“RAININ’ IN MY HEART...”

Singer Slim Harpo made that song a hit in 1961. It’s been a tough week with Hurricane Sandy slamming into the U.S. east coast and Eastern Canada. Millions of people were without power and sadly, there were fatalities. Not to make light of this terrible disaster, but we thought we’d try to lighten up all the sadness with this quiz, which features song questions that are about storms, or rain or have those words in their title. All of these songs were Top 20 hits, so once again, it shouldn’t be too hard.
  
QUESTIONS:

1. What song that was # 9 in 1976 and came back again in 1992 to hit # 2 on the singles chart, featured these lyrics: “Thunderbolt and lightning. Very, very frightening me”?

2. This song made it to # 14 in 1971 and debuted on the singles chart the very same day that the lead singer died in Paris. A portion of the lyrics are: “Into this house we’re born. Into this world we’re thrown. Like a dog without a bone. An actor out alone”. Can you name this song?

3. A northern California group took this song to # 2 on the singles chart. The lead singer eventually left for a highly successful solo career and fought bitterly with the other members of the group, including his own brother, who continued on. A portion of the lyrics are: “Long as I remember, the rain’s been comin’ down. Clouds of mystery pourin’ confusion on the ground. Good men through the ages tryin’ to find the sun...”. The next line is the answer.

4. This Canadian group from Winnipeg took their ‘rain’ song to # 19 in 1971. A sample of the lyrics are: “Fifi said to Don the baker. Can you show me how to bake another bun, Don. And I’m still sittin’ with my next door neighbour, sayin’, where’d you get the gun John?”. And the song title is...?

5. A # 3 hit in 1992, this song was actually the 9th single charted by this LA based group. Their only # 1 was their first one to hit Billboards’ Hot 100 chart. “Sweet Child O’Mine” was its title. If you ‘slash’ your way through the wrong answers, you’ll come up with the correct one. (HINT: think this month). I can say no more. So what’s the name of the song already?  

ANSWERS 

1. You know it, you love it, you can’t stop singing along with it when it comes on the radio. It’s Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”. The resurgence of this song in 1992 was due to the fact that Mike Myers featured it in his movie, “Wayne’s World”.

2. It was “Riders On The Storm” by The Doors. Jim Morrison died on July 3rd, 1971, the very day that “Riders On The Storm” made its debut on Billboards’ Hot 100 chart at # 74. Coincidence? You decide.

3. And the next line is: “And I wonder, still I wonder, who’ll stop the rain.” Creedance Clearwater Revival was the group. John Fogerty the lead singer. John also wrote that song along with all of the groups’ other hits, including “Proud Mary”, “Bad Moon Rising”, “Green River”, “Down On The Corner”, “Lookin’ Out My Back Door” and ”Travellin’ Band”, which was the other side of this two sided hit. Both “Travellin’ Band” and “Who’ll Stop The Rain” went to # 2 on Billboards’ Hot 100 singles chart in 1970.

4. By 1971, lead guitarist Randy Bachman had left The Guess Who and a few years later would form Bachman-Turner Overdrive. This song, “Rain Dance” was written by lead singer and keyboard player Burton Cummings and guitarist Kurt Winter. “Rain Dance” was on The Guess Who’s “So Long Bannatyne” album.

5. Guns N’ Roses was the group, the song title was “November Rain”, a # 3 hit in the summer of 1992. At the time, the group was Axl Rose (real name: William Bailey), Slash (real name: Saul Hudson), Izzy Stradlin (real name: Jeffrey Isbell), Michael ‘Duff’ McKagen and drummer Steven Adler. Guns N’ Roses was signed to Geffin Records in 1986 and two years later, had their first # 1 smash single, “Sweet Child O’Mine”. The album that song came from, “Appetite For Destruction” sold over 28 million copies. There was a lot of in-fighting amongst the members of the group and eventually everyone left except for Axl, who then took well over a decade to write and produce the next ‘official’ album, “Chinese Democracy”, which after many false release dates, finally came out in North America on November 23, 2008.