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Quiz about 1950 to1955  Music Music Music
Quiz about 1950 to1955  Music Music Music

1950 to1955 - Music, Music, Music Quiz


This is volume II of music from the early 1950s, what I like to call the "no era" era. I hope you enjoy the reminiscing and good luck!

A multiple-choice quiz by maddogrick16. Estimated time: 7 mins.
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Author
maddogrick16
Time
7 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
216,263
Updated
Jul 07 24
# Qns
15
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
10 / 15
Plays
6406
Awards
Top 5% quiz!
Last 3 plays: LCPN (14/15), kented (8/15), Guest 50 (0/15).
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Question 1 of 15
1. Teresa Brewer burst onto the charts as a nineteen year old in 1950 with a number one hit - "Music! Music! Music!". What's the vehicle for listening to music that Teresa mentions in the opening stanza of the song? Hint


Question 2 of 15
2. In 1951, Rosemary Clooney had a number one hit for eight weeks with this perky little number. Can you identify the title? Sorry, no lyrical clues... but of the 22 lines in the song, 18 begin with the song's title! Hint


Question 3 of 15
3. Guy Mitchell was a stalwart on the music scene in the early 1950s. In one of his bigger hits of 1952, he tells of needing a pawnshop to get the dough to treat his blue-eyed blonde girlfriend to a night on the town. The title of the song was the American city where these events took place. What city was that? Hint


Question 4 of 15
4. Patti Page had a number one song in 1953 that topped the charts for eight weeks. It was "The Doggie In The Window". She's intending to purchase the cute little critter, "arf arf", but why? Hint


Question 5 of 15
5. "Through the ripples how they shine
Just one wish will be granted
One heart will wear a valentine"

A number one hit for the Four Aces and a number four for Frank Sinatra in 1954, what is the title of this song?
Hint


Question 6 of 15
6. In 1950, Eileen Barton had a number one hit for ten weeks. The main part of the title was "If I Knew You Were Comin'". What followed, in parenthesis, to complete the song's title? Hint


Question 7 of 15
7. "I do not know what fate awaits me
I only know I must be brave
And I must face a man who hates me
Or lie a coward, a craven coward
Or lie a coward in my grave"

I'm sure this is the only song in the annals of pop music that utilizes the word "craven" in the lyric. What classic movie of the old west featured this song?
Hint


Question 8 of 15
8. "Now the hacienda's dark, the town is sleeping
Now the time has come to part, the time for weeping
Vaya con Dios my darling
May God be with you my love"

This was rated the number one song for all of 1953, topping the charts for eleven weeks. What couple recorded this lovely number?
Hint


Question 9 of 15
9. In 1954, Eddie Fisher scored an eight-week number one song that originally appeared in a Swiss musical comedy written by Paul Burkhard. Its title? Hint


Question 10 of 15
10. "I was dancin' with my darlin' to the __________ Waltz
When an old friend I happened to see
I introduced her to my loved one
And while they were dancin'
My friend stole my sweetheart from me"

Fill in the blank to complete this song's title, a huge number one hit for Patti Page in 1950. It's the name of a State.

Answer: (The State borders the Mississippi River)
Question 11 of 15
11. "Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-o
Son of a gun we'll have big fun on the bayou"

A huge country hit for Hank Williams and a cross-over number three pop hit for Jo Stafford in 1952, what was the title of this classic?
Hint


Question 12 of 15
12. One of the biggest names in show business in his day, a veteran of the American armed forces, great singer, reasonably accomplished actor in "B" grade musical comedies and someone who died far too young under mysterious circumstances. Presley? Wrong era! We're talking Mario Lanza! In 1952 he recorded the music for an album that would serve as the soundtrack for a movie eventually released in 1954. He was also to star in the lead role but circumstances precluded that. What was the name of this movie/soundtrack that should have propelled Lanza to even greater heights but instead precipitated his decline from stardom? Hint


