Measure for Measure Trivia Quiz

Answer: A bushel and a peck

"I love you a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck..."

Oddly enough, the song was left out of the 1955 movie version (except for a brief snippet in the background), even though its singer, Miss Adelaide, was portrayed by Vivian Blaine on both stage and screen.

A bright and catchy tune, "A Bushel and a Peck" has been recorded by Vivian Blaine, Doris Day, Perry Como and Betty Hutton, and the Andrews Sisters amongst others. Como and Hutton's rendition peaked at number six on "Billboard" magazine's charts in October 1950.

Bushels and pecks are used for measuring things like fruit, oats and other dry goods, with four pecks making a bushel.

Answer: The company store

The chorus ends with the line "St Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go, I owe my soul to the company store." The implication was that the miner couldn't die yet, because he was always in debt to the company for which he worked.

Written either by Merle Travis, or by former coal miner George S. Davis, "Sixteen Tons" was recorded by the former in 1946. Probably the most famous cover version was by Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1955, which was successful on both country and pop music charts published by "Billboard".

Tons are tons, yes? Well, yes and no, as there are long tons (2240 pounds, used in the UK) and short tons (2000 pounds, used in the US). We won't even think about metric tonnes...

Answer: The Who

"I Can See for Miles and Miles" was written by Pete Townshend of The Who, and was released as a single as well as on the album "The Who Sell Out" in 1967. The single charted in both the US and the UK, but didn't reach number one in either country. Younger players might have recognised it as the theme music to TV's "CSI: Cyber".

I couldn't resist a small tribute to the comedy baseball routine "Who's on First?" in asking the question in the way I've done. The incorrect answers are all Canadian, a nod to the year 1967 (Canada's centennial year) though the Hip's lead singer was only three at that time, and Bieber and Buble were not yet born.

Miles are measures of distance, with one mile equal to 1.6 kilometres.

Answer: Filipina

The clue was in the language in which she recorded the song, as Tagalog is an official language of the Philippines. She was born in 1988 in Santa Cruz, Manila and has sometimes been known as Sarah G.

"Kilometro" appeared on the album "Perfectly Imperfect" in 2014, and in 2015 Geronimo represented her country with this song, in the tenth International Song Contest: The Global Sound, emerging as the first Asian winner of that competition.

A kilometre is a measure of distance equal to 0.62 miles.

Answer: The marigolds

Written by Frank Loesser, who seemed to enjoy musically measuring things, and sometimes known as "The Inch Worm" the song has also been performed on such children's TV shows as "Sesame Street" and "The Muppet Show" and recorded by artists as diverse as Doris Day, Anne Murray, Paul McCartney and John Lithgow! The chorus, which begins "two and two are four..." has often been sung in counterpoint to the verse, which went on to say the wee creature should have taken time to notice the flowers' beauty.

An inch is a small unit of length, of which there are twelve in a foot.

Answer: Bob Dylan

The song has sometimes been subtitled "(Valley Below)", which is where the singer was heading after having "one more cup of coffee for the road". Dylan sang it on the album as a duet with Emmylou Harris, who also provided vocals for some of the other tracks of "Desire".

The three incorrect choices were all born in 1976.

A cup is a unit of both dry (e.g. sugar) and liquid (e.g. milk) measure, and in the US can be 'customary' (8.33 imperial fluid ounces) or 'legal' (8.45 imperial fluid ounces). To complicate matters there are also Imperial, Canadian and Japanese cups, and chances are none of them were used for Dylan's cup of coffee!

Answer: Gallon

"A Gallon of Gas" was all about the high price of putting fuel in one's car, written at a time when there was a shortage of that commodity.

Though The Kinks are largely known as a rock band, "A Gallon of Gas" has a nice bluesy feel to it, as it laments the singer's inability to buy enough gas to keep his car on the road. Some folk might even yet find the song appropriate.

A gallon is a unit of liquid measure, equal to 3.78 litres.

Answer: True

Recorded late in 1963, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" entered the "Billboard Top 100" at number 45 in January of the following year, and took the top spot by the beginning of February. Seven weeks later it was replaced by "She Loves You", which had been their first million seller in the UK.

What is the measurement? A hand is the unit used to measure the height of a horse or pony, originally based on the width of a human hand with the fingers spread, standardized to four inches, or just over 100 mm.

Answer: Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne

The gist of the song's story was that the young person doing the singing was reluctant to leave at the end of a Saturday evening with the object of their affection, and was pleading for just five minutes more in their company.

Sammy Cahn wrote the lyrics and Jule Styne the catchy music. Others who recorded the song included Tex Beneke, Bing Crosby and Dick Haymes. Of the incorrect choices, only Rodgers and Hammerstein were active in 1946.

A minute measures time, with sixty of them making an hour. The singer only wanted five!

Answer: A company picnic

The plot of the play (and movie) revolved around attempts by the union at a pajama factory to secure a seven and a half cent raise for the workforce, complicated by the fact that the (female) union rep and the (male) manager began to have feelings for one another. The annual picnic provided the "Once a Year Day" when everybody could let off steam and enjoy themselves. In the movie Doris Day and John Raitt played Babe (the rep) and Sid (the manager) who performed the song along with the entire cast.

Both days and years measure time, with 365 of the former making one of the latter (unless it's a leap year, of course.)