Who Sang "I'll Be There"? Trivia Quiz

Answer:

Bobby Darin wrote 'I'll Be There' in 1960, releasing it as the B side of 'Bill Bailey'. The song was covered by a number of others, including Gerry and the Pacemakers, who released it in 1965 as the follow-up single to their biggest hit, 'Ferry 'Cross the Mersey'. Elvis's 1969 version, on the album 'Let's Be Friends', introduced a big band sound in its arrangement.

Berry Gordy, Hal Davis, Bob West, and Willie Hutch wrote 'I'll Be There' for the Jackson 5. It was the first single released from their 1970 'Third Album', featuring Michael and Jermaine on the lead vocals. Not only was this to be their fourth number one single in a row (out of four releases to that point), it was also the best-selling single released on the Motown label during what is called their Detroit era, 1959-1972. In 1972, Mariah Carey covered it on an episode of the television show 'MTV Unplugged' (and the subsequent recording of that performance) with Trey Lorenz singing Jermaine Jackson's lines while she sang Michael Jackson's.

Sometime during the 1960s Phil Ochs wrote a protest song titled 'I'll Be there', in which he offered himself as a champion for the downtrodden of the world, committing to be there with them for the revolution. It was released in 1986 on a posthumous compilation album of previously-unreleased material, 'A Toast to Those Who Are Gone'.

The song released by The Escape Club has lyrics by the band's lead singer Trevor Steel and music from guitarist John Holliday. Released in 1991 on their third and final album, 'Dollars and Sex', it was written as a tribute to the recently-deceased wife of a close friend.

'I'll Be There', written by L. Carr and A. Granderson, was the lead single from Tiffany Evans' second album, 'Perfect Imperfection', released in 2010.

The Japanese boy band Arashi released 'I'll Be There' in 2017 as their 51st single. It was subsequently used as the theme song for the television show 'Kizoku Tantei' ('The Noble Detective'). Band member Masaki Aiba starred as the titular character.

The band CHIC, now styled as Nile Rodgers and Chic, is an American disco band formed in 1972. Their song 'I'll Be There' was a tribute to the disco era. It was intended to be the lead single for the band's album 'It's About Time', but was released as a single in 2015 when the album was reconceptualised and not released until 2018.

The incorrect options were near-misses: Frank Sinatra recorded 'Anytime (I'll Be There)', the Beatles 'I'll Be Back', Bing Crosby 'I'll Be Seeing You', the Four Tops 'Reach Out (I'll Be There)', the Spinners 'I'll Be Around', and the Rembrandts 'I'll Be There for You' (the theme song of the television series 'Friends'). The song by the Four Tops was the one I was actually thinking of when I started to write the quiz, and it is still running through my head!