Such a Copycat Trivia Quiz

Answer: U2

The song is from the 1991 album of the band, "Achtung Baby." It was written by Bono, the band's lead singer; it talks about a failing love story and uses images of death and betrayal. The song has been covered many times, among them Cassandra Wilson and bands Kane and the Devlins. The Jack White cover became a big success when it played in the TV series "Peaky Blinders."

"Love is blindness
I don't want to see
Won't you wrap the night
Around me?
Oh my love
Blindness"

Answer: Jacques Brel

Jacques Brel wrote the song while vacationing at the French coastal village of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin in 1964. The song, written in French, talks about sailors on leave at the port of Amsterdam. It became very popular and had many covers in many languages and by various artists. David Bowie's version was recorded in the early 1970s.

"Dans le port d'Amsterdam
Y a des marins qui chantent
Les rêves qui les hantent
Au large d'Amsterdam"

Answer: Michael Jackson

"Billie Jean" was written and recorded by Michael Jackson for his album "Thriller" in 1982. The story talks about a girl who claims to be the mother of the singer's baby. Michael Jackson was inspired for the song by the "groupies" or "fans," young girls who followed bands and singers and tried to establish relationships with them by saying that they were carrying their babies. Chris Cornell of the grunge band Soundgarden covered the song in 2007 for his album "Carry On."

"Billie Jean is not my lover
She's just a girl who claims that I am the one
But the kid is not my son
She says I am the one, but the kid is not my son"

Answer: Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel

Paul Simon, of Simon and Garfunkel, wrote the song during 1963 and 1964 and it was recorded in 1964 for their debut album "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M." Initially a musical flop, the song gained popularity and airplay in 1965 and was included in the soundtrack of the 1967 film "The Graduate." American heavy metal band Disturbed released a powerful rendition of the song in 2015 which reached number one in the Billboard Hard Rock Digital Songs.

"Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence"

Answer: Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Blues, soul, rock and roll legend, Jalacy "Screamin' Jay" Hawkins, wrote "I Put a Spell on You" in 1956 and it quickly became a cult song with hundreds of covers by many artists. Hawkins used to perform it theatrically, amidst smoke and fog, sporting a black cape and fangs and carrying a cigarette-smoking skull named "Henry." Nina Simone, Annie Lennox of the Eurythmics and Marilyn Manson gave their own versions of the song. CCR performed the song at the Woodstock Festival in 1969.

"I put a spell on you
Because you're mine
You're mine

I love ya
I love you
I love you
I love you anyhow
And I don't care
If you don't want me
I'm yours right now"

Answer: Leonard Cohen

When Leonard Cohen wrote "Hallelujah" for his "Various Positions" album in 1984, the executives of Columbia were not very enthusiastic about it. They considered it just a typical ballad. The album and the song were not an immediate success and it took two covers, one by John Cale and a later one by Jeff Buckley, for the song to become successful. Even so, Cohen's own recording of "Hallelujah" gained popularity after his death in 2016.

"Well baby, I've been here before
I've seen this room and I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew ya
And I've seen your flag on the marble arch
And love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah"

Answer: Neil Diamond

Urge Overkill sang the iconic song that became the trademark of the Uma Thurman overdose and adrenaline scene in Quentin Tarantino's film "Pulp Fiction." However, it was Neil Diamond who wrote the song in 1967 and dedicated it to all the enthusiastic young girls who showed up at his shows and tours. Urge Overkill was an alternative rock band who did a cover of the song in 1994 which Tarantino discovered in a record store and used in his film.

"Don't you know, girl, you'll be a woman soon
Please, come take my hand
Girl, you'll be a woman soon
Soon, you'll need a man"

Answer: R.E.M.

R.E.M. wrote the song in 1992 for the album "Automatic for the People." It was mainly written by the band's drummer Bill Berry although no drums are playing in the song. "Everybody Hurts" was used in 2010 as the Helping Haiti charity single in order to help Haiti after the devastating earthquake. Twenty-three artists performed for the single.

"If you're on your own in this life
The days and nights are long
When you think you've had too much of this life to hang on

Well, everybody hurts sometimes
Everybody cries
And everybody hurts sometimes
And everybody hurts sometimes"

Answer: The Cure

Gothic rock band The Cure released the song in 1989, in the album "Disintegration." It became the band's highest charting song in England and both the song and the video gained cult status in the post-punk rock British music scene. The song talks about nightmares, drug addiction and depression. Editors, a British indie band, did a spectacular cover of "Lullaby" with the help of lead singer's Tom Smith's baritone voice.

"And I feel like I'm being eaten
By a thousand million shivering furry holes
And I know that in the morning
I will wake up in the shivering cold
And the Spiderman is always hungry"

Answer: Joan Baez

In 1974, Joan Baez wrote the ballad "Diamonds and Rust," a song reminiscing of a lovers' get-together at a "crummy hotel" some ten years ago. She most probably talks about her relationship with Bob Dylan which took place in the early 1960s. Judas Priest, an English heavy metal band, put a cover of the song in their album "Sin After Sin" in 1977 and turned the beautiful folk ballad into an exciting and roaring heavy metal monster.

"Now you're telling me
You're not nostalgic
Then give me another word for it
You, who are so good with words
And at keeping things vague
'Cause I need some of that vagueness now
It's all come back too clearly
Yes I loved you dearly
And if you're offering me diamonds and rust
I've already paid"