Question 13 of 15
13. For two weeks in 1952, a clever satire stood atop the charts and Stan Freberg was not the artist responsible. "It's In The Book" was recorded by Johnny Standley and it would prove to be his only chart entry... ever! The disc was a humorous send up of the preaching style practiced by the fly-by-night traveling evangelist. The song was split in two halves. In the first half, Standley makes parody of a nursery rhyme using the preaching motif; in the second half, with Standley as the preacher leading his congregation in song, he extols the cleansing virtues of his grandmother's famous lye soap. So the question is, what nursery rhyme is satirized in the first half of the song? Hint


Question 14 of 15
14. In 1956, Kay Starr had a huge hit with "Rock & Roll Waltz". It sat atop the charts for six weeks. However, in 1952, she had an even bigger hit with what song? Hint


Question 15 of 15
15. "Give him a pair of eyes with a come-hither gleam
Give him a lonely heart like Pagliacci
And lots of wavy hair like Liberace"

The last number one hit of 1954 and the "no era" era, what song was this?
Hint



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quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Teresa Brewer burst onto the charts as a nineteen year old in 1950 with a number one hit - "Music! Music! Music!". What's the vehicle for listening to music that Teresa mentions in the opening stanza of the song?

Answer: the nickelodeon

"Put another nickel in, in the nickelodeon
All I want is lovin' you and music! Music! Music!"

The song, written by Stephan Weiss and Bernie Baum, was also recorded by The Ames Brothers, Carmen Cavallaro and Freddy Martin among others with Teresa's version the biggest hit recording.

Teresa started in the entertainment business as a two year old and won several talent contests as a child. Subsequent to this, her first, she churned out a steady stream of charting hits until 1961 when she temporarily retired to raise her family. She began recording and entertaining again in 1972 but changed her focus from pop to jazz - her new husband was Bob Thiele, a record producer well connected to the jazz scene. She remained fairly active until her last recording in 1991. As of 2005 and fully retired, she resides in NYC.
2. In 1951, Rosemary Clooney had a number one hit for eight weeks with this perky little number. Can you identify the title? Sorry, no lyrical clues... but of the 22 lines in the song, 18 begin with the song's title!

Answer: Come On-a My House

"Come On-a My House" was Clooney's hit, the other titles were songs recorded by Doris Day during the late 40s - early 50s. Here's a sample of the lyric:

"Come on-a my house my house, I'm gonna give you candy
Come on-a my house, my house, I'm gonna give a you
Apple a plum and apricot-a too, eh
Come on-a my house, my house a come on
Come on-a my house, my house a come on
Come on-a my house, my house I'm gonna give a you
Figs and dates and grapes and cakes, eh"

Those compelling words were written by William Saroyan, Pulitzer Award winning author in 1940 for "The Time Of Your Life". Also receiving song-writing credits is Saroyan's cousin, Ross Bagdasarian who later achieved fame under the pseudonym David Seville, creator of the recording "Alvin and the Chipmunks".
3. Guy Mitchell was a stalwart on the music scene in the early 1950s. In one of his bigger hits of 1952, he tells of needing a pawnshop to get the dough to treat his blue-eyed blonde girlfriend to a night on the town. The title of the song was the American city where these events took place. What city was that?

Answer: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

"Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" peaked at #4 in 1952. Here's a slice of the lyric:

"There's a pawnshop on a corner in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
And I've just gotta get five or ten (five or ten)
From the pawn shop on a corner in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Gotta be with my angel again"

Most of Mitchell's releases in the early 1950s were similar in style. A mixed chorus who embellished the percussion and tempo of the song with rhythmic clapping would back him. His songs were always fun and energetic. It should come as no surprise that almost all of his hits were produced by Mitch "follow the bouncing ball" Miller who later incorporated the same technique into his own successful TV show! Ultimately, Mitchell would have two monster #1 hits, "Singing The Blues" in 1956 and "Heartaches By The Number" in 1959. But, like for so many other 1950 crooners, the 1960s were unkind to him - the record buying public was into rock & roll and he wasn't capable of the transition. He acted in several movies and did TV work until the nostalgia music tours in the 1970s and 1980s revived his career somewhat. He passed away, at the age of 72, in 1999 due to complications during surgery.
4. Patti Page had a number one song in 1953 that topped the charts for eight weeks. It was "The Doggie In The Window". She's intending to purchase the cute little critter, "arf arf", but why?

