I Say a Little Prayer Quiz for Experts | Heaven and Hell in Songs

Answer: Bacharach

Burt Bacharach was the composer of this team, and Hal David the lyricist. After meeting in the famous Brill Building in 1957, they teamed up to write over a hundred hits in the next ten years. The first of their compositions to be a hit was 'The Story of My Life', a country hit for Marty Robbins in 1957; it was followed shortly by Perry Como's recording of 'Magic Moments'.

The 1969 film 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' included a memorable bicycle-riding sequence which featured their song 'Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head'.

Answer: 11/4

The other three times are common, but 11/4 is unusual! In this case, each bar can actually be broken down into three sections, with time values of 4/4, 3/4 and 4/4. The verses also are a mixture of 4/4 and 10/4 measures. Bacharach's music contains many examples of such unusual time signatures, as well as frequent changes of key, and quirky chord progressions.

Answer: Dionne Warwick

'I Say a Little Prayer' was not the first Bacharach-David that Dionne Warwick recorded. She had previously released 15 singles written by them, including 'Wishin' and Hopin'' (1963), which was also released by Dusty Springfield in 1964, and 'Anyone Who Had a Heart' (1963), which was released by Cilla Black in 1964.

Her 1964 album 'Anyone Who Had a Heart' was produced by Bacharach-David, and over half the songs came from them. All told, Dionne Warwick teamed with Hal David and Burt Bacharach to produce over two dozen hit songs.

Answer: Sweet Inspirations

The recording arose from byplay between takes during the recording of the album 'Aretha Now', when it was decided to add the song to the planned list for the album. The song was originally going to be the B side of the single release of 'The House That Jack Built', but it achieved nearly as good rankings in the US, and in the UK it became Aretha's highest-ranked single to that time.

The Sweet Inspirations were a female backup group founded by Cissy Houston, mother of Whitney Houston and aunt of Dionne Warwick, who was a member of the group before her solo career took off in 1963. They can be heard on Dionne Warwick's hit 'Don't Make Me Over', as well as on Van Morrison's classic song 'Brown Eyed Girl'.

Answer: Sérgio Mendes

Sérgio Mendes is known for performing music which is basically bossa nova, with elements of jazz and funk included. He performed frequently with Antonio Carlos Jobim before moving to the USA and signing with Herb Alpert's label. Brasil '66 had their breakthrough with the single 'Mas que Nada', released from the album 'Sérgio Mendes and Brasil '66'.

This cover of a song by Jorge Ben became Mendes's signature tune.

Answer: Susan Barrett

This is Susan Barrett's only film appearance, but she performed on numerous television shows in the 1960s, including 'Shindig', 'The Dean Martin Show', 'The Joey Bishop Show' and 'The Tonight Show'. Dionne Warwick performed the film's title track, another Bacharach-David number.

Answer: Glen Campbell

The medley was part of the album 'Anne Murray / Glenn Campbell', which featured the two singers performing both duet versions of earlier hits for them as individuals and some new material. The two songs seem to be readily identified as working together.

In 1968 it was done by Big Dee Irwin and Mamie Galore; in 1977, Dionne Warwick and Isaac Hayes repeated this duet medley concept on their live album 'A Man and a Woman'.

Answer: Al Green

The 1974 suicide of a girl friend acted as a stimulus leading Al Green to make a dramatic change of lifestyle. He continued to make R&B recordings even after becoming an ordained pastor, but a 1979 accident during a live performance led him to devote himself musically to gospel music. His church is just down the road from Graceland, former home of Elvis Presley.

Answer: Diana King

None of the actresses who featured in the film were responsible for the song, which was performed by the Jamaican singer Diana King. She brought her typical fusion of reggae and R&B to the performance, which was included on her album 'Think Like a Girl' as well as being on the movie soundtrack.

When released as a single, the song charted on the US Billboard Hot 100 (peaking at thirty-eight), the US R&B chart (sixty-eight), the US Dance chart (eight), the UK Singles Chart (seventeen) and in Australia it reached a top position of six.

Answer: Lea Michele, as Rachel Berry

The three cheerleaders listed performed a parody of the song as their audition piece in this second episode of the series 'Glee'. Dianna Agron's character was the main singer, with the other two providing vocal backups. Lea Michele's character was the star of the glee club, and was never seen to audition on the show.