Were Those Songs Really That Old? Quiz

Answer: Tip Toe Through The Tulips

The original version was performed by Domenic Antonio Nicola Lucalese, better known as Nick Lucas, and the cover version by Herbert Khaury, better known as Tiny Tim. Both versions are available for viewing on YouTube and if you're unfamiliar with these artists, it's a fun six minutes.

Lucas was performing, before he was even a teenager, as a busker and in vaudeville prior to WW1. His natural talent as a guitarist and vocalist propelled him into stardom during the 1920s and between 1925 and 1932, it's estimated that his recordings sold 84 million units. His expertise on the guitar was such that the "Lucas Model" guitar was introduced in 1928 by Gibsons, the first artist honored in this fashion. Besides this song, some of his other well-known discs included "Sleepy Time Gal", "My Blue Heaven" and "Walkin' My Baby Back Home", the latter a Number Four hit for Johnny Ray in 1952. He remained active as a TV and lounge act performer well into his 70s, passing away in 1982 at the age of 85.

While Lucas was a natural high-pitched tenor, Tiny Tim was a natural baritone and sang his version in a falsetto while playing ukulele. Although he had achieved some local notoriety doing his shtick in Greenwich Village, he garnered national attention performing this song on "Laugh In" which led to other TV invitations and a run of gigs in Las Vegas. The novelty of his act wore thin quite quickly and from the early 1970s until his death in 1996 at the age of 66, he performed whenever and wherever he could to make ends meet. Lest he be dismissed as a one trick pony, it should be noted that he was a sincere musical scholar and historian and had one of the largest private collections of recorded music from the 1900 to 1930 era. His problem was that it was hard to make a living singing like Bing Crosby in the rock and roll era... unless you were Der Bingle himself!

"Me and My Shadow" was a big Number One hit in 1927 for "Whispering" Jack Smith but no recorded versions of it ever cracked the Top 40 during the rock era. On the other hand, "I Love Onions" and "Loving You Has Made Me Bananas" were modern songs that alluded to the nostalgic, acoustic era of the 1920s. The former peaked at Number 63 for Susan Christie in 1966 while the latter charted at Number 51 in 1968 for Guy Marks.

Answer: Puttin' on the Ritz

Irving Berlin's "Puttin' on the Ritz" was introduced in the movie of the same name by Harry Richman. According to IMDB, the movie was released on March 1, 1930. According to Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954, Richman's recording hit Number One on the charts that very same day. Talk about a meteoric success!

Richman (1895-1972) began his career in the entertainment biz as a piano accompanist in vaudeville for the likes of Mae West and Nora Bayes, debuting on Broadway in 1922 with Miss Bayes. Eventually, he would star in George White's Scandals and Ziegfeld's Follies and later became a singer/composer/bandleader until the 1940s when he had accumulated sufficient wealth to retire. Just as well... time had passed him by. As a side bar, he was also an aviator of some note, setting a world record for altitude in 1935, and, as co-pilot with Dick Merrill, became the first to make a transatlantic round trip in a single-engine plane in 1936.

Taco Ockerse was born in Indonesia in 1955 and abandoned his last name when he entered show business in Germany in the 1970s. This was his only hit. He recorded a fairly successful album of this and other old standards but similar to the fate of Tiny Tim, the novelty factor of his act quickly faded with the public. As this is being written, he continues to reside and perform in Germany.

Regarding the adjustments to Berlin's lyrics in Taco's version, much of the lyric was altered and the new hit was lyrically abridged to quite an extent. In the original lyric, Lulu-Belle was a generic term in that era for a black house maid and Thursday was typically her night out. Certainly I was unaware of this reference in 1983 and I'm sure that would be the case for most people born after 1940. No doubt the lyrics were adjusted to accommodate the younger demographic.

Your other choices were all original songs totally unrelated to each other. "Heart and Soul" was a Number One hit for Larry Clinton in 1938 while in 1983, Huey Lewis and the News released a completely different song which peaked at Number Eight. "Dancing in the Dark" was a Number Three hit for both Bing Crosby and Fred Waring in 1931. In 1984, Bruce Springsteen's original composition reached Number Two. "All Through the Night" peaked at Number Eight for Paul Whiteman in 1935 while Cindy Lauper took a different song by that title to Number Five, also in 1984.

