Singing Together: Couples In Musical Harmony Quiz

Answer: Jackson

Not only did Johnny Cash and June Carter sing together, their life story was made into a movie.

Carter came from country music royalty - the fabled Carter Family that laid a foundation to which many singers pay homage to this day.

Both Cash and Carter were already married to other people when they first met at the Grand Old Opry in the mid 1950s.

They started to tour together in the early 1960s and married after getting their respective divorces in 1966 and 1967.

Their marriage did not always run smoothly. Cash had demons to deal with, and Carter helped him through them.

After 30 years together, they died within four months of each other in 2003.

"Jackson" hit number two on the Billboard Hot Country charts in 1967. They repeated that with "If I Were A Carpenter" in 1970.

Answer: I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight

The marriage of Richard and Linda Thompson was, in the words of one newspaper, a "match made in hell", noting: "they created British folk rock and almost destroyed each other in the process." [Nick Colman in "The Independent", September 2007.]

Revered as a songwriter and guitarist, Richard Thompson co-founded Fairport Convention in 1967, but left in 1971. The following year he recorded with Linda for the first time, although they had met three years before.

Three albums together followed including "I Want To See The Bright Lights" (1974) and "Hokey Pokey" (this quiz writer's favourite among their albums) the following year.

Then came a break when Thompson got involved in Sufism, and Linda went along with it, not entirely ecstatically.

Three more albums followed, but the writing was on the wall in a chaotic US tour in 2010, after which they parted.

The couple remained on friendly terms and sang together from time to time.

Answer: River Deep, Mountain High

On stage and on television they were a happy, shining couple, but behind closed doors all was not well in the marriage of Ike and Tina Turner.

Ike had a drug problem and Tina left him in 1976 after years of abuse.

The couple met when Tina was singing in a club in New York City. Musically they clicked and began to sing together and had their first R&B hit with the number two "A Fool In Love" in 1960.

They married in Mexico in 1964. Their breakthrough into mainstream popular music came with their 1971 cover of the Creedence Clearwater Revival song "Proud Mary".

Although "River Deep, Mountain High" was critically acclaimed, it was not a big seller in the USA, although it did better in Europe, including topping the charts in Spain and reaching number three in the UK.

Answer: Woman

Yoko Ono's place in the fall of The Beatles is, shall we say, much debated.

After the Fab Four split, John and Yoko released several albums and singles together.

"Woman" was released shortly after Lennon's murder and reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the UK charts.

Answer: Mull of Kintyre

Linda McCartney's contributions to Macca's post-Beatles music were frequently panned by the critics.

When McCartney went solo and with Wings, Linda sang and played keyboards on a number of albums, including "Red Rose Speedway" (1973); "Band On The Run" (1973); "Venus And Mars" (1975); and "Wings at the Speed of Sound" (1976).

They enjoyed a massive singles hit with "Mull of Kintyre".

If you have ever wondered about the phrasing of the lyrics:
"Oh Mull of Kintyre mists,
Rolling in from,
the sea..."

that was done to fit in with the bagpipe accompaniment by the Campbeltown Pipe Band.

It was a Christmas number one in the UK in 1977 and topped the charts in eight other countries.

Answer: I Got You Babe

The assessment by biography.com that the relationship between Sonny and Cher was "uniquely complicated", probably covers a lot of sins.

They met in 1963 - she was 16, he was 27. Their romantic relationship was a slow burner and they did not marry until 1969.

They had their first big hit "I Got You Babe" in 1965.

Their marriage was all over within a few years, but they stayed together professionally for the sake of their hit TV show "The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour" from 1971.

They separated in 1974 and divorced the following year.

Cher went on to enjoy a stellar musical career.

Sonny died in a skiing accident in 1998.

Answer: It's Your Love

The duet of "It's Your Love" on McGraw's 1997 album "Everywhere" has been named by some critics as one of their best.

Hill and McGraw married in 1994 and were still together at the time this quiz was written in April 2020.

Both had hugely successful solo careers. Hill won a slew of awards, including five Grammys. She was named the number one Adult Contemporary artist of the 2000s by Billboard magazine in 2009.

She had ten US Country number ones, including the duet of "It's Your Love" with McGraw.

Answer: Four Strong Winds

Ian and Sylvia Tyson were leaders of the Canadian folk scene.

They started singing together full time in 1961 and married in 1964.

After singing in Canada they were part of the New York City folk scene in the early 1960s. They later settled in Nashville, Tennessee, where their records became more country-oriented.

In 1965, they had a Canadian number one with "Early Morning Rain", a song written by Gordon Lightfoot, whose early career they had championed.

"Four Strong Winds" was written by Tyson and became a music standard in Canada as much as it was a part of their concert set lists.

The couple divorced in 1975 to begin solo careers but have reunited in concert from time to time.

Answer: Something in Common

Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown had enjoyed successful solo careers in their own right when they married in 1992.

That marriage ended in divorce in 2007 after 15 years in the gossip columns as much as the music pages. There were stories of infidelity, drugs use, and physical abuse.

"Something in Common" was a song on Brown's 1992 album "Bobby". It was released as a single.

Answer: We Belong

Probably most famous for her Billboard Hot 100 number five hit "Love Is A Battlefield", Pat Benatar married her guitarist Neil Giraldo in 1982.

Their partnership in music and matrimony was continuing at the time this quiz was written in April 2020.