Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs (226-250) Quiz

Answer: False

Interestingly enough, the word is never mentioned even once in the song. The song "Paranoid" appears on the 1970 album of the same name and was released by Black Sabbath. On the Black Sabbath tribute album "Nativity in Black", Megadeth covered this particular track.

Answer: Joe South

For those of you not familiar with Joe South's work, he has played with Bob Dylan, Wilson Pickett and Simon and Garfunkel. His song writing credits include the song "Hush" by Deep Purple and "Down in the Boondocks", recorded by many artists over the years.

His own song "Games People Play" picked up the 1969 Grammy for Song of the Year. Joe South is one of those artists that most people have never heard of by name, but have been exposed to his work on nearly a daily basis.

Answer: Big Bank Hank, Wonder Mike and Master Gee

All of the artists listed were actual rappers appearing in the 1980s. Only Mike, Hank and Gee were in the Sugarhill Gang, the group who released the song. The song featured a sample of "Good Times" by Chic. Kid Rock used a sample of the song in his "Bawitdaba" release of 1998.

Answer: Sly and the Family Stone

Richie Havens was the first artist to play the festival, but Sly was the first to sign on the dotted line. Sly and the Family Stone were the sixth act to play on the second day. The band played four tunes, although "Hot Fun in the Summertime" was not one of them.

Answer: No

The song "Up, Up and Away" actually took that honor. The song was written by Jimmy Webb for the 5th Dimension.
Jackie Wilson never won a Grammy for any song, although many feel he was deserving.

Answer: The song was written about the American Civil War by a predominately Canadian band.

Although the reference to Cain and Abel does exist (the lead character in the song was named Virgil Caine, and everyone knows of the "brother against brother" theme of the Civil War), the only real fact listed was that this song was written by The Band, and they were 80% Canadian. Robbie Robertson, who is Canadian wrote this song and Levon, the band's lone American took lead vocals.

Answer: Steve Winwood

Steve Winwood was only 18 years old when this song was racing up to number seven in the US, only months after the song hit number two in the UK. After Steve Winwood left the Spencer Davis Group to form Traffic, the band basically fell apart. Spencer Davis did go on to produce many other bands over the years though.

He once even put together a supergroup consisting of himself with members of Iron Butterfly, Rare Earth and Sugarloaf. The band was called the Classic Rock All-Stars and they formed in 1993.

Answer: Love Shack

If you knew that the album "Cosmic Thing" was released by The B-52's, then it should not have been too difficult to pick out the one and only song by them on this list. The song reached number three in the US on Billboard's singles chart.

Answer: Apollo 16

The Apollo 16 mission launched on April 16, 1972 and was commanded by Captain John Watts Young. This mission was the first to land in the lunar highlands. Apollo 11 was the mission when the US landed the first man on the moon on July 20, 1969. Apollo 13 was the famous mission where the oxygen tank exploded and the lunar landing was cancelled. Apollo 14 was commanded by Rear Admiral Alan Shepard, the first American ever in space.

Answer: True

It is indeed true. One interesting fact is that when the group originally recorded the song, it received some lackluster reviews from the San Francisco test market where it was initially released. Sly Stone decided to "funk" it up a bit and he recorded the ending portion of the song with studio musicians because the rest of his band were not available in time to complete the session.

Answer: Pulp Fiction

These are all, of course, movies by Quentin Tarantino. There are some great tunes on the movie's soundtrack including "Strawberry Letter #23" by the Brothers Johnson, "You Never Can Tell" by Chuck Berry and "Misirlou" by Dick Dale and his Del-Tones.

Answer: Dion

Dion DiMucci made his mark in the Bronx as a street corner singer with his group, The Belmonts. "The Wanderer" was Dion's second highest charting tune in the USA. His highest was "Runaround Sue", which was a number one smash.

Answer: False

The song "Crazy" was actually written by Willie Nelson. The song "I Fall to Pieces" was written by the popular duo of Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard. Hank Cochran has written songs for George Strait, Merle Haggard, Eddy Arnold and Ronnie Milsap.

Answer: Rap

"Planet Rock" revolutionized rap music from the beat-box style of rap to the electronic, synthesized rap music that became popular in the mid 1980s. The song was by Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force.

Answer: Everyday

The songwriting credit for this song is for Charles Hardin and Norman Petty. One would have thought that Buddy Holly would have received a credit for writing the song. Or did he? In fact Buddy Holly was born Charles Hardin Holley, so he in fact did receive a song writing credit.

Answer: 1950s

This song, a song that many recognize as the first soul song ever written, was recorded in an Atlanta radio station in 1954. The song was written by Ray Charles and Renald Richard as they were traveling through Indiana listening to old gospel songs. It turns out that this song was the first secular song ever to be written in a gospel style.

Answer: John Sebastian

John Sebastian was the lead singer and principle song writer in the band The Lovin' Spoonfuls. The band had one number one single in the US with the song "Summer in the City".
The Byrds had a couple of number one hits in the US with "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is a Season)". The song "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" did not chart in the US.

Answer: Andy Summer

Andy Summer is best known as the guitarist for The Police. He has since moved on to become a new age/jazz guitarist, releasing the album "Peggy's Blue Skylight" in 2000.
Robert Fripp was the legendary guitarist for the band King Crimson. Fripp and Summer also recorded the albums "I Advance Masked" and "Bewitched" together.
Adrian Belew was also in King Crimson, but, in my opinion, his best work came as a solo artist on songs like "Men in Helicopters" and "Pretty Pink Rose".
Allan Holdsworth was in Level 42 and Soft Machine. Holdsworth is an incredible jazz fusion player who has played with many of the top artists of the genre.

Answer: Chris Isaak

When Orbison and Joe Melson wrote the song, Orbison envisioned Elvis Presley or The Everly Brothers singing the song. Once people in the record industry heard him sing the song though, they knew he was the man to pull it off. Orbison took the song to number two in the US.

Answer: Sexual Healing

"Sexual Healing" reached number three on the US singles chart in 1983, a full year before his death. Gaye was shot by his father over an argument involving money.
All other songs by Gaye were not only top five singles, but they were all number one singles. Although the song "Sexual Healing" did not reach number one, it did win Gaye the Grammy award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, his only Grammy. The song also won the Best Instrumental R&B Performance award at the same awards presentation.

Answer: Blonde on Blonde

In 2006, Bob Dylan released his 31st studio album, the critically acclaimed "Modern Times". It seems that Dylan gets better with age.
The song "Just Like a Woman" was released on the 1966 release "Blonde on Blonde". The album also produced the singles "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35", "Visions of Johanna" and "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again".

Answer: Willie Dixon

Both "Mannish Boy" and "I'm a Man" were released in 1955 and both charted on the US R&B singles chart. Willie Dixon was largely influential to many mainstream acts including Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones.

Answer: 28 Days

All of these movies featured Sandra Bullock as a key actress, but only "28 Days" featured the Clash tune. The song spent 13 weeks on Billboard's Singles chart in the US.
"28 Days" also featured Viggo Mortensen and Steve Buscemi in featured roles.

Answer: Yes

"Fire and Rain" went to number three on the US Billboard Pop Singles chart way back in 1970.

Answer: Moondance

The lyric is one of the best that Van Morrison ever wrote. "Fantabulous" is a slang word that came about in the US in the late 1950s by the beat-nick crowd and means exactly what it sounds like; excellent or wonderful.