Songs About Singers Trivia Quiz

Answer: Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie, the "dustbowl balladeer", has long been regarded as folk music's most important singer of the 20th Century. Guthrie's influence on generations of musicians to follow is difficult to understate. He initiated a genre of topical and protest songs that was to be picked up by the likes of Joan Baez, Utah Phillips, Holly Near, Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan, and Tom Paxton.

Working people were the subject of many Guthrie songs. These included "Deportee: Plane Wreck At Los Gatos", "All You Fascists Bound To Lose", "Talking Union", "Hobo's Lullaby" and, of course his seminal "This Land Is Your Land".

In a forward to Guthrie's autobiography "Bound For Glory", his friend and collaborator Pete Seeger wrote: "Woody will never die, as long as there are people who like to sing his songs."

Tom Paxton, meanwhile, admired the music of Guthrie (among others) while growing up in Oklahoma. Some critics have traced a direct line from Guthrie's storytelling songs about 'ordinary people' to those of Paxton.

Answer: Velvet Underground

Jonathan Richman had an obsession for the Velvet Underground and the New York band influenced his music with his own band, the Modern Lovers. In the song 'Velvet Underground' he repeats their name at the end of each verse, even breaking into a snatch of a Velvet Underground song.

Hailing out of New York City in the 1960s, the Velvet Underground had a guitar sound that pre-dated and influenced the later punk rockers. John Cale and Lou Reed were the driving forces and they cut their teeth for later successful solo careers.

The band were most active from 1964 to 1973, but there were to be personnel changes before they split. The band reformed from time to time. "All Tomorrow's Parties", "Sweet Jane" and "Venus In Furs" were among their best songs.

Jonathan Richman hailed from New England, a fact he reminded audiences of in several songs. His songs with the Modern Lovers and as a solo artist were...unusual. Among them were "You're Crazy For Taking The Bus"
and "Abominable Snowman In The Market". In 1977, "Egyptian Reggae" was a UK number five.

Answer: Gene Vincent

Many now consider the mid 1950s songs of Gene Vincent a cornerstone of rock and roll music. His fame burnt brightly, but briefly, with three US top 40 songs in just two years - 1956 and 1957 - and never in the charts again. He was more popular in the UK with eight top 40 songs between 1956 and 1961.

With his band The Blue Caps, Vincent took "Be-Bop-A-Lula" to number seven on the Billboard Hot 100. They had a high energy style and distinctive sound that was to be picked up by others who followed.

Ian Dury was an English punk rocker who enjoyed success in the 1970s with his band The Blockheads. Dury was "a rock and roll vagabond with the wit, humour and intelligence of Noël Coward and Oscar Wilde." (That's from his own website, so it must be true). Dury was born in 1942 and died in 2000.

With the Blockheads, he had one UK chart topper, "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick" in 1978. Dury was a fan of Gene Vincent and included "Sweet Gene Vincent" on his first solo LP "New Boots and Panties!!"

Answer: Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger came from a well-off New York family but abandoned any plans they had for him by becoming a troubadour collecting the songs of working class America. He fell under the influence of Woody Guthrie and they were friends and oft-times collaborators.

Seeger wrote or adapted songs that became the theme music to American life of the 1950s and 1960s. Although blacklisted during the McCarthy era, Seeger continued to lead the voice of opposition to the war in Asia and the discrimination against some American people by others in his country's own society.

"Where Have All The Flowers Gone?", "Turn!, Turn!, Turn!" and "If I Had A Hammer" were just three songs closely associated with Seeger. He also made changes to an old Gospel hymn to make it "We Shall Overcome" and convinced Martin Luther King to make it an anthem of the Civil Rights movements in the USA.

Answer: Karen Carpenter

"Tunic (Song for Karen)" was written by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, who told 'Mojo' magazine: ""Her voice was amazing. And her death made you look back at the lyrics. She didn't write them, but she made them her own." The song was on the band's 1990 LP "Goo".

Karen Carpenter and her brother Richard had three US Hot 100 chart toppers, with five hitting number two. They had seven songs reach the top ten in the UK. Often hailed as one of the greatest female vocalists of all time, Karen Carpenter was born in 1950 and died from the effects of anorexia at the age of 32.

Sonic Youth were a New York rock band that came to prominence in the 1980s. Despite a long catalogue of record releases, major chart success largely eluded them, with "100%" being their best performing single, a US number four in 1992.

Answer: Elvis

Gillian Welch sang "Elvis Presley Blues" on her 2001 album "Time (The Revelator)".

