Hhhow About More Songs on my iPod? Quiz

Answer: Roy Orbison

This song, the Wilburys' biggest hit, came about almost by accident. George Harrison and Jeff Lynne were putting together a bonus track for a Harrison release. They were going to use Bob Dylan's home studio, and Harrison asked Roy Orbison, who just happened to be there, to come along next day and watch. Tom Petty was invited apparently equally casually. George Harrison's idea for the song was expanded with input from everybody, and the record company knew a hit when they heard one. The idea of the Wilburys had already been floating around, so it didn't take long to put something together.

A jam session that turned into a pretty successful project - that first Traveling Wilburys cassette got heavy play around our house before I eventually put this song on my iPod.

Answer: Highwayman

"Many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade
Many a soldier shed his lifeblood on my blade..."

Jimmy Webb, writer of such songs as "Galveston", "Wichita Lineman", "MacArthur Park" and so many more, gave us this one about a highwayman, who also becomes a sailor, and a dam builder, in later lives. As we leave the song he is in his starship, heading across the universe, but he promises he'll be back again. And again and again...

Webb recorded it in 1977, and Glen Campbell in 1978. A few years later, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson took it as the title song and first release from their album, and the name of their supergroup. A huge hit all around, that time. This is the version I have on my iPod.

Answer: Half as Much

Curley Williams wrote this one, and Hank Williams (no relation) recorded it first. However, his version was held back a few months so that Curley's could be released first. Hank's went to number two on the Billboard Country Hits chart in 1952.

There have been lots of covers of this song, including a violin-heavy one from Rosemary Clooney that same year that was also a hit. I've got Hank Williams and Patsy Cline versions on my iPod.

Answer: Is how to shoot at someone who outdrew you

"Hallelujah" might be Cohen's best known song; it's certainly been covered enough, and been in enough movies and TV shows.

Cohen originally had many many (many!) verses to this song, and it was John Cale, of all people, who put together the version that most subsequent singers have used in one way or another. The verse used in the question is one of the ones that Cohen had only sung live a few times, but which Cale liked and used, when he covered the song for a tribute album.

I've got Bono's, and Rufus Wainwright's, covers on my iPod, but not John Cale's which is a little odd considering how many of his other songs I've got.

Answer: Steve Earle

"My granddaddy was a miner, but he finally saw the light
He didn't have much, just a beat-up truck and a dream about a better life
Grand mama cried when she waved goodbye, never heard such a lonesome sound
Pretty soon the dirt road turned into blacktop, Detroit City bound
Down that hillbilly highway ..."

Hillbilly Highway is a somewhat derogatory term given to migration from the Appalachians to northern industrial cities. In the song, Earle traces a family's path, from southern poverty to a middle class life, and then the singer's journey back south as a musician.

"Guitar Town" (1986) was Earle's breakthrough album - he'd been hanging around the Nashville singer-songwriter scene for quite a few years before it hit. It got to the top of the Billboard Country Album chart and was followed by "Copperhead Road" which also did very well.

Answer: He'll Have to Go

"I'll tell the man to turn the jukebox way down low
And you can tell your friend there with you, he'll have to go"

He'll Have to Go" was released as the B side to something called "In a Mansion Stands my Love". I just took a listen to it on Youtube and I have to say, "What was the record company thinking?"

Jim Reeves took this song to the top of Billboard's Hot Country Singles, and to number two on the pop chart. It even got some R&B play - truly a classic.

Answer: Hurt So Good

"Hurts So Good" came from 1982's "American Fool", when Mellencamp was still performing under the name of John Cougar. Mellencamp started performing under the name of Johnny Cougar in 1976, then went to John Cougar, then John Cougar Mellencamp, and finally dropped that cat altogether in 1991.

The song was a big hit, going to number two on the Billboard Hot 100, but "Jack and Diane", from the same album, beat it out by spending four weeks at the top.

Answer: Van Morrison

Van Morrison released the song as a single from 1989's "Avalon Sunset" and it made a small splash on the charts. Rod Stewart's cover performed quite a bit better, going to number five in the US and the UK. A Belgian band named Clouseau did well in Europe with a Dutch translation, a few years after Rod's version.

Answer: Charles Schulz

"She's not a girl who misses much
Do do do do do do, oh yeah
She's well-acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand
Like a lizard on a window pane"

The path from Schulz's "Peanuts" gang to the song is a little long. "Happiness is a Warm Puppy" was a book published in 1962, with Charlie Brown and friends illustrating the various things that happiness is. Several years later, the National Rifle Association had an article playing on that, with the title "Happiness is a Warm Gun", about the writer teaching his son to shoot. It was that article that caught John Lennon's eye, and led to the song title.

The song was included on 1968's "The Beatles" ("The White Album").

Answer: He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother

Before the Hollies got hold of it, this song was recorded by Kelly Gordon, (who also produced "Ode to Billie Joe" for Bobbie Gentry) and released as a single backing his composition "That's Life", which you may have heard a few people sing. Gordon's take on "He Ain't Heavy" is quite something and worth checking out, though I'd say not as radio-friendly as the Hollies' version. The song was written by Bobby Scott and Bob Russell.

The probably apocryphal story of the title is of a child struggling to carry another child, and when approached by a concerned adult, saying "Oh, he's not heavy, he's my brother". The story's been around in religious tracts since the 1880s, and has been the slogan of Father Flanagan's Boy's Town since the 1940s.

The Hollies' beautiful and highly emotional cover suits the song completely, and was a hit world wide.