Vinyl Memories: My First Record Quiz

Answer: Hey! Little Girl

Del Shannon had a number 38 hit with "Hey! Little Girl" on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1962. It reached number two on the UK singles chart the same year. The UK B-side was "You Never Talked About Me", the US B-side was "I Don't Care Anymore".

I actually bought "Hey! Little Girl" by default. I went to see a UK pop movie called "It's Trad, Dad!", ("Ring-A-Ding Rhythm" in the US) in 1962. It was truly awful in the tradition of UK Rock and Roll/Pop movies of the time except for the music. No long hair (there was some about in the UK even then), lots of smoking, nice posh accents and terrible acting from its two main stars, singers Helen Shapiro and Craig Douglas. A lot of the movie was taken up by Trad. Jazz which was very popular at the time. Del Shannon and other American singers just had movie clips of them singing slotted in and took no part in the actual movie.

Later I went to all the main record shops on Merseyside, including Brian Epstein's NEMS in Liverpool, but could not get a copy of the song "You Never Talked About Me" that Del Shannon had sung in the movie. As a last resort I went to a local record store but did not hold out much hope of getting the record there. I asked for the record but they had not heard of it. Just as I was leaving, the woman behind the counter said "We do have his latest record in stock, "Hey! Little Girl"." So I bought that instead but on my way to catch the bus home I took the record out of the bag to look at it and when I turned it over, there was "You Never Talked about Me" on the B-side.

So, I had been to all these record shops which must have had "Hey! Little Girl" in stock as it was Del Shannon's latest release. Not one of the people selling records had bothered to look on the B-side of it, and me not knowing it was the B-side never asked them to. I could not even play the record when I got home because I didn't own a record player. I had to take the record round to a friend's house to play it. I just hope Del Shannon appreciated the trouble I took to buy his record.

Question supplied by shipyardbernie.

Answer: Turning Japanese

"Turning Japanese" was The Vapors' second single and it reached number three in the UK charts and got the number one spot in Australia! It was the band's only real success, although they released two albums and six singles. It's the song they are most remembered for. The song was written by the band's front man, David Fenton, who worked as a solicitor before getting the band together, and when they split up (1981) he went back into the legal profession, specialising in the law regarding the music industry.

My mum was keen for my sister and me to get into music as she had been an avid record buyer in the 1960s, so she took us into town to get our first vinyl. I had seen the band on Top Of The Pops and when we got to Boots (I never understood why a chemist's (pharmacy) sold records), I knew which single I wanted. My sister got "Poison Ivy" by The Lambrettas. Although I was already in the habit of leaping around the sitting room to my mum's records (The Small Faces and Manfred Mann were my favourites), my own bit of vinyl became my prize possession. I was only eight years old and a life-long addiction to music had begun.

The red herrings: "Bangkok Shocks, Saigon Shakes, Hanoi Rocks" was Finnish band Hanoi Rocks' debut album. It came out in 1981.

"Pictures of Lily" was a single released by The Who in 1967.

"Chinese Rocks" was written by Richard Hell and Dee Dee Ramone in 1976. It has been performed by both chaps' bands (The Heartbreakers and The Ramones), as well as by many others.

Question supplied by thula2

Answer: Chad & Jeremy

This was released in the US on August 16, 1966. At that time, I was 13 years old. I bought this album from a record shop for less than $4.00 (US cost)! I first saw Chad & Jeremy on "The Dick Van Dyke Show" television show aired in the US on February 10 1965. The episode was titled "The Redcoats Are Coming".

"Sweet soft summer nights
Dancing shadows in the distant lights
You came for me to follow
And we kissed on distant shores."

What a great song by a great duo! Chad & Jeremy were from England where they only had one minor chart hit but were much more popular in the US.

Question supplied by kennell.

Answer: Shout

The version of "Shout" by Johnny O'Keefe, also released in 1959, rose to number three in Australia and was a huge hit for him. When I first bought this record I played it over and over and over again and never got sick of listening to it. Even now when I hear it over 50 years later, I still get a buzz from it.

The version by the Isley Brothers rose to number 47 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became their first gold single. In 1962 the version by Joey Dee & the Starlighters reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100 with the version by the Isley Brothers again charting the same year at number 94. The Scottish singer Lulu's version rose to number seven in the UK in 1964. She re-recorded the song in 1986 and it rose to number eight in the UK.

In 1999 "Shout" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and on the "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of Time" it is ranked 118. The song was also heard often in the 1978 movie "Animal House".

I can't resist putting in some of the lyrics:

"We-eee-eeel....

You know you make me wanna (Shout!)

Kick my heels up and (Shout!)

Throw my hands up and (Shout!)

Throw my head back and (Shout!)

Come on now (Shout!)

Don't forget to say you will

Don't forget to say, yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

(Say you will)."

Question supplied by wenray.

Answer: Zenyatta Mondatta

This was the third studio album by the Police (Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland) and is definitely a favorite of mine. The two successful singles released from this album ("Don't Stand So Close to Me" and "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da") are actually my least favorite tracks from it.

