Military And Police Ranks In Song Quiz

Answer: David Bowie

Major Tom was a character who first appeared in the 1969 David Bowie song "Space Oddity" and was mentioned again in other Bowie songs, "Ashes to Ashes", "Hallo Spaceboy", and "Blackstar".

The inspiration for the song was the Stanley Kubrick movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968). In 2003 Bowie told 'Performing Songwriter' magazine: "In England, it was always presumed that it was written about the space landing, because it kind of came to prominence around the same time. But it actually wasn't. It was written because of going to see the film '2001', which I found amazing. I was out of my gourd anyway, I was very stoned when I went to see it, several times, and it was really a revelation to me."

The single reached number five on the Official UK Charts Company listing. Re-released in the USA in1972, it reached number 15 on the Hot 100.

Answer: The Beatles

The Beatles were at a crossroads when they sat down to record what was to become "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" in 1966. The heady early days of crying, sobbing crowds of girls were a thing of the past, not that the Fab Four missed them.

Instead they wanted to make music that would stand out and in its way poke fun at some of the psychedelic rock bands that were breaking through. The Beach Boys' album "Pet Sounds" also spurred them them on.

Initially the band had pencilled in "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" to be among the first three songs on the album but manager Brian Epstein and record label EMI pressured them into releasing the songs as a double A side to make a sure-fire hit single. The record's producer, George Martin, later said that giving in to the pressure was "the biggest mistake" of his professional life.

Released in the UK in June 1967, the album spent 28 weeks at the top of the charts. It also topped the Billboard 200 in the USA.

Answer: The Beach Boys

"The Sloop John B" was a reworking by the Beach Boys of an earlier folk song. It reached number two in the UK and number three in the USA.

The song is thought to have originated in the Bahamas and was then called "Sloop John B Sails" and had an early appearance in literature in the 1917 novel "Pieces of Eight" by English author Richard Le Gallienne. It also appeared in 'Harper's Bazaar'.

The American poet and biographer Carl Sandburg included the song on his 1927 folk compilation, "The American Songbag". The song appeared on the Kingston Trio's eponymous debit album in 1958. In 1965, during the recording session for "Pet Sounds", Brian Wilson heard Al Jardine play a snatch of the song on piano. He took it away and gave it a Beach Boys feel.

Fast forward several decades and the tune and vocal phrasing was acquired by ultra Loyalists in Glasgow and turned into the anti-Irish "Famine Song", aka "The Famine Is Over". In 2009, a Scottish court ruled this song to be racist.

Answer: Billy Joel

The lyrics appear in "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" by Billy Joel from his 1977 album "The Stranger". The single hit number 17 on the US charts.

In 2021, Smooth Radio in the UK listed their top 15 Billy Joel songs and put "Moving Out" at number 12.

Answer: Neil Diamond

"Captain Sunshine" was on Neil Diamond's 1972 album "Moods".

In a prolific career, Diamond wrote more than 30 hits for others and himself.

Things you didn't know (?): At Erasmus Hall High School in NYC, Diamond and Barbra Streisand were classmates. In the late 1970s, Diamond wrote and released a song called "You Don't Bring Me Flowers". Streisand covered it and an enterprising radio DJ spliced the two versions together to make it a "duet". The two former classmates went into the studio and recorded a proper duet that made it to the top of the charts.

Answer: Tesla

"Pvt Ledbetter" was on the 2008 Tesla album "Forever More". Tesla were a hard rock band from Sacramento, California who got together in 1987.

Their biggest hit was the Hot 100 number ten "Love Song" in 1989, and while they never kicked on into the top reaches of rock bands, they maintained a solid reputation that garnered 14 million record sales around the world.

Answer: Bob Marley

"I Shot The Sheriff" was on the 1973 album "Burnin'" by Bob Marley and the Wailers. It was also the final single from the original combo.

In 1974, Eric Clapton covered the song on his album "461 Ocean Boulevard". The single reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. It was his first chart topper in the USA and reached number nine in the UK.

In his autobiography in 2007, Clapton said he had been unaware of The Wailers at the time of his sessions and conceded that he and his band had not done Marley's track justice. "It was hardcore reggae, and I didn't think we could do it justice. We did a version of it anyway, but I wasn't that enamoured with the way it turned out", he wrote.

Answer: West Side Story

Drawing inspiration from "Romeo and Juliet", the smash Broadway hit "West Side Story" came about from a work entitled "East Side Story" by Arthur Laurents in the late 1940s. That was revisited a few years later when Leonard Bernstein added music and Stephen Sondheim lyrics for a show that was first performed in 1957.

This updated Shakespeare's warring families to conflicts between two New York City gangs in the 1950s. The show was a hit and has been performed in many places and during several revivals since.

In September 2021, ranker.com listed "The Greatest Musicals Ever Performed on Broadway" and placed "West Side Story" at number five.

Answer: Bruce Springsteen

"Highway Patrolman" was on the 1982 album "Nebraska", the sixth album from The Boss.

Johnny Cash included it on his on his 1983 album "Johnny 99". The title track was also on Springsteen's album.

The Boss, it could be said, has a list of priors in regard to annoying police officers. In 2010, the 'New York Times' carried an opinion piece by one officer who said: "Cops are used to being despised, not only by the predators we arrest but -- it often seems -- by the society we protect. But I didn't expect that Bruce Springsteen, poet of the working class, would turn his back on the working men and women who wear the shield."

Answer: Paul Brady

"Arthur McBride" was Paul Brady's account of an attempt by English soldiers to persuade a couple of Irish lads to join the Army. It did not end well for the would-be recruiters.

The song has been around since at least 1840 but came to prominence again in 1973 when the folk band Planxty recorded it. Among other to sing it were Bob Dylan, but few have matched the Paul Brady version.

Tina Turner was the first to cover Brady's song "Paradise Is Here". It was subsequently also sung by Cher. Bonnie Raitt, meanwhile, sang "Steal Your Heart Away", Santana covered "Night Hunting Time" and David Crosby covered "Helpless Heart".