Maladies in Melodies Trivia Quiz

Answer: Unknown

The song, written by Bobby Russell, never mentions what disease Honey had. On the Billboard Top 40 Pop Hits, it reached Number One in 1968. Bobby Goldsboro had eleven charted Top 40 hits between 1964 and 1973, but his only other Top Ten was "See The Funny Little Clown" (Number Nine in 1964).

Answer: Cystic fibrosis

Lyrics in this 2001 song include: "We camped out on the living room floor/..../My two brothers and me/....They were angels in waiting...." Her brother Shawn died at 15 in 1980, and her brother Alan in 1991 at 24.

Answer: Breast cancer

"I'm Gonna Love You Through It," written by Ben Hayslip, Sonya Isaacs, and Jimmy Yeary, was nominated for Best Country Solo Performance at the 54th Grammy Awards. It details the support a woman diagnosed with breast cancer received from her husband. The lyrics graphically state: ""But they [the surgeons] had to take more than they planned/Now it's forced smiles and baggy shirts/To hide what the cancer took from her."

Answer: Going Down Slow

The original version of "Going Down Slow" was written and recorded by St. Louis Jimmy Oden in 1941. This is ballad of a slowly dying man ["All of my health is failing, Lord, I'm going down slow"]. It has been recorded by many artists, often with different lyrics, such as Howlin' Wolf, Ray Charles, B.B. King, and Aretha Franklin.

Answer: Her Diamonds

On July 3, 2009, Rob Thomas confirmed on NBC's "Today" show, that the song is about his wife's case of AIDS. In 2009, it charted Number One on the "Billboard Adult Top 40" and the Australian Airplay Chart, Number Two on the "Billboard Adult Contemporary Chart," and Number Three on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart.

Answer: She thinks his name was John.

"She Thinks His Name Was John," written by Steve Rosen and Sandy Knox, was recorded by Reba McEntire in 1994. It is concerned with a woman who is dying from AIDS that she contracted during a drunken one-night tryst with a stranger. As a result, "Now each day is one day that's left in her life/She won't know love, have a marriage or sing lullabies/She lays all alone and cries herself to sleep/"Cause she let a stranger kill her hopes and her dreams....She thinks his name was John."

Answer: Leukemia

The song "Skin (Sarabeth)" was recorded by Rascal Flats in 2005. It realistically describes Sarabeth's reactions, particularly what will happen when/if she goes to the prom bald. On prom night, "Its quarter to seven/That boy's at the door/And her daddy ushers him in/And when he takes off his cap/They all start to cry/Cause this morning where his hair had been/Softly she touches just skin."

Answer: St. James Infirmary

"St. James Infirmary" was first recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1928. The song also indicates that the man wants to be buried in a "high top stetson hat," with "a twenty dollar gold piece on [his] watch chain." He also wants "six crapshooters to be [his] pallbearers/Three pretty women to sing a song/Stick a jazz band on my hearse wagon/Raise hell as I stroll along."

Answer: Memphis Jug Band

"Meningitis Blues" was composed by Minnie McCoy (Memphis Minnie) in 1930. Among the graphic lyrics are these: "...the meningitis began to creep around/My head and neck was paining me. Feel like my back would break in two....Mn, the meningitis killing me...."

Answer: 1928/29

"Influenza" begins: "In nineteen hundred and twenty-nine, men an' women sure was dyin',/From de disease what de doctors called de flu./People was dyin' ev'rywhere; death was creepin' th'ough de air,/For de groans of de sick sure was sad." The 1918/19 epidemic was more serious, by far, than the one in 1928/29, which caused only 10-15% of the deaths in the earlier pandemic (still, that was 50,000-65,000 persons!).