Music Is Better in the "Big Apple" Quiz

Answer: Sting

Sting (Gordon Sumner) of the group The Police wrote the song for his second solo album "...Nothing Like the Sun" and released it as a single in 1988. A jazz quintet fronted by Branford Marsalis playing a soprano saxophone added to the ambience of the arrangement. Although known for its catchy melody the song was not a big seller. In 1990, Sting's record company asked Dutch record producer Ben Liebrand to remix it; that version became a top 15 hit in the U.K.

Sting wrote the song about Quentin Crisp, who was, indeed, an Englishman living in New York City. He was an actor, author and raconteur. His flamboyant lifestyle made him a gay icon. He was featured in the music video about the song.

Answer: Bob Dylan

A reviewer said Dylan's song sounded like a country bumpkin coming to a big city. He went on to admit that it sounded like the bumpkin was clued in to some of the foibles and deceits common to a large metropolitan area.

Dylan went from Minnesota to New York in the late 1950s, looking for work as a folk singer. He spent some time working for pittances or in pass-the-hat coffee houses before being signed to a recording contract. Finding work was not easy for him; he didn't have an angelic voice. Loudon Wainwright III, of "Dead Skunk" (in the middle of the road) fame, in a song he wrote in honor of Dylan's 50th birthday, "Talking New Bob Dylan" said "Some had some doubts about the way you sang..."

"Talkin' New York" was on Dylan's self-titled first album, released in 1962. In one verse the song's narrator (maybe Dylan in real life) while trying out for a singing job at a coffee house was told "Come back some other day, you sound like a hillbilly - we want folksingers here."

Answer: Bob & Earl

Bob & Earl were from Los Angeles, not New York. They wrote the song, based on "Slauson Shuffletime," an instrumental about a street in Los Angeles recorded by musician Round Robin. Bob & Earl's song was released in 1963. went to number 44 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. and fizzled in the U.K. Upon a U.K. reissue in 1969 it made it to number seven on the UK singles chart.

Several singers and groups covered the song through the years but the Rolling Stones had the biggest success with it. Keith Richards picked it out to put on their 1986 "Dirty Work" album and the rest of the band agreed. Released as a single it went to number five in the U.S., number 13 in the U.K. and number one in New Zealand.

Earl was Earl Nelson. Bob was Bobby Byrd, who also used the name Bobby Day. He wrote and recorded the original version of "Little Bitty Pretty One" in 1957; it became a hit later in the year for Thurston Harris. In 1958, Day recorded "Rockin' Robin" which reached number two on Billboard's Hot 100.

Answer: Leonard Cohen

You know Leonard Cohen was from Canada, eh? He wrote the song in 1985 or 1986. It was first recorded by one of his former back-up singers, Jennifer Warnes, on her album "Famous Blue Raincoat", an album of Cohen's songs. Cohen finally recorded it himself in 1988 for his album "I'm Your Man." With the rest of that lyric being "then we take Berlin" many speculated on the meaning of the song. In 1988, in an interview, Cohen said that it was indeed a song about terrorism and a response to it.

Cohen started his career wanting to write poetry and novels. In 1966 he turned to writing songs but not necessarily singing them. In his song "The Tower of Song" he used the laugh line "I was born with the gift of a golden voice", which got an audience response every time he sang it. His first published song was "Suzanne" (1966). Judy Collins heard of it and included it on her album "In My Life." The two became friends and over the years she would record 14 other Cohen songs and appear in concert with him several times.

In his career Cohen recorded 15 albums, three novels and several collections of poems and songs. He died in Los Angeles in 2016 at age 82.

Answer: Beastie Boys

The title of the song written in 1986 was a play on the title of the British band Motorhead's album "No Sleep 'til Hammersmith," a London entertainment venue. The Beastie Boys song was about touring the country and getting back home. The guitar accompaniment was provided by Kerry King of the thrash metal group Slayer. It was the sixth single released from their 1986 debut album "Licensed to Ill" which was the first rap album to get to number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. It has gone on to become one of the best-selling hip hop albums of all time.

The rap group was formed in 1981 by some of the members of the punk band the Young Aborigines. They gained some early fame outside of New York by being the opening act of Madonna's 1985 tour. Over the years they recorded eight studio albums and several compilation albums and dozens of singles. In 2012, vocalist Adam "MCA" Yauch died of cancer. The other two members, nearing 50 years of age, decided to disband, releasing some retrospect books and recordings over the years.

