Six of the Best - Band/Artist Match Quiz

Answer: ABBA

These lyrics are from 'Dancing Queen' by ABBA. The song was released in 1976, and was, believe it or not, ABBA's only song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. (I had to double-check this fact because I was so surprised.)

It took six months for Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Stig Anderson to write the song, as they were striving for perfection. Apparently, of all of ABBA's 123 songs, this was the one all four band members felt was going to be a hit right from the start, and in fact, the girls, Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstadand, cried when they first heard it - partly because they found it beautiful and partly because they knew it was going to be a hit. It reached double Platinum in the UK and number one in 16 countries.

Here are some of the lyrics:
'You are the dancing queen
Young and sweet
Only seventeen
Dancing queen
Feel the beat from the tambourine, oh yeah
You can dance
You can jive
Having the time of your life
Ooh, see that girl
Watch that scene
Digging the dancing queen'

Answer: Queen

Is there anyone over the age of 20 who doesn't know at least a few of the lyrics from 'Bohemian Rhapsody' I wonder? (Even if it is just a quick 'Scaramouch,' 'Bismillah,' 'Fandango' or 'Galileo'?) The song, is of course, by the British band, Queen.

Released in 1975, Freddie Mercury revealed that the song was actual three songs he had written, all compiled into one. This was Queen's first song to get into the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, getting to number nine. In the UK however, it reached number one twice - once when it was released, and once when Freddie died - and, in fact, this was the first time in UK charts history that the same version of a song became number one twice.

The amount of Platinums this song has gained is also truly remarkable. Even though it had a slow start in the U.S., it ended up going ten times Platinum there. In Australia it achieved eight times Platinum, in Canada seven times Platinum, and in the UK, Italy and Portugal four times Platinum.

Let's have some lyrics, shall we?

'Mamaaa,
Just killed a man,
Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger,
Now he's dead
Mamaaa, life had just begun,
But now I've gone and thrown it all away
Mama, oooh,
Didn't mean to make you cry,
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow,
Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters'

Answer: Panic! At the Disco

'I Write Sins Not Tragedies' is the song that includes these six lyrics. Panic! At the Disco, an American band, released the song in 2005.

The song was inspired, as many seem to be, by heartbreak. It was written by the band's guitarist and main lyricist, Ryan Ross, after he had a break-up with his then-girlfriend. The song is set at a wedding at which the groom overhears a discussion between a bridesmaid and a waiter. The groom discovers the bride has been cheating on him and just wants them to shut the door so he can't hear anymore. He then decides he is going to handle the situation with 'poise and rationality'.

This was the group's first Billboard Top 100 hit (it came in at number seven). It has gone on to achieve Platinum status in both Canada, where it achieved four times Platinum, and the U.S., where it went five times Platinum. In 2022, Variety ranked it as one of the best emo songs of all time.

Lyrics are as follows:
'Oh, well in fact
Well, I'll look at it this way
I mean, technically, our marriage is saved
Well, this calls for a toast
So pour the champagne, pour the champagne
I chime in with a
"Haven't you people ever heard of closing the god damn door?"
No, it's much better to face these kinds of things
With a sense of poise and rationality'

Answer: Adele

These lyrics are from the song 'Hello' by Adele. Written by Adele and Greg Kurstin, it was released in 2015.

Interestingly, the lyrics 'Hello, it's me,' started out as being 'Hello misery,' until Kurstin pointed out to Adele that the lyrics were a little weird. At that point they changed it to 'Hello, it's me'.
In an interview, Adele describes her inspiration and the meaning of the song as follows: 'Hello from the other side, was the other side of being a grown-up, the other side of being with my friends and my ex-boyfriends. And also about death. Part of it was about my grandfather, who is a huge part of my life, though he has been gone 18 years. So it's about the other side of just not knowing.'

'Hello' was a mega-success for Adele. It achieved so many accolades it would take a while to list them all here. Suffice to say then, that it reached the number one spot in a staggering 36 countries; entered the Digital Songs chart with sales of 1,112,000 (which made it the song the first to sell over a million digital copies in a single week); and as for views on YouTube, 87 days after its release, it reached one billion views, which set yet another record. In late 2022, this figure reached three billion views.

