepared the potion, she handed it over to the singer. According to the lyrics, it both smelled and looked gross. The smell was of turpentine and the looks were of Indian ink. Turpentine is made from the resin of some pine trees. It has a very strong characteristic odour that can cause breathing difficulties, eye irritation, skin allergies, with prolonged exposure causing kidney damage and damage to the central nervous system.

Indian ink is a type of black ink that is made from lampblack (a fine soot) and water. Its earliest use was in China around the third century BCE, but it continues to be used today. Artists use Indian ink for drawing, painting, or tattooing. It is also used in pathology as a way for the surgeon to mark specific points on medical specimens, slide staining by microbiologists, as a polishing medium by NASA and others, as well as a corneal tattooing agent by ophthalmologists.

The line in the second verse that states this goes:

"It smelled like turpentine, it looked like Indian ink"

Answer: Closed

I think it must have been to get past the sight and the taste of the potion because the singer did a couple of things before he drank it. According to the lyrics, he both held his nose and closed his eyes before he took a swig. Scientists have found that when blindfolded, individuals have a difficult time identifying the taste of items. They suggest that this is because we rely heavily on our sight to make sense of our worlds. When that sense is unavailable, it becomes more difficult to identify tastes. However, our sense of smell is even more closely related to our sense of taste. Researchers have found that when nose plugs are worn, individuals are about 80% less accurate in identifying tastes. Some tastes are still able to be identified because the nose and throat share the same pathway, so some air will go to the sinus cavities even with the nose plugged. In studies, those with both blindfolds and nose plugs tend to perform the worst when identifying taste.

The final line of verse two states:

"I held my nose, I closed my eyes, I took a drink"

Answer: A police officer broke the bottle that contained the potion

Once the singer took a swig of the love potion, he left the gypsy. He went a bit wild because he didn't know the time of day, and he was kissing everything. However, when he kissed a police officer, the officer broke the bottle of the potion.

The officer is referred to as a "cop" in the song. There is no clear evidence for the origin of the term "cop". Some historians believe that it started because the term "copper" was used early in the 18th century for someone who captured criminals. Others believe that it stemmed from the fact that early police officers had buttons or badges that were made of the metal copper. Others suggest that the term is an acronym for "constable on patrol". There is no clear evidence for any of these theories.

The third verse of the song goes:

"I didn't know if it was day or night
I started kissin' everything in sight
But when I kissed a cop down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine
He broke my little bottle of 'Love Potion Number Nine'"