Bob Bobbing For A Song Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bob Dylan

I suppose, though, that could be Bob and Bobby. The singer born Robert Allen Zimmerman made it a long journey from Minnesota to become one of the most highly regarded songwriters of his generation, and to earn a Nobel Prize.

From early days in the coffee houses of Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, Dylan took his songs onto the world stage - or had them carried there by others. Several of his songs were taken to high reaches in the charts, but he had to wait some 50 years before he got a number one with his own singing.

Although Dylan is estimated to have sold more than 40 million albums, it is difficult to summarise his achievements in a few sentences. Just as he had been influenced by others, he was to influence a new generation.

Answer: Bob Seger

Bob Seger came from a musical background, his father was a band leader who had to work in the motor factories to support his family. Music was an escape for Seger and by the time he was in the 11th Grade, he had his own band and was well known in the Detroit area.

His breakout hit was "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man," a Hot 100 number 17 in 1969. "Night Moves", the song from which the lyrics were taken, was a number four in 1976, but he had to wait until 1987 when "Shakedown" gave him his first chart topper after it was on the soundtrack of "Beverly Hills Cop II".

Through his career, Seger developed a reputation as a solid rocker which a passionate fan base.

Answer: Bobby McFerrin

"Don't Worry, Be Happy" was one of select list of a cappella songs that topped the Hot 100. McFerrin borrowed the phrase when he saw it being used by an Indian guru in a magazine interview.

A native of New York City, McFerrin was noted as a jazz singer who spent years developing his own style before his eponymous first album was released in 1982. He was aged 32 at the time. He won 10 Grammy Awards between 1985 and 1992.

Answer: Bob Geldof

Bob Geldof was the front man and songwriter of the Dublin band "The Boomtown Rats". The Rats rode the crest of a post punk wave in the UK. "Rat Trap" was their debut hit in 1978.

The following year Geldof wrote "I Don't Like Mondays" based on the story of an American teenager who shot and killed two adults at her school and injured nine students. Before she gave herself up to police, she spoke on the telephone to a news reporter, When asked why she had done it, she said: "I just did it for the fun of it. I just don't like Mondays." The song was a number one in 32 countries, but flopped in the USA.

Geldof went on to become one of the main organisers (with Midge Ure) of the Band Aid and Live Aid concerts.

Answer: Bobby Vinton

Stanley Robert Vinton Jr. was born in Pennsylvania in April 1935 and came from Polish extraction. By the age of 16 he was playing with his own band and was signed to Epic Records after army service in 1960.

Although sales of his early records were poor, he struck he big time with "Roses Are Red" - a tune that composer Paul Evans claimed to have written in three minutes from a lyric by Al Byron.

Not everyone appreciated the song and it sat in a 'reject' pile at Epic until Vinton discovered it - just at the point the record label were about to drop him. The song went to the top of the Hot 100. Just to show that record companies do not always know what is best, Vinton fought Epic for two years to get them to agree to release his own co-composition, "Mr Lonely", and it was also a chart topper.

"Blue Velvet" and "There! I've Said It Again" were also to be number ones, among 43 songs that charted. It has been estimated he sold more than 75 million records.

Vinton hit the big time just as 'Beatlemania' came along, and he proved there was a place for thr solo singer of well-crafted love songs. Billboard Magazine described him as "the all-time most successful love singer of the 'Rock-Era'".

Answer: Bobby Bare

In 1976 Paul Craft wrote a song that cast Jesus as an American footballer. Not everyone liked the analogy: Craft later wrote on his website that his mother was one of those naysayers.

Bobby Bare, meanwhile, was a farm boy who dreamt of a music career. He built his own guitar and made his way to Los Angeles in the early 1950s. In 1959, his talkie song "The All American Boy" was America's second biggest seller of the year and hit number three on the Hot 100.

After returning from his army Draft, Bare was soon keeping company with the likes of Willie Nelson, Bobby Darin, and Roy Orbison. Songs he wrote were covered by Chubby Checker. Bare walked a line between country and pop, and often crossed it.

"Detroit City", "500 Miles Away from Home", "Streets of Baltimore" and "How I Got to Memphis" were all country top 10 hits, while his cover of "Marie Laveau" was his sole chart topper.

Answer: Bob Gibson

This was staple of performances by Bob Gibson as a solo artists and in partnership with Bob (Hamilton) Camp.

