Music to my ears

­By Sally Carpenter

I got the idea of using chapter headers in my books from Steve Hockensmith. His “Holmes on the Range” books have cute headers that hint at the chapter content. I use headers in my books so I can keep track of the action in each chapter. Just using chapter numbers doesn’t jog my memory. And it’s fun looking for titles to match the story.

I began using chapter headers with my Sandy Fairfax Teen Idols series. Since Sandy was a musician, it made sense to use song titles for the heds. “The Baffled Beatlemaniac Caper,” of course, used only Beatles songs (group and solo) for the headers. “The Cunning Cruise Ship Caper” had all Elvis songs for no particular reason. The other two books used a mix of artists and decades.

 My new series, The Psychedelic Spy Mysteries, is set in 1967, so all of the songs are from the 1960s. One title, “Searchin’,” was released by The Coasters in 1957, but a soon-to-be very famous group re-recorded it for its audition tape for Decca Records in 1962, so it worked.

Nearly all of these songs are in my personal record/CD/tape collection, which gives you a hint as to my personal tastes. The recording of “Runaway” that I have is from a Micky Dolenz live concert CD. His sister Coco sings the song (she has a great voice too).

See if you can match the original artists with the songs! Hint: some musicians are used more than once. And how many of these songs do you still remember?

Chapter 1: Baby the Rain Must Fall

2: This Boy

3: What Goes On

4: Dr. Robert

5: Your Mother Should Know

6: Little Children

7: Secret Agent Man

8: Pictures of Matchstick Men

9: Strawberry Girl

10: Incense and Peppermints

11: Ask Me Why

12: Magical Mystery Tour

13: Everybody’s Talkin’

14: What’s New, Pussycat

15: Runaway

16: Surprise, Surprise

17: Writer in the Sun

18: Tell Me That Isn’t True

19: Tombstone Blues

20: I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You

21: On a Carousel

22: You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)

23: It’s a Gas

24: Fun, Fun, Fun

25: Where Were You When I Needed You

26: Searchin’

27: All Together Now

28: Black Magic Woman

29: Trip, Stumble and Fall

Answers:

Chapter 1: Glenn Yarbrough

2: The Beatles

3: Beatles again

4: Fab Four

5: That group from Liverpool

6: Billy J. Kramer

7: Johnny Rivers

8: Status Quo

9: Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart

10: Strawberry Alarm Clock

11: John, Paul, George and Ringo

12: Ditto

13: Harry Nilsson

14: Tom Jones

15: Del Shannon

16: Rolling Stones

17: Donovan

18: Bob Dylan

19: Bob Dylan

20: The Bee Gees

21: Moody Blues

22: The Beatles (a rarity not found on the “official” albums)

23: Alfred E. Newman (released onto the world by Mad Magazine)

24: Beach Boys

25: Grass Roots

26: You can hear this one on the first Beatles “Anthology” album

27: One last time for the Fabs

28: Fleetwood Mac

29: The Mamas and The Papas