Eating To The Beat Trivia Quiz

Answer: Weird Al Yankovic

"Don't you tell me you're full
Just eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it
Get yourself an egg and beat it
Have some more chicken, have some more pie
It doesn't matter if it's boiled or fried
Just eat it, eat it, just eat it, eat it
Just eat it, eat it, just eat it, eat it, ooh."

This was Weird Al's 1984 parody of Michael Jackson's smash hit "Beat It". It topped the Australian pop charts (go figure) and was a Number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Answer: Don McLean

"Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey 'n rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die."

This was a Number One hit for Don McLean in the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972. Madonna released a cover in 2000 that topped the charts in 10 countries.
Often claimed to be about the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson in a plane crash in 1959, McLean declined to analyse the lyrics.

Answer: Rev Gary Davis

"Candy man, been here and gone
Candy man, been here and gone
Candy man, salty dog
If you can't be my Candy man you can't be my salty dog..."

Rev Gary Davis, also known as Blind Gary Davis, was one of the most revered blues singers of his generation - he was active from the 1930s to the 1970s. The "candy" of course, referred to drugs. Davis was a superb exponent of finger-picking guitar music. He influenced many other great guitarists, including David Bromberg, Stefan Grossman and Dave Van Ronk.

Answer: Rudy Vallée

"Life is just a bowl of cherries
Don't take it serious, it's too mysterious
You work, you save, you worry so
But you can't take your dough when you go, go, go."

Dating from 1931, this was a US Number Three hit for Rudy Vallée & His Connecticut Yankees Doris Day, Judy Garland and Dean Martin also covered it in later years.

Answer: Sarah McLachlan

"Your love is better than ice cream
better than anything else that I've tried
and your love is better than ice cream
Everyone here knows how to fight."

This was a Number 20 hit for Sarah McLachlan in her native Canada in 1999. She had eight top 10 hits in Canada between 1988 and 2014 and two in the USA. "Building A Mystery" was a 1997 Canadian chart topper.

Answer: Booker T and the MG's

"Green Onions" was an instrumental track recorded in 1962 by Booker T and the MG's. It reached Number Three in the Billboard Hot 100 and Number One in the Billboard Hot R&B charts. In 1999, the song was given a Grammy Hall of Fame award.

Answer: Rolling Stones

In 1971, "Brown Sugar" topped the Billboard Hot 100, and also the Canadian RPM charts, and was a UK Number Two.
It is claimed that Mick Jagger wrote the song about a girlfriend of the time. The lyrics have proved to be somewhat controversial and given over to a number of interpretations - which is why I am not going to quote them: just check out the song and make up your own minds.

Answer: The Archies

"Sugar, honey, honey
You are my candy girl
And you got me wanting you
Honey, sugar, sugar
You are my candy girl
And you got me wanting you."

The Archies were a group of teenage pop stars from the cartoon series "The Archies Show" It was broadcast in 17 episodes between September 1968 and August 1969. "Sugar, Sugar" topped the charts in nine countries in 1969, including the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles charts.
Many songs about "honey", "sugar" and "candy" have undertones of drugs use. I can confirm that "Sugar, Sugar" has no such connotations.

Answer: Millie Small

"My boy Lollipop
You make my heart go giddyup
You are as sweet as candy
You're my sugar dandy."

This song underwent a sex change - it was originally "My Girl Lollypop" and was recorded by The Cadillacs in the 1950s. In 1964, Jamaican singer Millie Small covered it - note the change in spelling of lollipop - and took it to Number Two in the UK Singles Chart and in the US Billboard Hot 100. It was a chart-topper in Australia.

Answer: Bob Gibson

"No Christmas gift I've ever come by,
Whether trains or homemade socks,
Has haunted me like one sweet orange
And some candy in a box..."

This was Bob Gibson's tale of how he approached a lonely Christmas in a Canadian prison cell after being arrested because the Mounties "were mad about my smokin'. And some other stuff I took."
What kept him going was the prospect of a Christmas gift of a box of candy and an orange from the Salvation Army. Gibson wrote out his feelings and his good friend Tom Paxton tidied them into lyrics.