J.O.H.N. in the USA Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pink Houses

John Mellencamp was inspired to write "Pink Houses" in the early 1980s while driving home to Bloomington, Indiana. He noticed a black man who was sitting outside of a pink shotgun shack and holding a cat in his arms. Mellencamp was apparently struck by how at ease the man seemed to be despite an interstate running along his front yard. The man noticed Mellencamp looking at him and waved. Mellencamp also claimed in a 2014 article in the "Orlando Sentinel" that he has always been disappointed in the last verse of the song and that he wished it conveyed a more meaningful message for America.

Mellencamp wrote the song and published it on his 1983 album "Uh-Huh". "Pink Houses" rose to position number 8 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart, and it is considered to hold a significant place in American rock and roll culture. "Rolling Stone" ranked the song as number 439 on its "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.

Interestingly, in 2010, the National Organization for Marriage was using the song at events held to oppose same-sex marriage when the organization received a note from Mellencamp requesting that it cease and desist from using his song to foster a movement he did not support. He is very much supportive of equal rights for all people regardless of gender association and supports marriage rights for people of all genders.

Answer: Hurts So Good

"Hurts So Good" was written by John Mellencamp and his childhood friend and occasional songwriting partner George Green. It appeared originally on Mellencamp's 1982 album "American Fool", which was released during the era when Mellencamp was referring to himself as John Cougar.

Mellencamp claims that the idea for the song started with his overhearing a woman named Tiffany who was receiving an acupuncture treatment from his grandmother. She remarked about the experience, "It hurts so good". When Mellencamp mentioned this to Green, the two sat down and began writing the song. They exchanged lines back and forth until they had all of the lyrics. Then Mellencamp got out his guitar and almost immediately had all of the chords worked out.

The whimsical and quick composition of the song are remarkable considering that it spent sixteen weeks on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart; no other song in the entire decade of the 1980s pulled off such a feat. However, the song peaked at only number two thanks to Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger". Mellencamp's vocal performance on the song won a Grammy in 1983 for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male.

Answer: Small Town

"Small Town" was written by John Mellencamp and recorded for release on his 1985 album "Scarecrow". The Green Bay Packers franchise has often played the song at football games at Lambeau Field, and Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra used to play the song for David Letterman's "Small Town News" sketches on the "Late Show with David Letterman".

Mellencamp claims that he wrote the song in its elementary form very quickly one afternoon in his home while company was visiting. He got up suddenly in the middle of their visit and went downstairs where he composed the song in the laundry room. He could hear his guests and family laughing above him about the song, and when he returned to his guests, someone remarked to him, "You've got to be kidding". Of course, Mellencamp's childhood and youth experiences were from small-town Indiana. Mellencamp was born in Seymour, Indiana, and has lived a good portion of his life in Bloomington. The song's lyrics refer to experiences from both towns.

The "L.A. Doll" Mellencamps sings of having married refers to his wife at that time, Victoria Granucci.

The song "Small Town" is one of three top-ten hits from the album "Scarecrow" and reached number six on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. The other two hits from the album were "R.O.C.K. in the USA" and "Lonely Ol' Night".

Answer: Pop Singer

"Pop Singer" was written by John Mellencamp, and it appears on his 1989 album "Big Daddy", his tenth studio album. He composed the song as a complaint about how the music industry attempts to control musicians to make them and their music into what the agents, producers, and radio and TV personnel want them to be--usually something flamboyant and formulaic to satisfy the desire to make money. Personally, Mellencamp had long been upset about his being made to use the stage name "Johnny Cougar", participate in various meet-and-greets, and concoct music and a stage persona that fit a more "pop" formula. Many fans of his were happy about the direction Mellencamp and his music were taking and had been taking since the release of his 1985 album "Scarecrow". However, there were, of course, a few detractors, who argued that Mellencamp had no problem with the money he was still making from MTV appearances, including a video of the very song "Pop Singer", and that he was only recognizable at large because of what his agents and producers had done for him. On the other hand, many responded that using MTV and the radio were effective measures to get nonconformist messages across to the public and that Mellencamp's talent and music would have flourished with or without anyone else's assistance.

"Pop Singer" reached number fifteen on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart but climbed all the way to number one on Canada's and New Zealand's charts.

Answer: Jack and Diane

"Jack and Diane" was written by John Mellencamp with several suggestions contributed by the guitarist Mick Ronson, including the percussion and the decision to sing the lyrics of the bridge in a choir-like fashion. In fact, Mellencamp has said that he was ready to throw away the song, having grown frustrated with his band's failure to accompany him as he wanted, when Ronson began suggesting several things about the song's arrangement. Ronson was well known for working with David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Morrissey as well as for his own solo releases.

