The Top Hits of 1959 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mack The Knife

Over the years, a multitude of artists have recorded this song and several of these issues were popular enough to achieve Hot 100 chart status. It was originally recorded in 1956 with one of two titles, either "Moritat" or "Theme From 'The Three Penny Opera'". Five versions of the song charted that year ranging in peak position from number eight, The Dick Hyman Trio's rendition, to Billy Vaughn's number 37. All were pure instrumentals except for Louis Armstrong's number 20 release that featured Satchmo's vocals.

Bobby Darin recorded the classic version of 1959. It accumulated 2317.71 points based on 26 weeks in the Hot 100, 22 weeks in the top 40, 16 weeks in the top 10 and nine weeks at number one and it led all recordings in each of these respective categories for the year. Needless to say, it was Darin's biggest hit of his career and his trademark recording.

Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weill wrote the song in 1928 as part of "The Threepenny Opera" based on John Gay's "The Beggar's Opera". Marc Blitzstein wrote the English adaptation in the mid-1950s and probably deserves most of the credit for the colorful lyrics.

Answer: New Orleans

As this is written in Sept. 2005, New Orleans faces an uncertain future in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The devastation it wreaked on the community and surrounds was enormous!

This would be Johnny Horton's biggest hit of all time. It spent six weeks at number one of Billboard's Hot 100 while at the same time, occupying the number one slot of the Country chart for ten weeks. It was awarded 1880.48 points, more than 400 points less than "Mack The Knife" reinforcing just how dominant Darin's song was that year.

"Battle Of New Orleans" was written and recorded on an album by Jimmie Driftwood (nee Morris) in 1957. The song wasn't released as a single at the time because the lyrics contained those dreaded words "hell" and "damn". Just before Driftwood could return to the studio to cut a more sanitized version in early 1959, Horton beat him to the punch. At the time, Morris was a 52-year old school teacher and was composing songs with historical context to assist his students in the learning process. With the royalties from this song and several others recorded by Horton and others in the country music community, Morris was able to devote more energy to writing, performing and pursuing other interests near to his heart, music workshops for youth and land preservation in his native Arkansas. He passed away at the age of 91 in 1998 in Fayetteville.

Answer: Frankie Avalon

"Venus" was recorded by Frankie Avalon and it would prove to be Avalon's biggest hit ever, a number one song for five weeks on the Hot 100. From 1958 to 1960, twelve of Avalon's recordings forged their way into the top 40 charts making him as popular a recording act as anyone at the time.

It certainly helped that Elvis was pretty much on a sabbatical from the music industry fulfilling his military obligations in Germany. Just as Avalon's domination of the music charts was ending, he became a big movie star appearing in a number of "Beach Party" flicks with Annette Funicello. Still active in semi-retirement, he performs on the nostalgia circuit and does some infomercial work.

Answer: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

This would be The Platters last number one song and their penultimate top 10 hit. Within a couple of years, the personnel of the group would start changing as would the musical tastes of the record buying public - the magic would be over.

The song was actually composed in 1933 for the musical "Roberta" starring Bob Hope. The lyricist was Otto Harbach, Jerome Kern provided the score. It was a significant presence on the charts of 1934 with no less than four different versions vying for position. Paul Whiteman won the battle - his was the number one hit.

Answer: Donna

Only two of Valens' records were released while he was alive in his all too brief recording career. His first, "Come On Let's Go", peaked at number 42 in November 1958. The flip side of "Donna", "La Bamba" also charted, peaking at number 22 in February 1959, the same month that he died at the age of 17. He hadn't been in the recording studio enough to leave much of a legacy; apparently enough to fill an album, a few rough demos and a live tape of one of his performances at a school dance. Two other recordings were later released posthumously, but neither made much of an impact on the charts. Despite this minimal output, he was a towering influence on other artists who would follow in his footsteps, most notably Los Lobos who performed much of the music in the movie "La Bamba", the biopic on Valens' short life and career.

Even though "Donna" was not a number one hit, it was number two for a couple of weeks and remained in the Hot 100 for 23 weeks, enough to accumulate 1373.62 points.

Answer: Blue

This was the second number one song The Fleetwoods would have that year. They consisted of two gals, Gretchen Christopher and Barbara Ellis, and one fella, Gary Troxel. They formed in 1958 while all were attending high school and were performing around their native Olympia, Washington when they were spotted by the head of Dolton, a Seattle-based record company, who signed them up.

