Breakfast In America: Songs About Places & Food Quiz

Answer: A waitress caricature of the Statue of Liberty

Supertramp was not your conventional rock band. Emphasis was on keyboards and saxophone. Occasional clashes between main songwriters, Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson over direction were a part of their creative process. "Breakfast in America" was recorded in Los Angeles in December 1978 and was their first album recorded in the US.

The cover features a waitress posing like the Statue of Liberty but instead of a torch in her raised right hand she has a orange juice. In the back ground is the NYC skyline made out of food packages and this is all seen from a jet airliner window. Three songs were directly about the US ("Gone Hollywood", "Breakfast in America", and "Child of Vision").

As the album cover satirised the US, many thought the music did as well.

This was not the case. This was Supertramp's biggest selling album selling six million copies in the US containing four U.S. Billboard hit singles: "The Logical Song" ; "Goodbye Stranger" ; "Take the Long Way Home" ; and "Breakfast in America". By the way, the answer option "a surreal picture of space but with a jail cell window with two hands wrapped around the bars" describes one of Supertramp's previous albums, "Crime of the Century" (1974). I will let you work out which one of the remaining options also describes a Supertramp album.

Answer: The song does not specify

This is a very simple story. There are only two verses and a chorus. Presumably Blueberry Hill had blueberries growing on it at one time but its location is never disclosed. The singer is pleased to find his thrill (his girl) on Blueberry Hill but as soon as he finds her she is gone:

"But all of those vows you made
Were never to be

Though we're apart, you're part of me still
For you were my thrill on Blueberry Hill"

The song was written by Vincent Rose, Larry Stock and Al Lewis in 1940 when six artists recorded it, with the Glenn Miller version going to number one.
Louis Armstrong recorded the song in 1949 and reached number 29 on the Billboard Top 40. A rock and roll version was recorded in 1956 by Fats Domino which reached number two on the Billboard Top 40 charts. It was his biggest hit and the song he is most remembered by. Over thirty different artists have also made recordings of this enduring song.

The photo shows the sign outside the restaurant of the same name in St Louis. Louis Armstrong played there in the fifties

Answer: Paradise

"Cheeseburger in Paradise" was a modest hit for Jimmy Buffett, reaching number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978. The lyric in the song explains a craving for a cheeseburger whilst pursuing a healthy diet:

"I like mine with lettuce and tomato
Heinz 57 and french fried potatoes
Big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer
Well good God almighty which way do I steer for my

Chorus:
Cheeseburger in paradise (paradise)"

The inspiration for the song is somewhat different. Mr Buffett and friends were on his boat somewhere between Puerto Rico and the island of Hispaniola when they got into trouble. The boat limped into a small port after having to exist for some time on a "canned-food-and-peanut-butter diet". Craving a cheeseburger, he knew there was little chance of same but a "bar sat on the end of the dock like a mirage" which miraculously served the much desired cheeseburger. If you listen carefully to the lyrics you can hear references to the boat trips.
A couple of the lyrics are Mondegreens. Mr Buffett requires his burger "medium rare with muenster," meaning muenster cheese on his burger. The line is sometimes misheard as "medium rare with mustard.". Also on some live performances, many report the lyric sung as "Cheeseburger is Paradise".

The photo depicts another "Paradise" song from the same era, Meat Loaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" (1977).

Answer: In a bag on a lightning trip to Vienna

This was not a ballad. It was far too uptempo for that. However it was written and recorded in a single day by Mr Lennon and Mr McCartney in April 1969. The song chronicles Mr Lennon's marriage to Yoko Ono the previous month. The other two Beatles were on vacation so the two songwriters played all the instruments. While all the other locations were mentioned in the song the required lines were:
"Made a lightning trip to Vienna
Eating chocolate cake in a bag
The newspapers said
She's gone to his head
They look just like two gurus in drag"

The single became the Beatles' 17th and final British number one and it reached number eight on the US Billboard Hot 100.

One of the saddest notes concerning this song was this was the last true Lennon/McCartney collaboration. Both had been writing separately for over two years at this point.

