Blink to Me Only With Thine Eyes. Quiz

Answer: Ira

Ira Hayes was a Pima Indian and became famous as one of the six men in the iconic photograph of the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima in the South Pacific during World War II. He did not cope very well with the attention that he received when he returned home and turned to alcohol for support.

He was found lying dead in a ditch in 1955. This song recounting his life was written by Peter LaFarge. Johnny Cash would take the track to number two on the US Country Music charts.

Answer: Ivan

The melody for this track, which appears on the 1980 album "Sandinista" by The Clash, was written by the band's drummer Topper Headon. It would be his first song writing credit with the band. The lyrics, which basically reduce the Cold War to a disco dance-off between Ivan (The USSR) and G.I. Joe (The USA), were cleverly written by Joe Strummer. With tongue firmly planted in cheek he (Strummer) would provide us with a range of dance moves in this number such as the "Stalin Strike" and the "Vostok Bomb" until the audience gets bored with whole thing and decides to go "over the road, to watch China explode".

Answer: Idi

John Bird is an award winning satirist and comedian who prospered during the satire boom of the 1960s. He is probably best known for his work with fellow comedian John Fortune and his appearances on BBC's "That Was the Week That Was". Idi Amin served as the President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979 leading a regime that was known for its cruelty. John Bird wrote and recorded "Idi Amin - The Amazin' Man" and had some success with this song in 1975. It pokes fun, without subtlety, at the former Ugandan leader, placing him in the same pantheon as "Hitler, Stalin, Attilla the Nun" and indicating that the only reason they failed was because they didn't give the people something to sing.

NOTE: Please don't write to me and say I got "Attilla the Hun" wrong, that is how it is recorded in the lyric.

Answer: Isaac

"Story of Isaac", which appears on Leonard Cohen's second album "Songs From a Room", on the surface appears to be a protest song against war. Cohen advised in an interview with John McKenna on Ireland's RTE that his aim was to take the song beyond war and into the realms of people being sacrificed for a range of futile reasons; "human beings, being what they are, are always going to set up people to die for some absurd situation that we define as important".

Answer: Izzy

Allmusic's Steve Huey described Missy Elliott's debut album "Supa Dupa Fly" as a "boundary shattering postmodern masterpiece" that had a massive impact on both hip-hop and R&B. Whilst the songs such as "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" and "Sock It 2 Me" took the lion's share of the glory in single sales the critics were high with their praises for the likes of "Izzy Izzy Ahh" noting Elliott's complexity of lyrics and the need for the respect of a personal voice.

Answer: Ike

In the run for President of the United States in 1952 Dwight Eisenhower was fortunate. Fortunate though is not quite the right word, let's say that he knew how to get the right people to help him along. The "I Like Ike" campaign is one of the best election campaigns ever put together. Not only did Eisenhower have the King of Animators, Walt Disney, produce a one minute television advertisement, complete with cartoon elephant, he also had Irving Berlin, one of the greatest songwriters in American history, compose his theme song;
"I like Ike
I'll shout it over a mike
Or a phone
Or the highest steeple".

Answer: Icarus

"Icarus" appears on British indie-pop band Bastille's debut album "Bad Blood" (2013). The album would receive praise for its booming pop and storytelling and it would also spawn seven hit singles for the band. Though "Icarus" is not one of those seven it does hold some pride of place for the band. Back in 2010, when the band formed, "Icarus" was released as a limited edition single - only 300 were pressed by the independent label Young and Lost Club.

It did however, get the band noticed by the people that matter and it wasn't long before they signed a record deal with Virgin Records. Today copies of that single can sell for as much as £300.

Answer: Israel

This is the third single to be lifted from Silverchair's debut album, "Frogstomp" recorded in 1994 and, until the band's "indefinite hibernation" in 2011, it remained a regular of their live shows. The song did attract some undue attention in 1996 during the murder trial of Brian Basset and Nicholaus McDonald. Accused of killing Bassett's parents the pair cited, as part of their defence, that they were influenced by the opening lines of this song;
"Hate is what I feel for you
I want you to know that I want you dead".

Answer: Ivory

This song, written by Paul McCartney and recorded for his 1982 album "Tug of War", stayed at number one for seven weeks - yes, seven weeks - on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and yet, it has also been voted by Blender magazine as one of the ten worst songs of all time. BBC listeners, in 2007, voted McCartney's performance of the song, in tandem with Stevie Wonder, as the worst duet of all time. Go figure! McCartney reportedly conceived this song, about racial harmony, after watching a skit on television by Spike Milligan trying to play a piano (in vain) where the white keys were segregated from the black keys.

Answer: Innocent

"An Innocent Man" is the title track of Billy Joel's 1983 album, which spawned seven hit singles, three of which, "An Innocent Man" included, would reach the Top Ten of Billboard's Hot 100. This track, like every other on the album, would pay homage to a range of artists (Sam Cooke, Smokey Robinson, The Drifters) and singing styles (doo-wop, soul) that had had a profound effect on him during his development years. Joel, who admitted that he would agonise over every note on his previous recordings, felt free during these sessions and that the songs literally poured out of him.