Answer: Connie Francis

It should come as no surprise that the song's title is "Together". It was originally composed by B.G. De Sylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson. Those names may mean as much to you as they did me when I first saw them - nothing. However, a little research was quite revealing. The Great American Songbook would have been a bit slimmer without their contributions, most of which were written in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Among them are these classics: "The Best Things in Life Are Free", "The Birth of the Blues", "Button Up Your Overcoat", "If I Had a Talking Picture of You", "Keep Your Sunny Side Up" and "You're the Cream in My Coffee". That's just merely scratching the surface. Many other songs less familiar to me are listed amongst their compositions and when they separated as a trio and collaborated with others, another vast array of old chestnuts are added to the collection.

Connie Francis was truly one of the biggest recording acts during the formative years of rock music with three Number One hits and 16 Billboard Top Tens to her credit, mostly between 1958 and 1963. She often resorted to classic old pop songs as sources for her recordings. In fact, ten of her 56 Hot 100 charting hits were originally written before 1950. Besides "Together", some of the others included the 1959 Number Seven hit "Among My Souvenirs", originally a Number One hit for Paul Whiteman in 1928 and the Number Two hit "My Happiness" recorded in 1958 but originally composed in 1933. Another one of her "old" hits was the subject of another question in this quiz, of which you should already be aware.

Answer: Mairzy Doats

If you really knew this song well, you would recognize the additional clue I threw in on a lark. Here's how the actual 1944 lyric read:

"Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?
If the words sound queer and funny to your ear, a little bit jumbled and jivey
Sing 'Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy'"

Ahh, they sure don't write 'em like that anymore, do they?

Here's the facts. It was composed in 1943 by Milton Drake, Al Hoffmann and Jerry Livingston and was recorded by many acts late that year or early in 1944. The Merry Macs had the biggest charting success with it - five weeks at Number One! The group was formed in the 1920s and was composed of three brothers, Joe, Ted and Judd McMichael and a female singer that underwent many changes during the group's existence over five decades. At the time of this recording, Marjorie Garland was the female voice and had become a permanent group fixture. Joe was in the service at the time, temporarily replaced by Lynn Allen. The group would have 12 charting successes during the 1939-1946 period; they backed up Bing Crosby on a few of his hits and appeared in five films. They continued to record and tour until disbanding in 1964 although the name still occasionally appears on tour from time to time. When it does, it's the offspring of the original group doing the singing. Other groups to chart with the song in 1944 included The Pied Pipers, Tommy Dorsey's and Frank Sinatra's famous back-up group, one singer of which was most certainly Jo Stafford. Their version peaked at Number Eight while versions by Al Trace at Number Seven, Lawrence Welk at Number 16 and the King Sisters at Number 21 also made charting appearances.

Meanwhile, the 1967 cover was recorded by a duet known as Innocence. They were Peter Anders and Vinnie Poncia, originally songwriters who composed music for several of Phil Spector's groups such as The Ronettes and The Crystals. They were supposed to be the new Loving Spoonful and recorded one album for the Kama Sutra label that yielded two charting songs: this one and the Number 34 "There's Got To Be a Word!". They disbanded immediately after.

Answer: Dream a Little Dream of Me

"Dream a Little Dream of Me" was written in 1931, music by W. Schwandt and F. Andree, lyrics by the inimitable Gus Kahn and it became an immediate hit for "The Waltz King", Wayne King (1901-1984) with Ernie Burchill handling the vocals. King was a dance band favorite throughout the American Midwest and his formula was pretty simple... slow, dreamy music that everyone could shuffle to. Unlike many big dance bands from the 1930s and 1940s that disbanded during WWII or shortly afterward, King kept his band together and touring right into the 1980s. They had 36 charting hits from 1930 to 1941, the biggest of which were this four week chart topper, "Good Night, Sweetheart", one of your other options that led the way on the charts for seven weeks and King's theme song, "The Waltz You Saved for Me", a Number Four hit from 1930.