Bob Gibson's life story was filled with what might have-beens. Folk music aficionados have written of the 'holy trinity': Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, and Bob Gibson. If it were not for Seeger, Gibson would not have been a musician at all. He was destined for a career as a salesman until he heard Seeger sing in 1953.

Within a few years Gibson was leading the folk music revival out of Chicago. In those early early he worked with Bob Camp, who was to adopt the name Hamilton Camp for his acting a career. "You Can Tell The "World" and "Joy, Joy were among the song Gibson wrote or co-wrote. He also provided "Abilene" for George Hamilton IV to take to the top of the country charts.

For a folksinger, Gibson lived a rock and roll lifestyle. His addiction to various narcotics stalled his career and earned him a prison term in Canada. Typically, Gibson found a light side, penning a narrative that his friend Tom Paxton knocked into shape as the song "A Box Of Candy And A Piece of Fruit".

By the time Gibson got straight, the folk music boom was over. He enjoyed a renaissance as co-writer and producer and performed with Paxton and Anne Hills in the trio Best of Friends. He also extensively covered songs by Shel Silverstein.

In 1993 Gibson was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and died in 1996 at the age of 68.

Answer: Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan's place in music lore is well established, so no rehashing of his life story here.

Instead, a few lesser-known facts: he once played piano for Bobby Vee; pseudonyms he has used include Tedham Porterhous, Blind Boy Grunt, and Robert Milkwood; his family owned a cinema, so as a young kid he could watch movies for free; his first professional recording was playing harmonica for Harry Belafonte on the 1962 album, "Midnight Special".

Would you like some more?: At University of Minnesota he pledged Sigma Alpha Mu; he enjoyed playing chess while singing at night on Greenwich Village, but annoyed opponents by talking his way through games; John H. Hammond signed Dylan to Columbia Records despite a vice-president calling his singing voice "the most horrible thing he'd ever heard in his life." [Fun facts courtesy cbc.ca]

Answer: Bob Marley

The original buffalo soldiers were a troop of the US Cavalry. Many had been slaves.

In 2005, "Rolling Stone" magazine profiled Bob Marley under the headline "The Life and Times of Bob Marley". They used a sub heading "How he changed the world", and this probably reflects the importance of Marley to music.

He was born of mixed race in Jamaica in 1945, although he father disavowed his mother before the birth. He grew up in Kingston and ran with the gangs there. By the 1960s, Kingston was a new melting pot for many differing musical genres and Marley wanted to be a part of it. His first song was written and released in 1963. Many of his early songs reflected the gangs from which he had come and urged them to move away from violence. From all of this his band "The Wailers" emerged. They rode the crest of the new reggae music, without finding much success.

The breakthrough came in 1974 when he recoded "No Woman No Cry" in London. More great songs followed including "Three Little Bird" (aka "Don't Worry Bout A Thing" in 1977; "One Love" (1977) and "Buffalo Soldiers" (1983). His 1973 song "I Shot The Sheriff" barely charted, but was to give Eric Clapton a number one.

Marley died in Florida, USA, in 1981. He had been diagnosed with cancer but his Rastafarian faith led him to refusing radical surgery that included amputating a toe. Less invasive treatment failed to stop the spread of the disease.

Answer: Bobby Vee

The song was written by Marilynn Garrett, Ben Weisman, and Dotty Wayne. The first release was by Bobby Vee with The Johnny Mann Singers in November 1962. It went on to be covered by many other singers.

Vee took the song to number three on the Billboard Hot 100, as a follow up to "Take Good Care Of My Baby", which was to be his sole number one.

Bobby Vee sprang into the limelight in unfortunate circumstances. After the 1959 plane crash that killed Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, among others, Vee was called upon to perform at the concert at the Moorhead National Guard Armory they had been on their way to play. He was aged just 15.

In a 1999 interview with Associated Press, Vee said: "I didn't have any fear right then. The fear didn't hit me until the spotlight came on, and then I was just shattered by it. I didn't think that I'd be able to sing. If I opened my mouth, I wasn't sure anything would come out."

Vee's career took off and he went onto record 38 top 100 hits between 1959 and 1970. Although the hits dried up, Vee continued performing until his retirement after Alzheimer's Disease was diagnosed in 2011. He died in 2016 at the age of 73.

On his last album, "The Adobe Sessions" in 2014, Vee covered Bob Dylan's "The Man in Me". Fifty-five years earlier, Dylan had played piano in Vee's first band, The Shadows.