Early in 1960, Troxel was drafted into the navy and was briefly replaced by Vic Dana who had his own solo successes in the mid 1960s, most notably with the top 10 hit "Red Roses For A Blue Lady". The group formally disbanded in 1963 but reunited on several occasions over the following three decades for special engagements and the odd nostalgia tour.

Answer: Stagger Lee

The song goes by many titles, "Stag-o-Lee" and "Stacker Lee" among them. The song evolved out of a real 1895 incident in St. Louis. A fellow named Billy Lyons was shot to death in a saloon by "Stag" Lee Sheldon when some light natured bantering turned ugly. As violent as this was, one presumes that incidents like it would have been relatively commonplace in the wild and wooly port towns along the Mississippi. Nevertheless, the story became verse then a musical ballad as it worked its way down the river to New Orleans. It was first recorded as "Stackalee" by blues singer Frank Hutchison in 1927.

When Price recorded it, it was released as the "B" side to a song "You Need Love". As is so often the case, a DJ flips it over and the public goes crazy for the "B" side. The song shot straight up the charts to become number one for four weeks earning 1366.73 points en route. Dick Clark had hosted other shows where Price sang this hit but when it came to "American Bandstand", Clark wasn't sure that violence and murder was appropriate material for a teen-age audience. If Price wanted to perform the song on his show, he would have to come up with a more acceptable lyric... and he did! This second version was also released as a single to music stores and both are widely heard on radio stations to this day.

Answer: Lonely Boy

With four weeks at number one, this is arguably Paul Anka's biggest hit and the highest-ranking song of his long career, a career virtually devoid of any misstep along the way. Let's review:

First song as a precocious 15 year old hits number one, "Diana". Had 18 top 40 hits before he was old enough to get into bars and was a millionaire several times over by then as well. Was one of the first teenage rock stars to formulate a nightclub presence which held him in good stead in Vegas over the years as his audience aged with him. He performed on TV and in the movies, further diversifying his portfolio. He wrote the theme to the "Tonight Show" and Frank Sinatra's classic, "My Way" - ka-ching go the royalties. No drug issues, no messy tabloid scandals, nothing except for success. Pretty remarkable!

Answer: he has more than just heartaches, he has heartaches by the number

This was not only Mitchell's final number one hit, it would be his last top 40 hit on Billboard's charts. "Heartaches By The Number" was number one for two weeks during its 20 week chart run. It was revived as a number 35 hit in 1965 by Johnny Tillotson.

"Heartaches" was a number twelve hit in 1931 for Guy Lombardo, a number one smash for Ted Weems in 1947 and a number seven hit for The Marcels in 1961. "Heart Of Stone" has been recorded by several groups over the years, most notably the Fontane Sisters who scored a number one hit with it in 1955. Finally, "Heartache Tonight" was number one for The Eagles in 1979.

Answer: Jimmy Brown

"The Three Bells" was originally a song composed in French, written in 1945 as "Les Trois Cloches", words by Bert Reisfeld and music by Jean Villard. In 1952, it charted at number 14 as performed in its original form by Les Compagnons De La Chanson. Another version by Edith Piaf was extremely popular in France at the same time. The Browns recorded their hit version when Dick Manning provided an English translation of the lyrics. It had a 17-week run in the Hot 100 with four weeks at number one, totaling 1287.60 points.

The lead singer of The Browns, ironically named Jim Brown, is still an active performer with the Grand Ole Opry and performs this song regularly in his act.

Answer: A Lover's Question

McPhatter asked "A Lover's Question", a song that would only peak at number six on Billboard's Hot 100 but spent a commendable 24 weeks on that chart altogether to total 1271.83 points. "Question Of Balance" was the title of a 1970 album released by the Moody Blues; "Question Of Temperature" was a single released by Balloon Farm in 1968; "Questions 67 & 68" was a single released by Chicago in 1971.

