Sing Me A Cauliflower Trivia Quiz

Answer: Carrots

The song was made famous by the music hall performer Harry Champion (1865-1942), one of the most famous East London singers and comedians. The chorus of this song includes the lines:

"Don't live like vegetarians,
On food they give to parrots.
Blow out your kite, from morn 'til night,
On boiled beef and carrots."

"Kite" is a slang term for the stomach. Food and drink were popular subjects for music hall songs, and Harry Champion also sang "A Little Bit of Cucumber" (1915), "Let's Have a Basin of Soup" (1911) and "Home Made Sausages" (1912).

Answer: Vindaloo

Fat Les consisted of the bass players Alex James and Guy Pratt (who both wrote the music) and actor/comedian Keith Allen (who wrote the words). It was written and recorded as a joke to mark England's appearance in the 1998 FIFA World Cup, but its self-mocking words and catchy chorus proved surprisingly popular. Indeed, the song was rather more successful than the football team, which went out 4-3 on penalties (as usual) to their old footballing rivals, Argentina, in the first knockout round.

To give a brief flavour of the song, one verse goes:
"Me and me mum and me dad and me gran
We're off to Waterloo.
Me and me mum and me dad and me gran
And a bucket of vindaloo."
The word "Vindaloo" is then repeated multiple times in the style of a football chant.

Fun fact: Keith Allen is the father of the singer Lily Allen.

Answer: I Am a Cider Drinker

The Wurzels were formed in 1966 by the Somerset folk singer and song writer Adge Cutler, and over the next few years became a popular local group. When Cutler was tragically killed in a car accident in 1974, the group began to branch out by recording versions of popular songs but with rewritten lyrics on West Country themes. Perhaps to their surprise, these became nationally popular, and their 1976 "Combine Harvester Song" (based on Melanie's 1971 song "Brand New Key") became a UK Number One hit.

In 1976, "I Am a Cider Drinker", based on "Paloma Blanca" by the George Baker Selection, did almost as well, reaching number three in the UK charts. As a sample of the song's flavour, the chorus goes:

"I am a Cider Drinker,
I drinks it all of the day,
I am a Cider Drinker,
It soothes all me troubles away,
Ooh arrh, ooh arrh ay,
Ooh arrh, ooh arrh ay."

As of 2021, the band was still performing.

Answer: Sausage Rolls

The song, by LadBaby, was a parody of Starship's 1985 rock classic "We Built this City on Rock and Roll". LadBaby, real name Mark Hoyle, was a British
blogger who became popular for his social media content about being a young father. He and his wife, Roxanne, recorded the song to raise money for the Trussel Trust, a food-bank charity. They released two subsequent charity Christmas songs, "I Love Sausage Rolls" (2019) and "Don't Stop Me Eating" (2020), both of which also made the coveted Christmas Number One spot.

As an introduction to both the song and the sausage roll itself, the first verse goes:

"If you've never had one,
And don't recognise the taste,
It's a cylindrical bit of pork, wrapped
In a puff pastry case.
Beige, baked and golden,
Holier than grace.
Grab it whilst it's piping hot,
And shove it in your face."

Answer: Rock Lobster

The rock lobster is also known as the spiny lobster, crawfish or langouste, depending on where you are in the world. It's just as tasty whatever you call it, of course.

The song was written by Fred Schneider and Ricky Wilson, and was the first single released by the B52's. Although it only reached number 56 on the US Billboard Hot 100, it was a massive hit in Canada, where it reached number one on the RPM chart.

The somewhat opaque lyrics begin:
"We were at a party,
His ear lobe fell in the deep.
Someone reached in and grabbed it,
It was a Rock Lobster.
Rock Lobster!
Rock Lobster!"

Answer: Clementine

A clementine is a small citrus fruit, a hybrid between a mandarin and an orange. It is named after the French missionary Clement Rodier, as it was first formally identified in 1902 in the garden of his monastery in Algeria.

The song was written by Harry Montrose in 1884, so his Clementine actually pre-dates the fruit by some 18 years. She is a young lady who is the daughter of a miner in the Californian Gold Rush, who unfortunately falls into a river and is drowned because her lover is unable to swim. The chorus goes:

"Oh my darling, oh my darling,
Oh my darling, Clementine.
You are lost and gone forever,
Dreadful sorry, Clementine."

Answer: Champagne

"The Night They Invented Champagne" is a song from the 1958 musical "Gigi" by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. It is sung by Gigi herself (a somewhat frivolous young girl), Madame Alvarez (her grandmother), and Gaston (a wealthy young man-about-town). "Gigi" was originally written as a film musical, and starred Leslie Caron in the title role, although it was later successfully adapted for the stage.

As Gigi sings:
"The night they invented champagne,
It's plain as it can be,
They thought of you and me.
The night they invented champagne,
They absolutely knew,
That all we'd want to do
Is fly to the sky on champagne."

Answer: Bananas

Harry Chapin (1942-81) wrote the country-style song for his 1974 album "Verities and Balderdash". It tells a rather tragic tale about a truck loaded with bananas travelling down a steep hill into Scranton, Pennsylvania, when the brakes fail. The truck careers out of control into the town, where it crashes, killing the driver and spreading bananas everywhere. It is based on a real-life incident from 1965, which Chapin claims to have heard about while he was on a Greyhound bus driving through Scranton.

The song begins slowly with the words:

"It was just after dark when the truck started down
The hill that leads into Scranton Pennsylvania.
Carrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas,
Carrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas."

It then accelerates, as does the truck.

Answer: Scrambled Eggs

"Frasier" was a spin-off from "Cheers", starring Kelsey Grammer as Frasier Crane, and originally ran for 11 seasons from 1993 to 2004. The song is sung over the end credits by Grammer himself, with the music composed by Bruce Miller and lyrics by Darryl Phinnessee. Miller later explained that the "tossed salads and scrambled eggs" are meant to represent the confused, mixed-up people who call in to Frasier's radio show.

The words of the song are:

"Hey baby, I hear the blues a-callin'
Tossed salads and scrambled eggs
And maybe I seem a bit confused
Yeah maybe, but I got you pegged!
Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha!
But I don't know what to do with those tossed salads and scrambled eggs
They're callin' again."

Answer: Tea

"No, No Nanette" was written by Vincent Youmans (music) and Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach (lyrics), based on Frank Mandel's 1919 play "My Lady Friends." It opened on Broadway in 1925, where it had a run of 321 performances. "Tea For Two" is sung by Nanette and her suitor, Tom, as they imagine a blissful life together away from all the temptations of the city. They sing:

"Picture me upon your knee
Just tea for two
And two for tea
Just me for you
And you for me alone."

The song became quickly popular around the world. Famously, in 1927 the young Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich orchestrated it in 45 minutes from memory, having been bet 100 roubles that he couldn't do it. He called his version "Tahiti Trot" and published it as his Opus 16.