Before
hip-hop beefs, there were response records, also known as
answer songs, usually replies to well-known songs. There are a few key eras: blues and R&B recorded music in the 1930s through 1950s, including a number of responses to "
Work With Me, Annie" (1954), recorded by
Hank Ballard & the Midnighters, with answers including "
Annie had a Baby," and "
The Wallflower" by Etta James; and Big Mama Thornton's "
Hound Dog" (1953), with a quick response by
Louis Innis and Charlie Gore, made a mere week after the original was released, and
Rufus Thomas' "
Bear Cat" (1953),
Sun Records' first hit. Country, rock & roll, doo-wop and pop music picked up where the blues left off, with most activity in the 1950s to 60s. Two examples from this era are
"Are You Lonesome To-night" and "Who Put The Bomp," and responses to both. The most well known from the next decade was Lynyrd Skynyrd's "
Sweet Home Alabama" (1974), a response to Neil Young's "
Southern Man" (1970) and "
Alabama" (1972). Until the 2000s, no answer songs had charted as high as the original hits. That changed with
Frankee's "
F.U.R.B. (Fuck You Right Back)" (2004), a response to
Eamon's "
Fuck It (I Don't Want You Back)" (2003), which was the first answer song to reach number 1 in the UK. Six years later and across the pond, Katy Perry's "
California Gurls" was a response to "
Empire State of Mind" by Jay-Z. It was the first answer song to reach No. 1 in the Billboard Hot 100. More Responses inside.
The most popular era for coverage on the internet was the 1960s for doo-wop and pop answer songs, as covered by the
Answer Song Jukebox (music linked as Real Audio files) and
Ask Mr. Music's list of notable answer songs (no audio).
Music Pop Hits page of Answerback Songs (MP3 and WMA) includes a list of original tracks and their answer songs.
Rewind the Fifties has a collection of answer songs, parodies, and death tunes (no audio), and
Ace Records collected 28 answer songs recorded by girl groups of the 60s, and the linked page includes some samples.
Disregarding the distinction of decades or genres,
this Yahoo Music Playlist Blog pairs 34 songs with their responses, plus a few extensions of the Neil Young-Lynyrd Skynyrd "storyline."
WMFU's Dave the Spazz collected 28 answer songs and shared them online as MP3s and Real Audio streams.
The Frankee vs Eamon response "battle" brought answer songs back to public interest, and with it an article from The Guardian:
Discs at Dawn, which claims 1986 as a "golden year for response records. The article cites Gwen Guthrie's "
Ain't Nothing Goin' On But the Rent" and the answer song, Wally Jump Jr's "
Ain't Gonna Pay You One Red Cent." There was also
round two in The Bridge Wars, Boogie Down Productions' "
South Bronx," a response to MC Shan's "
The Bridge," which came out in late 1985. Shan shot back with "
Kill That Noise" in 1987. There was also a
response to Madonna's "Papa, Don't Preach" called "Madonna, Don't Preach" that apparently got some small amount of radio play in '86, but there's not much record of it online. Beyond these, it's not too clear why 1986 was special, but I digress.
Previously
Thomas and his "Bear Cat" were covered previously, though most of the links are dead.
Here is an archived version of tribute page to Thomas.
"Work With Me Annie" was included in
the 2010 New Yorker holiday party mix.
A nation of state-specific answers to
California Gurls.
posted by The Confessor at 3:16 PM on March 31, 2012