Chattanooga Choo Choo and Other Trains Quiz

Answer: Track 29

Tex Beneke and the Glenn Miller Orchestra first recorded "Chattanooga Choo Choo" and introduced it in the film "Sun Valley Serenade". It was the first song to receive a gold record with sales of 1.1 million.

"Pardon me, boy
Is that the Chattanooga choo choo?
Yes yes track twenty-nine
Boy, you can gimme a shine
Can you afford
To board the Chattanooga choo choo
I've got my fare
And just a trifle to spare"

Answer: Mickey Newbury

Willie Nelson is referenced by "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain'; Hank Williams by 'pain songs', and Mickey Newbury by 'train songs'. He was both a country artist and a prolific song writer and wrote songs for Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Bill Monroe, Hank Snow, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tammy Wynette, Ronnie Milsap, Brenda Lee, Charlie Rich, Lynn Anderson, Joan Baez, John Denver, Kenny Rogers, B.B. King, and Linda Ronstadt to name only a few.

'Trains' pop up many times in his over 1500 songs. Newbury suffered from life long depression that radiated in his music. He died in 2002 of OAPD in Springfield, Oregon in 2002 at 62.

"Let's go to Luckenbach, Texas
With Waylon and Willie and the boys
This successful life we're livin'
Got us feuding like the Hatfields and McCoys
Between Hank Williams' pain songs and
Newberry's train songs and Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain
Out in Luckenbach, Texas ain't nobody feelin' no pain"

Answer: Clarksville

The Monkees was a musical group and the name of a television program that ran from 1966-68. It was trying to take advantage of the Beatlemania of the time. Although the Beatles were active, they did not chose to have a weekly television show and The Monkees filled that gap. Not only did the The Monkees introduce their songs on the program, it was a sitcom as well with a heavy dose of slapstick. Their most remembered hit was "Last Train to Clarksville" that they played seven times and was number one in music charts in the United States. There are two Clarksvilles located near military bases; it tells the story of a soldier having to leave his love.

"Take the last train to Clarksville
And I'll meet you at the station
You can be there by four-thirty
'Cause I've made your reservation, don't be slow
Oh, no, no, no
Oh, no, no, no"

Answer: Could

There were versions of "The Little Engine That Could" as early as 1906. The books were intended for children to teach them the value of optimism and hard work. In 1930 the first illustrated children's book was published, followed through the years with new editions, songs, and movies. In 2007 it was selected as one of the most influential of children's books.

Here is a line from one of the editions: "As it neared the top of the grade, which had so discouraged the larger engines, it went more slowly. However, it still kept saying, "I-think-I-can, I-think-I-can." It reached the top by drawing on bravery and then went on down the grade, congratulating itself by saying, "I thought I could, I thought I could."

Answer: Paris and Constantinople (Istanbul)

Hercule Poirot finds himself snowbound on the Orient Express while returning from the Middle East and with a murder to solve. This Christie novel was first published in 1934 and has had numerous dramatizations. Notable among these are Albert Finney as Poirot in 1974, Kenneth Branagh in 2017, and David Suchet, in 2010 as part of a television series.

Incidentally, the original title was "Murder in the Calais Coach" to differentiate it from other novels that used Orient Express in the title.

Answer: Johnny Cash

Although Cash first recorded it in 1955, it did not become an international hit until 1968. It was released as a single and part of a live album recorded at Folsom Prison. It became one of Cash's signature songs.

Answer: Petticoat Junction

Smiley Burnette's show business success was closely tied to Gene Autry from their radio days in Chicago to Hollywood. Burnette could play almost any instrument by ear, and sing as well. In 1940 Boxoffice rated him as the second most popular western star, just behind Autry.

His reoccurring role as Charley Platt was in 104 episodes of "Petticoat Junction". He died at 58 after the fourth season and was not replaced in the fifth and final season.

Answer: The Cotton Club

Although it was located in Harlem, the Cotton Club was a 'whites only' establishment. However, with few exceptions, it attracted the cream of black entertainers. Among the stars were, of course, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Fats Waller, Ethel Waters, Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith, the Dandridge Sisters, The Mills Brothers, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, and Bill Robinson.

Among the celebrity white patrons were Jimmy Durante, George Gershwin, Sophie Tucker, Al Jolson, Mae West, Richard Rodgers, Irving Berlin, Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Moss Hart, and Jimmy Walker.

The Cotton Club was a mass of black stereotypes. Black people were pictured as savages in exotic jungles or as "darkies" in the plantation South. The black poet Langston Hughes commented in part "a Jim Crow club for gangsters and monied whites". In addition to the "jungle music" and plantation-themed interior, Hughes believed that "authentic black entertainment" was similar to the entertainment provided at a zoo and that white "strangers were given the best ringside tables to sit and stare at the Negroes - like amusing animals in a zoo."

Answer: Robert Walker and Farley Granger

Robert Hudson Walker is remembered for his starring role in "Strangers on a Train"
He started in youthful boy-next-door roles and married one of his co-stars Jennifer Jones. After their divorce, he fell into alcoholism and mental illness and died at 33.

Farley Granger had a long career as an actor and occasional singer in film and stage. He also had a long list of affairs with both men and women.

Walker plays the psychopath who has to pressure Granger to complete the bargain.

Answer: Gladys Knight and the Pips

The background of this song is interesting. Jim Weatherly was a quarterback at the University of Mississippi but his NFL career was unsuccessful. He turned to song writing and with encouragement from Farrah Fawcett and her husband he wrote a song called "Midnight Plane to Houston".

It was eventually offered to Gladys Knight but the name was changed to "Midnight Train to Georgia" and the rest is showbiz history.