No. 1 Hits of the 70s Vol.18 Trivia Quiz

Answer: I'll Be There

Mariah Carey covered "I'll Be There" in 1992 and had an international number one hit with the song, but it was the Jackson 5 who first took the song to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts when they hit number one in the fall of 1970 for a five week stay. The song was their fourth number one American hit in a row following "I Want You Back", "ABC" and "The Love You Save".

Answer: Sly & The Family Stone

All these bands performed at Woodstock in 1969, but it was Sly & The Family Stone who got to the top of the chart with this number one tune in the fall of 1971. "Family Affair" was part of an album called "There's a Riot Going On", the group's first new music in two years. The song is listed on Billboard Magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" at number 138.

Answer: Chuck Berry

It was Chuck Berry, a master of controversy over the course of his career, who recorded a little ditty called "My Ding-A-Ling", and topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts for two weeks in the fall of 1972. The song actually was first recorded in 1952 by Dave Bartholomew with the title "Little Girl Sing Ding a Ling".

It has been recorded by several artists with different titles, but it was Berry, with his style and history, who turned it into a number one tune. The lyrics actually are about a child who receives two silver bells as a gift from his grandmother, and plays with them, holds on to them in certain situations etc.

The double entendre is fairly obvious and when Berry got hold of the tune, the rest became history. Many radio stations refused to play it, and there was an unsuccessful campaign to get the song banned in the U.K., where it was originally performed. Nevertheless, the song became a number one hit, and amazingly, was the only Berry tune to get to number one during his career.

Answer: Half Breed

"Half Breed" was the song that Cher propelled to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts for a two week stay in the fall of 1973. The song dealt with a child who was half white and half Cherokee Indian, and documents the struggle the child went through.

The song was also a number one hit in Canada, and scored Top 20 placings in Sweden and Norway. Surprisingly, the song did not chart in the U.K.

Answer: George McCrae

George McCrae was the singer who took "Rock Your Baby" to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts for a two week stay in the summer of 1974. The song also hit number one on the U.K. charts and was a big international hit. Interestingly, the song was written by Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch.

It's a surprise that they didn't record it themselves. In case you don't know, they were "KC and the Sunshine Band".

Answer: Freddy Fender

Fender was a star in the Rockabilly genre in the late 1950s before some legal issues stalled his career. He restarted his career in the late 1960s, and in 1975 was asked to overdub some lyrics for an instrumental track that was being recorded. He did so, and that became "Before The Next Teardrop Falls" which then went on to become a number one hit on both the Country, and the Billboard Hot 100 charts, where it spent a week at the top in the spring that year.

Answer: You Should Be Dancing

"You Should Be Dancing" is the song that was actually recorded and released in 1976, and then was used as part of the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack a year later. The song signaled the start of the BeeGees "disco" incarnation which would last through the rest of the decade.

It spent one week at the top of the Billboard charts in September of 1976. As for the other songs listed, "Stayin' Alive" was part of the soundtrack but was a 1977 tune, "Night on Broadway" was from 1975 and was not on the soundtrack, and "Disco Inferno" was done by The Trampps.

Answer: Dreams

"Dreams" was the song that gave Fleetwood Mac their only number one single when it hit the top of the Billboard charts for one week in the summer of 1977. It was written by Stevie Nicks in what she claims was "about ten minutes" and was recorded by the band the next day. The other songs mentioned never made the top of the charts for the group, although they all were Top Ten singles.

Answer: Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers" was originally written as a 45 second theme song for an American television show, but was never used for the show. Many recording artists picked up on the tune, two of whom were Neil Diamond, who expanded it and recorded it on his "I'm Glad You're Here With Me Tonight" album in 1977, and Barbra Streisand who recorded a track on her "Songbird" album in 1978.

A program director for a radio station in Louisville Kentucky played both tunes simultaneously as a "virtual duet" as he called it and it became so popular that Diamond and Streisand recorded the tune together for real in 1978 and the result was a tune that went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for two non-consecutive weeks in December of that year.

Answer: M

"Pop Music" was recorded by the British band M in 1979. According to its writer Robin Scott it was supposed to "summarize the last 25 years of pop music". Not sure if it did that but the song still managed to get to the number one position on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts for one week in the fall of 1979.