In recent years, many albums have been repackaged with a host of extras or outtakes tagged on to the end, or perhaps on a second CD. Most of the time, it turns out that these outtakes were left off the original album for good reason, but the odd gem does get unearthed. Here are 30 questions that were all dropped from this book during the edit, most (but not all) because we couldn’t find the right section for them. This pick-and-mix selection comes in two sections, each with 15 questions.
Answers: here
1 Where was the Killers’ only live album recorded in 2009? Which Joy Division song is the sole cover version on it?
2 The Genius After Hours and The Genius Sings the Blues were released by which artist in 1961? Which Don Gibson song gave him an international number one the following year?
3 ‘Can You Feel It’, ‘Don’t Stop’, ‘Jai Ho!’, ‘Tubthumping’, ‘Never Forget’, ‘Hey Jude’ and ‘One Day Like This’. What’s the connection. (We need a detailed answer for both points.)
4 Which two artists collaborated on Mirror Ball in 1995?
5 In 1939, whose band recorded ‘In the Mood’, a tune that became synonymous with their success? In what circumstances did he go missing in 1944?
6 Which artist has made the most appearances to date on the Now! series of compilations? And what was the significance of Now! 62, released in 2005?
7 Which member of Bruce Springsteen’s band appeared in The Sopranos as club owner Silvio Dante? Who stood in for him on guitar for Springsteen’s 2014 High Hopes tour after playing on the album of the same name?
8 The composer George Frideric Handel lived at 25 Brook Street in London’s Mayfair. Which more contemporary musician has been honoured with an English Heritage blue plaque at number 23, commemorating the fact that he lived there in the late sixties? And which other artist has a blue plaque at 34 Montagu Square, where he lived for much of 1968?
9 ‘Sister Morphine’ is a track on the Rolling Stones album Sticky Fingers. Who had to fight a legal battle to have her part in the song’s composition acknowledged? Her own version was eventually released on a reissue of which classic 1979 album?
10 After his music career, Sonny Bono was elected to which august body after spending four years as the Mayor of Palm Springs in California? Who was Sonny’s second wife?
11 Here Lies Love is a 2010 rock opera and album about the life of which controversial figure? Who co-wrote it with former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne?
12 Who made his jazz masterpiece Kind of Blue in just nine studio hours in 1959? Which noted pianist plays on four of the album’s five tracks?
13 Who took the bold song The Killing of Georgie, about the murder of a gay man in New York, to number two in the UK in 1976? The album from which the song was taken, A Night on the Town, reached number one in the UK. In 2013, what became this singer’s next British number-one long-player, setting a record for the longest gap between chart-topping albums?
14 Very introspective behaviour? Yes please – actually fundamental, bilingual. Release super electric nightlife. What are we talking about, and what’s missing?
15 In 1994, Danish singer Sannie Carlson became the first act to go straight to number in the UK singles chart with her debut single. What’s her stage name? And what was the song?
16 Messrs. Hodges and Peacock achieved notable chart success between 1978 and 1987 with a series of novelty songs. What’s their stage name? And what was their first UK Top 10 single, a plea to a chatterbox other ’alf?
17 Jack White had a good 2005 – he headlined Glastonbury and got married. To whom? And which album, their fifth, did the White Stripes release in the same year?
18 ‘Standing Stone’, ‘Ecce Cor Meum’ and ‘Ocean’s Kingdom’ are all classical pieces composed by which popular musician? What is the meaning of ‘Ecce Cor Meum’, which the composer adopted as his motto when invited to create a coat of arms on receipt of his knighthood?
19 The Attractions, the First Men, the Imposters, the Roots, the Vaudeville. Which two of these have never been the names of backing bands used by Elvis Costello?
20 Who went to the top of the UK singles chart in April 2016 and was still there in the middle of the summer, an unprecedented run for the modern chart of 16 weeks (and counting)? Which Nigerian artist guests on the song?
21 In the list of the bestselling albums in US chart history, who’s the leading country artist? She sits at sixth place on the list, one place ahead of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours – with which album?
22 Which Scottish rock musician suffered a brain haemorrhage in 2005? Which four-word phrase did he keep repeating as he began to recover, a phrase that was later used as the title of a 2014 documentary chronicling his illness and recovery?
23 What was Frank Sinatra’s last solo UK number one, released in 1966? On which song did he duet with Bono in 1994?
24 Under which name did Ian Kilmister achieve rock and roll fame? His band got their name from a song by his previous group, from which he was sacked: which band?
25 Which saxophonist lent his name to a famous London jazz club? And which other saxophonist founded the club with him and ran it for nearly 50 years?
26 Neil Hannon and Thomas Walsh have combined under which name to release two albums of songs about cricket? Which Pakistani batsman is mentioned by name in the title of a track on their debut?
27 ‘The Whole of the Moon’, the Waterboys’ biggest hit, appears on which 1985 album? In which British town was the album recorded?
28 With which classical ensemble did Elvis Costello collaborate on the 1993 project The Juliet Letters? Which 70-year-old songwriting legend worked with Costello on the 1998 album Painted from Memory?
29 Which two blonde vocalists were the only white female singers to have a solo line on the 1985 USA for Africa single ‘We Are the World’?
30 Which jazz clarinettist was the first British artist to top the US pop charts in 1962? What was the track, an instrumental that became the UK’s biggest selling single of the year despite never reaching number one over here?