Signature Songs 09: The 1990s Trivia Quiz

Answer: MC Hammer

"Please Hammer, Don't Hurt Them" sold more than ten million copies primarily on the strength of this single. The track sampled Rick James' "Super Freak". The song debuted live on "The Arsenio Hall Show" in 1989. It won two Grammys in 1991, for Best R&B Song and Best Rap Solo Performance.

Answer: The Gin Blossoms

According to the magazine "Rolling Stone", Douglas Hopkins, the author of "Hey Jealousy", destroyed his gold record after dreaming about getting one for years, after a mere two weeks. Hopkins was deeply troubled, and in 1993 committed suicide. At his funeral, a woman told the band that Hopkins was the one who put sugar in the gas tank of the tour bus in 1992.

The band fired Hopkins due to his alcoholism during the recording sessions of their hit album "New Miserable Experience".

Answer: Britney Spears

Britney Spears' debut album "...Baby One More Time" sold over 25 million copies and has become the most successful debut by a teenage artist. It's also the most successful debut album as well. "Oops!... I Did It Again", with its constant refrain of "I'm not that innocent" helped broaden Spears' image beyond the teenage bubblegum teenage pop.

"...Baby One More Time", Britney Spears' first major hit, debuted in November 1998. Spears, however, was the second choice for the track. Max Martin, the song's author, originally wrote the song for TLC. After TLC rejected the song, Martin began shopping the song around. Britney Spears recorded the song. The song has gone on to be one of the biggest singles in Billboard history.

Source: Songfacts
Britney Spears

Answer: The Goo Goo Dolls

The Goo Goo Dolls wrote "Iris" for the "City of Angels" soundtrack. The song proved a massive hit, and the track was later marked for inclusion on their sixth studio album "Dizzy Up the Girl". This was the first track the band ever wrote specifically for a movie.

At the time of its release in 1990s, this song bore the distinction of being the longest charting number one single in Billboard Hot 100 Airplay history. The song held the top position in the charts for a staggering eighteen weeks.

Answer: R.E.M.

Like several other great bands, it is debatable what R.E.M.'s signature should should be classified as. From the early part of their career, that designation most likely goes to "Radio Free Europe", "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", "and "The One I Love".

In the early 1990s, R.E.M. shifted gears and released the massive single "Losing My Religion" for their "Out of Time" album (which is in my opinion their most uneven album to date, although it has some of their best material). "Everybody Hurts" is also another major song in the R.E.M. canon. Although "Shiny Happy People" has long been one of the band's more popular songs, just like "Wonderwall" for Oasis and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" for Nirvana, the band became disillusioned with the song

"Shiny Happy People" was the last Top Ten hit R.E.M. had in the 1990s, peaking at Number Ten in the Billboard Hot 100 and at Number Six in the UK Singles chart, making it the only R.E.M. song to break the top ten in both countries. Stipe does not like the song at all and the track was not included on their 2003 compilation album "In Time". The track appeared on R.E.M.'s album "Out of Time". As of 2010, was the last R.E.M. single to break the Top Ten. The band has since disowned the song, and excluded the track from their greatest hits compilation "In Time" from 2003.

Answer: Celine Dion

Jim Steinman wrote the song in the 1980s, and according to Meat Loaf gave the song for him to record for a "Bat Out of Hell" album. The song first appeared on "Original Sin', an album by Pandora's Box that featured songs written by Steinman. Elaine Caswell was the original vocalist. By the 1990s, Steinman thought the song should be sung by a woman and did not want Meat Loaf to record the song. It wasn't until the 2006 "Bat Out of Hell III" project that Meat Loaf finally got to record the track.

There are fourteen songs on "Original Sin", though two are covers, one by The Doors ("Twentieth Century Fox") and Burt Bacharach ("My Little Red Book" recorded by Arthur Lee and Love on their first album).

Of the twelve original songs on "Original Sin", six of them were reused by Meat Loaf for "Bat Out of Hell II", "Bat Out of Hell III", and "Welcome to the Neighborhood".

Answer: Sarah McLachlan

The song "Building a Mystery" is from Sarah's 1997 album "Surfacing". During television/radio performances she changed the line to "a beautiful messed up man". Sarah said this about the song:

"Basically, it's about the fact that we all wear masks at some point in our lives. We all have insecurities that we want to hide, and often we try and hide them by putting on a facade that appears to be more interesting to people. But, unfortunately, if we would just be who we are, that's usually quite a more attractive and beautiful thing"

-Sarah McLachlan, VH1 Storytellers

Answer: Nicki French

"Total Eclipse of the Heart" became Nicki French's signature song when she released her version in the early 1990s. The more famous version, however, is by Bonnie Tyler, though that was in the 1980s, not the 1990s.

Written in the 1980s, Bonnie Tyler scored a major hit with "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in 1982. The song came from her fifth studio album "Faster Than the Speed of Night"

Jim Steinman originally gave both "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "Making Love (Out of Nothing at All)" to Meat Loaf for his 1982 album, "Midnight at the Lost and Found". However, Meat Loaf's record company refused to pay Steinman for the songs. Bonnie Tyler recorded "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in 1983 and had a huge hit with it. Air Supply had made "Making Love (Out of Nothing At All)" a hit as well.

