A simple theme: this section is all about girls’ and boys’ names that feature in the titles or lyrics of hit songs from the last 60 years. There are two sections, both straightforward: the first 20 questions spotlight the girls, while the rest are all about the boys.
Answers: here
1 What’s the name of the girl in the title of Blondie’s soaring 1999 comeback single, which reached number one in the UK? In the same year, who released a darker song about a girl with the same name, killed in a sweatshop while working illegally in the US, on their album The Battle of Los Angeles?
2 ‘Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)’ is a longtime live favourite by which major rock act? Which band included a thunderous version of Bob Seger’s ‘Rosalie’ on their memorable 1978 live album Live and Dangerous?
3 Which girl lent her name to the title of the debut single by the Fratellis? And which ‘Mistress’ was the first single from Here We Stand, the group’s second album?
4 Which girl’s name gave Steve Winwood the title of one of his two UK Top 20 singles? Who persuaded Amy Winehouse to join him in a cover of the Zutons’ song about a girl with the same name?
5 What was the name of the Welsh witch that Fleetwood Mac, led by Stevie Nicks, sung about on their self-titled 1975 album? And who was namechecked, again by Nicks, on the group’s epic album Tusk (1979)?
6 Which salacious schoolgirl gave the Boomtown Rats a UK Top 20 hit in 1977? And which real woman did the band profess never to have loved on their second album, A Tonic for the Troops?
7 Who was a friend of the Killers on their first album, Hot Fuss? On the same record, how did the band suggest we should smile?
8 How did Judy present herself on John Fred & His Playboy Band’s 1968 top five hit, its title inspired by The Beatles’ ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’? And what was Judy on the Ramones’ self-titled debut album?
9 Who lent their name to two very different songs by Tom Jones (in 1968) and Queen (on Innuendo, from 1991)? Who covered Tom’s song on The Penthouse Tapes (1976)?
10 Which two women are referenced by name in titles on Songs of Leonard Cohen, the Canadian singer’s 1967 debut?
11 How often was Charlotte, according to the Cure in their 1981 single inspired by a book by Penelope Farmer? And a year earlier, what was Iron Maiden’s Charlotte?
12 What (or who) was the breakthrough 2008 single for Scottish indie band Glasvegas? Who (or what) was invited by the band to take their hand in 2011?
13 ‘Mandy’ was an American number one hit for which singer in 1974? Which boy band took the song to the top of the British charts in 2003?
14 Which two male singers have recently sung about a girl called Candy, one on Sunny Side Up (2009) and the other on Take the Crown (2012)?
15 Which band took ‘Emma’, a song about an actress who commits suicide, into the US and UK Top 10 in 1974? Which real actress inspired a number one hit for Mika in 2007?
16 U2 have featured female names in the titles of two tracks, one on their 1981 album October and the other from the more recently released Songs of Innocence. What are they?
17 Which girl’s name made the UK Top 10 in hits by Neil Diamond in 1971 and Status Quo two years later? Which other female name had previously given Diamond his first UK hit single in 1970?
18 Which soul classic, a hit for Wilson Pickett, features the line ‘ride, Sally, ride’, which took on new resonance after American astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983? What did Eric Clapton want his Sally to do in 1977?
19 Which band asked Alice what the matter was in 1994? And who, in 1976, were living next door to Alice?
20 Who picked a fine time to leave Kenny Rogers? And what did she leave behind?
21 Which two punk bands sung separately about Harry in 1978 and 1979?
22 Which Leiber and Stoller song, which shares its name with a cartoon character, was a hit for the Coasters in 1959? Which Coldplay album features a song with the same title?
23 Daniel was leaving tonight on a plane in a 1973 hit for which British singer? And in 2009, which singer knew when she saw him that Daniel had a flame in his heart?
24 Which couple were a hit for John Cougar in 1982? Under what name does Cougar record today?
25 Who wrote and recorded Johnny B Goode in 1958? Which band included a track called ‘Johnny Bagga Donuts’ on 180, their debut album from 2013?
26 Which Shel Silverstein song became Johnny Cash’s biggest US hit single in 1969? Where was Cash’s version recorded?
27 Who took ‘Fernando’ and ‘Angelo’ to the top of the UK charts in 1976 and 1977 respectively?
28 Whose ‘Jimmy’ was so good they named him twice in 1979? Who sang about ‘St Jimmy’ on their classic album from 2004?
29 Who did Sinéad O’Connor sing about in 1987, a song covered by Placebo in 2003? And which namesake soul singer starred in a song by Van Morrison that was later a hit for Dexys Midnight Runners?
30 ‘Johnny and Mary’ was a standout track on the 1980 album Clues by which British singer? Who sang on DJ Todd Terje’s 2014 cover of the song?