The Top Hits of 1973 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tie A Yellow Ribbon (Round The Ole Oak Tree)

The toughest part of this question for me was to come up with three logical distracters!

The concept of yellow ribbons to remember those who were elsewhere was hardly a new one. It was common practice in the Civil War for spouses and girl friends of Union Cavalry men to wear them in their hair while their men were serving in battle and was the focal point in the 1949 John Ford movie "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon".

How it became a pop standard is a different story. In 1971, newspaper columnist Pete Hamill wrote an article about an ex-con who, upon his release, was heading home to be with his wife, if she would take him back. As the song relates, if a yellow ribbon was tied around the old oak tree in the town square, he knew he was welcome... if not, he would just stay on the bus. Allegedly, he heard the story from college kids who had befriended the ex-con on that bus. Songwriters Irwin Levine and Russell Brown registered a copyright on the song title and apparently wrote the song in just a few minutes. Hamill launched a lawsuit claiming that his story was the genesis of the song and that he deserved appropriate compensation. However, defense lawyers noted the previous history of yellow ribbons and Hamill dropped the suit. The song returned to the forefront in 1981 when American's tied yellow ribbons around trees during the Iranian hostage crisis, then again during the Gulf War in 1990. It remains a common practice to this day.

Tony Orlando and Dawn performed the song and it was their most successful hit ever. Virtually all their biggest hits came from the collaborations of Brown and Levine.

Answer: Let's Get It On

Marvin Gaye was in the studio recording a song entitled "Let's Get It On" written by Kenny Stover. It was in the same vein as a number of hits he had just recorded like "What's Going On" and "Inner City Blues", a politically oriented statement about the ills rampant in society. Gaye's friend Eddie Townsend, best remembered for the 1958 hit "For Your Love", happened to be listening in and exclaimed "Hey, 'let's get it on' should be about a man and a woman 'getting it on'". Immediately, Townsend and Gaye worked out a new arrangement for the song and this was it, Gaye's second biggest success after "I Heard It Through The Grapevine". Oozing with sexual tension, it shot straight to the top.

The songs that were ranked third and fourth for 1973 are being omitted from this quiz. Third was Kris Kristofferson's "Why Me" that only peaked at 16 but spent an astounding 38 weeks within the Hot 100. Largely forgotten today, it was his personal plea to Jesus to take him in his arms despite being unworthy. The fourth ranked song was "My Love" by Paul McCartney. It's tough to craft a lyrically oriented question when virtually every line contains the title.

Answer: Bad, Bad Leroy Brown

Almost all of Jim Croce's compositions were experiential in nature... things he did and felt, people he encountered, situations he observed and so on. The real Leroy Brown was a fellow he met while in basic training for the National Guard in the mid-1960s. Something of a character, Brown went AWOL but returned to base later to pick up his pay cheque when he was promptly arrested and tossed into the brig. Croce knew he would write a song about him eventually and this was it.

Born in 1943, Croce dabbled in music until his freshman year at Villanova University when he started to take it more seriously. He performed with several bands during his college years and after graduation in 1965, continued to do so while also teaching and working as a laborer and truck driver to make ends meet. All the while, he continued to write songs. Finally, he was noticed, signed a record deal in 1972 and immediately released a couple of albums. The first album, "You Don't Mess Around With Jim" yielded his first top 10 hit, the title song, while the second album featured this hit. Unfortunately, Croce's great promise was only partly fulfilled. He was killed in a plane crash in September of 1973. Posthumously, his first album rose to Number One on the album charts and another song from that debut album, "Time In A Bottle", reached Number One on the Hot 100 in December. Other than compilation albums, Croce had only recorded enough material for two other albums but his songs are fondly recalled to this day.

Answer: You're So Vain

The opening bass riff sets up the mystery of this song beautifully. "Who is Carly Simon singing about?" was the question everyone was asking. James Taylor? Warren Beatty? Mick Jagger? Cat Stevens? Simon herself dismissed Taylor as a suspect and married him about a month before the song was released. Only one person knows the answer for sure other than her.

In 2003, a charity auction was held in Martha's Vineyard and Dick Ebersol, the president of NBC sports, paid $50,000.00 for the privilege of getting in on "the secret".

