Q 01/05

Which group recorded 'Come On Eileen', Britain's best-selling single of 1982?

A) Haircut One Hundred

B) Dexys Midnight Runners

C) The Undertones

D) The Boomtown Rats

Answer · why

B) Dexys Midnight Runners

It was their second UK number one after 'Geno', but their only American hit; it won Best British Single at the 1983 Brits.

Q 02/05

Soft Cell's 1981 smash 'Tainted Love' was a cover of a 1964 recording by which soul singer?

A) Gloria Jones

B) Martha Reeves

C) Barbara Lynn

D) Betty Everett

Answer · why

A) Gloria Jones

Jones's B-side flopped in 1965 but became a Northern soul favourite in Britain, which is how Marc Almond heard it.

Q 03/05

Soft Cell's 12-inch version of their 1981 hit segues halfway through into a cover of which Supremes song?

A) Baby Love

B) Where Did Our Love Go

C) You Can't Hurry Love

D) Stop! In the Name of Love

Answer · why

B) Where Did Our Love Go

Almond later lamented that putting an original song there instead would have made the duo considerably richer.

Q 04/05

Balloons released at whose 1982 West Berlin concert inspired '99 Luftballons'?

A) Pink Floyd

B) The Rolling Stones

C) David Bowie

D) The Police

Answer · why

B) The Rolling Stones

He wondered what would happen if they drifted over the Berlin Wall; in the US the German original charted while the English '99 Red Balloons' did not.

Q 05/05

Which is the only German-language song ever to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100?

A) Rock Me Amadeus

B) Der Kommissar

C) Da Da Da

D) 99 Luftballons

Answer · why

A) Rock Me Amadeus

Falco's song about Mozart's fame and debts was inspired by the film Amadeus; the US album carried an eight-minute 'Salieri Mix'.