The Who, What, When, Where, & Why Music Quiz

Answer: Baha Men

Well, woof woof, "Who Let The Dogs Out?" was a number one in Australia and New Zealand in 2000 and number two in Ireland and the UK. Americans, it seems, had better musical taste: it only got to number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100. Baha Men were a calypso/fusion group from the Bahamas and "Who Let The Dogs Out?" was originally released in 1998 by Anslem Douglas, a singer from Trinidad.

This little piece of nonsense won a Grammy in 2001, which shows just about how good this quiz author is at judging songs.

Answer: Dinah Washington

"What a difference a day made
Twenty-four little hours
Brought the sun and the flowers
Where there used to be rain..."

Dinah Washington recorded this track in 1959. It was based on the 1934 Mexican original, "Cuando vuelva a tu lado" ("When I Return to Your Side"). Washington's version reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100, number one on the R&B charts.

A plethora of other singers also recorded the song and it was on the soundtrack of up to a dozen movies. A British television company also played the song over a compilation of action by the West Ham United football goalkeeper Mervyn Day - a player who was shamefully overlooked for an England cap.

Answer: Percy Sledge

"When a man loves a woman
Can't keep his mind on nothin' else
He'd trade the world
For a good thing he's found..."

It's funny how a song can be recorded dozens of times, yet will always be "owned" by one singer and for "When A Man Loves A Woman" that singer was Percy Sledge.

He sang it from personal experience, and made the lyrics up onstage one night in a club in Sheffield, Alabama. Music store manager and producer, Quin Ivy, was there and heard the song and help Sledge make it smoother lyrically.

Sledge was not the first to cut a single, but when he did it became a huge hit, the first number one on the Billboard Hot 100 to be recorded at the now famous Muscle Shoals, studio in Alabama.

Answer: U2

"I want to run, I want to hide
I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside
I wanna reach out and touch the flame
Where the streets have no name..."

This was the opening track on the album "The Joshua Tree" and was produced by Brian Eno.


Bono wrote it about Belfast: a place where backgrounds matter and differences can be detected on very simple information. In a 1987 interview, Bono said: "An interesting story that someone told me once is that in Belfast, by what street someone lives on you can tell not only their religion but tell how much money they're making - literally by which side of the road they live on, because the further up the hill the more expensive the houses become. That said something to me, and so I started writing about a place where the streets have no name."

Answer: Kris Kristofferson

Why me Lord, what have I ever done
To deserve even one
Of the pleasures I've known
Tell me Lord, what did I ever do
That was worth l­oving you
Or the kindness you've shown..."

Kris Kristofferson had become a well regarded writer and singer of country songs in the late 1960s and 1970. In 1973 he released "Why Me?", and it became his biggest success to that date.

Kristofferson later said in concert he had written it after a benefit he played" "The night before we'd been down in Cookeville with a bunch of people, doing a benefit for Dottie West's High School band or something and then Connie took me over to church the next day to Jimmie Snow's church. And I had a profound religious experience during the session, something that never had happened to me before. And 'Why Me' came out of it.

It was to be his only number one on the Country chart, and reached number 16 on the Hot 100. The, the song is sometimes listed as "Why Me Lord?".

Answer: The Who

"Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?..."

The song was written by Pete Townsend about his experiences during and after a meeting in Tin Pan Alley. It was the title track of The Who's 1978 album. The single reached number 14 in the USA and number 18 in the UK. It reached number seven in Canada.

Sung by Roger Daltry, it became the theme song for the CBS series "CSI Crime Scene Investigation: in 2000. The loud "yeah" you hear on that track was spliced in from another Who number, "Won't Get Fooled Again".

Answer: Jimmy Ruffin

"...What becomes of the broken-hearted
Who had love that's now departed?
I know I've got to find
Some kind of peace of mind
Maybe..."

"What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" was a typical Tamla Motown writers' collective song that was originally intended for The Detroit Spinners. When Ruffin sang it for them, the writers, Jimmy Dean, Paul Riser, and William Witherspoon, preferred his version. Smokey Robinson produced the single.

Released in 1966, it became a top 10 hit in the USA, UK, and France, but only number 18 in Canada.

The song was initially intended to be the theme for the 1992 movie "The Bodyguard", but the producers ended up choosing Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You".

Answer: John Prine

"When I get to heaven, I'm gonna shake God's hand
Thank him for more blessings than one man can stand
Then I'm gonna get a guitar and start a rock-n-roll band
Check into a swell hotel, ain't the afterlife grand?..."

John Prine wrote "When I Get To Heaven" in 2013 after two brushes with cancer. He died in 2020 from compilations after contracting Covid-19. Prine was one of the most articulate lyricists of his generation, often finding a voice for the unfortunate or the underprivileged. He was discovered singing at an open mic session at a Chicago nightclub in 1970.

Twelve times nominated for a Grammy, he won on three occasions, including a lifetime award in 2020.

Answer: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

"They call me The Wild Rose
But my name was Elisa Day
Why they call me it I do not know
For my name was Elisa Day..."

"Where The Wild Roses Grow " was a song by the ever lugubrious Aussie Nick Cave. He claimed to have written it speculatively as a duet with Kylie Minogue. "It was a miracle that she agreed to do that song," Cave told the "Daily Telegraph" in 2014", adding that Minogue's record company had not been happy about the idea.

Their single reached number two in Australia and number 11 in the UK.

Answer: Lady Gaga

"...Why did you do that
Do that, do that, do that, do that to me?
Why did you do that
Do that, do that, do that, do that to me?..."

Lady Gaga co-wrote "Why Did You Do That?" for the soundtrack of her 2018 movie "A Star Is Born".

The critics did not like the song. Some wondered if the intention had been to write "a bad pop song".