He was contractually bound never to reveal the answer but he was allowed to say that the culprit's name contained an "e". That lets me out! Most fingers point to Beatty.

Answer: Killing Me Softly With His Song

Roberta Flack sang "Killing Me Softly With His Song" and it won three Grammys that year - Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Pop Female Vocalist of the Year. It was the first time in Grammy history that the same artist had recorded back to back Records of the Year, Flack having won the year before with "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face".

The song was originally recorded by a young lady named Lori Lieberman in 1971. She had seen a performance by Don McLean prior to his "American Pie" days and was so riveted by it that she wrote a poem about the experience. Songwriters Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox composed the song based on her poem. While on a flight, Flack heard the song on the in-flight music system, found the sheet music later and worked three months to jiggle it around to suit her vocal style.

Flack's success at this time was hardly serendipity. It was a product of hard work honing her skills. She had graduated from Howard University at the age of 19 in 1958 and had worked as a school music teacher and performed opera before singing jazz and soft pop for a number of years in various Washington, D.C, clubs. When she was finally "discovered" in 1968, it still took four years for her to gain recognition with these two songs. As she now approaches her 70th birthday, she still records and tours extensively.

Answer: Midnight Train To Georgia

Let's review the options here. "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love" by the Spinners was not a Number One hit so it's out. "Touch Me In The Morning" was a Number One hit sung by Diana Ross but she was a Motown act at the time. Eliminated. The other two songs were recorded by Gladys Knight and the Pips but "Midnight Train To Georgia" was the one they recorded on the Buddah label. "Neither One Of Us" peaked at three on the charts and was one of the final hits they recorded for Soul records, a subsidiary of Motown.

The group was formed in 1952 when Gladys was only eight years old and by the time they had their first hit recording in 1961, it was a quartet - her and three male cousins. Although they were dependable hit producers for Motown from 1964 to 1973, they were still primarily a second tier act to the label's superstars - Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, The Temptations and Stevie Wonder. Their halcyon years were 1973 and 1974 when they had a series of four top five songs with Buddah starting with this one but their turn at the top was brief, their last top 40 hit occurring in 1975. The Pips retired sometime during the 1990s but Gladys continues to record an eclectic blend of music ranging from Gospel to jazz.

Rounding out the top ten ranked songs for 1973 were those in the eighth and ninth positions that I chose to skip for this quiz. The eighth ranked song was "Keep On Truckin" by Eddie Kendricks, a raunchy R&B dance number. At nine was a country crossover hit by Charlie Rich, "The Most Beautiful Girl". Both were Number One hits for a couple of weeks but neither were lyrically memorable.

Answer: Crocodile Rock

"Crocodile Rock" was a lament to the long lost days of early rock and roll. It has been loosely compared to Don McLean's "American Pie" for that reason and indeed the core themes are similar. Needless to say, McLean's song was far more complex as he allegorically comments on what happened after the "day the music died" whereas John merely reminisces about those "good old days".

Elton John was burning up the charts between 1972 and 1976. During that period, he had 16 Hot 100 hits, 14 of them achieved Top 10 status and six were Number One, "Crocodile Rock" being the first. Curiously, his first solo Number One in the U.K. did not occur until 1990 with the double sided hit "Sacrifice"/"Healing Hands", neither of which were Top 10 on Billboard!

Answer: Drift Away

Your other choices: "Brother Louie" was a two week chart topper for the one hit wonder The Stories although the hit version in the U.K. was recorded by Hot Chocolate. "We're An American Band" was Number One for Grand Funk. "Rock On" was a Number Five success for David Essex in 1974.

Dobie Gray recorded the moody "Drift Away" and it was his biggest chart hit ever. His only other notable recording was his rendition of "The 'In' Crowd" which charted at Number 13 in 1965. Primarily an R&B singer in his early days, he slowly "drifted away" into country music by the 1980s and most of his success in that genre has been as a songwriter rather than as a performer.