"Atom Heart Mother" is Pink Floyd's fifth studio album, released in 1970. The title track has six parts and takes up the entire side one.

Heart released "Bebe le Strange" in 1980, and this also was the band's fifth studio album. Legend has it that the title track was inspired by a fan letter one of the Wilson sisters received.

Progressive rock band Rush released "Caress of Steel" in 1975, the group's third studio album. It is by far one of their least successful albums in terms of sales, but many of their fans adore it.

Question supplied by rebelyank.

Answer: G. I. Blues

The "G.I. Blues" album topped the Billboard Album chart when it was released and was certified Gold in 1963 and Platinum in 1992. The album was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 1960, Best Soundtrack Album from a Motion Picture, and Best Vocal Performance Album, Male.

When "Wooden Heart" was released as a single in the UK in 1961, it stayed at number one for six weeks. A cover version of this song was released in the US by Joe Dowell also in 1961, it went to number one on the Billboard Top 100. The Elvis Presley version was not released in the US until 1964, when it was the B-side of "Blue Christmas". "Wooden Heart" was created by Fred Wise, Ben Weisman, Kay Twomey, and Bert Kaempfert, the German bandleader. It was based on a German folk song "Muss I' den" (Must I then). Elvis, as Tulsa McLean in the G. I. Blues movie sings German lyrics twice during the song.

Here are a few lines of the "Wooden Heart" lyrics:

"Can't you see
I love you
Please don't break my heart in two
That's not hard to do
Cause I don't have a wooden heart
And if you say goodbye
Then I know that I would cry
Maybe I would die
Cause I don't have a wooden heart".

Question supplied by wenray.

Answer: "An American in Paris" by George Gershwin

Gershwin's 'An American in Paris', written in 1928, is a 'sound picture' of George's memories of Paris; listen for the liveliness of Parisian street life and then the blues notes as the American becomes homesick.

On the other side of the record is "Rhapsody in Blue", which Gershwin wrote for Paul Whiteman's band in 1924. It was a revolutionary composition at the time, for piano and jazz band.

Question supplied by Waitakere.

Answer: "High Voltage" by AC/DC

AC/DC's debut Australian release album, which was also called "High Voltage", was recorded in 1974. Only two songs ("She's Got Balls" and "Little Lover") made it onto the international release of the same name. The second AC/DC Australia-only album was called "T.N.T.". It was recorded in 1975 and boasted a much improved AC/DC, hence the seven tracks that made it onto the international "High Voltage".

The track "It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Want To Rock 'n' Roll)" is the only song I know of that has bagpipes and electric guitars dueling, but please get in touch if you know of others! Three members of that AC/DC line-up were born in Scotland; the band's founding-member siblings Malcolm and Angus Young (rhythm and lead guitar respectively), and charismatic lead vocalist Bon Scott. All three emigrated to Australia as children. The other members Phil Rudd (drums) and Mark Evans (bass) were both born in Australia.

All the other choices were also released in 1976. None feature bagpipes as far as I can hear.

Question supplied by thula2.

Answer: Let's Spend the Night Together

The double-A-side "Let's Spend The Night Together/Ruby Tuesday" got to number three in the UK singles chart, but many US radio stations opted to play "Ruby Tuesday". Although it might seem rather prudish compared to the more liberal times that followed, "Let's Spend The Night Together" was seen as risqué in 1967 and the other side's more obscure, even esoteric, lyrics were deemed more suitable. With "Ruby Tuesday" as the main feature the single hit the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100. "Let's Spend The Night Together" only reached number 55 in the same chart.

The Rolling Stones even had to change the lyric to "let's spend some time together" to get on The Ed Sullivan Show. More than forty years later the band were forbidden to play the song on their first ever tour of China.

The Rolling Stones had been allowed to perform "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (released 1965) on The Ed Sullivan Show just a couple of years earlier. One can only assume the tale of sexual frustration was over Ed's head.

"Honky Tonk Women" was released as a single in 1969 with "You Can't Always Get What You Want" on the flipside.

Question supplied by madsue.

Answer: New York City

"The Boy From New York City" was a number eight hit for the Ad Libs on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965.

I was 13 years old and in the seventh grade when I bought the record in 1967 for 25 cents. I was at a school assembly waiting for classes to begin. Someone was playing records on stage and the kids were bidding on them, boy was I ever mortified when I had to walk up in front of everyone to get it.

The Ad Libs from Newark, New Jersey, were Danny Austin, Norman Donegan, Hugh Harris, Mary Ann Thomas (lead vocal) and Dave Watt. Their next record "He Ain't No Angel" sneaked into the Billboard chart in 1965 at number 100 for one week. That was their second and last chart hit. In 1981 Manhattan Transfer took the song to number seven on the Billboard Hot 100. Neither of these two versions charted in the UK but the song did. Darts had a number two hit there in 1978 and Alison Jordan had a number 23 hit there in 1992. Neither of these two versions charted in the US.

Question supplied by catwrangle.