Response Songs Trivia Quiz

Answer: Neil Young

Neil Young wrote two songs, "Southern Man" and "Alabama" that bashed the racism and slavery that Alabama used to have. Lynyrd Skynyrd made "Sweet Home Alabama" as a response to those songs. The result was a top ten U.S. and Canada hit for Lynyrd Skynyrd.

One major point in the song is "In Birmingham, they love the governor (boo boo boo)!" This line is often misunderstood because many people miss the "Boo! boo! boo!" which implies that the previous line was sarcasm (and that they didn't love the governor). Another major point in the Lynyrd Skynyrd song is "Now Watergate does not bother me. Does your conscience bother you? Tell the truth." Songwriter Ronnie Van Zant said that his point was southern people don't bash northern people for Watergate, so why do northerners bash southerners for racism and slavery?

Neil Young, in his autobiography, said that he really liked "Sweet Home Alabama," and that his own songs deserved that response. Young says that he doesn't like his own songs when he listens to them because they are "accusatory and condescending."

Answer: Sweater

Although the rumor hasn't been substantiated by anyone in Weezer, the story goes something like this:

In 1992, Meryn Cadell released a song called "The Sweater." The song was about a girl who gets a sweater from her boyfriend as a gift. She wears the sweater for several days in a row because it smells like her boyfriend, and this makes her fall more and more in love with him. Then one day she takes it off and finds out the sweater was made of cheap material, and she no longer loves him.

This song became a top 40 hit in Canada. Rivers Cuomo was mad that this song became a hit, and certainly no man on the planet could blame him for that. Rivers Cuomo then wrote his own song about a sweater and recorded it with his band Weezer. This song is called "Undone-The Sweater Song." They then sent a demo of the song to KROQ, an alternative radio station that had been playing the Meryn Cadell song a lot. Weezer did not expect their song to become a hit, this was more of a shot in the dark than anything. The radio station then played the two songs back-to-back a lot.

In the end, Weezer's song became the bigger hit of the two songs. Their song is popular in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. This song would mark the beginning of the career of one of the best and most popular rock bands of the 1990s and 21st century.

Answer: I Love Rock and Roll

The Rolling Stones had a hit song called "It's Only Rock and Roll But I Like it." The title makes it sound like rock and roll isn't much. Songwriter Alan Merill of the Arrows said in an interview with Songfacts that he objected to that implication and they wrote their song "I Love Rock and Roll." Unfortunately for the Arrows, the song didn't become a hit until Joan Jett covered it. Joan Jett's version was a number one hit in seven different countries. Why her version of the song was a huge hit but the Arrows' version was not is one of the great mysteries in rock and roll history.

Answer: California Gurls

Katy Perry wrote "California Gurls" because she was tired of all the love that the U.S. East Coast was getting when Jay-Z's and Alicia Keys's 2009 hit "Empire State of Mind" became a hit. She wanted to remind people that that Los Angeles and the U.S. West Coast is great too. So she wrote "California Girls" and recorded with with Snoop Dogg, who sang a few verses.

The result was a top ten hit in at least ten different countries for Katy Perry. "Empire State of Mind" also charted in lots of places but it didn't reach number one in as many countries as "California Girls" did. Personally, though, I am from neither place but I prefer "Empire State of Mind."

Answer: Lori Lieberman

Lori Lieberman wrote the song after attending a Don Mclean concert. In particular, she loved his song "Empty Chairs." She stayed a little bit after the concert was over and wrote some words on a napkin. These words ultimately became the song "Killing Me Softly."

Unfortunately, Lieberman's version of the song didn't become a hit. Robert Flack covered the song in 1973. Her version was a number one hit in the U.S., Canada, and Australia.

Flack's version wasn't even the most popular version of the song (worldwide, anyway). The Fugees covered the song in 1996, and their version became a number one hit in at least 20 different countries, although strangely it didn't even chart at all on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Chart.

Answer: Green Day

Lynyrd Skynyrd had written "Sweet Home Alabama" as a response to songs by Neil Young. Then, their own songs started getting response songs. Green Day singer/songwriter Billy Joel Armstrong heard Lynyrd Skynyrd's "That's How I Like it" on the radio and he hated that a song about being proud to be a red neck was getting played on the radio. So he wrote "American Idiot" in response to that and created the concept album of the same name.

The song was a number one hit in Canada and on the U.S. Alternative Songs Chart.

The album has sold over 16 million copies worldwide and won a Grammy for Rock Album of the Year in 2004.

Answer: I Want You, I Need You, I Love You

Jim Steinman, who produced Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell" albums says he wrote the song because his friend Mimi Kennedy had told him that his songs are too complicated which is why he couldn't get a deal with a record label. She told him that he'd have success if he wrote something simple like the stuff Elvis Presley does. So then he did just that, using "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You" as the template.

The song that he wrote goes "I want you, I need you but there ain't no way I'm ever gonna love you. Now don't be sad 'cause two out of three ain't bad." The result was a top 11 hit in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Austria.

The album that it was on, "Bat Out of Hell," has sold over 43 million copies worldwide making it one of the best-selling albums in history.

Answer: God Bless America

NPR has told the story of "This Land is Your Land." Woody Guthrie hated "God Bless America," so he wrote a mocking song in response to it. The song was originally sarcastically titled "God Blessed America for You and Me," which is what originally ended each verse. Over time, though, many changes were made to the song. "God Blessed America for You and me" at the end of each verse was changed to "This land was made for you and me." "Staten Island" was changed to "New York Island" and a couple of verses were dropped. The song eventually became the song we know as "This Land is Your Land" sounding like just another patriotic song and the sarcasm was removed.

These days, both "This Land is Your Land" and "God Bless America" are popular patriotic songs. If you live in the U.S.A., you probably learned both songs in school.

Answer: Carole King

This was a response to Neil Sedaka's hit song "Oh Carol!" Neil Sedaka and Carole King dated each other when they were in high school. Ironically, the response song wasn't written by Carole. It was written her then-husband Gerry Goffin. "Oh Neil!" was not the hit that "Oh Carol!" was.

Answer: John Mayer

Taylor Swift has dated lots of boys and/or men including John Mayer. John Mayer has dated lots of girls and/or women including Taylor Swift.

Taylor Swift wrote "Dear John" in 2010 to bash the man that she had just broken up with. John Mayer responded to that in 2013 with a song called "Paper Doll" where he bashes her.

My advice: don't date either of them.