McPhatter, who died prematurely of a heart attack in 1972 at the age of 39, never quite fulfilled the promise he displayed as the lead singer for Billy Ward & The Dominoes in the early 1950s. Despite being the unequivocal star of the band, he was quite a ways down in the salary pecking order and so, with his manager, decided to form his own group, The Drifters, in 1953. They were an immediate success. McPhatter was drafted into the army in 1954 and upon his release in 1955 embarked on a solo career, intent on being a crossover star in both the R&B and pop genres. He did a bit better on the R&B side only having eight entries on the Billboard Hot 100 in seven years, "A Lover's Question" easily his biggest pop hit ever. Despite his meager output as a single act, he was inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame in 1987 no doubt based on early group work and the influence he had on later singers like Sam Cooke, Ben E. King, Jackie Wilson and countless others.

Answer: My Heart Is An Open Book

Actually, this song is probably just as forgotten today as Dobkins is! I remember it as a very popular song that peaked at number three on the charts during a 24-week stint on the Hot 100. It earned 1205.15 points.

Dobkins' family moved to Cincinnati from somewhere in the Appalachians just before Carl was born and they brought their passion for country and hillbilly music with them. With the advent of rock and roll, Dobkins eschewed his roots and started singing the "new" music, albeit with something of a hillbilly slant. Apparently, he only cut 18 singles in his brief recording career, four of which managed a place in the Hot 100. He still resides in Cincinnati and performs regularly on his own and as part of large multi-group nostalgia tours.

Answer: Put Your Head On My Shoulder - Paul Anka

These lyrics comprise the entire third stanza of Anka's song, "Put Your Head On My Shoulder". The "red herring" answer is obviously Nelson's "Fools Rush In" recorded in 1963, four years later - here's a sample lyric of that song for comparison's sake:

"Fools rush in where wise men never go
But wise men never fall in love, so how are they to know?
When we met, I felt my life begin
So open up your heart and let this fool rush in"

"Put Your Head On My Shoulder" would stay in the Hot 100 for 18 weeks, in the top 10 for 11 weeks and at number two for three weeks. Altogether, it gathered 1200.33 points. It's already been revealed that Anka had the 8th biggest hit of the year with "Lonely Boy". He completed the "hat trick" of hits for 1959 with "My Heart Sings". It ranked number 79 for the year.

Answer: Come Softly To Me

A comparison of this song that accumulated 1182.17 points and the Fleetwoods' other hit for the year, "Mr. Blue", offers an interesting study (for some) of how chart dynamics influence a song's year end ranking.

"Mr. Blue" was number one for one week, "Come Softly To Me" for four weeks. One would assume that would do it - "Come Softly To Me" is the bigger hit! Nope! "Come Softly To Me" was out-scored by "Mr. Blue" in all the other ranking categories... weeks in the Hot 100 - 20 to 16; weeks in the top 40 - 17 to 12; weeks in the top 10 - 11 to 8. When those other factors are weighed in, "Mr. Blue" scored 1370.76 points, almost 200 points more than "Come Softly To Me", hence the bigger hit for the year.

I've done a very informal and hardly scientific study of all the years for which I have these statistics. Generally speaking, it seems that songs that have a nice, long run on the Hot 100 chart tend to be remembered very well years later, whether they reach number one on the chart or not. Conversely, there have been songs that have charted number one but had a mercurially brief run on the Hot 100 chart and are almost entirely forgotten a few years later. Hence, I give these point weightings considerable credence in evaluating a year's biggest hits.

Answer: Personality

Lloyd's a fool for his gal because she's got "Personality". "I'm A Fool" was a moderate number 17 hit for Dino, Desi and Billy in 1965, and "You're A Heartbreaker" was a figment of my imagination. "I'm Gonna Get Married" was yet another hit for Price in 1959 that peaked at number three and was ranked number 47 for the year. With "Stagger Lee", that gave Price three of the top 50 ranked songs for 1959, a very good year indeed!

Price soon moved into other elements of the business and although he didn't stop recording immediately, it was no longer a priority. He had three more charting hits in 1960 but by 1963, he was entirely focused on his other interests, and recording in the studio and touring were no longer in his personal equation. Most of his musical compositions were written in partnership with a long time friend, Harold Logan, and together they started up a very successful NYC nightclub and their own record company that introduced Wilson Pickett as a solo recording act. In 1969, Logan was murdered, and Price left the music industry entirely, moving to Africa to pursue other business interests. Among them was the co-promotion with Don King of Muhammad Ali's championship fights in Zaire with George Foreman and in Manila with Joe Frazier. He returned to America in the early 1980s and is back performing again on the oldies circuit on a limited schedule.

