Rolling Stones All-Time 500 Songs Numbers 41-50 Quiz

Answer: The Weight

The song was on the 1968 album "Music from Big Pink". The song peaked at number 63 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 21 on the UK Singles chart. According to Robbie Robertson, who wrote most the lyrics, the song was influenced by surreal Spanish filmmaker Luis Bunuel. Levon Helm, a member of The Band, mentioned that some of the characters in the song are based on real people. There really was a "Crazy Chester"!

"New Rose" is a seminal song from the Damned.
"Turn, Turn, Turn" is by the Byrds.
"Like a Rolling Stone" is by Bob Dylan and the number one song on Rolling Stone's list.

Answer: The Kinks

The single was released in 1967 off the "Something Else by the Kinks" album. This Kinks song was called "possibly the most beautiful song of the rock and roll era" by "Allmusic" senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine. It is up there amongst my favorite Kink's songs. Ray Davies did a memorable performance of the song at the closing ceremonies of the London Olympics in 2012.

Answer: Little Richard

The song was written by Little Richard and Dorothy LaBostrie. It was released in 1955 off the album "Here's Little Richard". Of the opening lyric, Rolling Stone magazine declared in 2012 that the song "still contains what has to be considered the most inspired rock lyric ever recorded". That opening lyric is "A-wop-boom-a-loo-mop-a-lomp-bom-bom". Inspired? Well, it is fun!

Answer: Ray Charles

The song was written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell in 1930. The version on Rolling Stone's list was on the 1960 Ray Charles' album "The Genius Hits the Road". It spent one week at number one in the USA on the Billboard Hot 100 in November, 1960.

Answer: Elvis Presley

The song was released by the "King" as a single in January 1956 in the USA. Two legends played on the single, Chet Atkins on guitar and Floyd Cramer on piano. It spent seven weeks on the top of the Billboard singles chart in 1956 and was Presley's first million-selling single.

A side note: One of the most popular hotels in Elvis' adopted hometown of Memphis, Tennessee is called "Heartbreak Hotel".

Answer: David Bowie

This 1977 release was written by Bowie and Brian Eno. They were inspired by a German group called Neu! who released a song in 1975 entitled "Hero".
It is off the album of the same name.

Answer: Simon and Garfunkel

This huge hit was written by Paul Simon and vocalized by Art Garfunkel. It reached number one on the singles charts in both the UK and the USA. It won two Grammys in 1971, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. It is off the 1970 album of the same name.

Answer: The Jimi Hendrix Experience

The Jimi Hendrix Experience cover was released in 1968 off "Electric Ladyland", six months after Dylan's 1967 single release. The Hendrix version reached number five on the UK singles chart and number 20 on the Billboard chart in the USA. Dylan has acknowledged that Hendrix's version improved on his song and when he performs it, he does the Hendrix version.

He was quoted from the booklet in his "Biograph" album that, "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way". That from the writer of the song!

Answer: Hotel California

The song is off the album of the same name that was recorded in 1976. The song was released as a single in February 1977, and spent one week at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. According to the members of the Eagles who wrote the song, Don Felder, Glenn Frey, and Don Henley, the song was about the hedonism and greed in the 1970s music industry, and about the underbelly of the American dream.
An extra bit of trivia, the word "colitas" heard in the song is Mexican slang for the buds of a cannabis plant.

Answer: Smokey Robinson and the Miracles

The song was released in 1965 from the album "Going to a Go-Go". Never more was Smokey's silky voice more evident than on this song. Like the British group ABC sang "when Smokey sings I hear violins". Johnny Rivers' version a few years later actually charted higher than the Miracles' version.