Songs That Mention Other Artists Trivia Game | Music

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. "Radar Love" (Golden Earring) - What song artist and song are mentioned as playing on the singer's radio?

Answer: Brenda Lee - "Coming On Strong"

Verse 2:

"The radio's playing some forgotten song
Brenda Lee's 'Coming On Strong'
The road has got me hypnotized
And I'm a-speedin' into a new sunrise"

The song is written from the point of view of a man who has some sort of psychic connection with his lover - "radar love". He senses that she urgently wants him to be with her, and in his haste he drives recklessly, causing a fatal accident, but even in the afterlife the song's narrator and his lover still have radar love.

2. "We Didn't Start The Fire" (Billy Joel) - What four singing artists are mentioned in this historical rundown of Joel's life?

Answer: Doris Day, Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan, and Chubby Checker

U2 was mentioned in the lyrics, but it was referring to the US spy plane, not the Irish rock group.

3. "Walking in Memphis" (Marc Cohn) - Whose ghost does the singer see while walking around Memphis, TN?

Answer: Elvis Presley

Verse 2:

"Saw the ghost of Elvis
On Union Avenue
Followed him up to the gates of Graceland
Then I watched him walk right through
Now security they did not see him
They just hovered 'round his tomb
But there's a pretty little thing
Waiting for the King"
"Down in the Jungle Room"

The song's lyrics are autobiographical, chronicling a 1985 trip that Cohn, then a struggling songwriter and singer, took to Memphis to overcome a bout of writer's block.

4. "Smoke on the Water" (Deep Purple) - What music group were "at the best place around", where Deep Purple were going to record?

Answer: Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention

The title of the song refers to the smoke from the fire spreading over Lake Geneva from the burning casino as the members of Deep Purple watched from their hotel. Roger Glover said that, "It was probably the biggest fire I'd ever seen up to that point and probably ever seen in my life.

It was a huge building. I remember there was very little panic getting out, because it didn't seem like much of a fire at first. But, when it caught, it went up like a fireworks display."

5. "Sweet Home Alabama" (Lynyrd Skynyrd) - What other artist is mentioned in the lyrics, who seems to be casting aspersions about the South?

Answer: Neil Young

Verse 2:

"Well, I heard Mr. Young sing about her
Well, I heard old Neil put her down
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A Southern man don't need him around, anyhow"

These lyrics are in response to Neil Young's two songs "Southern Man" and "Alabama". Later in his autobiography, Young wrote, "My own song 'Alabama' richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record. I don't like my words when I listen to it. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy to misconstrue."

6. "1985" (Bowling for Soup) - Which of the following music acts were *NOT* mentioned in the chorus of this song?

Answer: David Bowie

Chorus:

"Since Bruce Springsteen, Madonna
Way before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
And music still on MTV
Her two kids in high school
They tell her that she's uncool
'Cause she's still preoccupied"With 19, 19
1985"

The song is about a middle-aged woman who is stuck in the 1980s due to being in denial that her life is zooming by so fast and the fact that she never got to live out her ideal life before settling down and starting a family.

7. "Thunder Road" (Bruce Springsteen) - What singer does Springsteen reference in the first verse of this song?

Answer: Roy Orbison

Verse 1:

"The screen door slams, Mary's dress sways
Like a vision, she dances across the porch as the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey, that's me, and I want you only
Don't turn me home again
I just can't face myself alone again"

In his autobiography, Springsteen says he loosely envisioned "Born to Run" as a series of vignettes, following its character throughout the day, with "Thunder Road" serving as an "invitation" to the album and opening with a harmonica that suggests the beginning of a new day.

8. "You Better You Bet" (The Who) - What psychedelic folk band does this song reference?

Answer: T. Rex

Verse 2:

"I love to hear you say my name
Especially when you say yes
I got your body right now on my mind
But I drunk myself blind to the sound of old T-Rex"

"You Better You Bet" was written by Pete Townshend as a love song for his girlfriend at the time. Townshend also commented: "'You Better You Bet' was a very spontaneous lyric. A fairly spontaneous, peppy song; it's a pop song, really, it's just a pop song."

9. "Heavy Metal Drummer" (Wilco) - What band's songs does this singer say he covers while stoned?

Answer: Kiss

Chorus:

"I miss the innocence I've known
Playing KISS covers, beautiful and stoned"

The lyrics describe a nostalgic reminiscence of "those heavy metal bands" Tweedy used to go see "on the landing in the summer", and the loss of "the innocence he'd known".

10. "Take Me Home Tonight" (Eddie Money) - Who does the singer reference (and actually sings) in this song?

Answer: Ronnie Spector

Chorus:

"Take me home tonight
I don't want to let you go 'til you see the light
Take me home tonight
Listen, honey, just like Ronnie sang
'Be my little baby, oh, ho, oh'"

Ronnie Spector sang this in the Ronettes song "Be My Baby", just with a different melody.

Source: Author TonyTheDad

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor agony before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Songs That Mention Other Artists Quiz

Many songs reference other music artists and/or their songs. Either the song is about the other artist or just references their song or its themes. Here are questions about ten such songs.

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