Between sets at any Minnesota State Fair Grandstand concert, a State Fair trivia quiz is projected onto the large screens on either side of the stage. In honor of that tradition, here’s a quiz about the six 1960s acts who performed for 4,626 fans of vintage pop at Monday night’s “Happy Together” show. The answer to each question is either the Turtles, Jay & the Americans, “Little Anthony” Gourdine, Gary Puckett, the Vogues or the Cowsills.
1: Which act’s biggest hit came at the suggestion of TV producer Carl Reiner?
2: Which act has no original members?
3: Which artist was born in Minnesota?
4: Only one of Monday’s performers is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Who is it?
5: The core duo of Steely Dan — Donald Fagen and Walter Becker — toured in the backing band for which act?
6: Only one song performed Monday night was Billboard magazine’s biggest-selling song of the year. Which was it?
Here are the answers, with a bit about how they sounded Monday night.
1: Reiner suggested the Cowsills cover the title song from the groundbreaking countercultural Broadway musical, “Hair,” for a TV special he was producing. It closed their infectiously energetic and nicely harmonized set Monday.
2: Up until shortly before showtime, the answer would have been the Vogues, which is what is called in the business a “ghost band.” And it’s a decent one, as they showed on a fine version of “Five O’Clock World,” buoyed by soaring yodels. But the lone original Turtle, Mark Volman, had to withdraw from the concert for health reasons, so it was true of two groups.
3: Gary Puckett was born in Hibbing, but moved west in childhood. Now 82, his voice remains distinctive, but it’s increasingly frail, making such cringe-worthy fare as “Young Girl” even more so.
4: In 2009, “Little Anthony” Gourdine was inducted into the hall with his vocal group, the Imperials. He was in terrific voice for a man of 84, leaving the impression we were in the presence of musical royalty, especially on the evening’s saddest tune, a deeply affecting “Hurt So Bad.”
5: Fagen and Becker toured with Jay & the Americans in 1971. Jay Reincke is the group’s third “Jay,” and he did a fine job of hitting the falsetto notes of “Cara Mia” and selling the vintage doo-wop of “This Magic Moment.”
6: The Turtles started this whole itinerant oldies fest in 2011, and have brought it back to the Grandstand seven times since. But lead singer Howard Kaylan has retired and turned that role over to Ron Dante, who’s most famous for singing lead on the Archies’ “Sugar, Sugar,” the most popular song of 1969. He sang it Monday, with Volman’s harmonies handled by the leader of the exceptional quartet that backed all of the acts, guitarist Godfrey Townsend, concluding the set with the blissful pop tune that gave the tour its name.
Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.
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