Answer: Whitney Houston

Dolly Parton first released the track as a single in 1974. The song was written about her business partner and mentor, Porter Wagoner, and appeared on Parton's album "Jolene". Her single went to Number One on the Billboard Hot Country Songs but was not nearly as successful on the pop charts. In 1982, she recorded a new version of the song for the movie "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas". In 1995, and after Whitney Houston's massive success with the song, she recorded a third version. This time it was a duet with Vince Gill. This version peaked at Number 15. The song also appears as a live version on her 2008 "Backwoods Barbie" album, though this time as an exclusive iTunes bonus track.

In 1992, Whitney Houston was going to record Jimmy Ruffin's song "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted" for the soundtrack to "The Bodyguard", her film debut. However, that song was slated to appear in the film "Fried Green Tomatoes". Houston's cost-star, Kevin Costner, suggested "I Will Always Love You" and let Houston listen to the Linda Ronstadt version that appeared on her 1975 album "Prisoner in Disguise". Houston's recording became one of the most successful singles of all time, selling over twelve million copies and regularly appearing on critics' "Best of" list throughout the years since its initial release. The single spent a record smashing fourteen weeks at Number One on the Billboard Top 100, and is also the longest number one single from a soundtrack album. Houston picked up two Grammys for the recording in 1994: Record of the Year, and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female.

Answer: Alanis Morrissette

"You Oughta Know" propelled Alanis Morrissette into stardom. The song "You Oughta Know" is one of the first "Grudge songs" that Alanis wrote, in which apparently a person early in her life entered into a sexually inappropriate relationship with Alanis while Alanis was very young. Other songs written about the same relationship are "The Grudge", "Hands Clean", and "Flinche". According to "The Grudge" Alanis wrote at least eleven songs about this relationship. Although there is speculation that the song is about the "Full House" cast member Dave Coulier (who plays Joey Gladstone), my personal belief is it's about Leslie Howe who was the producer to Alanis's first two albums in Canada.

Red Hot Chili Peppers band members Flea performed base on the track and Dave Navarro did guitar. Navarro said ""Flea and I did that song together in the studio. It was already written with different instrumentation and we were asked to kind of re-write the music; a lot like a re-mix. The structure of the song was in place but there were no guide tracks, we just had the vocal to work from. It was just a good time and we basically jammed until we found something we were both happy with. Alan's was happy too." [Source: Dave Navarro's blog]

"Jagged Little Pill" was Alanis's international debut. She released two albums in Canada before "Jagged Little Pill". These were "Alanis" from 1991 and "Now is the Time" from 1992. They are very different from anything Alanis has recorded since. They are similar to teen bubblegum pop of Debbie Gibbons, Tiffany, and early Britney Spears. "Jagged Little Pill" is one of only five albums that stayed in the Billboard Top Ten Album charts for over a year. The other albums are "Thriller" by Michael Jackson, "Falling Into You" by Céline Dion, "All the Right Reasons" by Nickelback, and "Fearless" by Taylor Swift. Although there is no title cut, the title "Jagged Little Pill" is drawn from the lyrics of "You Learn". The lyrics are "Swallow it down, what a jagged little pill/ It feels so good swimming in your stomach" and come from "You Learn". The single went to Number Six on the Billboard Top 100, and included a live version of "You Oughta Know" from the 1996 Grammys.

"Jagged Little Pill" was nominated for six Grammys, winning four. She won "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance", "Best Rock Song", "Best Rock Album", and "Album of the Year" She was nominated, but did not win, "Best New Artist"
and "Song of the Year".

In 2005, Alanis re-recorded an "acoustic" version of the album, though it still has a lot of instruments. Lyrically, the album is identical to the original with a single exception. In "Ironic", Morissette changed the line from "meeting the man of my dreams and then meeting his beautiful wife" to "husband". The original version was nominated for a Grammy for Record of the Year but lost to Eric Clapton's "Change the World".

The first song that Alanis and Glen Ballard wrote for "Jagged Little Pill" that appeared on the final album was "Perfect", written and recorded in twenty minutes. The first song that they wrote together was an unreleased song called "The Bottom Line". There six known unreleased songs from the "JLP" sessions: "Keep the Radio On", "Bottom Line", "Beautiful Intent", "Aura", "No Avalon", "Superstar Wonderful Weirdos". There is also an alternate version of Ironic with a slight line change.

The TV show "Dawson's Creek" was initially going to use "Hands in my Pocket" as its theme song. Alanis decided not to license her song "Hands in my Pocket" to "Dawson's Creek" after the show was picked up by the networks. Only the unaired pilot used the song. The verses of "Head Over Feet" are in the key of C Major. The choruses, however, are in D Major. "Head Over Feet" was her first top ten single in the United Kingdom.

Alanis recorded acoustic versions of seven songs from "Jagged Little Pill". Alanis released "Space Cakes" as an EP as a Japan-only release in 1995. These songs recorded during this radio show were: "Head over Feet", "Right Through You", "Forgiven", "Perfect", "Not the Doctor" and "You Learn", in order in which they appear on the EP. Alanis also performed the unreleased "Hand In My Pocket", which was broadcast but mysteriously not included on the EP. The performance was recorded in the NOB Studios in Hilvdersum, the Netherlands.