Cccome Hear What's on my iPod! Quiz

Answer: Jimi Hendrix

"And so castles made of sand
melt
into the sea
eventually"

1967's "Axis: Bold as Love" is my favourite Hendrix album - several of the songs have the lyrical gentle quality of this one. At this point, Hendrix was writing songs that didn't really sound like anything anyone else was doing. The album was recorded in England, with the recording sessions broken up by The Experience playing the Monterey Pop Festival.

Answer: Catch the Wind

"Catch the Wind" made it to Number Four on the UK singles chart, and Number 23 on the US Billboard Hot 100. This was Donovan's first single, from the time when he was still being compared (somewhat unfavourably) to Bob Dylan. It wasn't until a few years later, with "Mellow Yellow" that Donovan's star really took off internationally.

His 1967 "A Gift from a Flower to a Garden" album will always, to me, personify psychedelia and flower power - my older brother had a copy, but I was the one who played it, incessantly.

I've got two versions of this song on my iPod - one from Donovan, and one from The Irish Descendants. (And, don't tell, but I think the Irish Descendants do a better job.)

Answer: Procul Harum

It's hard to believe what a big deal the recording of this album, "Procol Harum Live: In Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra" was to Edmonton teenagers in 1972. At that time, rock bands recording with symphonies was still quite new, and certainly had never happened in our not-very-famous Canadian prairie city before. I was fifteen at the time, and immediately bought the single - it had a fancy cardboard holder, showing the album cover, rather than the very basic paper one that most 45s came in.

It's not a bad song, either, nice trumpet work.

Answer: Uncle

"Grape wine in a Mason jar
Homemade and brought to school
By a friend of mine 'n' after class
Me and him and this other fool decide
That we'll drink up what's left
Chug-a-lug, so we helped ourself
First time for everything
Hmm, my ears still ring"

"Chug-a-Lug" is a fun tune that gets a little uncomfortable if you listen too closely to the lyrics - it seems like it might be just a bit too autobiographical for an artist who had his struggles with the bottle.

This song was part of the first session Roger Miller recorded in 1964 for Smash Records, a subsidiary of Mercury Records. It was with Smash that his career really started taking off, after years of putting out songs that didn't do too much. During this time, he was also writing songs that became hits for other artists. But now, first came "Dang Me" then "Chug-a-Lug", then "Do Wacka Do", and he was firmly established as a writer of hit novelty records.

I'm a big fan of Roger Miller, and there's quite a lot of him on my iPod.

Answer: New Orleans

"Good morning, America, how are ya?"

The way the story goes, Guthrie agreed to listen to Goodman's song pitch for the length of time it took him to drink a beer, which Goodman had to pay for. Turned out to be fruitful glass of beer - Guthrie's version of the song was his only real chart hit, in 1972. Willie Nelson took it to the top of Billboard Country chart in 1984, and got a Grammy for it, which Goodman shared posthumously.

The train - an overnight run from Chicago to New Orleans - sometimes under different names and slightly different routes, has been running for over a century.

Answer: Burl Ives

"Close the door, Richard
I just saw the Thing
My heart is running out of beats
And my ears begin to ring!
Lock every door in this place
And you'd better latch the screen
Close the door, Richard,
I just saw the Thing!"

This silly novelty song about some un-named "thing" never went anywhere commercially - it was released as the B side of "Left My Gal in the Mountains" (1953) which also left the charts untroubled - but every kid I know who has ever heard it has loved it.

Burl Ives started off as a folksinger, even travelling as an itinerant musician during the early years of the Depression. He eventually got a radio show, introducing audiences to traditional folk music. He later moved more toward country music and acting - he was Big Daddy in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", and earned his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for "The Big Country" in 1958.

His probably most remembered song now, "Holly Jolly Christmas" came from the Rankin/Bass "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" special from 1964 which still can be seen every year on TV.

Answer: Dom-dom dom-dom dom-de-doo-be dom

I have to admit, the actual English word lyrics of the 1957 doo-wop classic from the Del-Vikings don't have an awful lot more meaning than the dom-dom part.

"Well I love, love you darlin'
Come and go with me
Come home with me
Way beyond the sea"

And so on.

It's a great song though, and has the added distinction of coming from a group that was racially mixed, something very unusual indeed for that time. They were all in the US Air Force when the group began, which led to a lot of personnel changes and upsets as members were re-stationed.

Answer: Harry Belafonte

"Come Back Liza" was written by Irving Burgie (Lord Burgess) and William Attaway, who wrote most of the songs from the album. Like Belefonte, Burgie was born in the US of Caribbean parents, and spent much of his childhood in the islands, absorbing the music. "Come Back Liza" was released as a single in 1957 with "Brown Skin Girl" as the B side.

There's no way to overstate what a hit "Calypso" was - it was the first album to sell more than a million copies in one year, and it seems every household had a copy. Ours certainly did - this is possibly the first record album I learned by heart. I have all the songs from it on my iPod, straight from that original 1956 pressing.

Answer: See about me

"So won't you hurry?
Come on boy, see about me
(Come see about me)"

"Come See About Me" was part of an amazing string of number one pop hits from the Supremes in 1964/65 - between the Beatles and the Supremes, hardly anyone else had a look in at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 around then. They performed this song on their first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show", in December of 1964.

Answer: Melissa Etheridge

"Come to my Window" was on 1993's "Yes I Am", the first album Etheridge released after coming out, and her commercial breakthrough.

"I don't care what they think
I don't care what they say
What do they know
About this love anyway?"

Melissa Etheridge is a prominent LGBT activist and environmentalist. She has also been very open about her battle against breast cancer.