Rock 'n Roll Crescendos Online Quiz | Something in Common

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Celine Dion had a hit song in 1996 that was very complex to record. During its recording the studio was running so many orchestral tracks, vocal layers, and power‑hungry equipment that the electrical system kept overloading and the power kept going out. Nevertheless, Celine recorded the entire song in one marathon overnight session. What was the name of the song?

Answer: It's All Coming Back To Me Now

One of the most interesting things about "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" is that it wasn't originally written for Celine Dion at all - it was conceived as a "female version of Bat Out of Hell" by Jim Steinman, the same gothic‑rock mastermind behind Meat Loaf. Meat Loaf begged Steinman to let him record the song. Steinman said no, because he believed the song must be sung by a woman. Years later, after legal battles, Meat Loaf finally recorded it - but only after Celine made it famous.

2. In Meat Loaf's 1993 hit song "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)," what does the word "that" refer to in the chorus?

Answer: All of these

Jim Steinman intentionally wrote the song like a romantic riddle. He said the whole point was to make listeners argue about what "that" meant. But the structure is simple, the "that" refers to the last line before the chorus. There is more than one "THAT".

"I'll never forget the way you feel right now." THAT = forget her.
"I'll never lie to you." THAT = lie to her.
"I'll never do it better than I do it with you." THAT = replace her emotionally.
"I'll never break my promise." THAT = break his promise / cheat.
"Sooner or later you'll be screwing around." "I won't do that." So yes - one of the "that"s is cheating.

3. Which Air Supply hit reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 but was kept from number one by Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart"?

Answer: Making Love Out of Nothing at All

Steinman first conceived the song for Bonnie Tyler, but shifted it to Air Supply when he realized her album was already overloaded with epics ("Total Eclipse of the Heart", "Faster Than the Speed of Night").

4. Meat Loaf sang a song called "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad". Why didn't he get three out of three?

Answer: There ain't no way I'm ever gonna love you.

Steinman despised simple love songs but was forced by his producer to write one for the album "Bat Out of Hell". So he wrote a passive‑aggressive parody of one. He took the Elvis formula: "I want you. I need you. I love you" ...and twisted it into: "I want you. I need you. But there ain't no way I'm ever gonna love you". Then he added the punchline: "Two out of three ain't bad".

5. During editing of the movie "Footloose", the tractor‑chicken showdown looked flat and unintentionally goofy until the team decided to drop in a high‑energy music track from the soundtrack. Which song was added to the scene that instantly transformed the tractors into a heroic, adrenaline‑charged showdown?

Answer: Holding Out for a Hero

Ren's "frozen bravery" in the tractor scene wasn't acting - it was a stunt double whose shoelace trapped him on the tractor, and the editors loved the accidental tension so much they kept it. "Holding Out for a Hero" was the perfect fit because Bonnie Tyler's voice has a built‑in "heroic desperation".

Her voice is raspy, volcanic, emotional, dramatic in a Jim‑Steinman‑opera way. When her voice hit the scene, it created the emotional stakes the footage lacked.

6. Phil Rizzuto is the only major baseball broadcaster to perform a real play‑by‑play sequence in a hit song - and it became one of the most famous musical baseball moments ever. What was the name of the hit song?

Answer: Paradise by the Dashboard Light

Meat Loaf's famous "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" was written by Jim Steinman and released in 1977. Phil Rizzuto said he thought he was recording a real baseball tutorial, not narrating a rock‑and‑roll sex metaphor - which makes his performance even funnier.

He later joked that if he had known, he would've "cleaned it up a little." Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman both said they assumed he knew exactly what he was doing. Rizzuto's wife reportedly figured it out immediately and wasn't thrilled.

7. Which Bonnie Tyler hit became a global classic even though it was secretly written as a vampire love song?

Answer: Total Eclipse of the Heart

Jim Steinman originally wrote "Total Eclipse of the Heart" as "Vampires in Love" for an unfinished musical adaptation of the 1922 film "Nosferatu" - a project he later spiritually completed with "Dance of the Vampires". Bonnie Tyler told Steinman she wanted bigger, darker, more powerful songs, and when he heard her voice and taste, he realized she was the perfect singer for his unused vampire ballad - so he resurrected "Vampires in Love" and turned it into "Total Eclipse of the Heart." Bonnie Tyler did not know this when she recorded the song.

8. "You Took the Words Right Out of my Mouth" reached number 39 on the Billboard Top 100 in 1978. According to the singer, when were the words taken out of his mouth?

Answer: When you were kissing me.

Jim Steinman wrote this song because he wanted to capture the explosive moment when two people feel the same thing at the same time, and one speaks the truth the other was just about to say. Jim Steinman put a kiss at the center of "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth" because he saw a kiss not as a small romantic gesture, but as a mythic, overwhelming moment where emotion hits so hard it literally steals your ability to speak.

9. In 1981, Cher sang in a musical duet video because the project offered her a high‑energy, rock‑opera spotlight at a moment when she was experimenting with new sounds. It exposed a tougher rock-glam side and proved she could command a theatrical rock song just as powerfully as she commanded pop. What was the name of the song?

Answer: Dead Ringer for Love

Jim Steinman originally wrote the music for "Dead Ringer for Love" for the TV show "Delta House". But the show was cancelled and after "Bat Out of Hell", Steinman wanted at least one track that wasn't a ten‑minute operatic saga for Meat Loaf's next song, so he revived this song.

He needed a short, loud, swaggering rock song to balance the album's heavier theatrical pieces. Cher and Meat Loaf's iconic chemistry in the "Dead Ringer for Love" video was created in a single London pub shoot without Jim Steinman present and without the two ever having performed the song together live.

In the years following, Cher never performed "Dead Ringer for Love" live with Meat Loaf because the duet was a studio cameo for her, while the song became a Meat Loaf concert staple with other vocalists replacing her part.

10. Who do all of the above songs have in common?

Answer: Jim Steinman

Jim Steinman wrote all of these songs. He fused rock, opera, melodrama, and teenage mythology into a new genre - the cinematic rock epic - and reshaped popular music with his unmistakable, larger‑than‑life style. He wrote some of the biggest power ballads in history and is often referred to as the inventor of modern rock opera. A legend in the music industry.

Source: Author FredFlint9

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

Rock 'n Roll Crescendos Trivia Quiz

All of these hit songs feature dramatic crescendos and romantic melodrama. Besides this, can you figure out what they all have in common?

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