What's On Your Mind? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ray Charles

'Georgia on My Mind' was written in 1930 by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell, and first recorded in that year by Hoagy Carmichael and his Orchestra. One of the performers on the recording was Bix Beiderbecke, in his last recording session. The first hit version was released in 1931 by Frankie Trumbauer, who had originally suggested the song's idea to Carmichael.

A number of popular versions were recorded over the years (including a Number One hit for Willie Nelson in 1978), but for many the Ray Charles version, released on his 1960 album 'The Genius Hits the Road' has become the definitive performance. On 7 March 1979 he performed it before the Georgia State Assembly, in what was described as a gesture of reconciliation; on April 24 it was adopted as the official state song of Georgia.

Answer: We Five

As soon as I saw the quiz title, I started singing this song, recalling the hit released by We Five in 1965. That was not the original version, though. The song was written by Sylvia Fricker in 1962, and released by her and her partner Ian Tyson (the Canadian duo using the name Ian and Sylvia) in 1964.

Their version was reflective, and that from We Five started out in the same vein, but became increasingly up-tempo as it progressed. Crispian St Peters had a hit with his version in the UK in 1966, and the US in 1967; Ian and Sylvia also scored in Canada with a 1974 re-release.

Answer: Easybeats

"Monday morning feels so bad / Coming Tuesday I feel better . . . 'Cos I'll have Friday on my mind! / Gonna have fun in the city" - the change from the lethargic start of the verse (in a minor key) to the energy of the chorus (in a major key) has echoed with many workers over the years! George Young and Harry Vanda wrote it in 1966 for their Australian rock group The Easybeats, and it became a worldwide hit for them.

In 2001, a panel of 100 music industry members of APRA (the Australasian Performing Right Association) voted it the Best Australian Song of all time.

Answer: Doors

'I Can't See Your Face in My Mind', recorded on the 1967 album 'Strange Days', is not as well-known as the single 'People are Strange' from that album, but it fits the quiz requirements, and lets us recall the compelling, moody presence of Jim Morrison as he sang some material with decidedly strange lyrics. Consider the opening verse:

"I can't see your face in my mind
I can't see your face in my mind
Carnival dogs consume the lines
Can't see your face in my mind."

Answer: Glen Campbell

John Hartford, who wrote 'Gentle on My Mind', was the first to record it, and that version won a 1968 Grammy Award for Best Folk Performance. But when Glen Campbell heard it on the radio, he decided it was the song for him, and organised a recording session to produce a demo that he could use to convince his producer of that.

The producer loved it, and (after suitable editing) released that recording, which established Glen Campbell as a solo artist. His recording was given two Grammies (Best Country & Western Recording and Best Country & Western Solo Vocal Performance, Male), and the song also won the Grammy for Best Country & Western Song, awarded to Hartford. Glen Campbell later used it as the theme for his television show, 'The Glenn Campbell Goodtime Hour', which originally aired from 1969 until 1972. Of course, it has been covered many times, and you may be familiar with the version from Dean Martin, Aretha Franklin, Patti Page or (especially if you are too young to remember these records from the 1960s), The Band Perry, who recorded it for the soundtrack of the documentary 'Glenn Campbell: I'll Be Me' in 2014.

Answer: Noel Harrison

Although movie fans may be more familiar with the work of his father Rex, Noel Harrison was an actor and singer with a solid reputation - does anyone remember 'The Girl From U.N.C.L.E'? - who was chosen to record Michel Legrand's song as the theme of the 1968 movie 'The Thomas Crown Affair'. Apparently it had first been offered to Andy Williams, who chose not to sing it, a fact that surprised me, as his voice seems to me to be perfectly suited! The list of people who have also recorded it, both in English and in a number of other languages, is too long to even summarise, but the most notable is probably Jose Feliciano, who was asked to perform his version at the 1969 Academy Awards (where it won the award for Best Original Song) because Noel Harrison had filming commitments in the UK that prevented his appearance to perform the film version.

Answer: James Taylor

James Taylor first released 'Carolina in My Mind' on his eponymous debut album in 1968, but the re-recorded version heard on his 1976 'Greatest Hits' is the one which he has played ever since, and which most of you are probably hearing in your head as you read this. Written when he was working overseas, and feeling more than a little homesick, it is a tribute to his North Carolina childhood, and has been considered by many to be an unofficial state song. I plan to go dig out the original one to listen again, as my research tells me that I will hear Paul McCartney on bass, and George Harrison and Peter Asher providing background vocals.

