Musical Word Quiz

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette. And here’s our quiz guy, John Chaneski.

John, what ho?

What ho? I’ll tell you what ho.

We’re waiting for the Don I Miss joke. Come on.

Do you have a quiz for us here?

I do have a quiz.

Are either of you familiar with the phrase, the musical question?

Sure.

Am I going to regret this? No.

Well, it’s a bit dated, but during the classic days of radio, MCs would sometimes introduce a song and a performer with, and now here’s Les Brown and his band of renown asking the musical question, who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?

Well, I’ll introduce some musical questions, that is, famous songs whose titles are questions, and I’ll give you the year, the performer, and some clues as to the song content.

For example, I might say, it’s 1968, and here’s Dionne Warwick, completely lost somewhere in Northern California, asking the musical question, do you know the way to San Jose?

Do you know the way to San Jose?

Right, that’s our musical question.

Right, that was one of those pre-GPS songs.

Exactly.

Now you would never have a song like that now.

That’s right.

Here’s our first song.

It’s 1976, and here’s Stevie Wonder presenting his newborn daughter to the world, asking the musical question.

Yeah.

Isn’t she lovely?

Isn’t she lovely is great.

Isn’t she lovely?

There you go.

You got it.

Yeah.

Okay.

Here’s the next one.

It’s 1965, and the Lovin’ Spoonful are thinking about hiring a wizard to help their career.

So they ask us the musical question.

Well, wizards make you think of…

Pointy hats?

More general.

Wands.

Spells.

Even general.

Magic.

Right.

And Lovin’ Spoonful, 1965, a question about magic.

Do you believe in magic?

Oh, right, right, right.

See, I knew that because Sean Cassidy covered that, and my sisters listened to it over and over.

Oh, okay.

I guess I should have threw in more Sean Cassidy information.

They had velour jackets with his face on the back.

They were quite in love with him.

And now the world knows it.

Let’s move on.

It’s 1979, and Rod Stewart is putting the make on us as he asks us the musical question.

I was thinking Rod Serling.

Wait a minute.

Okay.

No, a different one.

A different Haggard face.

Different Rod.

Is tonight the night?

No.

What is he asking us?

Well, let’s see.

Rod Stewart is putting the make on us, and I’m in no position to judge his relative attractiveness, but he’s asking…

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Martha?

Yeah, Rod.

Rod.

Rod Stewart.

I’ll give you a hint.

Rod Stewart.

A lot of people, you may know this because of this trivia, a lot of people think the title of the song begins with the word do, but it doesn’t.

It begins with the word duh.

It begins with duh.

Duh?

You think I’m sexy?

Duh you think I’m sexy?

Duh you think I’m sexy?

If you like my body and you think I’m sexy.

Come on, darling, let me know.

Nice.

This one’s aimed right at word experts, okay?

Okay.

When are they arriving?

In a way.

It’s 1944, and the king of the jukebox, Louis Jordan, grills his girl about the status of their relationship.

In Southern dialect, he asks the musical question, is you is or is you ain’t my baby?

Wow, very good.

Is you is or is you ain’t my baby?

-huh.

Louis Jordan.

How did you know that?

Danny Stiles.

Etta James.

Danny Stiles got a show on satellite radio, also plays on the air in WNYC, and has for, like, decades.

He does the old big band sounds.

Great stuff.

That’s fantastic.

Well, now I know.

This is your wheelhouse.

One of them.

Jazz standards.

Very small, very small.

It’s a jazz standard, even though the grammar ain’t standard.

All right, let’s see.

What’s the next one?

It’s 1984, and an amalgam of Irish and British pop stars are curious about the Yuletide season on another continent.

They ask the musical question, do they know it’s Christmas after all?

Very good.

Do they know it’s Christmas?

I think you found my sweet spot, the teen years when music starts to become important.

That’s right.

Do you know the name of the group that they call themselves?

I forget.

It was Band Aid.

Oh, Band Aid.

Band Aid.

By Bob Geldof.

Let’s try this.

It’s 1966, and the Beach Boys give voice to teenage frustration as they ask the musical question.

I’ll give you a quote.

It’s going to make it that much better when we can say goodnight and stay together.

Wouldn’t it be nice?

Wouldn’t it be nice if we were older?

Yay!

All right, John, that was so much fun.

Thank you for coming on the air with us today.

I had a great time, guys.

Thanks very much.

And if you have a question about language, call us.

The number’s 1-877-929-9673.

Or email us, as always.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

We read everything.