Desert Island Discs Part Eight Quiz

Answer: Catch A Wave

"Catch A Wave" was a track on The Beach Boys album "Surfer Girl". It reached number seven on the Billboard album chart in 1963. It reached number 13 on the UK album chart in 1967. It took nearly four years but it made it in the end.

There were six Beach Boys on this record, brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, cousin Mike Love, Al Jardine, and original member David Marks. Mike Love's sister Maureen played the harp. David Marks was 13 years old when he joined the Beach Boys in 1962 but left after a year. He and his parents had an argument with the Wilson brothers' father and manager Murry Wilson over managerial and financial matters. He was not invited nor was his contribution to The Beach Boys acknowledged when The Beach Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 1988.

This track is an example of what I call albumitis which is when a record company or artist fail to recognize the potential of an album track and do not release it as a single. Everybody else but them seems to know it would be a Top 10 hit or possibly a number one hit. A Beatles example of albumitis would be not releasing "Eight Days A Week", which became a number one hit when released as a single in the US, as a single in the UK.

Question supplied by shipyardbernie.

Answer: Squirrel

"Hunt the Squirrel" is a traditional folk tune, a jig from Sussex but with such long origins that it could also have been popular in Scotland.

In Francis Grose's "A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue" he states that Hunting the Squirrel was a game played by 18th Century coachmen where a couple of them, bored by not having fares, would follow and harass a one horse chaise, riding so close as to scare both driver and occupant.

Other explanations are more prosaic, based on the fact that the country dance done to this tune involved the partners alternately 'chasing' one another as they danced.

As folk song lyrics often contain euphemisms and hidden meanings for sex, you can draw your own conclusions.

Question supplied by Waitakere.

Answer: Melancholy Serenade

Jackie Gleason composed many beautiful songs, although he could neither read nor write music (he composed strictly "in his head".)

He wrote "Melancholy Serenade" for Marilyn Taylor, the younger sister of choreographer June Taylor. Marilyn was one of the June Taylor dancers, and Jackie decided it should become the theme song for "The Jackie Gleason Show". Jackie had been in love with Marilyn for years, but was already married to Genevieve Halford, who, being Catholic, would not grant Jackie a divorce. She finally did divorce him in 1970. However, Marilyn had left show business by then. Jackie married his second wife, Beverly McKittrick, but he met Marilyn again when she moved to Miami. Jackie filed for a divorce, and married Marilyn on December 16, 1975, and they stayed together until Jackie's death on June 24, 1987.

Question submitted by kennell

Answer: k.d. lang

Orbison and lang recorded "Crying" together as part of the soundtrack of the 1987 movie "Hiding Out". This duet won a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals.

Roy Orbison originally recorded "Crying", which he co-wrote with Joe Melson. It was released in July 1961 and rose to number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. In 2002 this song won a Grammy Hall of Fame Award, and "Rolling Stone" magazine ranked it on their 2004 list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" at number 69.

Question supplied by wenray.

Answer: The Way You Look Tonight

Written by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields this song has been recorded by such stars as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Brian Ferry, and Michael Buble.

Rod Stewart released his great "American Song Book" album in 2005 and it features some of the greatest romantic songs ever written.

Question supplied by scotsbluebell.

Answer: Paul Is Live

I just love this version of "Here, There and Everywhere" because I think he sings it with such feeling! The album's title and cover are a playful retort to the "Paul is dead" rumors that spread in 1969 after the release of The Beatles' last studio album, "Abbey Road".

Question supplied by rebelyank.

Answer: Burkina Faso

Although this song is much slower paced than many Afrobeat songs, it boasts amazing rolling poly-rhythmic drumming, intricate guitar-playing, plus more than a hint of American jazziness in the horns. It's easily available on the Analog Africa compilation "Bambara Mystic Soul: The Raw Sound of Burkina Faso 1974 - 1979", but was originally released by the Burkinabé CVD record label.

Amadou Ballaké's birth-name was Amadou Traoré but he picked up the surname Ballakč after popularizing the song "Ballakč" in his native Burkina Faso. Said song was originally by Bembeya Jazz National from Guinea.

