Songs, Alphabetically Trivia Quiz

Answer: Adelaide's Lament

"Guys and Dolls" was originally a 1950 Broadway show based on stories by Damon Runyon and turned into a movie starring Marlon Brando (really!), Frank Sinatra, Jean Simmons and Vivian Blaine as Miss Adelaide. Disappointed once again by her fiancee, she sings "Adelaide's Lament" - "In other words, just from waiting around for that plain little band of gold, A person can develop a cold".

Answer: Buffalo Springfield

Buffalo Springfield was an American-Canadian rock band whose music combined rock, folk and country music. You may have heard of some of its members which include (among others) Stephen Stills, Neil Young and Jim Messina. You may also know the song better by the lyrics "...stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down".

Answer: Carry Me Back to Old Virginia

Written by James Bland (1854-1911), an African American minstrel, it was originally called "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" and was adapted in 1878 when many newly freed slaves were struggling to find work. In modern times the lyrics became controversial as offensive to African Americans.

In January 1997 the Virginia Senate voted to retire the song; in January 2006, the State Senate panel voted "Shenandoah" as the official interim state song, which is where it still sits. Among the many famous people who sang the song were: Ray Charles, Frankie Laine, Jerry Lee Lewis, Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers.

Answer: Def Leppard

Def Leppard was formed in 1977. Their 1981 album "High 'n' Dry" was produced by "Mutt" Lange (formerly married to Shania Twain), with the song "Bringin' On the Heartbreak" becoming one of the first rock videos played on MTV in 1982. They have sold more than 100 million records worldwide and, in 2011, on "VH1 100 Greatest Artists of All Time", Def Leppard was ranked #70.

Answer: Escape

You may know the song by its parenthetical title, i.e., ("The Pina Colada Song"). Thanks to the soundtrack from the 2014 movie, "Guardians of the Galaxy" and its 70s-inspired songs, the song is making a comeback. Played constantly throughout the early 1980s, it is a light-hearted song about cheating?! The guy answers an ad in the personal section of the newspaper (prior to on-line dating) because he is bored with his marriage; lo and behold! the woman who placed the ad turns out to be his wife! Talk about a failure to communicate...

Answer: Friendly Persuasion

The song "Friendly Persuasion", from the movie of the same name, became a hit for Pat Boone. The music was written by famous composer Dimitri Tiomkin with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster. The words echoed the era of a bygone time, "Put on your bonnet, your cape, and your glove/And come with me, for thee I love"; the music is typical of the sound of the 1950s. "Friendly Persuasion" was also recorded in 1956 by the Four Aces and reached #45 on Billboard's pop music chart.

In 1969 Aretha Franklin recorded the song on her album "Soft and Beautiful".

Answer: Ginuwine

Ginuwine's birth name is Elgin Baylor Lumpkin; he was named after the great NBA forward who, like Ginuwine, comes from the Washington D.C. area. He collaborated with Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley in the 1990s. "Pony" was his first single, from the album "Ginuwine...The Bachelor" and was used in a scene from the 2007 movie "Wild Hogs". In 2001, his single "Differences" hit #4 on the "Billboard Hot 100". In 2007 he teamed up with "Tyrese" and "Tank" to form the R&B group "TGT", and their debut album "Three Kings" was nominated for a Grammy in 2013.

Answer: Hanson

Hanson is an American band from Tulsa, Oklahoma which features brothers Isaac (guitar, bass, piano and vocals), Taylor (keyboard, piano, guitar drums, vocals) and Zac (drums, piano, guitar, vocals). "MMMBop" was from their debut album "Middle of Nowhere" which earned 3 Grammy nominations but they then experienced problems with their record labels, Mercury and Island Def Jam, and they now record under their own label, 3CG Records. On June 18, 2013 they released a new album "Anthem" which charted at #22 on the "US Billboard 200"; also in 2013 they launched their own beer: MMMhops (seriously)!

Answer: Irene, Goodnight

Also known as "Goodnight Irene", the Weavers' version of the song was ranked as the #1 song of 1950 by "Billboard". It hit the Best Seller chart on June 30, 1950 where it remained for 25 weeks. The popularity of the song by the Weavers, a folk music quartet from New York City, inspired other artists from different genres to record the song.

A month after the Weavers' version, Frank Sinatra covered the tune and his rendition lasted nine weeks on the "Billboard Magazine" Best Seller chart and peaked at #5.

