I Took The Lead Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jesse Colin Young

Jesse Colin Young was a singer working in Greenwich Village, New York City in the mid 1960s and he formed The Youngbloods in 1967. He recorded the song "Get Together" as part of the group's first album, simply titled "Youngbloods". While the song did not meet with initial success when released, it was re-released in 1969 after being used in a public service ad for The National Council Of Christians and Jews.

The song then became a major hit in the U.S.

Answer: David Clayton Thomas

Although the group was formed in 1967, their best commercial success came with the addition of David Clayton Thomas, a British born Canadian singer. Their 1969 album release, simply titled "Blood Sweat and Tears", won a Grammy Award for Album Of the Year, and spawned three major hits. "You Made Me So Very Happy" was a number two hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and was followed by "Spinning Wheel" (also number two), and "And When I Die" (also number two). Later releases with Thomas singing lead included "Hi-De-Ho", and "Lucretia McEvil".

Answer: Dennis Yost

Dennis Yost was a drummer and vocalist when The Classics IV were formed in the mid 1960s. They evolved from a group called "The Classics" (not to be confused with the doo-wop group of the early 1960s). The group was from Jacksonville Florida, but moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1967 and began to record.

They released "Spooky" in 1968 and it became a number three hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, as well as a number 46 placing in the U.K. They followed with "Stormy" in 1968, which achieved a number five placing on the charts, and then in 1969, scored with their biggest U.S. hit "Traces" which made it to number two. Yost and the group were planning a 40th anniversary tour in 2006 when Yost fell ill.

While recovering, he fell down a flight of stairs and suffered a serious brain injury.

He was never able to sing again, and sadly, passed away in 2008.

Answer: Eric Burdon

Eric Burdon formed the original "Animals" in England in 1962. With songs like "House Of The Rising Sun" "We've Gotta Get Out Of This Place", and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", they became part of the U.S. "British Invasion" in 1964. Later, Burdon left the group and teamed up with "War" in 1969 and had hits such as "Spill The Wine", and "Tobacco Road". Rolling Stone Magazine, in a November 2008 issue, ranks Burdon at number 57 on the list of "The 100 Greatest Singers Of All Time"

Answer: Bobby Miranda

Bobby Miranda formed the Happenings in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1965. The scored immediate success with "See You In September" in 1966, shooting that song to number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts that year. They quickly followed with a new arrangement on the George Gershwin penned tune "I've Got Rhythm", which also made it to number three on the charts.

Other notable songs by Miranda and the group include "Music, Music, Music" and another song from way back when called "My Mammy" which was originally popularized by Al Jolson in the 1920s.

Answer: Gary Puckett

Puckett formed this group in 1967 and "Woman, Woman" gave them immediate success and credibility, reaching number four on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts. This song was followed in rapid succession over the next two years by "Young Girl", "Lady Willpower", "Over You", "Don't Give In To Him", and "This Girl Is A Woman Now", all of which reached the Top 20 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts.

Although none of these songs reached the top of the charts in the U.S., "Young Girl" did make the top of the U.K. charts in 1968.

After the release of "Young Girl" the name of the group was officially changed to "Gary Puckett and The Union Gap".

Answer: Alex Chilton

Alex Chilton was a baby faced 16 year old when he led The Box Tops (formerly The Devilles) out of Memphis, Tennessee and into the national spotlight in 1967."The Letter" reached number one in the U.S and number five in the U.K., establishing The Box Tops as a major act. An interesting note to this song: it is one of shortest number one song in history at one minute, forty seven seconds.

The shortest number one is "Stay", a 1960 tune by Maurice Williams and The Zodiacs. Anyway, Chilton's voice can also be heard on all the other songs mentioned.

The group had actually disbanded in 1970 but reunited in 2009 with all the original members.

Answer: Rob Grill

Rob Grill, originally from Los Angeles, formed The Grass Roots in 1966 and had his first Top 40 release with "Where Were You When I Needed You" which peaked at number 28 on the Billboard U.S. Hot 100 charts. It wasn't until "Let's Live For Today" zoomed up the charts and reached as high as number eight on the charts that the group, with Grill out front, became established.

