Hits of the 1950s Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mona Lisa

Showing you a photo of Leonardo da Vinci's 'La Gioconda' (aka 'Mona Lisa') would have been perhaps just too big a clue. Instead, the photo shows another portrait by the same artist> This one is 'Ginevra de' Benci', painted in 1474-76 and now part of the collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

The Nat King Cole song, written by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston, refers to da Vinci's famous renaissance painting in the lyrics. Jim Reeves, Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, Shakin' Stevens, Nat King Cole's daughter Natalie Cole and others have all subsequently recorded cover versions.

The alternatives were all Billboard 100 number one singles in 1950: "Rag Mop" was by the Ames Brothers, "Goodnight, Irene" by Gordon Jenkins & the Weavers spent 13 weeks at number one, and Patti Page's "The Tennessee Waltz" was the Christmas number one that year.

Answer: The Four Lads

Written by the African-American songwriter Churchill Kohlman and first recorded by Ruth Casey on the Cadillac label, the most successful version of the hit single "Cry" was released on October 15, 1951 on the Columbia subsidiary, Okeh Records, label by Johnnie Ray & the Four Lads.

Numerous artists have since released cover versions of the single. American pop/country musician Ronnie Dove reached number 18 with the song in 1966. Lynn Anderson's 1972 version topped the Canadian Country chart and reached number three in the US Billboard Country Singles chart. Chrystal Gayle topped both the US and the Canadian Country charts with her version in 1982. Singer/comedian André van Duin the Top 40 chart in the Netherlands with his Dutch-language version in the same year. Other artists who have recorded the song include Brenda Lee, David Cassidy, Ray Charles, Connie Francis and Paul Anka.

Answer: Dame Vera Lynn

Born Vera Margaret Welch in 1917 in the East London suburb of East Ham, Dame Vera Lynn DBE became known as "The Forces' Sweetheart" during WWII. During that time, she became known for such songs as "We'll Meet Again", "The White Cliffs of Dover" and "There'll Always Be an England".

Lynn heard people singing Storch's song ("Auf wiedersehen, auf wiedersehen") whilst she was on vacation in Switzerland. When she returned home, she had John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons write English lyrics, and she released the song as her third post-war single. Lynn thus became the first foreign artist to top the US Billboard 100 chart, although the song made it only to number ten in the UK singles chart. she would have to wait another two years to score her only chart-topper at home, with "My Son, My Son" in 1954.

Answer: Les Paul

Born Iris Colleen Summers in 1924 in the industrial city of El Monte in southern California, Mary Ford was a vocalist/guitarist who one half of a couple who released 16 Top Ten hits between 1950 and 1954. The other half of this musical team was Lester William Polsfuss, born in 1915 in city of Waukesha in southern Wisconsin and better-known as Les Paul. Paul was not only an accomplished country, jazz and blues guitarist but also a pioneer, developing one of the first solid-body electric guitars. He is, today, perhaps better-known for his guitars than for what he actually did with them.

Answer: Eddie Fisher

He was born Edwin Jack Tisch in 1928 to Russian-born Jewish immigrants in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Eddie Fisher's first solo single, "Thinking of You", reached number five in the Billboard 100 chart in 1950. Over the next four years, he had twenty-two Top Ten singles including four number ones, "Wish You Were Here" (in 1952), "I'm Walking Behind You" and "Oh! My Pa-Pa" (in 1953) and "I Need You Now" (in 1954).

It is Fisher's private life, though, for which he is perhaps best remembered. In 1955, he married singer/actress Debbie Reynolds. In 1959, he left Reynolds to marry the recently widowed Elizabeth Taylor (following the death of Mike Todd). That marriage also ended in divorce, in 1964, and three years later Fisher married another singer/actress, Connie Stevens. In total, Fisher was married five times, although none of then made it to a tenth anniversary. Fisher fathered four children, all of whom became actors and/or singers, Carrie Fisher and Todd Fisher with Reynolds, and Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher with Stevens.

Answer: Mitch Miller

Mitchell William Miller was born in 1911 in the city of Rochester in the northwestern corner of New York state. An accomplished singer, conductor and oboist, he also became the head of Columbia Records and, as such, he was one of the most important producers and recording industry executives of the era. Although well known to those in the industry, it was perhaps not until the early 1960s that Mitchell became nationally famous, when he hosted his own TV series on NBC, "Sing Along with Mitch".

Back in 1955, Mitchell knocked Billy Haley and the Comets out of the number one slot in the Billboard 100 chart with his version of "The Yellow Rose of Texas". Although many artists have covered this traditional song, it is Miller's that can be heard during the diner fight scene in the hit movie "Giant", released the following year. It is particularly ironic that Miller's single held the number one spot when the film's star, James Dean, was killed in a car crash on September 30, 1955.

Answer: Heartbreak Hotel

"the King of Rock and Roll" was born Elvis Aaron Presley in 1935 in the city of Tupelo in the northeastern corner of Mississippi. His first number one single, "Heartbreak Hotel", was released on January 27, 1956, less than three weeks after Elvis had turned 21. Four months later, on April 21, it reached the top of the Billboard 100 chart and stayed there for eight weeks. Elvis would score four more number one singles before the year was out, "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You" for one week in July, the double A-side of "Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog" for eleven weeks from mid-August, and "Love Me Tender" for five weeks from early November. Of these, two also climbed to number two in the UK singles chart: it would be 1957 before he finally topped the chart across the Atlantic, with "All Shook Up".

Answer: Pat Boone

He was born Charles Eugene Boone in 1934 in Jacksonville, Florida but recorded under the name Pat Boone. He scored his first US number one single in 1955 with "Ain't That a Shame" and followed up by topping the UK singles chart in 1956 with the double A-side of "I'll Be Home/Tutti Frutti" (his only UK number one). In 1957, Boone topped the Billboard 100 chart three times, with "Don't Forbid Me", "Love Letter in the Sand" and "April Love".

Boone sold more than 45 million records worldwide and scored thirty-eight Top 40 hits in the US, but never scored another number one after his bumper year, 1957. More than fifty years later, though, he still retains the record for consecutive weeks with at least one single in the Billboard 100 chart -- a remarkable 220 weeks.

"Love Letters in the Sand" also featured in the 1957 Henry Levin film, "Bernadine", in which Boone starred.

Answer: The Kingston Trio

Founded in the spring of 1957 by Dave Guard, Bob Shane and Nick Reynolds, the Kingston Trio sold more than three million copies of their debut single, fuelling a pop-folk boom that changed the musical direction of the era. In a ten-year career, the group released fourteen Top Ten albums, five of which topped the US album chart.

More than half a century later, the group still are still amongst the leaders in Billboard cumulative records such as most weeks with a number one album and most consecutive number one albums.

Answer: Venus

Born Francis Thomas Avallone in 1940 in Philadelphia, Frankie Avalon was a teen idol as a singer in the late 1950s before launching an acting career that produced numerous 'beach party' comedy movies in the 1960s. He also appeared in some notable dramatic films such as "The Alamo", with John Wayne, and the 1961 adaptation of Jules Verne's "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea".

Avalon's first US number one single was "Venus". Forty years later, a cover version of the song was recorded by Brad Pitt and Edward Norton whilst they were filming the film "Fight Club".