Answer: Primrose Lane

Wallace first hit the pop charts in 1954 and his last pop hit was registered in 1972. "Primrose Lane" was a million selling Gold Record and marked the apex of a career that would extend into the 1980s, albeit as a country artist. If you don't remember him for this hit, perhaps his crossover country hits, "In The Misty Moonlight" in 1964 or "Shutters And Boards" in 1963 ring a bell.

He last entered the country charts in 1980 and subsequently did commercial voice-overs and acted in several TV dramas.

As of 2005, he would be 77 years of age and in full or partial retirement, I'm sure.

Answer: Kansas City

As singer Wilbert Harrison phrased it:

"I'm gonna be standin' on the corner
Twelfth Street and Vine
With my Kansas City baby
And a bottle of Kansas City wine"

Harrison would only have two charting hits in a career that would span over forty years... this one and "Let's Work Together", a moderate number 32 hit in 1970. He recorded this song in one session for Fury records. Unfortunately, he was under contract for Savoy records at the time even though the latter company had totally neglected him for several years and it was his understanding that he was no longer committed to Savoy when he cut this song. Obviously, Savoy contested Harrison's success through the courts and although Harrison ultimately won the settlement some years later, the opportunities he should have had with follow-up releases had long since passed. He continued performing right up until his death from a stroke at the age of 65 in 1994.

I'm not sure what's on the corner of 12 St. and Vine today but on 18 St. and Vine are two museums in one that would be of interest to me at least. One part is the American Jazz Museum with particular attention to Kansas City legends such as Benny Moten and Count Basie. The other part is the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum which recalls the days when The Negro Leagues blossomed and the many black players who became legends of the game before the major leagues were integrated in 1947.

Answer: It's Just A Matter Of Time

A plaintive but meaningful lyric accommodated in a lovely melody; an emotive performance by Benton that demonstrates great vocal range and style with a silky smooth delivery; it couldn't be anything else but a hit. He wrote the song as well as the "B" side, "Endlessly" which also proved to be successful in its own right, a number 12 hit. These certainly were among Benton's better efforts in his early years, perhaps matched only by "A Rainy Night In Georgia", his last charting hit eleven years later in 1970.

Although Benton would have 24 top 40 hits altogether, 23 of them between 1959 and 1964, he seemed to lose his way in the mid-1960s. Perhaps it was the Beatle effect; perhaps the creative muses deserted him in his song writing; nevertheless, he would never again experience the steady stream of success that engulfed him in the early 1960s. He continued to perform primarily in Europe throughout the 1980s until his untimely death in 1988 at the age of 57 from spinal meningitis.

Answer: Hawaiian Wedding Song

Andy Williams recorded this hit in 1959 although many people will recall the lyric from Elvis Presley's version featured in the movie "Blue Hawaii" in 1961.

Al Hoffman and Charles E. King originally wrote the song in 1926 and its original title was "Ke Kali Nei Au". It's dubious that either of these gentlemen spoke Hawaiian so I'll conclude that it was just an instrumental piece at the time. Dick Manning, the same fellow who wrote the English lyrics for "The Three Bells" followed suit for this song. It was indeed commonly used as a wedding march during the 1960s and 1970s but I must admit I haven't heard the song in that capacity too often recently.

Answer: Why must I be a teenager in love

Dion DiMucci rounded up a couple of the best Italian doo-wop singers in the Bronx and formed Dion and The Belmonts in 1958. Because they were la crème de la crème of that niche, a record deal quickly followed and within a few months their first records were widely played and charting on The Hot 100. "A Teenager In Love" was their biggest hit to that point but in 1960, Dion went solo and in a different direction.

He abandoned the doo-wop ballad style for the raw energy of rock and scored several big hits with classics like "Runaround Sue", "The Wanderer" and "Ruby Baby". By 1963, his heroin habit that began in the late 1950s became a full-fledged addiction and he essentially retired from show business while undergoing treatment. Rebounding in a big way in 1968 with "Abraham, Martin and John", he continues to perform and record the same style of folk/blues/spiritual music without the emphasis being placed on making them huge commercial chart successes.

He's doin' okay!