Amadou Traoré was born in Ouahigouya (northern Burkina Faso) in 1944, but moved to the capital Ouagadougou in 1952 with his mother since his father had left them. Although he got involved with music at a very young age, he left for Mali to earn some money as a driver. He ended up in the capital, Bamako, playing music with a Cuban band, and was later a founder member of multi-ethnic African legends Les Ambassadeurs du Motel, whom African music legend Salif Keita eventually joined. At this point, our man Amadou was playing percussion, but after prompting from others who'd heard him singing, he decided to move over to vocals. He also moved to Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Kankan (Guinea), Conakry (Guinea), and Mamou (Guinea), plying his trade(s)--he was singing and playing percussion--in each place and gaining vital experience that would later stand him in good stead.

In 1968, he moved back to Burkina Faso and became a national star with his bands such as l'Harmonie Voltaique, Les 5 Consuls, and Les Dieux. For the song I've chosen, the band were listed as l'Orchestre Super Volta de la Capitale. It was probably recorded "live" at the national theatre.

Question supplied by thula2.

Answer: Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson is an American writer who came to the UK in 1973. He met his future wife, who was a nurse, when he worked in a mental hospital. He then worked as a journalist on several national newspapers and wrote 'Notes from a Small Island' when he took a final trip around the UK before he returned to the States to live in 1995.

The book was a massive success and he returned to live in Britain in 2003. He has since written many successful books on travel, the English language, and science. He has been appointed as Chancellor of Durham University.

Question supplied by scotsblebell.

Answer: Daphne du Maurier

Daphne du Maurier was born into an artistic family. Her father was an actor, and both her grandfather and elder sister were writers. She was born in London in 1907, but as a young adult moved to Cornwall, which she had been enchanted by since her first visit. She stayed there until her death in 1989.

"Jamaica Inn" was the first of Daphne du Maurier's books to get the Hitchcock treatment. It was released in 1939 and was his last British film before he embarked on an American career. Hitchcock himself didn't like the film and in the book "Hitchcock by Truffaut" is quoted as saying "it was completely absurd... realizing how incongruous it was, I was truly discouraged, but the contract had been signed. Finally, I made the picture, and although it became a box-office hit, I'm still unhappy over it."

A year later, Hitchcock made "Rebecca", also based on a du Maurier story. It was a resounding success, and Daphne du Maurier stated it was her favourite adaptation when asked on Desert Island Discs. "The Birds" is a short novel set in Cornwall that Hitchcock turned into a classic thriller in 1963. He set in it in Bodega Bay, California.

When asked about a luxury item, Daphne said "at 7 o'clock, I'll have my nip of whisky and ginger ale that should keep me going with the gramophone records".

Dominican writer Jean Rhys's "Wide Sargasso Sea" (1966) is presented as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre", whereas it has been suggested that Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca" is a parallel to the same book.

With books like "Mrs Dalloway" (1925) and "To The Lighthouse" (1927), Virginia Woolf was a on a much more Modernist bent than Daphne.

During World War II, Russian sculptor Naum Gabo ended up in St Ives, Cornwall, which was a hub of modern artists such as Barbara Hepworth.

Question supplied by thula2.

Answer: Rolf Harris

When talking about the cover version of "Stairway to Heaven" on the show, Rolf claims he'd never heard of it before being asked to play it for an Australian comedy programme, "The Money or the Gun", which featured a cover of the song each episode.

Rolf's first musical success was "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport", on which he introduced the world to the sound of the wobble board. On the show, Rolf explains how he invented the instrument by accident after painting a ground on a bit of board ready to paint a portrait. Since the paint was slow to dry, he put it near a heater, but when he went to check on it he ended up flexing it to help it dry and he heard a "marvellous" sound. The single was a hit in the UK and Australia in 1960, but in the USA it was a rerecorded version that hit in 1963.

On the show, Rolf chooses his own recordings of "Ego Sum Pauper (I Give You My Heart)", "Gendarmes Quartet", and "Two Little Boys". The latter was a UK number one hit for Rolf in 1969. It has been recorded by many people, my personal favourite being Splodgenessabounds' version from 1980.

Rolf had already been on Desert Island Discs in 1967. The only choice featured in both occasions was Eartha Kitt's "The Day that the Circus Left Town".

All the red herrings are fellow Australians. Barry Humphries is the man behind comedy characters Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. Paul Hogan found worldwide fame as Crocodile Dundee from the series of films by the same name. Robert Hughes (1938 - 2012) was arguably the leading art critic of his generation.

Question supplied by thula2.