The Top Hits of 1971 - From 1 to 10! Quiz

Answer: NO

The correct title was "Joy To The World" although I suspect a number of people familiar with the song don't know that. We shall see!

By penning this Number One hit, Hoyt Axton became part of the only mother/son combination to write a Number One song. Mae Axton is accorded writing credits for Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel". When asked who Jeremiah the bullfrog was, Hoyt noted that it was no one. He wrote the line as "a marker", a temporary device to note rhyme and meter within the lyric. He intended to alter that particular line with something more fitting but, for some reason, the song was recorded before he could do so.

Answer: Maggie May

Rod Stewart always dreamed of being a star in his youth... as a football (soccer) player. Found wanting as an athlete, his pipes and interpretive skills as a vocalist ultimately led him to achieve the stardom he craved.

Originally he was a folk singer in the early 1960s but with the development of British style rock and roll, he soon found himself in front of various bands in the middle of the decade before joining the Jeff Beck Group in 1966. They disbanded in 1969 but with the exposure he attained in the interim, he was recruited for The Small Faces which simply became "The Faces" and was offered a solo record contract at the same time. Ultimately, Stewart's success as a solo artist created rifts within the group and they broke up in 1975 leaving Stewart to pursue a solo career which has since prospered for over three decades. He is a star with a capital "S".

Answer: It's Too Late

This was the breakthrough solo hit for Carole King taken from the "Tapestry" album, one of the biggest selling albums of all time.

King, by this time, had long been established as a major contributor to the rock and roll music scene. In the movie "American Hot Wax", the story of Alan Freed and the roots of rock and roll, a character named "Teenage Louise" portrayed by Laraine Newman plays a pivotal role. I'm convinced that character was based on Carole King who was a constant part of the Freed entourage. Nevertheless, along with Gerry Goffin, who would eventually be her husband, she wrote a litany of big hits throughout the 1960s as one of the resident writers of the famous Brill Building. King did have a minor chart success in 1962 as a soloist with "It Might As Well Rain Until September" but lacking confidence in herself as a performer and liable to episodes of stage fright, she contented herself with the songwriting role. She and Goffin split sometime in the late 1960s and at first I thought that this song might have been autobiographical in nature dealing with their marital breakdown. However, King wrote the music for this piece and a collaborator named Toni Stern was the lyricist... so maybe not. Despite her fears as a performer, close friend James Taylor encouraged her to return to the recording studio to do the "Tapestry" album and the results speak for themselves. She remained reasonably active throughout the 1970s but has only recorded periodically since then preferring to champion environmentalism.

Answer: Knock Three Times

Specializing in simple but catchy rhythmical songs, this would be the first of three Number One hits that Tony Orlando and Dawn would record. It was followed by their biggest hit ever, "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree" in 1973 and "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)" in 1975.

Other hits included "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose", a Number Three in 1973 and "Steppin' Out (Gonna Boogie Tonight", a Number Seven in 1974. Altogether they would have a total of 14 Top 40 hits before breaking up in 1976, a legacy which enabled them to be listed as the 16th most productive group of the 1970s.

Answer: Cherokee

This song has had a topsy-turvy history. It was composed by the prolific songwriter, John D. Loudermilk, in the 1950s and originally recorded by a Cherokee native in 1959, Marvin Rainwater, without much success. Then came Don Fardon's recording in 1968. Why someone from England recorded it to begin with is something of a mystery. Research as I might, I can provide no insights! Nevertheless, it performed adequately in the States but, as Fardon relates it, "the record sold four copies in the U.K. and I bought three of them". When the cover was released in 1971 by The Raiders, it proved its mettle with this lofty ranking. Strangely, however, The Raiders' version was not the international hit... Fardon's record company seized the opportunity to re-release his record and it was the one that topped the charts in several other nations around the world.

The song is brief and expresses the discontent of the Cherokee tribes being compelled to leave their homeland on the infamous "trail of tears", forced to give up their natural way of life and live on reservations.

Answer: One Bad Apple

Listening to this song in 1971, it wasn't immediately clear whether this was The Jackson 5 or The Osmonds vocalizing. Indeed, it was the latter but it was apparent that after the success of The Jackson 5 in 1970, The Osmonds had to respond to maintain a presence among their core group of listeners.

They did, using precisely The Jackson 5 template... a high energy song that had particular appeal with 10 to 15 year olds. More on this later in the quiz!

