Can You Weather the Weather Songs? Quiz

Answer: Early Morning Rain

Lightfoot wrote "Early Morning Rain" in 1964. It was never released as a single by him; it was on his 1966 debut album"Lightfoot!". Fellow Canadians Ian and Sylvia (Tyson) did release it as a single, in 1965, followed soon after by the Grateful Dead and Peter, Paul and Mary. It was so well-liked that Judy Collins, Bob Dylan and Elvis recorded it.

Answer: Lena Horne

Written by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, Ethel Waters first sang the song at the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York and recorded it in 1933. Then, many singers added it to their repertoire. To find three wrong answers for this question I had to search for a long time to find three singers of this type of song who hadn't recorded it. Lena Horne sang it for the 1943 movie of the same name.

Her version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000.

Answer: like a hurricane

Scorpions, a German band, was formed in 1965. "Rock You Like a Hurricane" was one of their biggest hits and came from their ninth studio album "Love at First Sting". VH1 ranked the song number 18 on their list of the "100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs".

Answer: Bing Crosby

Originally a country and western song, it has been recorded by such a variety of artists it is now considered a mainstream American song. It was written by Jimmy Davis and Charles Mitchell. Davis went on to be governor of Louisiana; because of that it was named one of Louisiana's state songs. Bing Crosby's (of "White Christmas" fame) version in 1941 was a big hit.

The list of other artists who recorded it is long, but when Gene Autry, Lawrence Welk and Ike and Tina Turner cover a song, you know it's popular!

Answer: Electric Light Orchestra

From the album "Out of the Blue" (1977), "Mr. Blue Sky" was the second single from that album by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). It reached number six on the "UK Singles Chart" and reached up around 330 mi./528 km. into space when it was used as a wake-up call to astronauts on the third day of the final mission of the Space Shuttle Atlantis in 2011.

Answer: The Doors

According to Doors member Robby Krieger the song was inspired by "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend" from 1948. Besides the cowboy tie-in, the song may have alluded to serial killer Billy Cook, who killed six people while hitchhiking to California. It was the last Doors song to be released before Jim Morrison's death in 1971.

Answer: Al Jolson

Jolson recorded the song several times from when it was published in 1921. Working with the Vitaphone Company, he recorded it for a predecessor of talking movie technology. He did not sing it in "The Jazz Singer", but I used the movie as a clue since Jolson is most associated with it.

It is another song that many artists wanted to record. Incidentally, George Jessel was to be the star of "The Jazz Singer" until he found out he would have to sing in the movie.

Answer: Rolling Stones

Coming from the Stones' so-called psychedelic album "Their Satanic Majesties Request", "She's a Rainbow" was released in December, 1967. It was a relatively simple song that seemed a bit out of place with some of the highly-amplified songs of the time. "She's a Rainbow" made it to number 25 on the "Billboard Hot 100" in the U.S. They really liked it in the Netherlands, it went to number two on the "Single Top 100" list there.

Answer: Box of Rain

"Box of Rain" was the lead song on the Dead's 1970 album "American Beauty". It was written by bassist Phil Lesh and Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. It was the first song Lesh sang lead vocal on. He wanted a song to sing to his father, who was dying of cancer. Lesh wrote the music and turned it over to Hunter, who wrote the lyrics. Hunter said "If ever a lyric 'wrote itself,' this did-as fast as the pen would pull."

Answer: Come Rain or Come Shine

Written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, the song was first sung in the musical "St. Louis Woman" by Ruby Hill, playing the part of Della Green. Although the play originally opened in a small New York theater and only ran for 113 performances the song was quickly picked up by many musicians and over time became an American Standard. Among those who took a liking to it over the years were Frank Sinatra, James Brown, Bette Midler and Eric Clapton.