We're #1! (Part One) - Random Trivia Answers

Each group is listed with the year they were founded, any omitted founding member, and their #1 songs.

• A1) The Four Tops. Founded 1954. "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" in 1965 and "Reach Out I'll Be There" in 1966. Songwriter Lamont Dozier got the phrases "Sugar Pie" and "Honey Bunch" from his grandfather's affectionate greetings to customers arriving at his grandmother's home beauty parlor.
• A2) The Coasters. Founded 1955. "Yakety Yak" in 1958. The title refers to a mother's constant nagging of her child to do chores.
• A3) The Kingston Trio. Founded 1957. "Tom Dooley" in 1958. The title character is based on the real Tom Dula, who was hanged in North Carolina in 1868 for supposedly murdering his fiancee, Laura Foster.
• A4) The O'Jays. Founded 1958. "Love Train" in 1973. The song was revived for a Coors Light beer commercial.
• A5) The Shirelles. Founded 1958. "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" in 1961 and "Soldier Boy" in 1962. The latter tune was used in the 1989 movie Born on the Fourth of July.
• A6) The Supremes. Founded 1959. Omitted: Diana Ross. "Where Did Our Love Go", "Baby Love", and "Come See About Me" in 1964; "Stop! In the Name of Love", "Back in My Arms Again", and "I Hear a Symphony" in 1965; "You Can't Hurry Love" and "You Keep Me Hangin' On" in 1966; "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone" and "The Happening" in 1967; "Love Child" in 1968; and "Someday We'll Be Together" in 1969. After all of their early singles barely cracked the Hot 100, "Where Did Our Love Go", which The Marvelettes turned down, and "Baby Love" launched The Supremes into superstardom.
• A7) The Four Seasons. Founded 1960. Omitted: Frankie Valli. "Sherry", "Big Girls Don't Cry", and "Walk Like a Man" in 1963; "Rag Doll" in 1964; and "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" in 1975. Songwriter Bob Gaudio initially threw together "Sherry" in only 15 minutes but called it "Jackie Baby" for First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
• A8) The Temptations. Founded 1960. "My Girl" in 1965; "I Can't Get Next to You" in 1969; "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" in 1971; and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" in 1972. The last of these, a funky tune by Norman Whitfield, runs almost seven minutes, including the first two minutes without any singing.
• A9) The Animals. Founded 1962. "House of the Rising Sun" in 1964. The group remade a traditional blues song, initially recorded four decades earlier, for their only #1 pop hit.
• A10) The Dixie Cups. Founded 1964. "Chapel of Love" in 1964. Both The Ronettes and The Blossoms recorded this song previously, and many other artists, including Bette Midler and the Beach Boys, have done so since.
• A11) The Doors. Founded 1965. Omitted: Jim Morrison. "Light My Fire" in 1967 and "Hello, I Love You" in 1968. Guitarist Robbie Krieger, not singer Jim Morrison or keyboardist Ray Manzarek, penned "Light My Fire".
• A12) The Guess Who. Founded 1965. "American Woman" in 1970. The title track was initially improvised during a live jam in Kitchener, Ontario, and its lyrics are definitely anti-American despite bassist Jim Kale's insistence otherwise (at the very least, he strongly prefers Canadian women).
• A13) The Lovin' Spoonful. Founded 1965. "Summer in the City" in 1966. The authentic sounds in the song include a Volkswagen Beetle horn and a jackhammer.
• A14) Pink Floyd. Founded 1965. "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II" in 1979. The middle, and longest, of three versions of the song from the double album is a protest against the strict schooling in the U.K.
• A15) Santana. Founded 1966. Omitted: Carlos Santana. "Smooth" in 1999 and "The Game of Love" (featuring Michelle Branch) in 2002. "Smooth", featuring Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20 fame, stayed at #1 for an impressive twelve straight weeks and helped Supernatural win the Album of the Year Grammy.
• A16) Chicago. Founded 1967. Omitted: Peter Cetera. "If You Leave Me Now" in 1976; "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" in 1982; and "Look Away" in 1988. Cetera wrote "If You Leave Me Now", their first #1 hit in the U.S. on their tenth album (simply titled Chicago X).
• A17) REO Speedwagon. Founded 1967. "Keep On Loving You" in 1980 and "Can't Fight This Feeling" in 1985. After thirteen years of not even cracking the Top 40, the first single from their ninth studio album, Hi Infidelity, climbed all the way to #1.
• A18) The Commodores. Founded 1968. Omitted: Lionel Richie. "Three Times a Lady" in 1978 and "Still" in 1979. Richie wrote the 1978 single as a love song for his wife Brenda, and it bucked the disco trend to reach the top of the chart.
• A19) Grand Funk Railroad. Founded 1968. "We're An American Band" in 1973 and "The Loco-Motion" in 1974. The 1973 title track was drummer Don Brewer's response to a challenge from the British group Humble Pie.
• A20) Yes. Founded 1968. "Owner of a Lonely Heart" in 1980. Despite reaching #1 on the U.K. album chart with Tales from Topographic Oceans in 1973 and Going for the One in 1977, Yes had never even cracked the top ten on either the U.S. Hot 100 or Mainstream Rock charts until this single peaked on both.
• A21) Bay City Rollers. Founded 1969. "Saturday Night" in 1976. "Bye, Bye, Baby" and "Give a Little Love" had both topped the U.K. chart the previous year.
• A22) Bread. Founded 1969. "Make It with You" in 1970. The band would also crack the top ten with "If" (#4) and "Baby I'm-a Want You" (#3) in 1971, "Everything I Own" (#5) in 1972, and "Lost Without Your Love" (#9) in 1976.
• A23) Earth, Wind & Fire. Founded 1969. "Shining Star" in 1975. Although the group never reach #1 on the Hot 100 again, they topped the R&B chart seven other times and the Dance chart two other times, including "System of Survival", which reached #1 on both in 1987.
• A24) America. Founded 1970. "A Horse with No Name" in 1972 and "Sister Golden Hair" in 1975. The 1972 single was banned on some radio stations because "horse" was supposedly slang for "heroin".
• A25) The Doobie Brothers. Founded 1970. "Black Water" in 1974 and "What a Fool Believes" in 1979. The latter won Grammy Awards the following year for both Song of the Year and Record of the Year.
• A26) Styx. Founded 1970. Omitted: Dennis DeYoung. "Babe" in 1979. Dennis DeYoung wrote the song as a birthday present for his wife Suzanne and had to be convinced by the band to add it to their Cornerstone album.
• A27) Average White Band. Founded 1971. "Pick Up The Pieces" in 1975. The funky single is mostly an instrumental, interrupted only by the name of the song.
• A28) Cheap Trick. Founded 1974. "The Flame" in 1988. A 2008 remix by Erin Hamilton topped the Dance chart, nine years after she first reached the top 20 with her cover.
• A29) Blondie. Founded 1976. Omitted: Deborah Harry. "Heart of Glass" in 1978; "Call Me" and "The Tide Is High" in 1980; and "Rapture" in 1981. The last of these brought at least a taste of rap music to mainstream America.
• A30) Boston. Founded 1976. "Amanda" in 1986. After an eight year break, the band's long-awaited third album, The Third Stage, charted three singles, the same number as Boston and Don't Look Back, with twice as many making the top ten.