Song by Song: "Give A Little Bit" Quiz

Answer: Love

The song opens:

"Oh, yeah
Alright
Here we go again
Hey hey, whoa no, da na, hey hey, yeah
Give a little bit
Give a little bit of your love to me
Give a little bit
I'll give a little bit of my love to you."

Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson share writing credits for the song. Supertramp was founded in London in 1969.

Answer: The Golden Rule

Ultimate Classic Rock website rated "Give A Little Bit" Supertramp's number one song, followed by "Bloody Well Right." The website said, "Hodgson's singalong paean to the Golden Rule has since completely transcended its respectable, but not massively huge, number 15 showing on the charts."

The Golden Rule, found in the Bible, is a statement of Jesus's that one should "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Answer: All You Need is Love

"I'm A Believer" was a song by the Monkees. Hodgson told Songfacts, "That time, the late '60s, early '70s, was a very idealistic time, one of hope, a lot of peace and love and the dream of the '60s was still very alive and maturing, if you like. The Beatles had put out 'All You Need is Love' a year prior to that. I believed in love - it was always for love - and just felt that was the most important thing in life."

Answer: Even in the Quietest Moments

"Blonde on Blonde" is a Bob Dylan album. "Famous Last Words" was released in 1982 and "Paris" in 1980. "Even in the Quietest Moments" was Supertramp's fifth studio album. "Give A Little Bit" peaked at number 15 on the U.S. Billboard Pop Singles chart and 29 on the UK Singles chart. The album reached number 16 on the U.S. Billboard 200.

Answer: Clavinet

For the album, Rick Davies supplied clavinet, piano, and backing vocals. "Give A Little Bit" uses a Hohner clavinet, which is played through a Leslie speaker in the bridge of the song. A clavinet is an electrically amplified clavichord, which is a stringed rectangular keyboard frequently used in the Renaissance age.

Bob Siebenberg played drums for the album, while Roger Hodgson played acoustic and electric guitar and supplied lead vocals.

Answer: care

"There's so much that we need to share
So send a smile and show you care
(Alright)."

The song follows an irregular rhyme scheme, but two of the main verses end with rhymed couplets: "share" and "care" here, and "eyes" and "surprised" in a later verse.

Answer: lonely

"I'll give a little bit
I'll give a little bit of my life for you
So give a little bit
Give a little bit of your time to me
See the man with the lonely eyes
Oh, take his hand, you'll be surprised."

In Martin Melhuish's "The Supertramp Book," published in 1986, Supertramp's drummer Bob Siebenberg recalls trying out various drum concepts for this song and eventually deciding on using the snare drum to give it "something almost like a train beat."

Answer: home

"I'll give a little bit of my life for you
Now's the time that we need to share
So find yourself, we're on our way back home
Oh, going home
Don't you need, don't you need to feel at home
Oh yeah, we gotta sing
Oh yeah, you gotta get a feeling
Oh, yeah, come along too
Whoo!"

This song makes use of a great deal of use of various rhetorical devices of repetition.

According to Martin Melhuish in his 1986 book "The Supertramp Book," a version of "Give a Little Bit" was recorded for intended release on "Paris," a live album, but the song was ultimately not included because the band didn't like the quality of any of the recordings.

Answer: In the elevators of a music studio

The 12-string acoustic guitars used in "Give A Little Bit" were recorded inside of the glass and metal elevators of the recording studio. This gave the guitars a brighter sound and enhanced the ringing tone.

Answer: The Goo Goo Dolls

The Goo Goo Dolls' July 4 live performance of "Give A Little Bit" was released as a single on October 5, 2004 and later included on their album "Live in Buffalo." The single was released in November of 2004. It peaked at 37 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and at number one on the U.S. Billboard Adult Top 40. The song was also recorded on the eighth studio album of The Goo Goo Dolls, "Let Love In," which was released in 2006. It was, according to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), one of the most played songs in the ASCAP repertoire in 2005.