Flashback: Heartless and Cruel

By Mick Harper

Pop, Rock, and Soul Trivia.

1. Who wrote and released "Desolation Row"? How long was the song?

2. Which group released "Our Day Will Come"?

3. "If I Fell," "Tell Me Why" and "Can't Buy Me Love" were released from which movie?

4. Who released "Come Softly To Me" and when?

5. Name the song that contains this lyric: “How can people be so heartless? How can people be so cruel?”

Answers

1. Bob Dylan wrote and released the song in 1965. When asked, Dylan claimed the Desolation Row location was in Mexico, but others in the know said it was in Manhattan along Eighth Avenue. The song was over 11 minutes long.

2. Ruby & the Romantics, in 1963. The songwriters weren't pleased, hoping instead to aim for easy listening. But the Ruby version topped the charts, and nobody could argue with that.

3. "A Hard Day's Night," the first Beatles film, released in 1964. The film did well and received a nom for Best Original Screenplay.

4. The Fleetwoods, in 1959.

5. "Easy To Be Hard," by Lynn Kellogg, playing the character Sheila in the rock musical "Hair" in 1967. Two years later the song was covered by Three Dog Night, climbing to No. 4 on the Billboard chart.

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