The Singer Not The Song (Part 2) Quiz

Answer: Hank Williams

The lyrics also mention the Grateful Dead:
"Walkin' with the devil on a twisted road
Listenin' to The Dead on the radio"

And the lyrics also mention by inference Roy Orbison:
"Singin' in the place where I first saw Roy
Playin' that place gave me so much joy."

The lyrics also give a nod to Bob Dylan, however no mention of him is specifically given, not even a nickname or just his first name:
"First time I heard 'Like A Rolling Stone'
I felt that magic and took it home."

Answer: Jimmy Buffett

Jimmy Buffett's "Escape to Margaritaville" opened in San Diego in 2018 and then on Broadway in February of 2018. It received tepid at best reviews and closed after 124 performances.

The song "Mota" features him in this lyric:
"I don't know if I'm understood
Buy hearing Jimmy Buffett never sounded so good
Your memory's gone and so is your life (your life)"

Answer: Salt N Pepa

"It was all a dream, I used to read Word Up! magazine
Salt-n-Pepa and Heavy D up in the limousine."

The song is basically about his beginnings and the people he listened to and was influenced by in his rap. "Juicy" was his first hit as a solo performer. Amongst the many influences he tips his hat to are: Marley Marl, Ron G, Brucie B, Kid Capri, Funkmaster Flex, Lovebug Starski, Junior Mafia, and Mr. Magic.

Answer: Prince

"Woke up on the right side of the bed
What's up with this Prince song inside my head?
Hands up if you're down to get down tonight
'Cause it's always a good time."

Owl City is the stage name of Adam Young. He is a performer from Minnesota and decided to team up with an artist from even further north than Minnesota, Carly Rae Jepsen, a native Canadian. As this song's title might suggest, Mr. Young told MTV news that he wanted to write a song that "anybody from any walk of life can sing." He picked Carly Rae Jepsen to work with because of the contagiousness of her smash hit "Call Me Maybe."

Answer: Elvis Presley

"She's a good girl, loves her mama
Loves Jesus and America too
She's a good girl, she's crazy 'bout Elvis
Loves horses and her boyfriend too."

The other singers mentioned were bandmates of Tom in the group The Traveling Wilburys. And so was Jeff Lynne, who co-wrote "Free Fallin'" with Tom. Mike Campbell was the regular guitarist in Tom's group The Heartbreakers and he worked on the "Full Moon Fever" album as well. In interviews he gave, it's illuminating to hear how astonished he was at the musical genius of Jeff Lynne. Campbell talks about how Jeff would start from the bare bones when he started out producing a track and then add gradually more and more components until after only five or six hours there was a hit song created before his eyes.

Answer: Ronnie Spector

"Take me home tonight
I don't want to let you go till you see the light
Take me home tonight
Listen honey
Just like Ronnie sang
Be my little baby."

This might be the only song in this series of quizzes in which the singer mentioned in the lyrics also sings the pertinent lyric in the song. Ronnie Spector sings on the chorus when it gets to the line "Be my little baby" which of course is based on the great 1963 song "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes. According to Entertainment Weekly, Ronnie Spector was enthused to participate as soon as she heard that lyric. She also talked about how blown away Eddie Money was in the recording studio, simply overwhelmed with awe that Ronnie Spector was actually singing on his record.

Answer: Frank Sinatra

This song comes from the band's 1987 album "If I Should Fall From Grace With God." This particular song details the historical event of the potato famine in Ireland that propelled so many Irish immigrants to come to America's shores. The song's titled is borrowed from "A Fairytale of New York", a book by James Patrick (JP) Donleavy.

"You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging,
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on a corner
Then danced through the night."

Answer: Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash

"Now, me and Delia singing every Sunday,
Watching the children and the garden grow.
We listen to the radio to hear what's cookin',
But the music ain't got no soul.
Now they sound tired but they don't sound Haggard,
They've got money but they don't have Cash.
They got Junior but they don't have Hank.
I think, I think, I think, the rest is,
A long time gone"

"Long Time Gone" is from the Dixie Chicks' 2002 album, "Home." The song is a lament over the sorry state of today's country music in which the songwriter Darrell Scott feels like the soul is gone from country music. Mr. Scott also recorded the original version of this song and it appears on is 2000 album "Real Time."

Answer: Kurt Cobain and Brian Jones

While the Rolling Stones' Brian Jones (1942-1969) did die before the song was written in 1973 and therefore would have been an "eligible" candidate, Kurt Cobain on the other hand died in 1994, long after it was written. But actually that fact wouldn't necessarily prevent him from being mentioned in subsequent versions rewritings of the song.

In fact, the song was actually recorded before the Righteous Brothers took it on in 1974. The originators were a band called Climax (remember "Precious and Few"?) and their 1973 version didn't chart.

But they had Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens mentioned in their version. The Righteous Brothers replaced those two names with Jim Croce and Bobby Darin. Why didn't the Climax version think of putting Croce and Darin in the lyrics? Because they were alive at the time they first wrote it.

Answer: John Lennon

Only John Lennon is mentioned in both songs:

In "The Devil's Sidewalk":
"Big wheel's still rolling
Down on me
One thing I can tell you
Is you got to be free
John Lennon said that
And I believe in love
I believe in action
When push comes to shove."

...and in "American Pie":
"And while Lennon read a book on Marx
The quartet practiced in the park
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died."

Although by now it is mostly known that Don McLean wrote "American Pie" based on the airplane crash that killed Buddy Holly, he does not however, ever mention Holly's name in the song, and Neil Young certainly doesn't in his song. And although McLean by now has admitted to meaning Elvis Presley ("the king") and Bob Dylan ("the jester") in his lyrics, again, he never mentions their names, and again Mr. Young certainly didn't.