Other notable songs were "The River Is Wide", "Heaven Knows", and "I'd Wait A Million Years". In all the group had 29 charting hits, including 13 gold records.

Answer: Levi Stubbs

Stubbs' unmistakable voice can be heard over and over again on hits ranging from 1964's "Baby I Need Your Lovin" and 1965's "I Can't Help Myself", to "Bernadette", "Reach Out", all the way through till 1981's "When She Was My Girl". Stubbs actually began his career back in 1954 with a group called The Four Aims.

They changed the named to The Four Tops in 1956, and waited almost eight years for their chart success to begin. Stubbs continued with the group until 2000 when the effects of cancer started to take their toll, followed by a stroke, which left him unable to perform.

He passed away in 2008.

Answer: Sonny Geraci

Geraci brought "The Outsiders" out of Cleveland Ohio, to score a number five Billboard Hot 100 placing with "Time Won't Let Me' in 1966. Although widely considered a one-hit-wonder group, they managed to crank out three more Top 40 hits during 1966. The group disbanded in 1968. Geraci re-surfaced in 1972 with a group he joined in Los Angeles in 1970 called "Climax".

They were a true one-hit-wonder group, scoring with "Precious And Few" and going all the way to number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts.

Answer: David Gates

It was Gates who took "Bread" up the charts in the 1970s with such hits as "Make It With You" a Billboard number one single on the Hot 100 charts in 1970, followed by such other notables as "It Don't Matter To Me", "Baby I'm A Want You", "If", and "Lost Without Your Love".

In all they charted 11 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1970 and 1973, all of which were written and sung by Gates. Gates had been a successful songwriter since the early 1960s' writing such notables tunes as "Popsicles Icicles" for The Murmaids, and "Saturday's Child" for The Monkees.

After Bread disbanded in 1977, Gates wrote and recorded the theme song for the motion picture "The Goodbye Girl" and had a number 15 Billboard Hot 100 placing with it.

Answer: Burton Cummings

It was Cummings, whose distinctive voice can be heard above the rest on songs such as "These Eyes", "Laughing", "No Time", "Undun", and "American Woman". The Canadian born singer/songwriter joined the group in 1965, and took over as lead singer when original member Chad Allan departed the group. Cummings departed the group in 1975, and went back to his native Canada where he scored a number of hits, including the international success "Stand Tall" which was a number one hit in Canada, as well as reaching number ten on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1976.

In 1978 Cummings released an album called "Dream Of A Child", which at the time, was the biggest selling album in the history of Canadian music.

Answer: Eric Carmen

Eric Carmen hails from Cleveland, Ohio. The group formed out of a two local 1960s Cleveland bands called "The Choir", and "Cyrus Erie". In 1971 they did a demo and were signed immediately to Capitol Records. When "Go All The Way" hit the charts they were really on their way.

It became a number five U.S. Billboard Hiot 100 hit. Carmen did most of the writing for the group and can be heard distinctly as the lead singer on "I Wanna Be With You". The group disbanded in 1975 and Carmen went on to a solo career and recorded such hits as "All By Myself","Never Gonna Fall In Love Again", and "Hungry Eyes" (from the motion picture "Dirty Dancing").

Answer: Lionel Richie

Yep, for all you young ones, it was Nicole Richie's daddy Lionel who led The Commodores for much of the 1970s and scored such big hits with the group as "Easy", "Three Times A Lady", "Just To Be Close To You", and "Still". By the end of the 1970s, Lionel had started to branch out and had written a hit for Kenny Rogers called "Lady", and also had recorded a duet with Diana Ross called "Endless Love" which became a number one Billboard Hot 100 hit.

He went full fledged solo in 1982, and had four number one hits between 1982 and 1985.

They were "Truly","All Night Long", "Hello", and "Say You, Say Me".

Answer: John Waite

John Waite first appeared with "The Babys", a British band who had a number of moderate hits in the late 1970s. Their biggest U.S. hit was a song called "Isn't It Time" which peaked at number 13 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1978. After the group disbanded in 1980, Waite began a solo career which peaked in 1984 with the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 hit "Missing You" which went all the way to number one.

Then in 1988, Waite reunited with two of the original Babys, and two other band members to form "Bad English", who scored with "When I See You Smile", which also became a number one hit in the U.S.