IS IT TRUE OR IS IT FALSE?

It’s a relatively easy quiz this week.  Five true or false questions.  Your chances are 50/50 that’ll you’ll be right.  Not much else to say, except --- good luck and have fun!   

QUESTIONS:

1.  Olivia Newton-John is the granddaughter of a Nobel Prize winner?  True or False?  

                                                                                      

2.  Richard M. Nixon, the former President of the United States, was once nominated for a Grammy Award.  True or False?        

3.  Telma Hopkins, who was one third of Tony Orlando and Dawn (“Tie A Yellow Ribbon ‘Round The Ole Oak Tree”), also sang back up on several Elvis Presley recordings.  True or False?        

4.  Former Beatles guitarist George Harrison and guitar legend Eric Clapton were once married to the same woman (although obviously not at the same time).  True or False?       

5.  After lead guitar player Randy Bachman left The Guess Who, but before he launched Bachman-Turner Overdrive with Fred Turner, he had a band called Brass Belt.  True or False?    

ANSWERS

1.  It is absolutely true.  Olivia’s grandfather, Max Born, won the Novel Prize for Physics (specifically Quantum Mechanics) in 1954.  Born had two daughters and one son.  His daughter Irene, is the mother of Olivia Newton-John, who may not have won a Nobel Prize, but she did see 5 of her hits make it to # 1.  ON-J’s # 1’s are: “I Honestly Love You” (1974), “Have You Never been Mellow” (1975), “You’re The One That I Want” [with John Travolta] (1979), “Magic” (1980” and “Physical” (1981).       

2.  Oh yes, that is most definitely true.  Richard Nixon’s interview with British journalist David Frost was nominated for a 1978 Grammy Award in the ‘Spoken Word’ category.  Nixon/Frost didn’t win.  That Grammy went to actress Julie Harris with “The Belle of Amherst”.    

3.  False.  Telma may not have sung backup for Elvis, but she did sing behind some Motown greats such as Marvin Gaye and The Four Tops in Detroit.  In 1971, Telma was recruited to join Dawn (along with Joyce Wilson) and never looked back.  Tony Orlando & Dawn hit a hit TV variety show from 1974 until 1976.  After Dawn turned to dusk, Telma turned to acting (which she still does today) and has starred in such hit TV shows as “Bosom Buddies” (1980-82), “Gimme A Break” (1984-87), “Family Matters” (1989-93) “The Hughley’s” and “Are We There Yet?” (2010-present). 

4.  Yep, it’s true.  The woman in question is Patti Boyd, who’d met Harrison on the set of “A Hard Day’s Night”.  Patti was a successful model and the filmmakers needed a couple of young, beautiful models to play school girls for a train sequence in which ‘The Boys” aka The Beatles, flirt with said girls.  Patti and George Harrison married in January of 1966.  Harrison wrote the song “Something” about Patti.  Harrison and Boyd separated in 1974 and divorced in ’77.  She married Eric Clapton in 1979 and they divorced a decade later.  Patti was the inspiration for two Clapton classics: “Layla” and “Wonderful Tonight”.  In 2007, Patti’s autobiography, “Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me” was published and went on to make the New York Times bestseller list.  Patti is an amazing photographer and her photographs sell for thousands of dollars.  Keeping it all in the rock & roll family, Patti’s younger sister Jenny married Fleetwood Mac’s Mick Fleetwood in 1970.  They were divorced, later re-married each other, then divorced one last time.     

5.  That is false.  Between The Guess Who years and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Randy did have a band that also featured original Guess Who lead singer Chad Allan, but it was called Brave Belt, not Brass Belt.  Brave Belt had a minor hit in Canada in 1971 with the song, “Crazy Arms, Crazy Eyes” and released two albums during their short time together (“Brave Belt I” and “Brave Belt II”).  Fred Turner was brought in to play bass and he became the lead singer for “Brave Belt II”.  Not long after, Brave Belt evolved into BTO.     

Telma Hopkins, one of the two female members of Tony Orlando and Dawn sang backup on Isaac Hayes 1971 number one hit “The Theme From Shaft”.  True or False? (Very true.  Telma was a part of Hayes’ backing group Hot Buttered Soul)