In 1968, The Mamas and The Papas recorded this song largely at the insistence of Michelle Phillips whose father had been close friends with Fabian Andree, one of the song's composers. She remembered hearing it as a child and loved it. Mama Cass took the lead vocal. Although the group had been together for only three or four years and on top of the pop world for two of them, there was growing discontent amongst the members. Probably the copious amount of drugs being consumed by the members (listen to "Creeque Alley") contributed to the unrest. In any event, it was very uncertain that the group's latest album project would ever be completed and the brass at Dunhill Records were getting nervous. They decided to release this song as an individual single under the name "Mama Cass with The Mamas and The Papas". It prevailed that the group stayed together long enough to complete the album, their last, and this song was certainly the centerpiece of the album.

Your other choices were huge hits in 1931. "Star Dust" was a Number One hit for Isham Jones that year but it's been recorded bazillions of times over the years with many of those versions charting on one chart or another. The Hoagy Carmichael composition endures as one of the greatest songs of all time. Oddly though, only four versions have managed to chart since 1955, the highest charting of which was Billy Ward and His Dominoes' Number 12 version in 1957. A version by April Stevens and Nino Tempo deserves mention, peaking at Number 32 in 1964. They also have the only modern era's charting version of "Sweet and Lovely", albeit only at Number 77 in 1962. Five versions of that hit charted in 1931 with Gus Arnheim's leading the way with six weeks at Number One pipping Guy Lombardo's Number Two release. "Good Night, Sweetheart", as noted above, was a seven week chart topper for King but Lombardo also managed to reach Number One for two weeks with his rendition that year. No modern version of the song has ever made a chart appearance.

Answer: Anything Goes

All the songs listed were Porter creations but the lyrics only belonged to "Anything Goes". For the most part, Porter wrote music for Broadway stage musicals and this song was no exception. In fact, it was the title song of that particular production. Three other songs emanating from this musical charted in 1934 and Whiteman benefited from all of them. "You're the Top" peaked at Number Two, "I Get a Kick Out of You" reached Number Three and "All Through the Night" stalled at Number Eight... very productive indeed. Actually, there was one other Porter number that could have been used in this quiz but I found the lyric a little cumbersome for this project. The song was "I've Got You Under My Skin", a Number Three hit for Ray Noble in 1936 and a Number Nine success for The Four Seasons in 1966.

Harper's Bizarre was another group in the Innocence mold mentioned a couple of questions ago. They were a quintet of pleasant voices that played with songs in a campy, quirky way but each single release they had performed a little poorer on the charts than its predecessor. Their biggest hit was their first release, a cover of a Paul Simon composition "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy)". It peaked at Number 13. In any event, the band only lasted about 18 months. One member, Ted Templeman, became an ace record producer for Warner Brothers, primarily on behalf of The Doobie Brothers, Van Halen and Nicolette Larson.

Answer: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Only one of the titles presented was recorded by Whiteman, the right answer, "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes". All your options were songs recorded by The Platters, their four Number One hits. If you knew the lyric, you got it right!

In the annals of popular music during the 20th century, Bing Crosby leads the way with a total of 361 chart entries where he was either the primary artist or part of the recording act, for example, his partnerships with the Andrews Sisters. Paul Whiteman was second with 220 chart entries during his 34 year career from 1920 to 1954. To put things into relative perspective, Presley leads the way since the onset of the rock era in 1955 with 151 Hot 100 entries. One further note. For all of Whiteman's career and for most of Crosby's, the "Chart" consisted of 20 or 30 entries, not 100. It makes their achievements even more remarkable.

What made Whiteman so popular? First, he was the right man at the right time. Big band jazz and dance music was just becoming popular in 1920 following two decades of mostly vocal music of the barbershop quartet or Irish tenor variety. Then, more than any other bandleader of the era such as Ben Selvin, Ted Lewis or Isham Jones, he was constantly in the studio recording. Third, he attracted the cream of the instrumentalist crop for his orchestra. Among his more famous discoveries were Bix Biederbecke, Jack Teagarden, Frankie Trumbauer, Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang, the Dorsey Brothers and so on, a virtual hall of fame of jazz and big band musicians. Bing Crosby was the band's vocalist for four years in the late 1920s before he went solo in 1931. Mildred Bailey, Billie Holiday and Paul Robeson were among the other vocalists to assume star billing with Whiteman's orchestra. Finally, he recognized good material written by people with exceptional talent like Hoagy Carmichael, George Gershwin, Cole Porter and countless others. Really... how could he fail?