Answer: Live And Let Die

Like Elton John, Paul McCartney was having one heck of a run of hits at this point in time. Despite his miss with this hit, he would have six Number One songs for the decade and another nine which would peak within the top 10. In one resource, Joel Whitburn lists McCartney as the leading recording act of the 1970s but in another, he gives Elton John the nod and I can't clear up this discrepancy. Suffice to say it was one or the other!

As this was the theme song to the eighth James Bond movie, I was curious as to how those sorted out by rank. Altogether, there have been 21 Bond movies and here's how the title/main song of each made out.

1."View To A Kill" - 1985 - Duran Duran - charted at Number One for two weeks.
2."Nobody Does It Better" from "The Spy Who Loved Me" - 1977 - Carly Simon - charted at Number Two for three weeks, 25 weeks on the Hot 100.
3."Live And Let Die" - 1973 - Paul McCartney - charted at Number Two for three weeks, 14 weeks on the Hot 100.
4."For Your Eyes Only" - 1981 - Sheena Easton - charted at Number Four
5."Die Another Day" - 2002 - Madonna - charted at Number Eight
6."Goldfinger" - 1964 - Shirley Bassey - charted at Number Eight
7."Thunderball" - 1965 - Tom Jones - charted at Number 25
8."All Time High" from "Octopussy" - 1983 - Rita Coolidge - charted at Number 36
9."You Only Live Twice" - 1967 - Nancy Sinatra - charted at Number 44
10."Diamonds Are Forever" - 1971 - Shirley Bassey - charted at Number 57
11."You Know My Name" from "Casino Royale" - 2006 - Chris Cornell - charted at Number 64.

The following theme songs were never hits: "James Bond Theme" from "Dr. No" by John Barry in 1962, "From Russia With Love" by Matt Munro in 1963, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" by Louis Armstrong in 1969, "Man With The Golden Gun" by Lulu in 1974, "Moonraker" by Shirley Bassey in 1979, "The Living Daylights" by a-ha in 1987, "License To Kill" by Gladys Knight in 1989, "Goldeneye" by Tina Turner in 1995, "Tomorrow Never Dies" by Sheryl Crow in 1997, and, "The World Is Not Enough" by Garbage in 1999.

Now we all know!

Answer: Stuck In The Middle With You

This song provided one of the lighter moments amidst the violence in Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs". "Coconut" by Harry Nilsson was also used to similar effect in that blood and gore flick.

The song was performed by the short lived group Stealers Wheel. Formed in 1971, it essentially was a duo of Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan with a variety of sidemen instrumentalists filling in behind them. The union between Rafferty and Egan was always a fractious one and after a follow-up LP, they parted ways in 1975. Unfortunately, it was rather an acrimonious parting and during the three year period of litigation it took to settle their affairs, neither was able to initiate a solo career by court order. When the dust settled, Egan released a couple of LP's in 1979 and 1981 to little fanfare then left the entertainment business altogether. Rafferty had a bit more success. His 1978 single "Baker Street" did very well as did the LP it was featured on. His next two album projects were also successes, albeit not to the same level, but all his work subsequent to 1982 has largely been overlooked. His last studio crafted CD, as of this writing, was released in 2000. Given that he much preferred recording to performing live, that may be a hint that he has now settled into retirement as well.

Answer: Rocky Mountain High

In 1963, a young folk singer named Henry John Deutschendorf adopted the stage name of John Denver in honor of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado that he grew to love as a child. This song was an autobiographical, heartfelt ode to those environs.

In the summer of 1972, Denver, his wife and a few close friends went to Williams Lake in Colorado to witness the Perseid Meteor Shower. In his autobiography, he recalls that it was a moonless night and the light from the stars were so intense that they created shadows - "The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullaby". Around midnight the meteor showers began. The cavalcade of "falling stars" elicited the thought that it was "rainin' fire in the sky". Denver was in the midst of recording an album at the time and this experience compelled him to write a song about it. "Rocky Mountain High" became the centerpiece of the LP and the single became his first hit since "Take Me Home, Country Roads" in 1971.

