My iPod is Syncing these Titanic Songs Quiz

Answer: James Horner

What's ironic is that originally, director Jame Cameron wanted the soundtrack to be solely instrumental music, no singing of a song on the soundtrack, and certainly not as closing credit music. He had commented, "Would you put a song at the end of 'Schindler's List'?" He was furthermore concerned that he be criticized for being too commercial if he had a pop song play at the end. Composer James Horner disagreed and together with lyricist Will Jennings, they wrote "My Heart Will Go On." A further irony is that Celine Dion originally wasn't too keen on recording it after her husband/manager suggested her for it. According to Billboard she said, "I wanted to choke my husband...Because I didn't want to do it!" But she went ahead and recorded a demo, wanting to get it over with.

It took just one take for her to nail it, and that the version the film used. Horner presented it to Cameron, and he changed his mind after hearing it.

Answer: Oh, You Beautiful Doll

As Leo's Jack Dawson, tries on the tux, Molly says, "I was right! You and my son are just about the same size." Jack checks it out in the mirror and she says "You shine up like a new penny." An orchestral version, sans lyrics, of "Oh, You Beautiful Doll", written by A. Seymour Brown and Nat Ayer, is heard over this scene.

It is played by Chuck Foster and His Orchestra, a popular American dance band during the 1940s, who recorded their version of it in 1911. "Tuxedo Junction" by Glenn Miller was from 1939, "This Time/Dressed Up To Win" by Irving Berlin was from 1943, and "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" by David Bowie is from 2013.

Answer: Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson (1878-1946), was an American boxer, and was the first black heavyweight boxing world champion, a title he held from 1908 to 1915. Jack Sharkey, Primo Carnera, James J. Braddock were all heavyweight champs but were little boys at the time the Titanic sank, and they were not black. The song was one of the earliest songs about the disaster, and Huddie Ledbetter, aka Lead Belly, wrote and recorded it, claiming it was the first song he learned on the 12-string guitar. Lead Belly took a large leap of poetic license, as Jack Johnson was not on the liner, but was instead in the United States when the Titanic set sail from Southampton, England.

"Jack Johnson heard the mighty shock
Mighta seen him runnin' down the block
Cryin', "Fare thee, Titanic, fare thee well"

Answer: Bob Dylan

The song is the title track of Bob Dylan's 2012 album "Tempest". It is 45 verses long and was inspired by a folk song also about the Titanic, recorded by the Carter Family, and Dylan told "Rolling Stone" magazine that he liked the melody and wanted to "appropriate" it. Dylan was also inspired by the 1997 film "Titanic", and also made up some fictional characters in his lyrics:

"Jim Dandy smiled
He never learned to swim
Saw the little crippled child
And he gave his seat to him"

Answer: Blind Willie Johnson

The actual songwriter of "God Moves on the Water" is unknown, and its title might possibly be based on the Bible's Book of Genesis, Chapter 1, verse 2: "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters". Blind Willie Johnson's recording is poignant, accentuated by the haunting sound of his slide guitar playing:

"Ah, Lordy, when it struck the iceberg
And people began to cry God moves, God moves, God moves,
ah, and the people had to die."

The folk song would also be covered by artists such as Guy Forsyth (2000), Mary Margaret O'Hara (2004), and Garrison Keillor, on his album "A Prairie Home Companion: 4th Annual Farewell Performance."

Answer: William and Versey Smith

Ms. Laine and Mr. Duckworth were both born in 1927. Ms. Bley (b. 1936) and Mr. Swallow (b. 1940) were also born after 1927, and though they were collaborators, they were never married. Ms. Christy and Mr. Cooper were married, and both born before 1927...in 1925. But all three of these couples were jazz duos, not religious blues duos.

Although their geographic origin is uncertain, William and Versey Smith's 1927 recording of "When That Great Ship Went Down" for Paramount records, is featured in Harry Smith's book "Anthology of American Folk Music" (1952), in which Mr. Smith writes that Black musicians "found it noteworthy and ironic that company policies had kept Black [people] from the doomed ship; the sinking was also attributed by some to divine retribution." The couple often mixed current events with religious overtones in their music.

Answer: Titanic Mass

"Titanic Mass" is a 2016 song by the group Dynazty, and it's about marginalized groups in modern society, not about the ocean liner disaster.

"The Titanic" by country music pioneer and Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Ernest "Pop" Stoneman is one of the earliest commercial recordings about the Titanic's sinking after hitting an iceberg. His version was one of a few different variations, and here in the lyrics of the second verse, are fragments of the other titles the folk song has gone by:

"It was sad when that great ship went down
Husbands and wives, little children lost their lives
It was sad when that great ship went down."

Mr. Stoneman also recorded a longer version of the song under the Edison record label in 1926, titled "Sinking of The Titanic." The 78 rpm single had an impact for decades afterward.

Answer: It was early one mornin', just about four o'clock / When that old Titanic began to reel and rock.

"It was early one mornin', just about four o'clock
When that old Titanic began to reel and rock
Smith took his glasses and walked out to the front
Captain Smith took his glass and he walked out to the front
And he spied the iceberg a-comin', gon' Lord, have to bump"

Charley Jordan was a well-known blues musician with a distinctive guitar playing and vocal style, during the 1920s-1930s. He collaborated with many musicians, and on this song, recorded during a phase when the blues was evolving from regional folk music to the more recognizable genre we know today, he teamed up with Hi Henry Brown, a blues singer and guitarist. The song takes a more factual approach to the tragedy, reflecting on the various actions people took.

Answer: "When she had sailed five hundred mile from shore"

The ship actually sank about 400 miles from the shore of Newfoundland, Canada.

"Sailing out out to win her fame, the Titanic was her name
When she had sailed five hundred mile from shore
Many passengers and her crew went down with that old canoe
They all went down to never ride no more"

The song is notable for the Dorsey Dixon and Howard Dixon's impressive slide guitar work, and their distinct vocal harmonies. The lyrics criticized the Titanic's builders for their hubris:

"She could not sink" was the cry from one and all
But an iceberg ripped her side and it cut down all her pride"

Answer: "The Last Scene of the Titanic" by Frank Hutchison

None of those songs or artists actually exist with the exception of "The Last Scene of the Titanic" by Frank Hutchison. The last scene of the movie depicts Gloria Stuart as the old Rose Dewitt drifting off to sleep or perhaps her passing on as she dreams of being greeted by many of her fellow passengers that met their fate that night, and her gliding up the staircase, where Jack Dawson awaits and turns to face her, taking her hand and kissing her as the camera tilts up to the heavens.

This talking blues about the tragedy has ironically jaunty slide guitar work as Frank Hutchison perkily plucks the strings, and describes in a sing/talk style the mundane goings on aboard ship:

"Captain Smith said, "How's your machinery?" "All right"
"How's your compass?" "Settin' dead on New York"