Collect Your Heartache Here Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tell Laura I Love Her

The songwriters, Jeff Barry and Ben Raleigh, originally wrote it about a rodeo, but RCA 'encouraged' a rewrite to make it fit into mainstream culture. To get the money for the wedding ring he so desired, Tommy entered a stock car race in which he was killed when his car caught fire. The song closes with the image of Laura, alone in a chapel, hearing his last words,
"Tell Laura I love her,
Tell Laura I need her,
Tell Laura not to cry
My love for her will never die."

In England, the song was covered by Ricky Valance and reached number one on the UK Singles Chart.

Answer: Crying

This song, written by Roy Orbison and Joe Melson, has been recorded many times. Perhaps the wonderful vocal play of the repeated "Crying over you", in which the word crying covers between five and nine notes at various points in the song, is part of what makes it an attractive vehicle for singers. "Crying" won a Grammy Hall of Fame Award (2002) and in 200 was named by 'Rolling Stone Magazine' as one of the '500 Greatest Songs of All Time'.

Answer: Only Love Can Break a Heart

This Hal David / Burt Bacharach composition doesn't have many lyrics, but they stress how sorry he is, and how she must love him or she wouldn't have felt so hurt. The details of what he did or said are left purposely vague, so all listeners can identify with a time when someone they loved had hurt them.

It was Pitney's first hit as a singer, following on from some success in songwriting, including 'He's a Rebel', the Crystals song that was in number one on the Billboard Hot 100 the week when 'Only Love Can Break a Heart' reached number two.

Answer: Roses are Red (My Love)

Bobby Vinton's first big hit spent four weeks as number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the summer of 1962. It tells the story of a boy who (for reasons that are not specified) was parted from his high school sweetheart. She writes to tell him that she has met another, and he wishes her luck. In the final verse, they have clearly met up again, because he sings

"Is that your little girl?
She looks a lot like you.
Someday some boy will write
In her book too.
(followed by the chorus)"

Florraine Darlin released an answer song, 'Long as the Rose is Red', in which she explained that it was all a terrible misunderstanding. She thought he didn't love her any more, and wrote to set him free, but had always loved him and always would. It's not her little girl, it just looks like her. So maybe they did sort it out, after all.

Answer: The End of the World

Sylvia Dee, one of the writers of 'The End of the World', is said to have drawn on her personal response to the death of her father in producing the lyrics about how hard it is to see the world seeming so unchanged when the end of a love affair has made everything totally different. Skeeter Davis's version (the first of many) was the first song to reach the top ten in four Billboard charts (Hot 100, Country Singles, Easy Listening and Rhythm and Blues), a feat it accomplished in March, 1963.

Answer: Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying

'Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying' was written by the members of the band Gerry and the Pacemakers, who gave it to a singer named Louise Cordet before then deciding to record it themselves in April of 1964. It was their fifth single in the UK, and the first one to make a mark in the American scene, where it became their first hit.

Their earlier UK singles were released as follow-ups, with some success, but this remained their signature song in the US.

Answer: I Go To Pieces

"And I, go to pieces and I wanna hide,
Go to pieces and I almost die,
Everytime my baby passes by."

Clearly, the singer has not gotten over the end of that relationship, as is also true in two of the three incorrect options, all Lennon-McCartney songs. ('Nobody I Know', however, tells of a relationship still in a state of ecstasy.) 'I Go To Pieces' was written by Del Shannon, and picked up by Peter Asher and Gordon Waller when they heard it being played for The Searchers, who turned it down, during a tour of Australia in which they were all involved.

Answer: Lemon Tree

Will Holt's song 'Lemon Tree' is based on the Brazilian folksong 'Meu limão, meu limoeiro', and found favor with the folk movement of the 1960s. Peter, Paul and Mary, The Kingston Trio, The Seekers, Chad & Jeremy and Roger Whittaker are only a few of the many who have recorded it, along with Trini Lopez.

While the song is not explicitly about a broken relationship, the father's unhappy experiences with love are certainly implied when he says, "Lemon tree very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet, but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat."

Answer: As Tears Go By

The song continues, "I sit and watch, As tears go by". No explicit reason for the state of dolor reflected in the lyrics is given in this song written by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Andrew Loog Oldham. At the time of writing, it didn't really fit with the Stones' style, so Oldham gave it to folk singer Marianne Faithfull, who had just appeared on the London music scene.

It was the first of a series of hits for her in the mid 60s.

Answer: It's My Party

'It's My Party' was the first of a string of hits for young Lesley Gore, including the sequel 'Judy's Turn to Cry', in which she triumphantly regains the love of her wandering boyfriend. (One can't help but wonder whether he's really worth it, but that's another question.) The chorus of 'It's My Party' remains a concise statement of teenage petulance, echoing through the years:
"It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to,
Cry if I want to, cry if I want to.
You would cry too, if it happened to you."