Who Would Sing Something So Silly? Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye/ Crabalocker fishwife pornographic priestess". What, would you repeat that, please? On second thought, don't, just tell me who sang those lyrics. 

Answer: The Beatles

The song is "I Am the Walrus" and the band is The Beatles. In 1967, John Lennon was amused to find that a teacher at his old high school was having his students analyze Beatles lyrics. Lennon decided to write a song purposely nonsensical. The song was released as the flip side of "Hello Goodbye" and was included on the "Magical Mystery Tour" album. Goo goo goo joob!

2. "Who put the bomp in the bomp bomp bomp bah bomp?" Even more important, who would sing something like that?

Answer: Barry Mann

Barry Mann co-wrote "Who Put the Bomp (In the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp)" in 1961. In the song the singer thanks the man who wrote nonsense lyrics because they made the singer's girlfriend fall in love with him. What more reason do you you need to sing a song like that?

3. "All we hear is radio ga ga/ Radio goo goo/ Radio ga ga". Now, there's a song worthy of a monarch! Which one?

Answer: Queen

Meant as a commentary on television becoming more popular than radio, Queen released "Radio Ga Ga" in 1984. The song was a big success for the group, reaching number one status in 19 countries.

4. Which of these songs is by the Police?

Answer: De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da

"I was trying to make an intellectual point about how the simple can be so powerful". So said Police bassist Sting explaining why he wrote "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da", a 1980 song meant to show that people gravitate to silly songs. While people liked the song, few accepted his reasoning.

5. Here's some good advice: "And mind when you're in lee-y-love, don't pee-y-pass too close to pee-y-patches of high gee-y-grass". What song are the lyrics from?

Answer: Springfield Mountain/Rattlesnake Mountain

One of the earliest American traditional ballads, "Springfield Mountain" was composed near Springfield, Massachusetts in 1761. A version of it (from which these lyrics were taken) is called "Rattlesnake Mountain"; the two versions have many similarities. The nonsense lyrics seem to have been added when the second version became popular.

6. Which Grateful Dead song are these lyrics from? "Copper-dome Bodhi drip a silver kimono/ Like a crazy-quilt stargown/ Through a dream night wind".

Answer: China Cat Sunflower

"China Cat Sunflower" was a 1969 Grateful Dead song. It was written by their principal lyricist, Robert Hunter, who said he was inspired by Dame Edith Sitwell's poem "Polka". A concert perennial, it and "I Know You Rider" were almost always played together.

7. Which of these songs was performed by Manfred Mann?

Answer: Do Wah Diddy Diddy

Originally released in 1964 by the Exciters, "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" was covered a few months later by Manfred Mann. It was a familiar tale - a woman walks down the street singing nonsense lyrics, a man falls in love with her because of it and they plan to get married. Even so, Manfred Mann had a number one hit record with it.

8. Which song lyrics were so suspect and hard to understand that they became part of a federal investigation?

Answer: Louie Louie

"Louie Louie" by the Kingsmen takes the prize, not for the most misunderstood song, but for the most impossible to understand song. Originally released by its writer, Richard Barry, in 1957, the 1963 Kingsmen version got a lot of attention and caused a lot of suspicion about possibly obscene lyrics. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation used their state of the art equipment to dissect the recording - and decided that they didn't know what it was about, either.

9. New Wave music came along in the late 1970s and brought new singers and groups who knew how to sing silly songs. Who sang these lyrics? "Motion in the ocean/ His air hose broke/ Lots of trouble".

Answer: The B-52s

It wasn't a rock it was a "Rock Lobster" that was the first charting single for the B-52s, reaching number 56 on the "Billboard Hot 100" in the U.S. and number one on Canada's "RPM" singles list. It is one of the B-52s' best known songs and "Rolling Stone" magazine listed it number 147 on the magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.

10. "A whop bop-a-lu mop, a-lop bam boom". Only one man could come up with those lyrics, and you have to guess who it was. Which of these do you choose?

Answer: Little Richard

Never one to keep his emotions in check, Little Richard (Richard Penniman) was a major influence on the development of rock and roll. Nonsense lyrics were just a part of his wild stage persona. Many of his songs couched lyrics which were understood by black Americans as very sexually suggestive but which white audiences had little clue about.

Source: Author CmdrK

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor agony before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Silly songs have always had popularity. A troubadour might gain favor by knowing a wide array of such songs. Let's see if you're ready to impress a monarch by identifying these songs.

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