Answer: My Sweet Lord

The first former Beatle to top the Billboard charts, George Harrison, "the quiet one", came out of the shadows of Lennon and McCartney to assert himself with this hit. First, some chart stuff. Although Number One in the U.S. for four weeks, it performed much better elsewhere in the world. It was Number One on the Toronto CHUM charts, considered to be the standard bearer for Canada, for six weeks commencing on December 5, 1970, the first major market to recognize it as a chart topper. Later, it was Number One in the U.K. for five weeks and in Australia for eight weeks. As such, it was deemed to be the biggest hit worldwide for 1971 by the Oz-Net Music Chart Archive, and probably rightfully so!

The song remained in the news for several years thereafter. Claiming that it bore a remarkable resemblance to The Chiffons' hit of 1963, "He's So Fine", the rights holder of that song and the estate of Ronnie Mack, the song's composer, launched a plagiarism suit against Harrison. Ultimately, in 1976, the judge awarded them $587,000.00 in damages ruling that Harrison "subconsciously plagiarized" the song. Later, Harrison indicated that the inspiration for his song was the 1969 song "Oh Happy Day" released by The Edwin Hawkins Singers, but never "He's So Fine"... okay, maybe subconsciously.

Answer: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart

If only one word could be used to describe the Bee Gees' career, that word would have to be resilient. They were the comeback kids!

Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb, the brothers Gibb (hence, Bee Gees), began performing publicly in the mid-1950s in their native England, singing in movie theatres between features. At the time, Barry was eight years of age and his twin brothers were five. The family moved to Brisbane, Australia in 1958, honed their skills and became a very popular local act during the early 1960s. With the advent of the British invasion in the early to mid 1960s and not achieving the success they envisioned in Australia never mind globally, they decided to return to Britain in 1966 intent on capitalizing on the burgeoning music scene there. Their first release, "New York Mining Disaster 1941", was a reasonable success in 1967 and subsequent releases over the following 18 months did even better. "Massachusetts" and "I've Got To Get A Letter To You" hovered around the Top 10 on Billboard but reached Number One on the U.K. charts. They slumped badly in 1969 and 1970 but bounced back mightily in 1971 with this hit and the Number Three "Lonely Days". Three fallow years ensued before their incredible comeback in 1975 when they were the poster children for the "disco" era. They owned the charts with eight Number One hits over a four year period. Then, an incredible backlash movement to disco music in the early 1980s made them "personae non grata" for virtually the entire decade. True to form, they finally returned to the charts in 1989 for one last hurrah, the Number Seven hit "One". Although they continued to record during the 1990s, no single hits were forthcoming and when Maurice passed away suddenly in 2003, Barry and Robin decided to formally shut down the act.

Answer: One Less Bell To Answer

This Bacharach/David composition was among the last of the big hits The 5th Dimension would have. Several factors were at play leading to the decline of the group. First, they were initially steered excellent material to work with from the pens of Jimmy Webb and Laura Nyro. Those resources were drying up and nothing was coming along to replace them. Secondly, they were really a "one of a kind" type of a group fusing pop, psychedelic and R&B into an appealing mix to a wide range of listeners. Musical tastes were gradually changing and the group was struggling to adapt. Thirdly, they were the beneficiary of excellent production work from Bones Howe.

He went on to greener pastures in 1974 and the group would never again have another significant charting single. Finally, the departure of original members Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis in 1975 to pursue a career as a duet signaled the death knell.

The group has persevered as a quintet into the new millennium with two original members, Lamonte McLemore and Florence LaRue, and performs regularly in Vegas and on various nostalgia circuits.

Answer: Donny Osmond

It's interesting to parallel the career paths of The Osmonds and The Jackson 5 and their respective lead vocalists, Donny and Michael.

The Osmonds were first out of the gate performing regularly on the Andy Williams Show from 1962 to 1967. Donny joined the group in 1963 at the age of six. Perhaps emboldened by The Osmonds' success, The Jackson 5 were formed in 1963 when Michael was five and despite not having the exposure of the Osmonds, they superseded them in popularity by 1970 when they released four consecutive singles that hit Number One on the charts. The Osmonds would only have one Number One hit, period, and by 1975 were a spent force. Meanwhile the Jacksons maintained a relatively high level of popularity well into the mid 1980s. Donnie, however, was the first to crack the charts as a solo artist with this hit and "Sweet And Innocent", a Number Seven hit released earlier in 1971. He recorded several top 10 songs during the early 1970s but, mirroring the group's fate, had no hits at all after 1976 until a brief chart comeback toward the end of the 1980s. Michael had a handful of top 10 hits in 1971 and 1972 climaxed with his Number One hit "Ben" but throughout most of the decade, his focus was the Jackson 5. When he went solo in the 1980s, he became a megastar as we all know but maybe Donnie ultimately gets the last laugh. Through his work on Broadway, his career has experienced a recent revival while Michael's is in shambles after a well-documented series of scandals.