Magical Melodies Trivia Quiz

Answer: Eagles

"Witchy Woman" was written by Don Henley and Bernie Leadon. Interestingly, they identified Zelda Fitzgerald, a queen of the Jazz Age and the wife of author F. Scott Fitzgerald, as partly representing the title character. The line "She drove herself to madness with a silver spoon" apparently refers to a method Zelda had for imbibing absinthe. Most listeners would give the line a somewhat broader interpretation.

The Eagles' album cover also indicated that various ladies met at nightclubs such as the Whisky A Go Go were involved as models in the creation of their "Witchy Woman".

Answer: Queen

Here is a lyrical sample from "A Kind of Magic": "The bell that rings inside your mind, is challenging the doors of time...the waiting seems eternity, the day will dawn of sanity..." and later: "The rage that lasts a thousand years will soon be done..." Now doesn't that sound like a kind of magic?

"A Kind of Magic" was written by Roger Taylor, Queen's drummer, and Freddie Mercury, the lead singer.

Answer: Johnny Winter

"Mojo Boogie", which Johnny Winter very often did in live concerts, is a true showcase of his use of the slide guitar. Unlike the wrong choices, Johnny Winter was extremely white, as he and his brother Edgar, also a musician, were albinos. Johnny was not "white" in his racial attitudes, and indeed he was chosen to produce Muddy Waters' last four albums. We lost Johnny in 2014.

So what is a mojo anyway? Merriam-Webster defines the word (of African origin) as "a power that may seem magical, that allows someone to be very effective and successful". In "Mojo Boogie", set in a nightclub in New Orleans ( a capital city of magic), the singer talks about a gypsy woman who gave him something called 'the mojo hand", an object that may have been a model of a monkey's paw?.
But the gypsy forgets to tell him how to operate it, with a result that a big fight breaks out in the nightclub, because the singer was squeezing the mojo tight!

Answer: "Screamin'" Jay Hawkins

The recording session for "I Put A Spell On You" started out by interpreting the song as a slow blues ballad. However, the producer treated the singer and band to "Chicken and ribs, and everybody got drunk" (according to Jay Hawkins), and the song changed to the form by which it is known today. Hawkins screamed out the lyrics, the band played faster.

"Screamin'" Jay Hawkins later became (in)famous for beginning his stage act by rising up out of a coffin, aided by special effects of smoke and fog.

The song "I Put A Spell On You" was covered by Nina Simone, who became identified with the song. Other cover versions include Alice Cooper, CCR, and Marilyn Manson.

Answer: The Clovers

"Love Potion Number Nine" was written by the very successful songwriting team of Leiber and Stoller, who had penned many of Elvis Presley's hits. The song deals with a shy young man who gets an aphrodisiacal potion from a gypsy, which causes him to go to the other extreme, and "(start) kissing everything in sight." He likes it, though, as the last line tells us, "I had so much fun that I'm going back again, I wonder what happens with Love Potion Number Ten?"

Answer: Santana

"Black Magic Woman" tells of the singer's loving this lady, ostensibly because she has put a spell on him: "I got a black magic woman, got me so blind I can't see that she's a black magic woman, she's gonna make a devil out of me."

The song was written by Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac; this band had the first hit with the song, but their version peaked at only No. 37 of the Billboard Hot 100 (1967).

Answer: Johnny Rivers

Johnny Rivers was covering a song that had been written by Willie Dixon of Chess Records, for Willie Mabon, in 1954. But it was Rivers' version, included on the album "Meanwhile Back at the Whiskey a Go-Go" that brought the song to national prominence and international notice.

Here are some of the powers claimed for himself by the singer who is the seventh (consecutive) son in his family: predicting the future, sexual prowess, weather forecasting, healing the sick and even raising the dead, not to mention "making little girls talk outta their heads"!

Answer: Redbone

"Witch Queen of New Orleans" appeared on Redbone's third album, "Message From a Drum", and was written by the two brothers in the all-Native American band, Lolly Vegas and Pat Vegas. The song has been covered by other singers, such as Tom Jones and P.J. Proby.

Answer: Scotland

Pilot indeed originated in Scotland, with two of its founding members (the band formed in 1971) being alumni of the Bay City Rollers. Those members were David Paton and Lyall. The song "Magic" from the album "From The Album of the Same Name" was their best-known hit.

Sad to relate, David Paton lost his battle with AIDS, and died in 1989.

Answer: That Old Black Magic

While numerous vocalists, particularly jazz artists, have sung "That Old Black Magic", perhaps the song is most strongly identified with Frank Sinatra. He first recorded his version of the song in 1961.