Atlantic, Philadelphia, soul, R&B, funk – if this is your bag, this is your quiz. Come on, let’s groove tonight and share the spice of life, as Earth, Wind & Fire once urged us. The first section is a chain, so one question leads on to the next – it can be a help, or a hindrance. Part two is 15 straight questions on soul greats.
Answers: here
1 Who, appropriately, were the first band to release an album on Neal Sugarman and Gabriel Roth’s new label, Daptone, in 2002? The label’s house band and recording studios were used by which ill-fated star for a classic 2006 album?
2 Mark Ronson had a hit under his own name in late 2014 with ‘Uptown Funk’; which American pop singer guested as vocalist? Ronson borrowed heavily from the ‘Minneapolis sound’ first developed by which major artist in the late seventies and eighties?
3 (2b)’s 1990 number one album featured a track that was also the name of the artist’s backing band; what was it called? At which London venue did he play a 21-night residency called the Earth Tour in 2007?
4 Maceo Parker is a jazz-funk bandleader and a majestic player of which instrument? And with which soul legend did Parker cut his funky teeth in his backing band?
5 (4b)’s original backing ban was the Famous Flames; what was the band he used from 1970 onwards called? And who was the bass player who played with them for a year before moving on to create a unique sound alongside George Clinton in the P-Funk collective?
6 Which 1978 club classic by Funkadelic featured chanted lines such as ‘Feet don’t fail me now!’? The other half of P-Funk, Parliament had only one US Top 20 single. The title was ‘Give Up the Funk (____ the ____ off the ______)’ – which words are missing from the brackets?
7 The song in (6b) featured in the funk episode of US TV show Glee; which Rufus hit (written by Stevie Wonder) was used as a seduction number in the same show? Who was the lead singer of Rufus who enjoyed as much success in her later solo career?
8 (7b)’s biggest selling single, ‘I Feel For You’ features an introductory rap by which pioneer of that genre? What was the name of his band, who hit big with ‘The Message’ and ‘White Lines (Don’t Do It)?’
9 What was Stevie Wonder’s contribution to the success of ‘I Feel For You’? His last US number one solo single, ‘Part Time Lover’, featured backing vocals by Luther Vandross and which of the two vocalists in Earth, Wind & Fire?
10 What, in 1978, was the first UK Top 10 single for Earth, Wind & Fire? That band’s Maurice White also produced many hits by female singing group the Emotions – what was their 1977 US number one?
11 Stax Records executive Al Bell also worked with the Emotions. For which band did he produce big hits ‘Respect Yourself’ and ‘I’ll Take You There’ (which he also wrote)? With which influential funk star did this act collaborate on the soundtracks for two Sidney Poitier-directed films, Let’s Do It Again and A Piece of the Action?
12 (11b) already had a pedigree in movies with his brilliant, socially conscious soundtrack to which 1972 blaxploitation thriller? What was the name of the group with which he started his career, and with whom he recorded the influential 1965 hit, ‘People Get Ready’?
13 (11b)’s label was distributed by the Buddah organisation, as was T-Neck records, a label set up and owned by which former Tamla vocal group turned funk-soul band? Their biggest single was ‘This Old Heart of Mine’ – who covered it and had a UK number four single in 1975?
14 In the early sixties, (13) showcased a talented young guitarist, featuring him on a couple of singles on T-Neck: who was he? With which soul legend did he share an album (they had a side each) of performances from the legendary Monterey Pop Festival?
15 Hailed as the 21st Century (14b), who released his debut album No Time for Dreaming in 2011, aged 63? Which soul revival label released the album and launched the career of this ‘new’ star?
16 Who were Searching for the Young Soul Rebels in 1980? And who was their lead singer?
17 The Best Disco in the World, according to Billboard magazine, closed its doors in 1981. Where in northern England was it, and with which type of music is it forever associated?
18 ‘Endless Love’ was a number one for Lionel Richie and Diana Ross in 1981. Who took the song back up the charts in 1994?
19 The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie was Stevie Wonder’s debut album in 1962. How old was he? ‘Fingertips’, from the album, was his first US number one single in 1963. His next, in 1972, came from Talking Book – what was it?
20 ‘Bag Lady’ from the album Mama’s Gun, was the first US Top 10 single by which neo-soul singer? Which rapper is the father of her child, born in 1997?
21 ‘You Send Me’ (1957) was a US number one, arguably the first modern soul record to be a major hit: who wrote and recorded the song? Which George Gershwin song was on the B-side?
22 Brown Sugar was the debut album in 1995, and Black Messiah the hugely anticipated comeback in 2014. Who is the artist, and what was the 2000 album that went to number one in the US?
23 Which Bobby Womack song did Quentin Tarantino use to open his 1997 film, Jackie Brown? Whose widow, Barbara, did the 21-year-old Womack marry in 1965, three months after her husband’s death?
24 What was the only UK Top 10 hit for Womack & Womack (1988)? Which British band covered it on the bonus disc of their self-named 2009 debut album?
25 In 1987 two soul singers in their late forties, Percy Sledge and Ben E King, were number one and number two in the UK singles chart on the back of a movie and a hugely popular Levi’s commercial. What were the two songs?
26 Who sang lead vocals on the Drifters’ 1962 US number one ‘Save the Last Dance for Me’? Which other Drifters’ hit, about not paying attention in the cinema reached number two in Britain in 1974 with vocals by Johnny Moore, who became the band’s main singer?
27 Which song from her 1985 album Who’s Zoomin’ Who? took Aretha Franklin into the US Top 10 for the first time since 1973? Which seminal music-based 1980 movie, starring John Belushi, did she make a cameo appearance?
28 The Miracles had a string of hits before changing their name to highlight the skills of which songwriter and singer? What was their biggest hit, a number one on both sides of the Atlantic?
29 What was the Miracles first UK Top 10 single, from 1965? And what was their biggest hit with new singer Billy Griffin, with a new, more disco-oriented sound (1975)?
30 Which barefoot British soul singer released her first album at 16 and had seven full studio albums out before her thirtieth birthday? What was the name of the short-lived supergroup she formed along with Dave Stewart, Mick Jagger, Damian Marley and Indian composer AR Rahman?