Answer: She wants a companion for her beau while she's away

The first verse after the chorus reveals all -
"I must take a trip to California
And leave my poor sweetheart alone
If he has a dog, he won't be lonesome
And the doggie will have a good home"

Patti was the premiere female vocalist of the 1950s scoring four number one hits altogether. She was among the first to utilize over-dubbing of her own voice on her recordings to create a lush sound and was a mainstay on the pop charts for twenty years, from 1948 to 1968. Although her recording career essentially ended in 1968, she continued to perform well into the 1990s.

To my memory, this is the very first song I can actually remember hearing on the radio when I was five years old!
5. "Through the ripples how they shine Just one wish will be granted One heart will wear a valentine" A number one hit for the Four Aces and a number four for Frank Sinatra in 1954, what is the title of this song?

Answer: Three Coins In The Fountain

The song, written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, was featured in the movie with the same title starring Clifton Webb, Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters, Rossano Brazzi, and Louis Jourdan. The song, as sung by Sinatra, won the Academy Award that year. The fountain, of course, is the famous Trevi Fountain in Rome where the movie was filmed.
6. In 1950, Eileen Barton had a number one hit for ten weeks. The main part of the title was "If I Knew You Were Comin'". What followed, in parenthesis, to complete the song's title?

Answer: (I'd've Baked A Cake)

This was Eileen's only big hit although she did have four other songs to chart in the top thirty in the early 1950s.

She was a child performer during the 1930s and 1940s and often appeared on radio programs hosted by the likes of Milton Berle and Rudy Vallee. The advent of the rock and roll era signaled the death knell of her career and search as I might, she seems to have faded entirely from view in the entertainment industry.

Bob Merrill, an extremely prolific songwriter of the era, wrote this song. He also wrote "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" and "The Doggie In The Window", earlier subjects in this quiz. He wrote a number of Guy Mitchell's hits and was responsible for Barbra Streisand's classic "People". Almost unbelievably, he could neither read nor write music! He did his compositions on a cheap toy xylophone with numbered keys that were used to transcribe the melodies! Tired of enduring a long illness, he took his own life in 1998.
7. "I do not know what fate awaits me I only know I must be brave And I must face a man who hates me Or lie a coward, a craven coward Or lie a coward in my grave" I'm sure this is the only song in the annals of pop music that utilizes the word "craven" in the lyric. What classic movie of the old west featured this song?

Answer: High Noon

The movie - "High Noon", the song - "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me)".

The song won the academy award in 1952 for composers Ned Washington and Dmitri Tiomkin as sung by Tex Ritter. His version peaked at #12 but was eclipsed by a competing version sung by Frankie Laine. It peaked at number five.
8. "Now the hacienda's dark, the town is sleeping Now the time has come to part, the time for weeping Vaya con Dios my darling May God be with you my love" This was rated the number one song for all of 1953, topping the charts for eleven weeks. What couple recorded this lovely number?

Answer: Les Paul and Mary Ford

Together, they would have several huge hits in the early 1950s including "How High The Moon", a number one for nine weeks in 1951. They started recording together in the late 1940s, married in 1949 and continued to entertain as a couple until their divorce in 1963.

They truly capitalized on Paul's genius as a recording engineer, he being among the very first to experiment with multi track layering of his guitar work and Ford's vocalizations. Together they made beautiful music... in the professional sense, of course!
9. In 1954, Eddie Fisher scored an eight-week number one song that originally appeared in a Swiss musical comedy written by Paul Burkhard. Its title?