Another interesting point is that the clapping was not part of the original plan for the song. Mellencamp clapped during one of the recordings to assist his band with keeping proper tempo; however, after hearing the clapping and taking it out of the recording, he didn't like the way the song sounded and put the clapping back in.

"Jack and Diane", based on some of the events of the 1962 film version of Tennessee Williams's "Sweet Bird of Youth", appeared originally on Mellencamp's 1982 album "American Fool". As a single, it spent four weeks in the number one spot on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart.

Answer: Cherry Bomb

"Cherry Bomb" was written by John Mellencamp and recorded for his 1987 album "Lonesome Jubilee". The song reached number eight on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart but climbed all the way to number one on the "Billboard" Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

The song is about Mellencamp's hanging out with friends and girlfriends at clubs during his teenage years. According to an interview Mellencamp did for BBC Radio in 1989, Club Cherry Bomb doesn't really exist but is a name he made up to represent a mixture of places from his memory. However, the one club providing the primary inspiration for the song was The Last Exit Teen Club.

Answer: I Need a Lover

"I Need a Lover" was written by John Mellencamp and recorded for the 1978 album "A Biography", released in the UK and Australia under his stage name Johnny Cougar, and later for the 1979 album "John Cougar", released in the US. "A Biography" was recorded in London and released by Riva Records because Mellencamp's earlier American debut album "Chestnut Street Incident" performed poorly in the US markets.

"I Need a Lover" became Mellencamp's first Top 40 hit and peaked at number twenty-eight on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. Mellencamp has claimed that his inspiration for the song was the Rolling Stones' song "Happy".

A cover of the song was released in 1980 by Pat Benatar, and it was included on her 1979 debut album "In the Heat of the Night".

Answer: Crumblin' Down

"Crumblin' Down" was co-written by John Mellencamp and his childhood friend and occasional songwriting partner George Green. The song was the last one that was recorded for Mellencamp's 1983 album "Uh-Huh" but was created to serve as the album's lead single. When Mellencamp contacted Green for assistance, Green had already been toying with the concept of walls crumbling down for a song. Then, the two of them composed the song in a manner very similar to how they had composed an earlier hit "Hurts So Good"; they sat together and exchanged lines, attempting to surpass or upstage each other, until the song's lyrics were written.

The song is meant to express the frustration that occurs after success fades and one feels lost and searching for validation or purpose. Mellencamp's inspiration for his contributions to the song stemmed from not only his achieving much greater fame after the success of the "American Fool" album and its three singles ("Hurts So Good", "Jack and Diane", and "Hand to Hold on To") but also from his cousin's having lost a job as an electrical engineer.

"Crumblin' Down" climbed to number nine on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart to number two on the "Billboard" Mainstream Rock chart.

Answer: Paper in Fire

Written by John Mellencamp, "Paper in Fire" is a single from his 1987 album "Lonesome Jubilee". Some of Mellencamp's inspiration for this song comes from one of his favorite flims, "Hud", which stars Pual Newman, Patricia Neal, and Melvyn Douglas. In fact, the line "We keep no check on our appetites" comes from the movie itself. Mellencamp also intends for the "paper in fire" imagery to be a metaphorical representation of hell.

"Paper in Fire" peaked at number nine on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and at number one on the "Billboard" Mainstream Rock chart.

Answer: Rain on the Scarecrow

"Rain on the Scarecrow" was cowritten by John Mellencamp and George Green, Mellencamp's childhood friend and occasional songwriting partner. They put the song together after Green heard Mellencamp sing and play "Small Town" and Green asked why all the small midwestern towns seemed to be fading away. Both of them were then inspired to research the troubles that small towns and farms were facing economically in the United States, and, of course, they discovered much blame fell on corporate greed and politics.

As a single, "Rain on the Scarecrow" did not fare as well as some of the others from Mellencamp's 1985 album "Scarecrow" (like "Small Town", "Lonely Ol' Night", and "R.O.C.K. in the USA"); it peaked at number twenty-one on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. However, it became very popular and celebrated among Americans, nonetheless. Many blue collar workers and farmers found comfort in a song from a famous rock-n-roll singer that brought attention to their plight, and the song is still played frequently by Mellencamp during charity events such as the regular "Farm Aid" concerts, supported by others like Willie Nelson and Neil Young.

Some of the song's lines tell of how a bank forecloses on a farmer's loan. The banker says, "John, it's just my job, and I hope you understand". John responds, "Hey, callin' it your job, Ol' Hoss, sure don't make it right". This response is a near quotation of Paul Newman's character's words from "Cool Hand Luke": "Nah, calling it your job don't make it right, Boss." Mellencamp has an appreciation of Newman's films, and refers to "Hud" in other songs of his.