Answer: Smoke On The Water

Recorded by Deep Purple, this Number Four hit has become their signature song. The lyrics recall a true story. Deep Purple were in Montreux, Switzerland on Lake Geneva in 1971 to record an LP at a studio that was located in the casino there. During a Frank Zappa concert at the venue "some stupid with a flare gun burned the place to the ground". Time was of the essence so the band quickly found alternate accommodation at the Grand Hotel and recorded the album at a mobile recording studio owned by the Rolling Stones that was located just outside the hotel.

The album, "Machinehead", was their biggest ever, went Platinum and sold over two million copies. The group started to splinter in 1974 and dissolved entirely in 1976. They re-formed in 1984 and with several personnel permutations over the years since, they continue to record and perform as of 2008.

Answer: Kodachrome

Following the break-up of Simon and Garfunkel in 1970, "Kodachrome" was Simon's biggest solo hit up to this point in time. Eventually, he set the bar higher in 1976 with his Number One smash "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover". This song was not released in the U.K. since the BBC had, and probably still does have, a policy that they would not air music with direct commercial references. This song had two of them - Kodachrome and Nikon cameras. The Beatles were ensnared by the same regulation with "Come Together" which mentions Coca-Cola in the lyric.

Paul Simon rarely writes softball lyrics and the intent of this song or the story behind it is somewhat unclear to me. On the face of it, it appears to be an indictment of the education system in the U.S. where perhaps, in his view, things are taught as being "black or white", where there is no room for interpreting other views between those extremes. Some analysts have concluded that it's a whack at the music industry that placed shackles on the artist's right to artistic expression, the opportunity to use other colors on their palette besides what the industry perceived as proper. Who knows!

Answer: The Cover Of The "Rolling Stone"

Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show recorded this light hearted romp and they got their wish... just after the song peaked, they were indeed featured on the cover of "The Rolling Stone" on March 29, 1973! Among the other unusual hits of 1973 were these "classics": "Dead Skunk", a Number 16 hit for Louden Wainwright III; "Uneasy Rider", a Number Nine hit for The Charlie Daniels Band; and, "Basketball Jones Featuring Tyrone Shoelaces", a Number 15 hit for Cheech and Chong.

Dr. Hook, as they renamed themselves after this hit, began as a bar band in New Jersey in the late 1960s playing mostly country music but developing a reputation as a zany bunch apt to do most anything during their gigs. Their big break occurred when their manager hooked them up with Shel Silverstein, cartoonist, author and composer, who was looking for the right band to be an outlet for some of his compositions. At the time, he was best known for writing "A Boy Named Sue" for Johnny Cash. Right out of the gate, the group scored a hit with "Sylvia's Mother" and this song, both Silverstein's handiwork. The following years were mostly lean ones, recording-wise anyway, until the end of the decade when they were re-invented as quasi-disco oriented balladeers. They scored with such hits as "Sharing The Night Together", "When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman", and "Sexy Eyes" but lead singer Ray Sawyer, the "Dr. Hook" of the group with his distinctive eye patch, was disenchanted with the artistic direction the group was taking and chose to leave. With that, the band seemingly lost their identity and eventually called it a day in 1985. Today, Ray Sawyer tours as Dr. Hook, leasing the name from the other original co-founder of the group, Dennis Locorriere.

Answer: Do It Again

Steely Dan made this their first Billboard hit. Like Stealers Wheel, the "group" was really a duo consisting of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen backed by session musicians. Frequently though, those sidemen were the same guys like guitarist Denny Dias and drummer Jeff Porcaro. Apparently, actor Chevy Chase was frequently a drummer in the earliest days of the group.

Like most of Steely Dan's songs, what this one is about is open to conjecture. The interpretation that seems most apt to me is that we humans tend to act habitually. The criminal becomes recidivist, people repeat the same mistakes when choosing mates and then there are those chronic gamblers. We just "do it again"!

From 1972 to 1980, they would conjure up an album a year, eight all together and every one of them went gold and seven went platinum, quite an achievement. They decided to part ways amicably in 1981 but have reunited twice since then. In 1994, they toured together very successfully but the "live" album release was their first miss. It only charted for five weeks. Then, in 2000 they returned to the studio for the first time in 20 years and released yet another platinum disc, "Two Against Nature", that was awarded a Grammy for Album of the Year. We may not have seen the last of them yet!