Fruitful 1960s Bands/Artists Trivia Quiz

Answer: Strawberry ----- -----

The Strawberry Alarm Clock was a psychedelic-rock group from Los Angeles. In terms of pop chart success, they were a true one hit wonder. "Incense And Peppermints" reached the top of Billboard's pop singles chart in October of 1967 for one week. Have you heard of "Tomorrow"? Their follow-up single snuck in to 23 a few months later and that was it. Guitarist Ed King later became a member of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Answer: Tangerine -----

The Tangerine Dream is a long lasting German band formed in 1967 by electronic music innovator Robert Froese. The group has explored many areas of electronica, specializing in keyboards, sythesizers, and sequencers, and has produced over 100 albums. Froese was the constant through many changes in band personnel until his death in 2015.

His hand-picked successor, Thorsten Quaeschning, has carried on the music. The group has also composed and provided scores to numerous films, including "Risky Business," "Firestarter," and "The Miracle Mile."

Answer: ---- Grape

An innovative and multi-talented group from the late '60s California psychedelic-rock era, Moby Grape successfully blended folk, jazz, and blues influences with great acoustic guitar work. Their unique sound featured three guitarists; Skip Spence, Jerry Miller and Peter Lewis, who all played lead at different times. Bassist Bob Mosley and drummer Don Stevenson rounded out the original lineup, all of whom also sang and wrote songs.

The group was founded by Spence and Matthew Katz (band manager) after both were asked to leave the Jefferson Airplane over "creative differences." Unfortunately, Katz was something of a control freak, and way more shrewd in business than the naive band members.

When they realized he had secured the rights to all the songs and the group name, they rebelled and tried to fire him.

This all lead to a seemingly endless series of court battles, which ultimately sapped the group's energy. Spence also had severe mental health issues exacerbated by drug use, notably LSD.

These factors combined to make the Moby Grape legacy one of largely unrealized potential. By the way, Spence and Mosley came up with the group name after hearing the punchline to the joke, "What's big and purple and lives in the ocean?"

Answer: Lemon ------

Now listen while he plays his "Green Tambourine." The Lemon Pipers' only Top 40 hit made it all the way to number one in the US in February of 1968. The songwriter was Shelly Pinz, from the Brill Building stable of lyricists. Some time during 1966, while entering the building to get to work on her songwriting, she often encountered a guy playing the tambourine on the sidewalk outside, begging for money.

This was the inspiration for the song, one of the first psychedelic chart toppers. The group were a bunch of student musicians who hailed from Oxford, Ohio.

They first gained notice by finishing second to The James Gang in 1967's Cleveland Public Auditorium 1967 "Battle of the Bands."

Answer: -------- Prunes

The Electric Prunes were a prototype garage band from Seattle. Like several of the other psychedelic "fruit" bands of the late '60s mentioned here, they were able to parlay one hit single into a brief career in the recording business. In this case, the song was "I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night," released in January 1967 and topping out at number 11 shortly thereafter.

It features some great distorted fuzz guitar and lots of oscillation and reverb on the vocals and the instrumentation; definitely worth a listen.

The song was the title track of their first album. Also like many other bands from this time, after achieving initial success they had difficulty getting control of the recording process, defining the sound they wanted, and determining what their albums would be.

Although they were songwriters, only two of their songs made it onto that album, much to their chagrin. By the end of the decade, they were largely forgotten.

Answer: Peaches and ----

Herb Feemster was born in Washington, D.C. in 1942. He adopted the stage last name "Fame" and began a music career with the help of established artist Van "Do the Hustle" McCoy. He formed a duo in 1966 with Francine Barker who was the first of a series of women who fulfilled the role of "Peaches." With such hits as "Close Your Eyes," "Let's Fall in Love," and a version of "Love is Strange" they carved out an image as "the sweethearts of soul" during the late 1960s. With Barker tiring of touring, Herb embarked on an unusual career change.

He retired the act in 1970 and became a policeman for several years. He then resurrected the music in 1976 with Linda Greene as the new Peaches, and the duo enjoyed its most successful incarnation, typified by the aptly titled song "Reunited," which topped both Soul and Pop charts in 1978 and became a crowd favorite at concerts.

Answer: Raspberries

The song "Go All the Way" was written by the Raspberries' band leader and bassist Eric Carmen, probably more familiar as a later solo act, writing and singing the 1976 hit "All By Myself." In interviews, Carmen has said he was inspired by The Rolling Stones tune "Let's Spend the Night Together" and decided to write a sexually suggestive song which kids would get but could slip by clueless adults.

He was 21 when he wrote the song in 1971. The original LP "Raspberries" had a scratch n' sniff label on the record jacket.

It was one of only three produced by the original group. Carmen and Wally Bryson produced a fourth Raspberries album, "Starting Over," in 1974.

Answer: ----- Berry

It's mostly been said about Chuck Berry, but it bears repeating. Berry was truly one of the birthing fathers of Rock & Roll. More than anyone else, his influence defined the sound of the electric guitar in rock music and made it the linchpin of the genre. "Maybellene" from July 1955 was one of his first hits, and it is among several legitimate contenders as the first true Rock & Roll song.

It has it all; country style guitar riffs, driving beat, excitement, R&B and Blues feel, and teenage accessible theme. Berry's wild, varied and fascinating story is detailed, as no one else could do it, by Berry himself, in an autobiography written without a ghost writer. Berry, born in 1926, was raised in a totally segregated St. Louis community and never set eyes on a white person until he was three years old.

He died on March 17, 2017 at age 91.

Answer: ---- Cherry

Wild Cherry was an American funk band from Ohio with a late '60s feel, receiving the additional "blue-eyed soul" Wiki genre classification. Rob Parissi, from Mingo Junction, Ohio was the founding member, song writer, and driving force behind the band.

He penned the band's only major hit, "Play that Funky Music," which made number one on Billboard's Hot 100 in September of 1976. After the band broke up in 1979, Parissi took his talents into adult contemporary music, producing and writing smooth jazz.

Answer: ---- Fruitgum -------

The 1910 Fruitgum Company, true to their name, were one of the standard bearers for the bubblegum sound in pop music. During the late 60s and early 70s, these catchy, melodic, light weight tunes were aimed at a young teen and preteen audience.