Answer: The Ad Libs

The Ad Libs were a New Jersey soul and "doo wop" group. Doo Wop was mostly a 1950s and early 1960s musical genre; this song came along at the end of 1964, as the British Invasion was overpowering pop music, but their style was conducive to that type of singing. The record was produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who knew their way around that type of music, having written or produced over 70 hit songs in the early rock and roll era. The song peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 list.

Another type of song popular then was the "answer song', songs which were supposed to be the response to certain other songs. The epitome of that genre was probably "The Leader of the Pack" by the Shangri-Las, answered by "The Leader of the Laundromat" by the Detergents. Brian Wilson, the chief songwriter for the Beach Boys, wrote the answer song "The Girl from New York City." It was included in the Beach Boys' 1965 album "Summer Days (and Summer Nights)". It was only released as a single as a B-side to a song released in Greece. But Wilson liked the Ad Libs song and played around with it, changing the tempo and the orchestration until it finally emerged as the smash hit "Good Vibrations."

Answer: Simon & Garfunkel

The song was written by Paul Simon when his singing partner Art Garfunkel went to Mexico to be in the movie "Catch-22." It was when they had been working on the album "Bridge over Troubled Water" and Simon was left to write most of the songs for the album by himself and was feeling very alone. He referred to a character in the song as Tom. It's generally believed that it was a reference to Garfunkel, who was known as Tom when he and Simon called themselves Tom and Jerry.

The two had been schoolboy friends who decided to try singing together. It worked out well; the two high school juniors had a top-50 hit record with "Hey Schoolgirl" in 1957. Later, using their real names, they recorded "Sound of Silence" for the album "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M." and then broke up as a duo. The song had little recognition until their record producer remixed the song in 1965 and Boom! they had a number one hit. They got back together and recorded four more albums over the next five years before a disagreement that ended their partnership.

Answer: Justin Townes Earle

Earle grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, the son of alternate country singer-songwriter Steve Earle. After playing with some bands in Nashville he moved to New York City as his musical style changed from folk-country to more of a country-rock style. He wrote several songs about the NYC area during the five years he lived there. "Harlem River Blues", from the album of the same name, was his most successful song, even though the narrator casually mentioned drowning himself.

Earle had drug problems from the time he was 12 years old. He spent several sessions in rehab before dying of a drug overdose at age 38.

During a concert to celebrate his son's life, Steve Earle had a momentary loss of composure and lamented that he, himself, had problems with drugs and overcame them; he was angry that his son couldn't do the same.

Answer: Don Henley

Henley was the drummer of the rock band Eagles, that formed in 1971. The band broke up in 1980 and Henley had a successful solo career. "In a New York Minute" was a 1989 release from his 1988 album "The End of the Innocence." The song was moderately successful, reaching the middle of most top 100 charts but going to number five on Billboard Magazine's Adult Contemporary listing. It alludes to the fast pace and inherent danger of living in New York City and how quickly things can change.

Eagles were a very successful group, selling over 150 million albums and had 17 top 40 singles. Henley was frequently the lead singer. As a solo artist he recorded five albums and eight top 40 singles. Besides occasional reunion concerts with the Eagles he is involved with various environmental and political causes.

Answer: Ben E. King

King was the second lead singer of the Drifters, one of the most successful R&B and pop groups of the 1950s. He joined the group in 1959 but then left in 1960 to go solo. "Spanish Harlem" was his first solo recording, part of an album by the same name. Phil Spector, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller - big names in music writing and production at the time - were involved in the project. The song reached number 10 on Billboard's Hot 100. It was followed by "Stand by Me", which reached number four. Though a prolific singer, King wouldn't have another top five record until "Supernatural Thing" in 1975.

The rose in the song was a woman the singer wanted to be romantic with. She lived in the tough neighborhood of Spanish Harlem in New York. It was named for Puerto Rican and Latin American families who emigrated there after World War I. It is part of Harlem, a neighborhood in the north of Manhattan. Further, part of it used to be called Italian Harlem. It has long struggled with poverty and gangs, so the idea of a rose growing up through the concrete gave residents something to smile about.

Stephen King may have liked the song too. Readers of a certain age recognize occasional references in King's novels to music, movies and literature of the 20th century. A rose growing in a vacant New York City lot is a major plot element of King's "Dark Tower" series.