More Fun Lyrics from 1964-5 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ticket To Ride

This was the eighth #1 hit for The Beatles - they would have twelve more.

By this time, the lyrics of Beatles' songs were getting a little more complex and often they could have several interpretations, such being the case here. It simply could be a song about a girl leaving a guy. Paul McCartney has hinted that the song deals with a little town on The Isle of Wight called "Ryde" that the group often frequented in their early years. Lennon once remarked that the card given to Hamburg prostitutes proving that they were free of sexually transmitted diseases were a "ticket to ride".

I think the boys used to revel in getting the press and their fans going in circles with this type of innuendo and double entendre. Maybe they had a pact that the last surviving member would reveal all. What a read that would be!

Answer: Mountain Of Love

Harold Dorman wrote the song and recorded it in 1960. Only a #21 hit at the time, it still was his only hit of any kind and he quickly faded from the scene, at least as a recording artist.

The song was covered by Johnny Rivers in 1964 and he propelled it to #9 on the charts. Quite unlike Dorman, Rivers went on to a long and successful career and is still active in the new millennium.

Answer: Henry VIII

"I'm Henry the eighth I am
Henry the eighth I am, I am
I got married to the widow next door
She's been married seven times before
And every one was an Henry"

Seriously, how can one disguise that? It topped the Billboard charts for a week in August of 1965 but didn't have the same sort of success in the U.K. Perhaps our British friends had better taste?

Originally, the song was written in 1911 and popularized in England by a chap named Henry Champion. Maybe it was #1 in England then!

Answer: Don't Let The Rain Come Down

Of the two charting hits The Serendipity Singers would have, this was their biggest, peaking at #6. Their follow-up song, another with a deep and serious message - "Beans In My Ears" - hit #30.

The group started as a folk trio in 1963 on the campus of the University of Colorado but by this recording, they were nine strong, were centered in New York City and what they did could no longer be regarded as "folk" music. They were entertainers, plain and simple, and performed everything from children's songs such as this to show tunes. Their albums reflected their eclectic pop style and although they sold well, nothing they recorded was worthy of release as a single.

By the late 1960s, none of the original members were still with the group but the name carries on into this millennium. Today's complement is purely a commercial enterprise doing cruises, fairs, trade shows and the like, all links to the previous incarnations long since severed.

Answer: The Shoop Shoop Song

Betty Everett scored with this hit in 1964. Later in the year, she would have another top ten hit doing a duet with Jerry Butler, "Let It Be Me". Outside of a minor #26 pop hit in 1969 - it did better on the R&B charts - the remainder of her career as an entertainer would be spent doing the R&B club scene in Chicago until her death in 2001. Cher was the artist who covered the song in 1991.

The author of the lyrics was one Rudy Clark. He had a few other songs make it big. Among them: "Good Lovin'" by The Rascals, "Everybody Plays The Fool" by The Main Ingredient and "I've Got My Mind Set On You" by George Harrison. I was hoping to learn the significance of the words "Shoop Shoop" but failed miserably. A secret that will remain!

Answer: A Lover's Concerto

First, some information on the song itself. "A Lover's Concerto" was written and produced by Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell who adapted the melody from Johann Sebastian Bach's Minuet in G, a five-finger piano exercise.

The Toys were comprised of Barbara Harris, Barbara Parritt and June Montiero who were attending Woodrow Wilson High School in Jamaica, NY. The girls got together, practiced their vocalisations and would do the auditions and talent competitions hoping for a big break. It came when a talent scout spotted them, introduced them to producer Bob Crewe, who in turn channeled them to Linzer and Randell. The result was this three week #2 hit and a #18 follow-up, "Attack". They had a few more very minor hits before disbanding in 1968. Harris formed a new "Toys" group and performed on the oldies circuit during the 1990s. Parritt and Montiero performed with one of the many fake Marvellette groups that existed in the late 1960s.

A brief word about the other version. Mrs. Miller, the tone deaf grandmother, recorded this number as the B-side to her tortuous rendition of "Downtown". Amazingly, as wretched as it was, it cracked Billboard's Top Hundred for one week at #95. There's hope for us all!

Answer: As Tears Go By

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote this together early on in their collaborative career and as it continued to gather dust, the Stones' manager, Andrew Oldham, pried it loose and passed it on to another of his clients, Marianne Faithful. Her 1964 version charted at #22, the Stones 1965 release peaked at #6. It also just so happened that Jagger and Faithful were romantically linked at this time... their tempestuous relationship ended after three years of tumult.

Originally the working title of the song was, in fact, "As Time Goes By", but to avoid confusion with the old classic featured in "Casablanca", they decided to change the second word to "tears".

Answer: Crying In The Chapel

This was Presley's biggest hit between "Bossa Nova Baby" in 1963 and "In The Ghetto" in 1969. Clearly, he was in a bit of doldrums at the time, no doubt a victim of "The British Invasion".

The song was written by Artie Glenn some dozen years earlier and was a hit release for several artists in 1953.

The Orioles were the first to chart with it, a #11 in 1953. Then June Valli's cover went to #4, Darrell Glenn's to #6, Rex Allen's to #8, Ella Fitzgerald's to #15 and Art Lund's to #23.

Answer: You're The One

"You're The One" was written by Tony Hatch and Petula Clark. I have a Clark album which features her version of this song and I honestly can't believe that it was never released as a single in N. America - far superior to the Vogues' version in my opinion.

The Vogues were comprised of four high school friends from Turtle Creek, Pa. This would be one of their biggest hits along with their follow-up release "Five O'Clock World" which also peaked at #4 in 1966. Altogether, they would chart eight top 40 hits, none after 1969. Despite that, the group, with periodic shuffles in personnel, continued to perform on the oldies circuit right into the new millennium.

Answer: Ferry Cross The Mersey

Gerry & The Pacemakers were from Liverpool where they originally formed as a skiffle group in 1959. In the early years, they rivalled the Beatles for popularity in their hometown and were following the same path toward success, even spending time playing the clubs in Hamburg, Germany. In 1963 when the Beatles had three #1 hits in the U.K., The Pacemakers stood with them step for step also having three chart toppers there.

However, The Beatles evolved, The Pacemakers didn't; The Beatles became wildly popular world wide, The Pacemakers just became known world wide. The Pacemakers were conservative in their appearance preferring normal suit styles and eschewing long hair, for example. They just didn't stand out from a marketing perspective and by 1966, their decidedly lightweight pop style was out of vogue as well. They disbanded in October of 1966 with only seven top 40 hits in North America, three of which made top 10 including this #6 hit.

Gerry Marsden was recently in Calgary performing at one of our "oldies" venues and was interviewed on radio. He seemed very energetic and stated one of his professed goals now is to gather all the musicians who have performed as a "Pacemaker" over the years for one big party. It would have to be a big room - he estimates over 4,000 players have backed him up!