Yesterday Once More

23 Sep 2015

Answer Songs

Hi Listeners

This week we are going to present answer or answer back songs. These are songs that were designed to respond to a current hit single. Prevalent in rock, pop, country and R and B the answer back song often used the same melody as the original in order to make fun of it or changed the lyrics to provide humour. Initially, I thought it was just a fad of the fifties and sixties, but answer back songs have continued right into the 2000’s. Occasionally, answer songs would be sung by the same artist such as Lesley Gore’s ‘Judy’s Turn To Cry’ which was a follow up to ‘It’s My Party’ and was equally successful. Of course many answer songs were inferior to the original and didn’t do well at all.

Some of the worst examples of answer songs featured this week are Dodie Steven’s ‘Yes I’m lonesome Tonight’ in answer to Elvis’s ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’ and the Bobbettes straight pinch ‘ I Don’t Like It Like That’ responding to DC5’s ‘I Like It Like That’ and Aussie Dorothy Baker’s ‘I’m The Girl From Wolverton Mountain’ answering Kevin Shegog’s ‘Wolverton Mountain’. But, some answer songs managed to distinguish themselves and became popular in their own right such as Damita Jo’s “I’ll Save The Last Dance For You’ following the Drifter’s smash hit ‘Save The Last Dance For Me’ and Jody Miller’s satirical, clever Song ‘Queen Of The House’ (which won her a Grammy in 1966) responding to Roger Miller’s ‘King Of The Road’.

Playlist