Now that I've looked up my answers, I'm seeing how hard a couple of these are! I took a wild guess on Iggy Pop; it's funny that of all his songs, Candy would be the most successful.
Isn't the Frank Zappa song "Bobby Brown"? At least it was a big hit in Sweden. Not by a long shot my favorite Zappa though.
Also, Jimi Hendrix only had one top 40 hit in the US? That's ridiculous. Maybe the right answer is already given, but I'd say "Purple Haze". Or perhaps he didn't have any hits until "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)"?
WOW! This round of questions is proving to be more interesting than I could possibly have hoped! Just to update things... Every question here has been answered correctly except for #14, Nina Simone. Kudos to the person who can get it. When I post all the answers, I'll also post who got the answer correct first.
Henrik, sad but true - "All Along the Watchtower" was Hendrix's only U.S. top 40 hit. "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" became a #1 hit in the U.K. (and probably elsewhere) when it was re-released as a single after his death, but not here.
And "Valley Girl" is indeed the correct answer for Zappa. "Bobby Brown Goes Down" was a hit in Europe, but there's no way in hell it could have been a single in America with its explicit lyrics.
Hell, I can't wait any longer... You all got 14 out of 15. Pretty darn good in my estimation. Here are the answers, and the person who got them right first...
1. "Walk on the Wild Side" - Nassim
2. "Whip It" - Nassim
3. "Me and Bobby McGee" - Nassim
4. "Blue Suede Shoes" - John
5. "Creep" - Nassim
6. "All Along the Watchtower" - Nassim
7. "Short People" - John
8. "Touch of Grey" - John
9. "Valley Girl" - Schwah
10. "Bang a Gong (Get It On)" - Nassim
11. "Candy" - John
12. "New World Man" - Harold Wexler
13. "Say Man" - Harold Wexler 14. "I Loves You Porgy"
15. "Werewolves of London" - John
Notes:
At the time of the book's release, Radiohead only had one Top 40 hit, "Creep." In the time since the book's publishing, "Nude" was released and peaked on the U.S. charts at #37, so Radiohead now has two Top 40 hits.
In regards to Hendrix, six of his twelve singles charted. "Purple Haze" topped out at #65, "Foxey Lady" at #67, and "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" didn't chart at all. "All Along the Watchtower" topped out at #20.
Frank Zappa only had three charting singles. "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" hit #86 in 1974, "Dancin' Fool" hit #45 in 1979, and "Valley Girl" hit #32 in 1982.
Regarding Rush, "Tom Sawyer" peaked at #45 and "The Spirit of Radio" at #51, but "New World Man" peaked at #21.
ROUND EIGHTEEN! Here's another one that I'm very curious to see how you all do...
April 27, 1964: John Lennon's poetry collection In His Own Write is released in the United States. It is the first solo Beatles project of any kind.
EVERY DAY I WRITE THE BOOK: What literary work inspired each of these pop songs?
Easy
1. "White Rabbit," Jefferson Airplane
2. "Big Brother," David Bowie
3. "The Ghost of Tom Joad," Bruce Springsteen
4. "Who Wrote Holden Caulfield," Green Day
5. "The Battle of Evermore," Led Zeppelin
Harder
6. "Patrick Bateman," the Manic Street Preachers
7. "Killing an Arab," the Cure
8. "Don't Stand So Close to Me," the Police
9. "Scentless Apprentice," Nirvana
10. "Holland 1945," Neutral Milk Hotel
Yeah, Good Luck
11. "Love and Destroy," Franz Ferdinand
12. "Pull Me Under," Dream Theater
13. "Chapter 24," Pink Floyd
14. "Moon Over Bourbon Street," Sting
15. "Tomorrow Never Knows," the Beatles
Well, once again you guys did more than Jennings asked for. In the answers for this, Jennings only lists the literary work, not the author. Kudos to you for doing that! Here's the answers...
1. Alice in Wonderland
2. 1984
3. The Grapes of Wrath
4. The Catcher in the Rye
5. The Lord of the Rings
6. American Psycho
7. The Stranger
8. Lolita
9. Perfume
10. The Diary of Anne Frank 11. The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov 12. Hamlet - William Shakespeare 13. The I Ching
14. Interview with a Vampire
15. The Tibetan Book of the Dead
As a big fan of the Police, #8 was one of the easiest for me, but after Harold Wexler's comment, I realized that "Don't Stand So Close to Me" is, in fact, NOT as inspired by Lolita as some of the other songs are inspired by their respective books. "Don't Stand So Close to Me" only name-checks the book. Good catch, Harold!
ROUND NINETEEN COMING SOON, but I'm going to be starting a new thread, since I hate threads that go to multiple pages, the way this one has. SO CHECK FOR A DIFFERENT THREAD SOON!