Answer: Northern Mississippi near Memphis in south-western Tennessee

"Tupelo Honey" is both a song and album recorded in 1971 by Van Morrison. Tupelo Honey is not honey made in Tupelo Mississippi but honey made from the nectar of Tupelo trees found in the USA Southeast. The town where Elvis Presley was born, is also named after the tree. Ironically the centre of the Tupelo honey trade is in Florida not Mississippi. This has no relevance to the song, where the honey is really a metaphor for sweetness of the singer's girl. Tupelo Honey is particularly sweet, hence:
"She's as sweet as Tupelo honey
Just like honey from the bee."
The song reached number 47 on the US Pop Singles Chart and the album reached number 27 on the Billboard 200.

Answer: Kelsey Grammer

Ken Levine, the composer of the theme for "Wings", "Frasier's" studio stablemate, was given a brief to compose the theme for "Frasier":
"I was told they wanted something pretty eclectic and jazzy, but to avoid any direct references to specific subject matter. So it was necessary to stay away from words about psychiatry, radio shows, the name "Frasier", and anything else directly indicating aspects of the show."

To work around the no-direct reference approach, lyrics like "Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs" were used as metaphors for mixed up patients; "I hear the blues a-callin" is a reference to patients with mental health issues calling the radio program. As a jazz theme was required, Mr Levine wanted jazz great Mel Torme to sing the theme but the show's producers insisted Kelsey Grammer be trialled which obviously worked.

The song was never released as a single or as part of a Grammer album.

Answer: No

"Breakfast at Tiffany's" was a 1995 hit for one-hit wonders Deep Blue Something. The music video was set outside Tiffany's in Midtown Manhattan replete with Audrey Hepburn walking past the group having breakfast at a table set up outside Tiffany's. However the song is about a boy desperately trying to avoid breaking up with his girlfriend. To that end, he said they both liked the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and that was enough to stay together.

The song made it to number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and number three in Australia.

The group had a notable line-up in that the lead singer was the bass player for the band.

Answer: A few drinks later

The song is a drunken lament over a failed romance. The protagonist's friends are telling him, it is the girl's fault but over the course of three verses, the man realises "It's nobody's fault," which becomes "Hell, it could be my fault," and finally "It's my own damn fault."

Mr Buffett started writing this song when he was touring Texas in 1977. He finished it in Key West, watching all the tourists while he was drinking Margaritas in a Mexican restaurant. "Margaritaville" reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1977. It was his biggest hit.

"Margaritaville" came to represent a laid back Caribbean lifestyle. Mr Buffett capitalised by forming a chain of restaurants and supplying other merchandise associated with the song.

Answer: Yes

If ever there was a record to separate out the writing styles of Mr Lennon and Mr McCartney, then this was the one. Both songs are about childhoods in Liverpool.

"Strawberry Fields Forever" is Mr Lennon's introspective look at his childhood and the lyrics reflect the self-doubt and the insecurity he experienced. The image of verdant green fields full of berries is dismissed when you learn that Strawberry Field (no "s") is the Salvation Army home close to Aunt Mimi's house that Mr Lennon used to enjoy going to, especially on fete days.

By contrast "Penny Lane" is about Mr McCartney's childhood near southeast Liverpool, where Penny Lane, Allerton Road, Church Road and Heathfield Road all meet. This was a drab area of Liverpool but was given a brighter outlook with Mr McCartney's uptempo beat and positive lyrics: There was a bus stop called Penny Lane. There was a barber shop called Bioletti's, and a bank, (but the banker is imagined) and a fire station down the road that was bought into the frame ("It was a clean machine"). To add further to the idea that this was childhood being discussed, humour of their teenage era was added. "Four of fish and finger pie." refers in the first part to a chip shop order but the latter part had a more dubious meaning.

This double A sided single was the first Beatles single since "Love Me Do" to not reach number one on the British charts.

Answer: Chinese, Soho

"Werewolves of London" was a 1978 classic from Warren Zevon's "Excitable Boy" album (1978). As well as having Jackson Browne as producer, it also featured John McVie and Mick Fleetwood covering the rhythm section. The lyrics allude to a well dressed werewolf ("a hairy-handed gent who ran amok in Kent."; "I'd like to meet his tailor"; and "His hair was perfect"). All places listed as options appear in the lyrics but only one restaurant is mentioned, a Chinese one called Lee Ho Fooks which actually existed (15 Gerrard St, Soho, London) but you couldn't get a big dish of Beef Chow Mein there. Sadly this was Mr Zevon's only US hit.

A great songwriter, he deserved better chart success. RIP Mr Zevon.