Since it appears that a good percentage of people on the planet have heard the song already, you probably don't need lyrics, but here they are anyway, if you fancy a sing-along.

'Hello, it's me
I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to meet
To go over everything
They say that time's supposed to heal ya, but I ain't done much healing
Hello, can you hear me?
I'm in California dreaming about who we used to be
When we were younger and free
I've forgotten how it felt before the world fell at our feet
There's such a difference between us
And a million miles
Hello from the other side'

Answer: Shania Twain

These lyrics are from 'That Don't Impress Me Much' by Shania Twain. The song was written by Robert John Lange and Shania, and was released in late 1998.

The song is fairly self explanatory in that nothing impresses Shania much, however her inspiration for the song was apparently the Brad Pitt 'Playboy' nude photo scandal which occurred in the late 90s. Shania has said that when she heard about the so-called scandal, she thought, 'Well that don't impress me much, I mean what is all the fuss? We see people naked every day.'

Interestingly, when she is singing the song live, Shania will sometimes change the 'Brad Pitt' reference to suit the occasion - for example when Ryan Reynolds was being honoured at the People's Choice Awards in 2022, she sang, 'OK, so you're Ryan Reynolds.'

The song reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100; reached number one in NZ, Scotland, Norway and Ireland and, in the UK, came in at number three. It went double Platinum in Australia and the UK, and Platinum in the U.S. and Sweden.

Answer: Eminem

These lyrics are from Eminem's 'Lose Yourself.' Released in 2002, the lyrics were written by Eminem (or Marshall Bruce Mathers III) on the set of '8 Mile' while they were taking filming breaks. The song was written as the soundtrack to the movie and depicts how Eminen transitioned from living in a trailer park on 8 Mile (a highway) in Detroit Michigan, to becoming a superstar after signing up with Dr. Dre, an American rapper and record producer.

'Lose Yourself' had phenomenal success, not only topping the charts in 19 countries but also winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2003, making it the first hip-hop song to ever receive an Oscar. It also won a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance and one for Best Rap Song. In the U.S. alone it has been downloaded 10 million times. We clearly liked it very much in Australia, because it went sixteen times Platinum here. (I didn't think we had the population lol). In the U.S. it achieved thirteen times Platinum, in Canada six times Platinum, and in the UK four times Platinum.

I had no idea how many lyrics were in this song either. There are 89 lines of them, and some of the lines are really very long for lyrics. So here is just a taste of them:

'Look, If you had one shot
Or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted
In one moment
Would you capture it
Or just let it slip?
Yo
His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy
There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti
He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready
To drop bombs, but he keeps on forgettin'
What he wrote down, the whole crowd goes so loud
He opens his mouth, but the words won't come out
He's chokin', how, everybody's jokin' now
The clocks run out, times up, over, blaow
Snap back to reality, ope there goes gravity'

Answer: Coldplay

Coldplay is one of my favourite bands, and this song - 'Viva La Vida' - is definitely on my top ten list of songs.
The song is about King Louis XVI, who met his death by guillotine in the French Revolution. It gives King Louis' life story from his perspective just as he is about to die: how he acceded the throne ('Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!') then ruled France and was the commander of the seas. After being the most important man in France and having a level of luxury and power few of us could imagine, he is suddenly imprisoned ('Next the walls were closed on me') and is about to have a parting of the ways between his head and body. The 'I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing' is referencing that he can hear bells ringing throughout France in anticipation of his death.

'Viva La Vida' was written by the British band's lead vocalist and co-founder of Coldplay, Chris Martin. Released in 2008, the song was hugely successful. It went to number one in four countries and won Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards in 2009. It has reached five times Platinum in Spain, four times Platinum in Italy and the UK, three times Platinum in the U.S. and Germany and Platinum in five other countries.

Of course we need some more lyrics, so here they are:
'I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes
Listened as the crowd would sing,
"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"
One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing
Roman cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can't explain
Once you'd gone there was never
Never an honest word
And that was when I ruled the world'

Answer: John Lennon

The song 'Imagine' was written by John Lennon in 1971. At the time he wrote it, the Beatles had been broken up for a year and 'Imagine' was credited to the new label 'John Lennon Plastic Ono Band'.

