It's Finger Lickin' Good! Trivia Quiz

Answer: "Layla" by Derek and the Dominos

"Layla" was written primarily by Eric Clapton, with bandmate Jim Gordon. It was first released on the 1970 Derek and the Dominos album "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs". The woman who inspired the song was Pattie Boyd, who was married to Beatle George Harrison when Clapton met her.

After they divorced, Clapton married Boyd in 1979. Far from angry about it, Harrison attended their wedding. Though about Pattie Boyd, the song's title comes from the old Persian story "Layla and Manjun", about a princess who was married to another man even though Manjun loved her.

Answer: "Sweet Child o' Mine" by Guns N' Roses

"Sweet Child" was first included on the band's 1987 album "Appetite for Destruction" and was the third radio single from that album. In a VH1 expo on the band, it was said that Slash (the top-hat wearing guitarist) came up with the guitar line without thinking about it, during a jam session with his bandmates. Upon hearing it, Axl Rose wrote lyrics to go with it, about his girlfriend (later wife, for a very brief time) Erin Everly.

This song, that was thrown together on a whim, proved to be one of the band's most popular songs.

It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and on the UK Rock chart.

Answer: "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC

The song is "Thunderstruck", off of the 1990 AC/DC album "The Razors Edge" (yes, Razors without an apostrophe). A popular rumour about the song's origin indicates that guitarist Angus Young wrote the song after being struck by lightning while in a plane. Young, however, explained in the liner notes of the re-released album, that he just came up with a cool guitar bit, and he and the band fiddled with it until they had a whole song. The choice of the word 'thunderstruck' simply fits with their theme of power and electricity.

The song was only released as a single in select markets (and it did reach number one on a Finnish chart) but as been used as a theme song by many sports teams, the WWE and on many movie soundtracks.

Answer: "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd

Released in 1974 on the album "Second Helping", this was another song that was written around the guitar part. It was former bassist turned guitarist Ed King that came up with the lick. The lyrics referring to Neil Young were meant as a response to Young's songs "Southern Man" and "Alabama", which, with their themes of racism, Skynyrd thought were too critical of southerners. "Sweet Home Alabama" contains the following verse: "Well I heard Mr. Young sing about her. Well I heard ol' Neil put her down. Well I hope Neil Young will remember, a southern man don't need him around anyhow." Interestingly, none of the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd who wrote the song were from Alabama.

Answer: "Paint It, Black" by The Rolling Stones

The song, released in 1966 off of the album "Aftermath", starts simply with the sitar intro, before the drums and other instruments chime in, to create a somewhat exotic, funky Stones song. Since the death of Brian Jones in 1969, lead guitarist Keith Richards has often played the main riff in concert.

His bandmates have said in interviews that they always hold their breath a little to see if he'll nail the intro or not. Not only was the song a number one hit on both sides of the Atlantic, it was the very first number one single (in both the US and UK) to highlight the sitar.

Answer: "Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix

For many, many people when they think of legendary guitar players, the thought of Jimi Hendrix is not far behind. Considering how (tragically) short his active rock and roll career was, his legacy is enormous. He has his detractors, but you won't find a list of great guitarists anywhere without his name close to the top, if not at number one. In addition to the 2003 "Rolling Stone" list (which was actually a special collector's edition of the magazine), Rolling Stone published another list in 2011 on their website, again of the 100 Greatest Guitarists, but this time the entries were nominated and voted on by famous guitarists themselves. This list contained many of the same people from the 2003 list, with the order changed up - except for number one, which was still occupied by Jimi Hendrix. Guitarist Tom Morello said of Jimi on this 2011 list, "He seamlessly weaves chords and single-note runs together and uses chord voicings that don't appear in any music book. His riffs were a pre-metal funk bulldozer, and his lead lines were an electric LSD trip down to the crossroads, where he pimp-slapped the devil."

