Eggheads Music by the Decades (Part 2) Quiz

Answer: Al Jolson

"The Singing Fool" tells the story of Al Stone (Jolson) who finally makes it to the top of his career during the speakeasy era in the United States. After his wife leaves him, however, and takes his much loved son, Sonny Boy, with her, he hits skid row. Rescued by friends, he makes it to the top again, only to learn that Sonny Boy is dying in hospital. "Sonny Boy" was immensely popular with the public of the time, staying at the top of the charts for twelve weeks. Jolson poured all the heartache possible into its rendition, and even hearing it today, can tug at the heartstrings...just a little. Some of its lyrics follow - with appropriate directions. You need to sing it with a sob in your voice.

"Climb up on my knee, Sonny Boy
Though you're only three, Sonny Boy
You've no way of knowing
There's no way of showing
What you mean to me, Sonnnnnnnnnny Boy

When there are grey skies,
I don't mind the grey skies.
You make them blue, Sonny Boy.
Friends may forsake me.
Let them all forsake me.
I still have you, Sonny Boy....

You're sent from heaven
And I know your worth.
You've made a heaven
For me here on earthhhhhhhh

And the angels grew lonely (quaver in voice)
Took you because they were lonely (sob in voice, build up to crescendo)
I'm lonely toooooooooooooooooo, Sonnnnnnnnnnny Boy"

(Question and additional information supplied by Creedy.)

Answer: Minnie the Moocher

Cab Calloway became known as the "Hi De Hi De Hi Man" based on his scatting in the song. "Minnie the Moocher" tells a tale of Minnie, who danced the hootchie coochie. She met a "kokie" (cocaine user) named Smokey who took her to Chinatown and "showed her how to kick the gong around" meaning he introduced her to opium. The song further describes Minnie's opium induced fantasies. We never learn what happened to Minnie but it can be assumed that the story didn't end well as Calloway's lyrics "Poor Min" are repeated at the song's end.

Even though the lyrics told a rather sordid tale, rife with jive slang, most of which may not have been understood at the time, it reached a wide audience selling over a million copies. Calloway became an authority on the jive terms and published "The New Cab Calloway Hipster's Dictionary: Language of Jive". "Minnie the Moocher" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

(Question and additional information supplied by sally0malley.)

Answer: Katyusha

If you've ever seen a documentary about the Soviet Union in World War II, there's an excellent chance that this is the catchy but strangely inspirational tune playing in the background. Written in 1938, the song achieved wild popularity after the German invasion of 1941, and tells the story of a faithful girl called Katyusha who patiently waits by the river for her boyfriend to come home from the front, recognising that his first duty is to protect the motherland, which in turn protects her. If ever a popular song contributed to winning a war, this is probably it.

Red Army soldiers christened their deadly truck-mounted BM-13 multi-missile launcher 'Katyusha' in honour of the girl in the song, because when the weapons first arrived in service at the front, they only bore the Voronezh factory code 'K'. The noisy, frightening and bluntly effective weapon was known to the German's as 'Stalin's organ'.

The nostalgic favourite remains popular in Russia to this day and is a haunting and evocative staple of the Red Army Choir.

(Question and additional information supplied by JacquiDawson.)

Answer: Kingston Trio

All were active in folk music in the '50s but the Kingston Trio are often credited with kick-starting the folk music boom. Their commercialized brand of folk music was readily welcomed by radio stations - and parents! They had a number one hit with "Tom Dooley", a song based on a murder in North Carolina in 1866.

(Question and additional information supplied by CmdrK.)

Answer: Pink Floyd

Considered a pivotal album in the evolution of psychedelic rock, Pink Floyd recorded "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" in Abbey Road studios at the same time that The Beatles were working on their "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album.
Pink Floyd made their U.S. debut on Dick Clark's American Bandstand.
They went on to be a major music act with chart topping albums like "The Dark Side of the Moon" and "The Wall".

(Question and additional information supplied by VanCoerte.)

