Dee-Serters Trivia Quiz

Answer: Duke

One of the great inspirations in Stevie Wonder's life, Duke Ellington, passed away in 1974 and it became his name that inspired the title of the song. The track, however, does not just pay homage to the great band leader rather it gives praise to all the musicians who had passed by before. Stevie Wonder would muse that they were here a short while, then gone and, by being gone could be allowed to be easily forgotten. Their music, however, is supposed to live on forever. The single, which also refers to Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, appears on Wonder's 1976 album "Songs in the Key of Life" and would be a number one hit on Billboard's Hot 100.

(Footnote) A quick perusal of the personnel who played on this track and you will identify the lead guitarist as one Michael (Mike) Sembello. Sembello, a noted session musician would release "Bossa Nova Hotel" in 1983, an album containing the hit single "Maniac", which featured prominently in the 1983 movie "Flashdance".

Answer: Donald

This song would appear on Mac Miller's sixth mixed tape, "Best Day Ever" (2011). It received very little airplay but it managed to garner over twenty million hits on YouTube in a short space of time. Initally the track was inspired by Trump as the business tycoon who'd achieved increased celebrity mileage through his appearance on the NBC reality television series "The Apprentice" (2004-15) but now it has taken on a somewhat surreal feel with Mr Trump's elevation to the Presidency of the United States.

The Pittsburgh rapper has always maintained that the song is not an ode to Donald Trump.

Answer: Dan

Bernie Taupin has been sadly underrated as a lyricist throughout his illustrious career. Critics would claim that Taupin was fortunate to have Elton John as a partner because he (John) had the ability to make the writing in a telephone book sound good. Certainly with Bernie's other venture into a science fiction themed song, "Rocket Man" (1972) Elton managed to raise the lyrics above the levels they deserved to be at.

However, with "Dan Dare..." Elton's soft touch simply adds to the grace of an inspired lyric.

This track appears on Elton's 1975 album "Rock of the Westies" and it pays wistful homage to a comic strip character that first appeared in the Eagle Comic stories of the 1950s. For the uninitiated Dare was the British version of Buck Rogers and was often dubbed "Biggles in Space".

Answer: Dominic

This song is the title track to Van Morrison's sixth studio album, which was released in 1972. It is the fifth and final album in a set of blue-eyed soul recordings that many critics rate as the best of Van Morrison, his peak. His previous album, "Tupelo Honey", saw Morrison produce his version of a rural heaven but here, in "Saint Dominic's Preview", he broadens the palette and adds to his singer-songwriter genre daubs of blues, jazz, a fusion of Celtic folk and some good old R&B.
The title track, musically, borders on being gospel-pop that is stunning in its delivery however, it is Morrison's lyrics that make you sit up and take extra special notice. They border on being Dylan-esque, much in the vein of Dylan's "A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall", where most of Morrison's lines appear to be the start of a new story and then suddenly they're gone and you're faced with the next line/story. For example;
"Singing songs about Edith Piaf's soul
And I hear blue strains of no regredior (retreat)
Across the street from Cathedral Notre Dame".

Answer: Dirk

If you were to scan through the lyrics of this song you could not be blamed for sensing an air of ghoulishness about it. Words and names like Heinrich, Auschwitz and concentration camp leap out at you and you begin to wonder "Where the heck are you going with this Adam"? The answer is simple. Adam Ant, reportedly, is a big Dirk (hence the title) Bogarde fan and this track drew its inspiration from an Italian movie Dirk was in, "The Night Porter" (1974). Bogarde was a huge star in his day and in this film he plays Max, the titular night porter, who is working in a hotel in Vienna in 1957.

He has a chance meeting with a holocaust survivor (played by Charlotte Rampling) who was an inmate at the camp where Max was stationed. Max was both her torturer and her lover and here, at the hotel, they resume their sadomasochistic affair. Oddly Adam & the Ants released an album entitled "Dirk Wears White Sox" in the same year as this song (1979) but the song does not appear on the album.

Answer: David

The Boy Least Likely To featured this song on their sophomore album "Law of the Playground" (2009). The duo advised that the track was a last minute addition that, ironically, became the first single to be lifted from it. Sadly for them the review they received from the Allmusic magazine critic was not complimentary of it, singling this particular song to highlight the overproduction prevalent on the record. "The band's debut album, which was made at home, presented a beautiful simplicity that all but disappeared with the move to a fancy studio and a bigger budget".

Answer: Dick

Des O'Connor is an English comedian who sold more than ten million copies of his single "I Pretend", which was release and went to number one in the English Singles Charts, in 1968. A year later he tried to build on that success with "Dick-A-Dum-Dum" and had moderate joy when the song peaked at number fourteen in the same charts. Unlike "I Pretend" this track had a novelty feel about it with Des bleating out an annoying number of "dick-a-dum-dums" before telling us he's going to Piccadilly to meet a girl.

Then some "dum-dums" and he tells us he has to sell an antique so that he could afford to buy a Savile Row suit to impress this girl. Des, that's a dum-dum.

Answer: Dupont

The original version of this song was recorded by a German artist named Manuela in 1967. Two years later Peter Callander - one of the men responsible for writing "Billy Don't Be a Hero" - re-wrote the tale of this French Romeo with his "oh so gentle continental ways" for Sandie Shaw. Needless to say Monsieur Dupont won the girl by simply saying "Hello".

This would be Shaw's last major hit. It peaked at number six in the UK Singles Charts.

Answer: Davy

Through the 1960s and 1970s Manfred Mann kept re-inventing himself by forming new bands with new sounds and, somehow, finding a way to produce a hit. And within those hits usually came the shadow of either Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen. His first incarnation was as one of the British invasion bands from the 60s who scored hits with the song "Do Wah Diddy" and "Pretty Flamingo".

After a smattering of minor hits he dissolved the outfit, brought in a new line-up with a rockier sound and discovered Dylan's "The Basement Tapes".

His next big hit would be a cover of Dylan's "The Mighty Quinn". He then put together a progressive rock/jazz combo called Manfred Mann's Chapter Three that released two critically acclaimed albums. Finally there was Manfred Mann's Earth Band, a synthesizer led rock band that was extremely prolific in the early to mid 1970s.

Their seventh album (in three years) "The Roaring Silence" (1976) spawned a hit with the cover of Springsteen's "Blinded By the Light", which would become Bruce's first US number one song. "Davy's on the Road Again" would follow the amazing single "California" to be the second single from the follow up album "Watch" (1978). Though it enjoyed limited success as a single it turned into a live show favourite.

Answer: Dean

This was a 1974 single for Eagles that appeared on their album "On The Border". Written by Eagles' members Glenn Frey and Don Henley along with close friends Jackson Browne and J.D. Souther it tells a story of Hollywood's "Rebel Without a Cause" actor of the same name.

It uses Dean's supposed "live fast, die young" attitude to push the song along. This wouldn't be the first time the Eagles would delve into this theme, revisiting it with "Life in the Fast Lane" (1977) and "Good Day in Hell", which also appears on the "On The Border" LP.