Take this I Write The Songs Quiz! Easy Trivia | Music Mixture

Answer: John Newton

"Amazing Grace" was first published in 1779. Newton was a slave trader for many years until he started studying Christian theology and became a clergyman.

In 2012, "Amazing Grace", the musical, first debuted in Chester, Connecticut. The musical is a beautifully staged telling of the life of John Newton and how he went from someone who was a cruel slave trader to a beloved Christian hymn writer. He wrote an estimated 280 hymns including, "How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds," "What Think You of Christ? Is a Test," and "The Prophets' Sons, in Times of Old." But his most popular hundreds of years later remains "Amazing Grace."

Answer: Alex Call and Jim Keller

This song, "867-5309/Jenny", was made popular by Tommy Tutone. According to the writer, there was no actual Jenny, both the name and number were made up. However, it did cause a surge of people all over dialing that number to ask for Jenny.

Answer: John Denver

John Denver wrote "Leaving on a Jet Plane" in 1966 under the title "Babe I Hate to Go." He recorded it on a demo recording which he gave out to people he knew for Christmas of '66. However, his producer, Milt Okun, got him to change the title to "Leaving on a Jet Plane," and it was then recorded by Peter, Paul, and Mary in 1969, which became their only number-one single.

Ironically, even though Denver wrote the song, he then covered it, because Peter, Paul, and Mary technically recorded it for the public first (Denver only did that demo version). While it's well-known as a Denver song, his version never even made the charts.

Answer: Bruce Johnston

Bruce Johnston wrote the song "I Write the Songs" in 1975 and recorded it in 1977. The song won a Grammy Award for Song of the Year.

Barry Manilow recorded perhaps the most well-known version of this song. Johnston said the "I" in the song "is God, and that songs come from the spirit of creativity in everyone." Manilow wrote that he did not want to record the song at first because he was afraid if people did not realize this, the "I" made the singer sound like an egomaniac.

Answer: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb

"Stayin' Alive" was written in 1977 for the soundtrack of "Saturday Night Fever." It became one of the Bee Gees' greatest hits as well, having reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of February 4, 1978. It remained in the number one spot for four weeks in a row.

Answer: Patrick Swayze and Stacy Widelitz

Although used in "Dirty Dancing," in the scene where Johnny leaves Kellerman's, "She's Like the Wind" was not originally written for "Dirty Dancing." Swayze and Widelitz wrote the song for another of Swayze's movies, "Grandview, U.S.A." However, the song never got used, so Swayze played it for Linda Gottlieb and Emile Ardolino, producer and director of "Dirty Dancing." They both loved it and sent it on to Jimmy Ienner and Bob Feiden who were the executive producers of the "Dirty Dancing" soundtrack and of course, it was used in that movie.

Answer: Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin wrote "White Christmas" in 1942 for the musical "Holiday Inn." He won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for the song that year as well. While Bing Crosby's recording is still perhaps the most well-known version, the song has become one of the most recorded Christmas songs ever still to this day.

Answer: Elton John and Bernie Taupin

"Don't Go Breaking My Heart" was written by John and Taupin under the pseudonyms of Ann Orson (John) and Carte Blanche (Taupin). They were going for the Motown style that was often recorded in duets by Marvin Gaye and sung with women such as Kim Weston in "It Takes Two." Elton John recorded the song with Kiki Dee.

Answer: George Michael

"Last Christmas" was written by George Michael and recorded by him with his pop duo group Wham!
The song was first recorded in 1984 and was number two on the UK singles charts for five weeks in a row. Wham! donated their royalties from the song to the Ethiopian famine that year.
It has since been recorded by others including Ashley Tisdale and Crazy Frog.

Answer: John Farrar

"Hopelessly Devoted To You" was written by John Farrar for Olivia Newton-John to sing in the movie "Grease" in 1978. Per her contract with the movie, she had to have one song written just for her, but they were having a hard time coming up with the right song. Farrar had been writing songs for ONJ since 1971, so they decided to enlist his help.

The song reached number two in Australia (where ONJ was raised from the age of five), and it reached number three in the United States.