Answer: Steve Harley (Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel)

"Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)", credited under the name of Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, was released after the breakup of the original Cockney Rebel. In an interview on "The One Show" in October 2010, Harley stated the lyrics were "a finger-pointing piece of vengeful poetry. It's getting off my chest how I felt about the guys splitting up a perfectly workable machine."

"Make me Smile (Come Up and See Me)" reached number one on the UK charts in February 1975. During their appearance on "TOTP" the instrumental backing was "mimed" but Harley's vocals (and gum chewing) were live. Blaming jet lag, he mixed up most of the second and third verses, however, he made it through the song with some creative repetition--much to the surprise and amusement of his bandmates.

"Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)" has been covered more than 120 times and has worldwide sales of over 1.5 million copies.

(Question and additional information supplied by sally0malley.)

Answer: Switzerland

Though she is world famous now, she was only 20 when she belted out "Ne partez pas sans moi" and won narrowly. The rest as they say is history...she even survived the sinking of the Titanic nine years later while singing "My heart will go on".

(Question and additional information supplied by fallingman.)

Answer: Soul Asylum

The American rock band Soul Asylum began life in Minneapolis in 1981. "Runaway Train" was originally a track on their 1992 album "Grave Dancers Union", and was subsequently released as a single in June 1993. Commercially it was a resounding success, not only in North America but also in several European countries as well as in both Australia and New Zealand.

I have to admit that I didn't initially realise the message being conveyed by the lyrics, I simply saw it as an awesome track, it was a real favourite of mine. But after a while I listened more intently to the song, and this is what it conveyed ...

The suffering it highlighted was significantly more important than its commercial success. Video recordings accompanying the song show children running in fear from their homes, having suffered varying degrees of domestic abuse. In the United States the video begins with the message "There are over one million youths lost on the streets of America", whilst the UK version states "100,000 youths are lost on the streets of Britain".

The videos displayed disturbing scenes of domestic child abuse, accompanied by children running aimlessly to escape their misery. During each chorus, images of some of the missing children are shown, together with details of when and where they went missing. As a result of these videos being so widely distributed, a number of missing children have now been found, whilst others sadly are still unaccounted for.

A disturbing, moving, yet truly powerful recording, which has resulted in the recovery of so many of these lost children.

Runaway Train
Soul Asylum

Call you up in the middle of the night
Like a firefly without a light
You were there like a slow torch burning
I was a key that could use a little turning

So tired that I couldn't even sleep
So many secrets I couldn't keep
Promised myself I wouldn't weep
One more promise I couldn't keep

It seems no one can help me now
I'm in too deep
There's no way out
This time I have really led myself astray

Runaway train never going back
Wrong way on a one way track
Seems like I should be getting somewhere
Somehow I'm neither here nor there

Can you help me remember how to smile
Make it somehow all seem worthwhile
How on earth did I get so jaded
Life's mystery seems so faded

I can go where no one else can go
I know what no one else knows
Here I am just drownin' in the rain
With ...

(Question and additional information supplied by moonraker2.)

Answer: Can't Get You Out of My Head - Kylie Minogue

The rest of the lyrics are about the singer's obsession with her lover, but due to its catchy hook many of us found we really couldn't get this song out of our heads!

First coming to prominence in the 1980s through her role in the TV soap opera Neighbours, Kylie has proved that she is capable of so much more than the manufactured pop which launched her music career. The highest-selling female Australian artist of all time, she has earned numerous awards including a Grammy and three BRITs.

In 2019 she was invited to play the Sunday teatime "Legends" slot at the Glastonbury Festival. This was particularly poignant as she had been set to headline the festival in 2005 but was forced to cancel due to a breast cancer diagnosis. Performing in front of one of the biggest crowds ever seen at the festival she proved that she still had that Kylie magic.

(Question and additional information supplied by emiloony.)

Answer: Adele "21"

"21" sold a remarkable 5.8 million copies in 2011 and had 13 weeks in the number one spot on the Billboard chart. Then it went on to be the #1 selling album of 2012, too!

In the UK, "21" was also the best selling album of 2011, where it spent 23 non-consecutive weeks in the top spot and became the biggest selling album of the 21st century.

(Question and additional information supplied by VanCoerte.)