Answer: Elvis Presley

In 1968, Elvis Presley started to return to his Memphis roots, so when Mark James's recording of his own song was a commercial failure, producer Chips Moman selected it for The King. 'Suspicious Minds' became Elvis's eighteenth (and final) number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Once again, the list of cover versions of this song is too long to go into, but it is worth highlighting the version from The Fine Young Cannibals in 1986. Apparently the band's lead singer had a dream in which Elvis told him he would record the best version ever of the song. That is a matter of taste, but what is clear is the tribute which the video makes to Elvis, with the first part recorded in black and white, and the second part featuring the band in the kind of flashy suits associated with the later years of Elvis's career.

Answer: Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Lightfoot wrote this song, inspired by reflecting on his divorce, while sitting in his empty house in Toronto. It was part of his first album, titled 'Sit Down Young Stranger' when it was first released in 1970, and renamed 'If You Could Read My Mind' after the single had international chart success.

It was immediately covered by everyone in the easy-listening field. Well, maybe not everyone, but Andy Williams, Johnny Mathis, Petula Clark, Jack Jones, Don McLean, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Olivia Newton-John, Liza Minelli and Glen Campbell are only a few of them.

Answer: John Lennon

'Mind Games' evolved from two earlier works, both of which can be heard as works-in-progress on the Beatles' 'Let It Be' sessions - 'Make Love, Not War' and 'I Promise'. His original demos of them are on the 'John Lennon Anthology'. Before he finished writing the song, he had read a book by Robert Masters and Jean Houston called 'Mind Games: The Guide to Inner Space', which gave him his title.

The single was released in 1973. Ironically, Lennon was just separating from Yoko Ono (a split that lasted for about 18 months), and the song includes the line "YES is the answer", a reference to the title of her piece of art that, according to one version of their meeting, first brought John and Yoko into contact.

Answer: Billy Joel

'New York State of Mind' is from the 1976 album 'Turnstiles', written to mark his return to NYC after spending three years in Los Angeles. Although it was not released as a single, it became a popular part of his concert performances, especially in NY venues.

He performed it at the Concert for New York City (a benefit for the survivors and families of the deceased first responders to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001), and again at the December 2012 concert at Madison Square Garden to raise funds to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.

Answer: Willie Nelson

This song was first released (with the slightly different title 'You Were Always on My Mind') in 1972 by Gwen McCrae. I chose Willie Nelson's version of this song over the many competitors (including Elvis Presley in 1972) because this version won a truckload of awards: Grammy Awards in 1983 for Song of the Year and Best Country Song (awarded to the writers, Johnny Christopher, Mark James and Wayne Carson) and Best Male Country Vocal Performance.

It also managed to win Country Music Association awards in both 1982 and 1983 as Song of the Year.

Answer: Bob Dylan

Although this song is credited as being written by Bob Dylan and Tom Petty, it was an unusual sort of collaboration. Tom Petty wrote a song (which he recorded with the Heartbreakers on the album 'Nobody's Children'), then Bob Dylan wrote an entirely different set of lyrics. The original lyrics are pretty straightforward, dealing with a rocky relationship; Dylan's are, well, Dylanesque, including this intriguing first verse:
"Well, I'm goin' off to Libya,
There's a guy I gotta see.
He's been living there three years now,
In an oil refinery."

Answer: Hank Williams Jr

This song about the joys of sitting on a river bank on a summer's day was written by Hank Williams Jr and Roger Alan Wade, and released as the first single from Hank Williams Jr's album 'Montana Café' in 1986. It reached Number Two in the US on Billboard's Hot Country Songs, and Number Four on the Canadian RPM Country Tracks chart.

Answer: George Harrison

George Harrison's 1987 version of Rudy Clark's 1962 song (originally titled 'I've Got My Mind Set on You') was his last Number one US hit, and the only one of the three ('My Sweet Lord' and 'Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)' being the two earlier ones) that he did not write himself.

It was on the album 'Cloud Nine', and released as a single that made the charts all over the world. It made it to Number One in the US, making him the first ex-Beatle to have three songs hit that spot, and it was in that position when the Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the following week.