My Life In Bands Trivia Quiz

Answer: Boys Of Summer

"Boys Of Summer" was a hit for former Eagle Don Henley in the mid-eighties. "Desperado" was recorded by both Ronstadt and the Eagles in the seventies, but it is of course the Eagles' version that is the more famous. "Already Gone" was an early hit for The Eagles, and "You're No Good" is strictly Ronstadt. (Note: It's hard to believe that The Eagles were once Linda Ronstadt's back-up band!)

Answer: Dreamboat Annie

As silly as it now seems, Heart's early days were filled with controversy, stemming from the cover art of 1976's "Dreamboat Annie," which contained headshots of sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson sitting back to back with bare shoulders. When the women explained in a Rolling Stone interview that they had been wearing only towels during the photo shoot, rumors of incestuous love practices began to circulate! Is there no end to the public's appetite for ridiculous gossip?

Answer: Robert Plant

Before achieving success as a pop star, Pat Benatar studied opera. Not surprisingly, her classically trained voice did not lend itself well to the rock songs she wished to sing. "I wanted to be Robert Plant," Ms. Benatar has said in more than one interview. Luckily for her and her fans, that dream found a compromise in the hard-driving, but still very feminine style that characterizes her music.

Answer: Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello, (aka Declan McManus), started out as an upstart brat in the New Wave music scene. Among his many memorable moments of infamy was his appearance on Saturday Night Live in 1977, when he and his band, The Attractions, played "Radio, Radio", a song that criticised British radio, after promising SNL producer, Lauren Michaels that they would not play it. Of course, that stunt only helped solidify Mr. Costello's reputation as an iconoclastic performer.

Answer: Stop Your Sobbing

Chrissy and Ray never married. The birth of their daughter, MacKenzie was followed a few years later by that of her half-sister, Yasmine. Who is Yasmine's father? None other than Jim Kerr, lead singer of Simple Minds, whose recording of "Don't You Forget About Me" was the theme song for the classic eighties film, "The Breakfast Club."

Answer: Call Me

"Call Me," produced by Giorgo Moroder and sung with savvy stylishness by Debbie Harry, struck some critics as the symbol of Blondie's legitimization within the commercial music industry. For others, the band's well-deserved success was a sign that the glory days of grass-roots punk and New Wave were over for good.

Answer: Eleanora Fagan

The great "Lady Day" was born Eleanora Fagan in 1912 (some say 1915) in Baltimore, Maryland. Her mother was only thirteen. Her father was a teen-aged jazz musician whom she only met years later. After making her indelible mark on the music world, Billie Holiday died of a respiratory illness at the tragically young age of forty-four.

Answer: The Buckinghams

Their name belies their city of origin! "Kind Of A Drag" and "Don't You Care?" were among the biggest hits for the Buckinghams, who all hailed from Chicago and first formed in 1965, the peak year of the British music invasion.

Answer: I Saw Her Again

In a documentary that aired on PBS, John Phillips said that he wrote the song after discovering Michelle's infidelity with bandmate, Doherty. He claimed that forcing Denny and Michell to sing it was his revenge for their disloyalty.

Answer: Yesterday

"Yesterday", written by Paul McCartney and first released in the UK in 1965, has been recorded by artists as diverse as En Vogue and Michael Bolton. (And of course by yours truly as well as countless other unsung singers and musicians.)