One last interesting piece of trivia to relate; his first charting record was called "Whispering" and it topped the charts for 11 weeks, just a portent of things to come. His last and 220th chart entry in September 1954 was a new version of "Whispering" that charted for one solitary week. That was it... the alpha and omega. The rock and roll era was just around the corner and I suspect that at the age of 65, Whiteman knew his time was done so he hung 'em up.

Answer: Who's Sorry Now

Of course, it was Connie Francis doing the cover in 1958 and this was the song alluded to earlier in the quiz. Francis had a bit of a struggle finding her mark as a recording artist. She signed a two year record deal with MGM in 1955 but every one of her releases flopped. She had one last recording date pending late in 1957 and if nothing came of it, she was prepared to abandon the music industry and follow through on a scholarship offer to NYU. Having completed two tracks, she still had enough studio time to record "Who's Sorry Now". She hated the song and only recorded it so that her father, who loved it and kept pestering her to cut it, could have the demo. Naturally, the record came to the attention of Dick Clark, he played it on "American Bandstand" and predicted a rosy career for Miss Francis on the spot. The rest is history.

It would be interesting to know which of the 1923 recordings of "Who's Sorry Now" Connie's dad liked the best. Isham Jones had the biggest hit of the five that year charting at Number Three. Perhaps, though, it was the Number Five version by a female vocalist, Marion Harris, which captured his fancy. The Original Memphis Five had a Number Eight hit with it while versions by Lewis James and Irving Kaufman peaked at Number 11. Let's not forget that Harry James revived it in 1946 with vocals by a fellow named Willie Smith. That rendition made Number 18.

"Where or When" was a Rodgers and Hart composition from the musical "Babes In Arms". It proved to be a Number One smash for Hal Kemp in 1937 then a Number Three hit for Dion and the Belmonts when they covered it in 1960. Paul Whiteman (again) led the pack of six recording artists who released "What'll I Do" in 1924 with his Number One offering. It was remade it 1948 by both Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra with their versions peaking at Numbers 22 and 23 respectively. No modern version of the song ever charted on the Hot 100. "Poor Little Fool" was a Ricky Nelson original that topped the charts in 1958.

Answer: Rick Nelson

Rick Nelson covered this hit; like Connie Francis and Tempo & Stevens, he often resorted to older material for his recordings. That should come as no surprise since he grew up listening to those songs on a regular basis. His dad, Ozzie, led a big band during the 1930s and early 1940s and his mother, Harriet, performed in vaudeville and sang in front of big bands before retiring to raise the family. Of his 54 Hot 100 entries, eight were written prior to 1950. Among them was his Number 26 cover of "The Very Thought Of You", a Number One classic from 1934 recorded by Ray Noble and his Number Six hit, "For You", originally a Number Nine hit for John Boles in 1930. Nelson released those covers in 1964, about the time when his status as a preeminent teen idol was in decline. In other words, he was growing up and these sorts of songs fitted his new persona. It would only be a couple of years further when he abandoned pop/rock altogether and began to reinvent himself in the country/rock genre. Sadly, he never quite returned to the heights he once experienced, losing his life in a plane crash in 1985. He was 45 years old at the time.

Some of you, when considering "Fools Rush In", might be thinking that it was a vehicle for Frank Sinatra and indeed it was. Although, as noted, Glenn Miller had the big charting success with it in 1940, Tommy Dorsey with Sinatra at the mic had a fairly sizable hit with the song also. Their version peaked at Number 12 while another rendering by Tony Martin reached Number 14.

Answer: I Got Rhythm

All the songs listed were Merman specialties and brother, could she belt out a song. In 1930, she was performing periodically as a vaudeville torch singer while awaiting the opportunity to appear in films. Her agent had things lined up for her but chronic filming delays left her with plenty of spare time to kill. So, she auditioned for a role in "Girl Crazy" and literally blew George Gershwin away. He hired her on the spot and made her vow that she would never take a voice lesson in her life. She alternated between movies and the stage for most of her career but Broadway was her natural milieu where she appeared in 17 productions, being a particular favorite of Cole Porter. She remained active right up to her death at the age of 76 in 1984.

Like Harper's Bizarre and Innocence mentioned in previous answers, The Happenings specialized in "sunshine" pop songs and achieved most of their charting success during a 14 month period in 1966-7 before calling it quits. Their two biggest hits both peaked at Number Three... this one and "See You In September" during the summer of 1966.