Boys Names in Song Titles Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jeremy

"Jeremy Spoke in Class Today" was released in 1992 from Pearl Jam's album "Ten." It was written by Eddie Vedder, the band's vocalist, with music by the bassist Jeff Ament.

Vedder mainly based it on a newspaper article he read in January 1991 about a boy named Jeremy Delle from Texas who shot himself in front of his English class.

The article was just a small paragraph and Vedder was trying to illustrate the point that you can make this huge sacrifice and think it's going to mean something or that the people that led you to it will feel guilty but the fact is that it was literally just a paragraph.

You are dead and gone but they're still alive and nothing in the world changes. The best revenge is to live, make something of your life and be stronger than all of them.

Answer: Billy

"Billy, Don't Be a Hero" was written by two British songwriters Mitch Murray and Peter Callander and was a hit number one song for UK band Paper Lace. They released it in March 1974 and three months later it was covered in America by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods which also reached number one on their charts.

The war itself is never identified in the song; many people believed it was related to the Vietnam War because of its timing but the lyrics seem to suggest a much earlier time frame if studied.

The song talks of 'soldier blues' which is not the uniform worn in the 1960s; this could refer to the US Civil War when the Union Army wore blues but there are also wars in the history of Britain with soldiers in blue.

The crux of him being a hero is when he volunteers to 'ride out' and get some extra men. In the more modern era this would have been done with some form of radio device. His fiancée also only hears of his death via a letter not a telegram or phone call.

The anti-romanticism sentiment remains the same whatever war it was, real people die and real people's lives are affected.

Answer: Jack

Written in 1971 "Captain Jack" is from Billy's 1973 album "Piano Man". According to his interviews he wrote the song while looking out of his window in Long Island trying to find some inspiration.

A housing project was located across the street with a drug dealer known as Captain Jack and he was watching all the varieties of people that came and went from him and other dealers.

The song is an anti-drug song and Joel mostly describes his frustrations with the spoiled, lazy college students whose parents are paying their way for a good education but all they care about is partying and getting high and are willing to travel out to a housing project in the suburbs to buy their supplies.

He describes the gradual onset of lethargy and how apathetic their lives become as the drugs take over their lives.

Answer: Daniel

"Daniel" was written by Elton's songwriter partner Bernie Taupin and was first released on the 1973 album "Don't Shoot the Piano Player."

Taupin gained inspiration for the song from an article he read about soldiers returning from Vietnam. It referred particularly to those from country towns where everybody knew them and they weren't allowed to just return to who they were.

Depending on where they lived they were either treated with adulation or animosity, they were embarrassed by the first and traumatised by the second. Either way a lot of them had issues with what we know now is PTSD and were unable to assimilate.

Taupin decided to tell the story from the viewpoint of a younger brother watching his veteran brother leave the country for Spain. There was a last verse that supposedly explained the meaning of the song but Taupin has stated that the verse that Elton cut because he thought the song was too long didn't really clarify anything and it has become a bit of an urban legend.

Answer: Fernando

"Fernando" was originally written by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA fame as a song for band member Anni-Frid Lyngstad in 1975 which she recorded on her solo album "Frida ensam".

The group rerecorded it the following year and it became a huge hit topping the charts in 13 countries. It was Australia's highest selling single for 21 years and, until 2017, it was the longest running number one song in the country which was for over 40 years.

The song was rereleased in 2018 by Cher after she sang it in "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again" the movie sequel to the jukebox musical "Mamma Mia" which features songs from ABBA. Cher has since released an ABBA tribute album called "Dancing Queen."

Answer: Kenneth

R.E.M wrote and recorded the song for their ninth studio album "Monster". It refers to the mugging of Dan Rather, a CBS news anchor.

The incident happened in October 1986 when Rather was walking along Park Avenue in New York. He was attacked by two men, the first kept asking "Kenneth, what is the frequency?" as he hit and kicked him. No-one had any idea of what he meant but the term 'What's the frequency Kenneth?' became a reference in pop culture.

In 1994 one of the "Today" show stagehands was murdered outside of the studio and three years later they identified a man named William Tager as the culprit. He was later identified as the same man who had attacked Rather.

Tager claimed he thought the frequency the NBC studios used was sending signals into his brain and was trying to enter the studio to block the signal. He received a 12.5 to 25 year prison sentence and was paroled in 2010.

Answer: Vincent

Don McLean wrote "Vincent" in 1971 and released it on his "American Pie" album later that year. It is often referred to as "Starry, Starry Night" after the name of the Van Gogh painting that is referred to in the song.

McLean recalls that he was sitting on a verandah reading a biography of Van Gogh and realised that he did not actually cut his ear off because he was rejected by a woman as is commonly thought but because of a psychiatric disorder that he and his brother shared.

He did have a breakdown over a love affair but that was at 20. He was in his 30s when his serious troubles began, 35 when he famously cut his ear off leading up to his suicide at 37.

Many psychiatrists have since tried to pinpoint what his disorder was likely to be. He is known to have had long periods of depression, self-harm and psychotic episodes but these are symptoms not a diagnosis. The most likely seem to suggest either Bipolar Affective Disorder or Borderline Personality Disorder.

Van Gogh painted "Starry Night" after he had committed himself to an asylum. He wasn't able to go outside at night so he wasn't able to see the stars as he wanted so he painted a picture of them from memory.

McLean wrote the original lyrics right there on the back of a paper bag, the later original handwritten lyrics that were written over 14 pages in pencil sold for US$1.5 million dollars in 2020.

Answer: Jessie

Australia Rick Springfield had been writing and performing music for ten years before he hit it big in 1981 with "Jessie's Girl" which was released on his "Working Class Dog" album. It was the perfect song for the perfect time - Springfield had just started acting in "General Hospital" as Dr Noah Drake and his acting and singing careers both took off.

Springfield relates the story behind the song to a man called Gary he met while doing a stained glass class and to Gary's girlfriend, whose name he can't remember. He was interested in her, the feeling was not mutual and he never saw them again.

Oprah's staff actually tried to track the girl down and they managed to find the man who taught the stained glass class but he had died two years prior. His papers had been kept for another year before getting rid of them, so they were just a year too late.

Answer: Oliver

Elvis Costello wrote "Oliver's Army" in 1978 and it appeared on the studio album "Armed Forces" by Costello and the Attractions the year after.

Costello's family were from Belfast and he made his first trip there in 1978 during the height of The Troubles. He was shocked to see young British soldiers in full battle gear patrolling the streets with automatic rifles.

In the plane on the way home he got to thinking about the young working class boys, not just in Northern Ireland but in Imperial armies around the world, who are sent to die in pointless wars. Unemployment was rife in England at the time and the army was often the only option for paid work.

Costello wrote the song on the plane. The title is a reference to Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England who established what was called The New Model Army while fighting the Royalists in the Civil War and personally led the Parliamentarian forces which conquered Ireland.

The rest of the song has nothing to do with him, it is a generalised anti-military statement. It refers to the ongoing battles in Hong Kong, South Africa and Palestine.

Answer: Ben

"Ben" is a song written by Don Black and Walter Scharf for the 1972 movie of the same name."Ben" is a sequel to the 1971 film "Willard" where the villain had trained rats to follow his orders.

Ben is one of these rats that turn against him in the end. In the sequel a young boy befriends Ben but the rat turns evil and recruits others to help him kill humans.

The song was originally written for Donny Osmond but he was unavailable so it was offered to 14 year old Jackson. The 1972 recording became his first number one single as a solo artist and the song won a Golden Globe award the same year.

The song was released and marketed independently from the movie so most people just associate it as a beautiful song about friendship and never know it is about a rat.