It has also been covered by artists from Jerry Lee Lewis to Jimmy Buffett and Eric Clapton.

Answer: Jolene

On "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of "the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2004, "Jolene" was ranked #219. The song became Dolly Parton's second solo #1 single (released prior to the album) on the country charts, with 1970's "Joshua" as her first. Among other artists who recorded "Jolene" are Olivia Newton-John in 1976, Natalie Merchant, The White Stripes and Keith Urban.
(As a challenge, see if you can identify the singers of the incorrect choices- it's an eclectic bunch!)

Answer: King of Wishful Thinking

I may have made the question more difficult by not telling you that Peter Cox and Richard Drummie formed the English pop band known as "Go West" who experienced the peak of their popularity in the mid 1980s and the early 1990s. They were named best British Newcomer in 1986 at the Brit Awards, the British version of the American Grammys. Among their other top 10 hits are two songs from their eponymous 1985 album - "We Close Our Eyes" and "Call Me". "The King of Wishful Thinking" was featured in the 1990 film "Pretty Woman".

Answer: La Bamba

"La Bamba" was a folk song originating in the Mexican state of Veracruz. In 2000, VHI ranked Valens' rock and roll version #98 of "The 100 Greatest Songs of Rock and Roll". When the record was first released on October 18, 1958, "La Bamba" was the B-side, with "Donna" on the A-side.

When Los Lobos hit #1 on the "Billboard Hot 100" with the song in 1987, Valens joined Buddy Holly ("That'll Be the Day") and J.P. Richardson ("Running Bear") with writing a #1 single, all three forever linked to the February 3, 1959 plane crash "the day the music died".

Answer: More

I hope this reference is not too obscure for the younger players, but in the early 60s you could not turn on a radio (like an ipod but it played records) or go out without hearing this song, the words having been given new English lyrics by Norman Newell...("More than the greatest love the world has known").

In 1963 "More" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song, but it lost to "Call Me Irresponsible" from the movie "Papa's Delicate Condition".

Answer: Nashville, Tennessee

I figured you might need a breather and since Branson, Missouri does not begin with an N, I thought this one might not be too tough. Nashville is the capital of Tennessee, the second largest city (after Memphis) and the center of the music industry and is alternately known as the "home of country music" and "Music City".

It is also called "The Athens of the South" as the city is host to many post-secondary educational institutions. In 2013, the city was ranked #5 on "Forbes' List of the Best Places for Business and Careers".

Answer: Ophelia

Same title...different lyrics, but it should not be confused with Simon and Garfunkel's "Cecilia" (which I sometimes do). "The Band" has "boards on the windows, mail by the door/What would anybody leave so quickly for?", while Natalie Merchant has Ophelia as "a bride of god/A novice Carmelite/In sister cells the cloister bells/Tolled on her wedding night". "The Band's Ophelia" was a song released in 1975 on the album "Northern Lights - Southern Cross"; Natalie Merchant's "Ophelia" is the title of her 1998 album, film and song.

Answer: Poison

"Poison" was formed in 1983 in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania and its members included lead vocalist Bret Michaels, Matt Smith (guitarist), Bobby Dall (bassist) and Rikki Rockett (drummer). After several name changes, the band moved to Los Angeles in 1984 and changed its name from "Paris" to "Poison". Matt Smith was replaced by C.C. DeVille and their debut album "Look What the Cat Dragged In", released in 1986, sold 4 million copies worldwide.

Their second album "Open Up and Say Ahh!", in 1988, was the one which included their hit single "Every Rose Has It's Thorn".

In 2012, "Poison" and Lita Ford toured with Def Leppard on the "Rock of Ages Tour".

Answer: Que Sera, Sera

"Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" was written in 1956 by the songwriting team of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans and appeared in the Alfred Hitchcock film "The Man Who Knew Too Much" starring Doris Day and James Stewart. This was a deviation from Miss Day's usual light comedy fare in that it was a suspenseful thriller set in Morocco.

The movie was actually a remake of Hitchcock's 1934 British film of the same name, starring Peter Lorre; however, except for the title (from a 1922 book of detective stories by G.K. Chesterton), the two movies had nothing in common.