Answer: Oh! My Pa-pa

Originally entitled "O Mein Papa", this would prove to be the biggest hit of Fisher's career. Perhaps now better known as the father of Carrie Fisher, his child with Debbie Reynolds, he was a genuine idol to the "bobby soxers" of the early 1950s and had an impressive run of big hits during the "no era" era. Yet another casualty of rock and roll, he mostly cut albums of standards during the 1960s, his last charting single coming in 1967 and only peaking at #97.

Despite that, he continued to perform into the 1990s.
10. "I was dancin' with my darlin' to the __________ Waltz When an old friend I happened to see I introduced her to my loved one And while they were dancin' My friend stole my sweetheart from me" Fill in the blank to complete this song's title, a huge number one hit for Patti Page in 1950. It's the name of a State.

Answer: Tennessee

Number one for 13 weeks, it was Patti Page's biggest hit of her career. Co-written by Redd Stewart and Pee Wee King, King would have a number one hit of his own in 1952 with "Slow Poke".
11. "Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-o Son of a gun we'll have big fun on the bayou" A huge country hit for Hank Williams and a cross-over number three pop hit for Jo Stafford in 1952, what was the title of this classic?

Answer: Jambalaya

Within six months, Williams would be dead but Jo Stafford would go on to have a long and successful career. To be more accurate, by 1952, she already had had a long and successful career!

As a teenager, she and her sisters were a popular radio act around their hometown of Fresno. Later, she would join the Pied Pipers and remained with the group during their stint with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in the early 1940s. When the group broke away from the Dorsey organization in 1943, Stafford chose to go solo herself and immediately began charting hits. She would ultimately have four number one hits during the late 1940s and early 1950s, her last top 40 hit charting in 1956. She went into semi-retirement during the mid 1960s and left the entertainment business entirely in 1975. As of 2005, she continued to live in retirement in California.
12. One of the biggest names in show business in his day, a veteran of the American armed forces, great singer, reasonably accomplished actor in "B" grade musical comedies and someone who died far too young under mysterious circumstances. Presley? Wrong era! We're talking Mario Lanza! In 1952 he recorded the music for an album that would serve as the soundtrack for a movie eventually released in 1954. He was also to star in the lead role but circumstances precluded that. What was the name of this movie/soundtrack that should have propelled Lanza to even greater heights but instead precipitated his decline from stardom?

Answer: The Student Prince

Altogether, in fifteen years from 1944-1958, Lanza appeared in eight movies, starred in seven of them and his voice was featured in another, "The Student Prince". He only had a handful of entries on the musical charts, and just one number one hit - "Be My Love" in 1951. What was the fuss about? The voice! A voice that was comparable only to that of Caruso!

Regarding "The Student Prince", one story relates that because Lanza was berated for his acting technique by Curtis Bernhardt, the initial director of the movie, Lanza walked off the set. It was also speculated that Lanza was fired for a variety of reasons - he was dependent on drugs and alcohol and was becoming undependable; these addictions were affecting his performance; he was becoming moody and surly on the set; and, he had become lazy and fat, too fat to portray the leading role of a young prince on screen. Regardless, rather than reinforce his place among the "stars" of the era, he became a despondent recluse for a couple of years. While in seclusion he started to tackle his addiction issues then, disenchanted with America, moved to Rome where he resumed his acting career in 1958. He died of an apparent heart attack in 1959 at the age of 38. Later speculation suggests that he was actually "rubbed out" in a mafia hit after refusing to perform at Lucky Luciano's behest. Perhaps an offer he shouldn't have refused?
13. For two weeks in 1952, a clever satire stood atop the charts and Stan Freberg was not the artist responsible. "It's In The Book" was recorded by Johnny Standley and it would prove to be his only chart entry... ever! The disc was a humorous send up of the preaching style practiced by the fly-by-night traveling evangelist. The song was split in two halves. In the first half, Standley makes parody of a nursery rhyme using the preaching motif; in the second half, with Standley as the preacher leading his congregation in song, he extols the cleansing virtues of his grandmother's famous lye soap. So the question is, what nursery rhyme is satirized in the first half of the song?

