Wha... You're Drumming Them Out! Quiz

Answer: Wilson

"Jackie Wilson Said" is not so much a record but an expression of pure jubilation that shows up in the form of a R&B song. Written by Van Morrison, it appears on his 1972 studio album "Saint Dominic's Preview". Wilson, a soul singer from Detroit best known for his hit songs "Lonely Teardrops" (1958) and "Reet Petite" (1957), is acknowledged by Morrison as being a major influence in the development of his own vocal style.

The song would, later, be famously covered by Kevin Rowland and his Dexys Midnight Runners in 1982.

It appears on their album "Too-Rye-Ay" and reached the Top Ten of the UK Singles charts.

Answer: Waylon

This Josh Thompson track was co-written with Rhett Akins and it appears on Thompson's 2010 album "Way Out Here". In an interview with The Boot Akins advised that the initial idea for the song was to use lines from various Waylon Jennings songs and piece it together.

However, they saw that as something predictable and cliché, so they chose an alternate path. They started to look at things that could happen to a person and what or whom to blame it upon. For example; "I blame this tattoo on a hundred proof bottle of whiskey".

The problem they ran into was that it gave the song a negative outlook and they were also struggling to find a way to tie it all together. It wasn't till they got to the chorus that they resolved it by laying the blame (read as credit) for their love of music on Jennings and "all the other outlaws".

Answer: Winchester

Without "Winchester Cathedral" I dare say that The New Vaudeville Band, as a band, would never have existed. Geoff Stevens, inspired by the singing style of American bandleader Rudy Vallee, wrote the song, employed session musicians to have it recorded and created a fake band to release it under. Surprisingly it became a massive hit on both sides of the Atlantic and it earned Stevens a Grammy for Best Contemporary Song in 1967.

Then came the inevitable "When are you going to tour"? Suddenly Stevens had to get a band together.

Answer: Winter

Originally recorded by Simon & Garfunkel in 1966, The Bangles had a hit with the song in 1987, reaching number two on Billboard's Hot 100 charts. Bangles member, Susanna Hoffs, spoke on the band's website, about meeting the song's writer Paul Simon at a gig they went to see.

They were huge fans of Simon's work, both as a solo artist and with Garfunkel, and, in normal circumstances, they would have been gushing with enthusiasm with the meet. However, it felt a little stilted and awkward for them; their version had reached number two but when Simon had released it, it failed to reach the Top Ten of the same charts.

Answer: Willy

There are some songs that, once they get into your head, they never want to leave. "Little Willy" by The Sweet is one of those infectious little numbers. From the prolific pens of Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman this track was a hit for the band in 1972 in both the USA and the UK.

Despite being written off by most critics as "bubblegum pop", one going so far as to describe its lyrics as "nursery porn", the Sweet were able to use this to launch their glam rock image. Chinn and Chapman would create a series of hits for the band in a similar vein; "Poppa Joe", "Co-Co" and "Blockbuster" to name a few, but the band feared that this would eventually be how they would be (forever) labelled.

As a consequence, they parted ways with the songwriters and went seeking a harder edge to their sound.

Answer: Wendal

One of the most extraordinary albums to come out of 1992 was Arrested Development's "3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of...". It seemed like it would herald a new era in alternative rap and it did earn the band a Grammy for Best New Artist - the first rap band to achieve that acclaim.

The album is full of laid back grooves, African percussions and sprinklings of funk. The entire disc carries an air of freedom and upbeat spirituality. Lead vocalist, Speech, wrote "Mister Wendal" as a tribute to a number of homeless people in his neighbourhood that he'd befriended.

He advised that whilst a number of these had run into some serious misfortune there were an equal number in the group who'd simply gotten tired of the beat that society had been marching to and they chose an alternate path.

Answer: White

Appearing on Jefferson Airplane's 1967 album "Surrealistic Pillow" this track would prove to be one of the defining songs of what was to be called, the "Summer of Love". Grace Slick had previously written and recorded the song while a member of The Great Society, a band that had been formed by her first husband, Jerry Slick.

Her inspiration for the track was Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland", in which she'd noted that so many "innocent" objects and characters could be construed as drug references; the caterpillar puffing on a rather elaborate water pipe, Alice chewing on bits of mushroom and consuming potions that could change her physical state, for example.

As if to emphasize this point, Neo, the hero in the 1999 fantasy film "The Matrix", is instructed to follow the "white rabbit", whereby he meets his mentor, Morpheus, who gives him the option of taking either a blue pill or a red pill, with the latter leaving him in "wonderland" and "I'll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes".

Answer: Wood

One of the best things Eddie Floyd did with this single was to insert a pause within the line "I better knock... on wood". It turned a really good song into a highly memorable one. The track, about a man who considers himself to be lucky for having found the girl of his dreams, was co-written with Stax musician Steve Cropper. Cropper, in an interview with Mojo magazine, advised that he and Eddie had searched through every superstition they could use to try and write a love song, from "cats to umbrellas", but without any luck. Luck became the key word and when Steve turned to Eddie and asked, "what do people do for luck", Eddie responded "they knock on wood".

In that heartbeat everything just fell into place.

Answer: Woody

Bob Dylan is one of the most prolific songwriters in the history of American song so, it may come as a surprise to some, that there were only two original tracks on his self-titled debut album from 1962; "Talkin' New York" and "Song to Woody".
The track is a tribute to folk singer Woody Guthrie who was a profound influence on the young Bob Dylan. In this song Dylan cleverly uses Guthrie's own words to pay homage to the man. For example
(Guthrie): "Hey, Gurley Flynn, I wrote you a song. To the dove of peace, it's coming along" (from his song "Joe Hillstrom").
(Dylan) "Hey, Hey Woody Guthrie, I wrote you this song. 'Bout a funny ol' world that's a-comin' along".
... and in closing the track Dylan muses;
"that come with the dust and are gone with the wind", which mirrors Guthrie's thoughts from "Pastures of Plenty"; "we come with the dust and are gone with the wind".

Answer: Wyatt

For a period after her first two albums, that stunning debut that was "Tuesday Night Music Club" (1993) and, the even better follow-up "Sheryl Crow" (1996), Sheryl Crow's albums had gone bland. Gone were the looseness, the revealing confessionals and the eccentricities that had made the first two discs so charming. All of this returned with the release of 2008's "Detours".

It is little surprise that Bill Bottrell, the man at the helm of Sheryl's first two recordings that she'd so acrimoniously sacked, was back to produce this album for her. Crow also had so much to sing about; in such a short span of time she had packed so many life experiences - she'd broken off an engagement to Lance Armstrong (2005), survived a breast cancer scare (2006) and adopted a son, Wyatt Steven Crow, (2007). Once again, Bottrell allowed her to adopt a confessional air with her songs which has allowed her numbers to shine rather than sound repressed or forced. "Diamond Ring" deals with her engagement, "Make it Go Away" with her cancer and "Lullaby For Wyatt" is a tender tribute to her new son.