"Purple Haze" (1967) is one of Hendrix's best known songs and was the second-released single of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. In addition to being the second greatest guitar song of all-time according to "Rolling Stone" (second only to Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" on that list), it's been named on countless other lists, including 17th on "Rolling Stone's" 500 Greatest Songs of All-Time and number one on "Q" magazine's 2005 list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. The chord structure referred to in the question is E7#9, commonly called the Hendrix chord; it was used before his time but he made it famous.

Answer: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana

Nirvana exploded into famedom with the release of this single, off of their second studio album "Nevermind" in 1991. The song was number one in the US on the Modern Rock Tracks chart (and peaked at six on the Billboard Hot 100), and placed highly on many other charts all over the world. Technically speaking, it's a fairly simple song - that bass line in the verses is not really any more difficult to play than the two guitar notes - but in the years since its release, it has been consistently cited on various lists as one of the greatest rock songs and definitely the song that really made the grunge music of the '90s more mainstream. Though many people would say he was nothing that special as a musician, late frontman Kurt Cobain has also been named many times on lists of great guitar players, including on "Rolling Stone's" 2003 100 Greatest Guitarists of All-Time (at number 12).

Answer: "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne is famous for being the singer of Black Sabbath. "Crazy Train" (1980) was Osbourne's first solo single. It appeared on the album "Blizzard of Ozz". It didn't do amazingly well on the charts (peaked at number nine on the Billboard Rock Tracks chart, and reached only number 49 in the UK), but has been widely praised for being one of the greatest metal songs ever. Guitarist Randy Rhoads' solo in this song has also been ranked on several awesome solo lists. The main riff is also played masterfully; it does make you feel like you're travelling on a crazy train.

When Ozzy Osbourne and his family had a reality TV show on MTV (2002-2005), a much mellower version of "Crazy Train" was used as the theme song. It's commonly believed that it was Pat Boone's cover version that was used, but it was actually a cover of Pat Boone's cover, by Lewis Lamedica. The Pat Boone version has been included on soundtracks.

Answer: "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple

"Smoke on the Water" is from Deep Purple's 1972 album "Machine Head". Much of this album, including the vocals for "Smoke on the Water" was recorded in Montreux, Switzerland. The lyrics of "Smoke on the Water" tell the true story of a fire that happened at the Montreux Casino, where the band was supposed to record. For immortalising the location in the song, the band has been recognized with a statue in Montreux by the shore of the lake, that includes the riff from "Smoke on the Water" inscribed in musical notes.

While the song is a favourite among guitar players who are just learning, Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore has pointed out that most people actually don't play exactly his riff, changing up the chord formations just enough to make it really easy to learn.

Answer: "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin

Clocking in at over eight minutes (on the recording; in concert, it could go on forever), "Stairway to Heaven" is from Led Zeppelin's unofficially-titled album "Led Zeppelin IV" (1971). The song has several different parts, and when Jimmy Page wrote the guitar parts, he was quickly switching from an acoustic to an electric guitar. For live concerts, he solved this problem by playing a guitar with two necks, one with six strings and the other with twelve.

The song was so wildly popular in the 1970s, and still today, that many people 'got over it' pretty quickly, leading to it being a bit cliché as a great rock song. A joke in the movie "Wayne's World" sees Wayne pick up a guitar in a music store and start to play "Stairway"; a store employee quickly stops him and points to a sign forbidding the playing of the song.

I think the following quote from social historian Erik Davis nicely sums up the legacy of "Stairway": ""Stairway to Heaven" isn't the greatest rock song of the 1970s; it is the greatest spell of the 1970s. Think about it: we are all sick of the thing, but in some primordial way it is still number one. Everyone knows it... Even our dislike and mockery is ritualistic. The dumb parodies; the Wayne's World-inspired folklore about guitar shops demanding customers not play it; even Robert Plant's public disavowal of the song-all of these just prove the rule. "Stairway to Heaven" is not just number one. It is the One, the quintessence..."