Answer: Peter Gunn

The show "Peter Gunn" was a better than average private eye pot-boiler but the theme music and the music heard throughout the show was outstanding by any standard. In 1959 alone, Mancini would release three albums featuring music from the TV series and one of them would be number one on the Billboard Album chart for ten weeks!

Ray Anthony was a refugee of the big band era and he is widely remembered for three things: 1. He composed and performed the title music for the TV series "Dragnet"; 2. He was responsible for that brief dance craze "The Bunny Hop"; and 3. Performing this song!

Mancini also graduated from the big band era and started making his mark scoring the music for a couple of biopics, "The Glenn Miller Story" in 1954 and "The Benny Goodman Story" in 1956. It was his music from "Peter Gunn" that put him in a different echelon and he followed that up with the score from "Breakfast At Tiffany's" including the all-time classic "Moon River". Other terrific scores ensued: "Days Of Wine And Roses", "Charade", "The Pink Panther", and "Romeo And Juliet", the theme from which would become his only number one Hot 100 hit in 1969. Altogether, he would win four Oscars and an amazing 20 Grammies and by all accounts, no one has ever won more. He died of cancer in 1994 at the age of 70.

Answer: Tiger

Poor Fabian! After his big 1959, his first release in 1960 was a double-sided entry, both of which were barely top 40 hits, and his recording career was effectively over. What went wrong?

To be brutally honest, he couldn't sing! He was signed to a record contract primarily because of his name, Fabiano Forte, a name record producer Bob Marcucci found intriguing and because of his matinee idol good looks. This was the era of payola and apparently, his records benefited to a large degree because of that practice... his record company paid off DJ's to play them. In congressional hearings regarding the payola scandal, Fabian, under oath, admitted that his records were also electronically dubbed to improve the "quality" of his voice. That was the death knell.

To salvage his mortally wounded career, he turned to acting. He had a starring role in the forgettable "Hound Dog Man" to spur interest in his song of the same title and a reasonably big part in "North To Alaska". Thereafter, if the movie was good he had a bit part (i.e. "The Longest Day) and if he had a more prominent role, it was a grade B or lower biker or beach film. By the 1990s, he was primarily involved as a movie, TV and music producer and making the odd appearance on the "oldies" circuit.

Answer: comb

Kookie was a pretty self-absorbed, jive talking dude always combing his hair to maintain his suave looks. In the song, Connie thinks that he is "the utmost" and wants to kiss him... but she can't while he's always attending to his coif! Actually, the whole thing was hilarious in a goofy way.

Answer: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Julia Ward Howe wrote this masterpiece in 1862 after visiting a Union army encampment along the Potomac. At the time, they were singing "John Brown's Body" and she composed the new lyric to fit the music originally written by William Steffe. Her poem was published in "The Atlantic Monthly" and shortly thereafter, the "new" song was being regularly performed and became synonymous with the Union cause.

Howe, a daughter of a wealthy New York City banker, was an active crusader of many causes over her life including the abolition movement during this era and then, later, the suffragette movement at the turn of the 20th century. She died at the age of 91 in 1910.

For this recording, the 375 voice Mormon Tabernacle Choir joined forces with The Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by the famous Eugene Ormandy. Without question, this would rank as the most classical, and patriotic, song ever to hit the Hot 100 chart during the rock era.

Answer: The Children's Marching Song

There were two hit versions of the song in 1959; Cyril Stapleton, a British Orchestra conductor had the higher charting version reaching number 13 on the Hot 100. His version was entitled "The Children's Marching Song" (Nick Nack Taddy Whack). Mitch Miller's competing version, "The Children's Marching Song", came close but stalled at number 16. Stapleton's version charted for 14 weeks, accumulated 602.16 points and just squeezed in as the 100th ranked song for the entire year.

I only have one version of this song myself, Stapleton's. It seemed to me that the lyrics were a little bit different from what I remembered them to be as a child. Then it occurred to me that Miller's version might have been a little bit different too and I'll just bet that if this song ever made it to the playgrounds and schoolyards of Australia, South Africa or Hong Kong, slightly different versions were sung there. For example, for seven I thought the old man played nick nack "on the way to heaven"; all the lyric websites I visited quote that he played nick nack on his "deven". What the heck is a deven? I also always assumed that it was "paddy whack" not "taddy whack". I welcome feedback on this and other burning issues!