Answer: Little Bo Peep

The record begins -
"I have a message for you - a very sad message!
My subject for this evening will be Little Bo Peep.
It says here, 'Little Bo Peep, who was a little girl,
has lost her sheep'"
and later continues -
"They will come home a-waggin' their tails behind them.
Behind them?
Did we think they'd wag them in front of them?
Of course, they might have come home in reverse.
They could have done that, I really don't know.
But, none the less, it's in the book."

A sample from the second half of the song.
"Well, let's sing what's left of the last verse.
Let's have a happy time, everyone.
The last verse, al-l-l-l together.
Ev-v-v-very one!

Mm-m-m-m. Thank you kindly, kindly,
M-m-mrs. O'Malley, out in the valley,
Suffered from ulcers, I understand.
She swallowed a cake of grandma's lye soap,
Has the cleanest ulcers in the land."

The two parts of the song were essentially the flip sides of a disc but they weren't labeled as such. Hence, the song has an official playing time of well over seven minutes making it easily the longest number one song to that point in time.

I was able to gather very little biographical data on Standley. He was born in 1912 in Oklahoma and died in 1992 at the age of 79. He was with band leader Horace Hiedt's stage show in the 1950s and it was Heidt and His Musical Knights which provided the back-up instrumentation on the second half of this record. Both his mother and father were vaudevillians and it is very likely that he was drawn into this form of entertainment as a child performer. Perhaps, while traveling the circuit, he encountered this type of preacher and crafted the song to properly mock them. I do not know!
14. In 1956, Kay Starr had a huge hit with "Rock & Roll Waltz". It sat atop the charts for six weeks. However, in 1952, she had an even bigger hit with what song?

Answer: Wheel Of Fortune

Kay was born in Oklahoma in 1922, moved to Dallas as a child and after winning a talent contest, had her own 15 minute radio show while barely a teenager. Before she was 18 years old, she had stints with several orchestras including those led by Joe Venuti, Bob Crosby, Charlie Barnet and, for two weeks, Glenn Miller.

As the big band era was slowly coming to an end, most singers were focusing on solo careers and Kay was no exception. Prior to "Wheel Of Fortune", she had nine charting hits, six of which were top 10s, most notably "Bonaparte's Retreat". From the early 1960s on, Kay continued to entertain world wide in concerts and was among the first to establish a presence in casinos in Vegas and Reno.

She also changed her recording focus to albums featuring country music or soft jazz.

She continued to perform well into the 1990s but now appears to have retired from the business.
15. "Give him a pair of eyes with a come-hither gleam Give him a lonely heart like Pagliacci And lots of wavy hair like Liberace" The last number one hit of 1954 and the "no era" era, what song was this?

Answer: Mr. Sandman

"Mr. Sandman" was the first big hit for The Chordettes, staying at number one for the last seven weeks of 1954.

The Chordettes were originally formed in their hometown of Sheboygan, Wisconsin during the late 1940s and were initially dedicated to the "Barbershop Quartet" style of singing. From 1949 to 1953, they were regulars on the Arthur Godfrey radio and TV shows. Godfrey's musical director, Archie Bleyer, signed the group to his new record company, Cadence, and recommended that they do this song. Bleyer produced all their subsequent recordings on Cadence and several were rather significant hits - "Born To Be With You" (number 5 in 1956); "Lollipop" (number two in 1958); and, "Never On Sunday" (number 13 in 1961). The group disbanded in 1963 shortly after their lead singer retired.
Source: Author maddogrick16

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor ralzzz before going online.
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Related Quizzes
This quiz is part of series Top Annual Hits from 1950 to 1959:

Quizzes featuring the biggest hits from the entire 1950s decade.

  1. 1950 to 1955 - the "No Era" era Average
  2. 1950 to1955 - Music, Music, Music Average
  3. The Top Hits Of 1956 Average
  4. The Top Hits Of 1957 Average
  5. The Top Hits Of 1958 Average
  6. The Top Hits of 1959 Average

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