If you are a music lover then you are probably well versed in the life and influence of Elvis Presley. So some trivia: Elvis recorded some 600 songs during his career, without writing a single one (he was given song writing credits in some at the insistence of his manager.). In that career, he never performed outside of North America. Before he became the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis auditioned for an amateur gospel quartet called the Songfellows - and was turned down.

Gillian Welch was born in New York City in 1967. She performed over a long period with her partner David Rawlings. Their musical style embraced country, blues and Americana. They received and Americana Music Honors & Awards lifetime award in 2015. Their 2021 album "All the Good Times (Are Past & Gone)" won a Grammy.

Answer: Tom Jones

Liverpool band Space and Welsh songstress Cerys Matthews teamed up for UK number four hit in 1998.
Cerys Matthews was a huge fan of Tom Jones and named her son after him. She claimed, not altogether seriously, in the lyrics that Tom Jones's voice had saved her life.

Years later Matthews - who sprang to fame in the band Catatonia - sang a duet of "Baby It's Cold Outside" with Jones.

In a career that started in the 1960s, Tom Jones adapted his style and songs for succeeding generations. Early on he was noted for his raunchiness, and female concert-goers were known to throw articles of their underwear at him on stage.

Answer: Enrico Caruso

"Caruso" was on the album "Gulf Winds", released by Joan Baez in 1976.

Enrico Caruso was born in Naples in 1873 and died there in 1921. He became regarded as the most famous operatic tenor of his time and one of the top selling recording artists of the early 20th Century. His recording of "Vesti la giubba" became the first to sell more than one million copies in the USA. He released more than 260 78RPM recordings and earned up to £5 million at a time when a million was a staggering amount of money. (Well it still is if you don't have it, but put it this way: you would need $85m in 2023 to buy what £5m did in 1921.)

In a feature in July 2022, 'BBC Music' listed Caruso at number two in a list of "The 20 Greatest Tenors of all Time".

Joan Baez was among a long list of singer/songwriters who emerged from the Greenwich Village folk scene of the early 1960s. Like many of her contemporaries, she gave a voice to social and political injustice, and was firmly in the anti-Vietnam War camp. She was jailed twice for refusing to pay federal taxes that went to the war effort.

Despite her social conscience, Baez did not make much headway on the charts; her biggest hit was a cover of The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", which reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971.

Answer: Marc Bolan

Bowie included "Lady Stardust" on his 1972 LP "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars". Bolan and Bowie were contemporaries and there were some similarities between their sounds. Some might have thought them rivals, but they were in fact good friends.

Marc Bolan had been lead singer of the band T. Rex (originally Tyrannosaurus Rex.) The band had four UK chart-toppers in 1971 and several others hit the top 10. Tragically, Marc Bolan died in a car crash in September 1977.

David Bowie had much longer career, in which he released 26 albums. His was a genre-twisting career: Bowie was never afraid to ring the changes in style. While he had several singles that reached number three in the UK, the top spot eluded him as a solo singer. In North America, though, he took top spot in the US and Canada with "Fame" in 1977.

In a 2016 obituary following Bowie's death from cancer, the 'Guardian' described him as: "a trailblazer of musical trends and pop fashion".

Answer: Phil Ochs

"I got the news today
That you refused to play
Cause you never made number one
But it's not just the words
It's the deeds that are heard
When all is said and done
Kings take their crowns
They melt them all down
Trying to get the gold out
You went to hell and
Even when you weren't selling
You never ever sold out..."

Philip David Ochs was a Texas-born troubadour at the forefront of the Greenwich village folkscare of the 1960s. He turned his attention to what he felt was the unjust war in Asia, as well as championing the plight of coal mine workers and supporting civil rights for all in the USA.

The songwriting of Phil Ochs was the equal of anyone around at the time, certainly his singing was better than certain others who got the acclaim. Ochs, though, could not break away from that image of protest singer and commercial success passed him by. After a short life afflicted by Bipolar Disorder, he died by suicide on April 9, 1976.

Harry Chapin was a New York City born singer who once earned the highest ever signing-on fee to a record company. But Chapin failed to deliver commercial hits, apart from his Hot 100 number one "Cat's In The Cradle". He was revered as a concert performer and found a niche with his 'story songs' that wove the lives of ordinary people into music. In 1993, "Cat's In The Cradle" was used in an anti-terrorism TV commercial in Northern Ireland.

The life of Phil Ochs was also remembered in song by his contemporary and friend Tom Paxton.