Answer: Rock the Casbah

"Rock the Casbah" was the third single from "The Clash's" fifth album "Combat Rock". It reached #8 on the "Billboard Top 100" chart and was their only top ten single in the United States. The song was about a King who tried to ban rock music and the lyrics were inspired by Iran's ban on Western music after the Islamic Revolution in 1979; the lyrics themselves include terms from Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish and Sanskrit, e.g., casbah, bedouin, kosher and minaret. "The Clash" featured lead singer Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Nicki "Topper" Headon.

Answer: Some People

Actually, the original Broadway show "Gypsy" was a 1959 musical with words and music by Sondheim and Styne from a book written by Arthur Laurents about stripper (or ecdysiast, if you prefer) Gypsy Rose Lee or, more accurately, about her hard-driven stage mother, Mama Rose.

The song reflects Mama Rose's philosophy of life: "Some people can be content/playing bingo and paying rent./That's peachy for some people,/for some hum-drum people to be,/but some people ain't me!" In the original cast, the part of Mama Rose was played by Ethel Merman, and if you've ever heard her sing...WOW!

Answer: The Temptations

The "Classic 5" of the "Temptations" included David Ruffin, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams, Otis Williams and Eddie Kendricks. They formed in 1960 in Detroit, Michigan under the name the "Elgins". They were known for their harmonies and choreography and they helped influence the evolution of doo-wop and rock and roll into R&B and soul music. Three of their songs, i.e., "My Girl", "Just My Imagination" and "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" are among the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll". "Rolling Stone" magazine ranked them #68 of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".

Answer: Ultravox

"Ultravox", formerly "Ultravox!" and "Tiger Lilly", included lead singer Midge Ure (who took over for John Foxx), Billy Currie, Chris Cross and Warren Cann. This same line-up reformed and performed a series of reunion shows in 2009 and 2010. In May 2012, they released a new studio album called "Brill!ant" and in November 2013 they performed as special guests on a UK tour with "Simple Minds" - the rock group, that is, not the state of their mental health.

They are believed to be one of the early influences of techno and synthpop.

Answer: Vanilla Ice

Vanilla Ice is an American white rapper (hence the name), songwriter, actor and reality TV star born in Miami, Florida in 1967 - yes, he really is that old! In the early 1990s he became the first white rapper (before Eminem) to top the pop charts with his hit "Ice Ice Baby", a hip hop song he wrote with DJ Earthquake (Floyd Brown).

He wrote it when he was 16 and "Ice Ice Baby" was released on his 1990 album "Hooked"; it came out on the B-side of the record, with "Play That Funky Music" on the A-side.

It was the first hip hop single to top the "Billboard" charts, and was ranked #5 on VH1's 2004 list of the "50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs Ever"!

Answer: Wham!

The musical duo of "Wham!" consisted of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley (anyone remember him?), with back-up dancers Dee C. Lee and Shirlie Holliman. By the end of 1985, the "US Billboard" charts listed "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" at #3 and "Careless Whisper" as the #1 song of the year.

The group performed for "Live Aid" in 1985 before George Michael went on to solo fame but, in January 1991, Andrew joined George on stage at his performance at the "Rock in Rio" event in Brazil. In 1997, a compilation of songs called "The Best of Wham! was released, but it was very short (jk)!

Answer: Y.M.C.A.

Unless you were born after the 1980s, you probably remember the American disco group called the "Village People" and their on-stage costumes depicting masculine cultural stereotypes (Alanis Morissette might call it ironic), with their catchy songs like "Macho Man" and "In the Navy". Jacques Morali headed the group which portrayed a biker, construction worker, motorcycle cop, a cowboy and an Indian (or native American for p.c. purposes). "Y.M.C.A" was their greatest hit, reaching #2 on the U.S. charts; but you couldn't just sing it, you had to spell it out because "It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.".

Answer: Ziggy Stardust

"Ziggy Stardust", based on a fictional rock star (Bowie's alter ego), is from David Bowie's fifth studio album called "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars". It peaked at #5 in the UK and #75 on the "Billboard Music" charts. The album is about a bisexual, alien rock star who acts as a messenger for extra-terrestrial beings, and deals with issues like politics, sexual orientation and drug use.

While on tour in the UK, North America and Japan, Bowie actually performed as Ziggy Stardust.

But of all the strange things about David Bowie, the one that surprises me the most is the fact that he has been married to Iman since 1992!