The song's inspiration came from Yoko Ono, Lennon's partner. She was apparently always asking Lennon to 'imagine' things. In fact, she wrote a book called 'Grapefruit' which was a set of instructions about art and life, much of it centering around imagining. An example in the book was 'Imagine the clouds dripping, dig a hole in your garden to put them in.'

Lennon, thankfully, was just asking us to imagine a world of peace where things like religion, borders and material possessions do not divide us. Unfortunately he wrote the song while in the enormous mansion he and Ono owned - the Tittenhurst Park estate nestled in the English countryside. This, combined with Lennon having said the song was 'virtually the Communist Manifesto,' bought about a bit of criticism.
Luckily this didn't stop people enjoying this rather beautiful song, and in fact, it is still relevant to this day. It is often used as an anthem for peace and harmony - for example it was sung at the opening ceremony of the South Korea 2018 Winter Olympics, and was played as a tribute to the victims of the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. Furthermore, Julian Lennon, who had always maintained he would only sing the song 'if it was the end of the world' sang 'Imagine' for the time time in April 2022 in support of Ukraine.

In the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, 'Imagine' came in at number seventeen.

Some of the lyrics are as below:
'Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us, only sky
Imagine all the people
Livin' for today
Ah
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too'

Answer: David Bowie

I put this one in because it has an interesting link with the 1969 moon landing. The lyrics are from 'Space Oddity' by the late British musician, David Bowie.
This song, which is essentially about a space mission that goes dreadfully wrong, was partly inspired by heartbreak; Bowie had split earlier in the year with his actress/dancer girlfriend, Hermione Farthingale. It was also inspired though by the film '2001, A Space Odyssey,' which Bowie had been to see multiple times. He was reportedly fascinated by the sense of complete isolation depicted in the film.

Interestingly, Bowie cleverly released the song on July 11, 1969, so that it came out just before the moon landing. The BBC, after listening to the lyrics, decided they had the perfect song to play over the actual footage of the moon landing. So as people in Britain watched the moon landing, they were listening to 'Space Oddity'. David Bowie, when talking about this, said: "Obviously, some BBC official said, 'Oh, right then, that space song, Major Tom, blah blah blah, that'll be great'. 'Um, but he gets stranded in space, sir.' Nobody had the heart to tell the producer that."

Even though 'Space Oddity' was released in 1969, it took a while for it to get anywhere on the charts. It reached number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973, but it wasn't until 1975 that it reached number one in the UK. It also made it into the top five in Ireland, France, and the Netherlands. Proving that Bowie's music lives on, in 2021, Rolling Stone magazine ranked 'Space Oddity' at number 189 on their '500 Greatest Songs of All Time' list. Considering just how many songs have been made, in my mind, getting anywhere in the top 500 is no mean feat.

Let's have a look at a few more lyrics:
'This is ground control to Major Tom
You've really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
But it's time to guide the capsule if you dare
This is Major Tom to ground control
I've left forevermore
And I'm floating in most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today
For here am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
The planet Earth is blue and there's nothing left to do'

Answer: Celine Dion

These lyrics are of course from 'My Heart Will Go On' which was written by Will Jennings and James Horner and recorded by Canadian singer, Celine Dion. It was written specifically as the soundtrack for the movie 'Titanic' and was released in November 1997.

You might be interested to know that Celine Dion wasn't a fan of the song when composer James Horner first approached her to record the track. In fact, she has admitted that when Horner played it to her for the first time, she mouthed to her husband/manager René Angélil, 'I don't want to do that song.' René persuaded her to persevere and perhaps produce a 'little demo track'. The rest, as they say, is history.

While the song was very much integral to the movie and helped the movie to achieve the success it did, the song itself reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in February 1998, and, at the same time, topped the charts in a further 24 countries. It won the 1998 Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. It has gone on to be one of the most enduring power-ballads.

Here are some lyrics for those interested:
'Every night in my dreams
I see you, I feel you
That is how I know you go on
Far across the distance
And spaces between us
You have come to show you go on
Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more, you open the door
And you're here in my heart
And my heart will go on and on'