I was sitting in a brewpub/restaurant last weekend and I heard these lyrics open a song, which turned into a semi-obsession (and for days I couldn’t get the damned song out of my head…welcome to my weird brain…it’s a nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live here – trust me):

Have you heard about the lonesome loser…beaten by the Queen of Hearts every time? Have you heard about the lonesome loser…he’s a loser but he still keeps on tryin’…

My response to this musical question? “No, but I have a feeling I’m about to learn about him.”

On the remaining days of our trip my husband and I kind of went on a tangent with these lyrics. What if the Queen of Hearts didn’t beat him up – but the Queen of CLUBS beat him up… with a club – for being such a loser? And just who is the Queen of Clubs, anyway? Is she a skilled sandwich maker? Does she beat up people with a club (which would be how I would want her to be)? Is she just a “joiner” at heart? What if the “lonesome loser” visited a shrink and told him/her his woes and the shrink asks him pointedly, “Have you ever thought about WHY you’re a lonesome loser?”  Then, since we had no 4G service or Internet access on our trip (besides very brief jaunts into WiFi hot spots), we wondered who sang this whiny song for the remainder of the trip…my prevailing guess was the band Kansas. As soon as I got home and fired up my laptop, I looked it up – and no, it was the Little River Band who performed this song.

The Australian Little River Band’s highest charting U.S. hits were Lonesome Loser (#6, 1979), Reminiscing (#3, 1978) and two #10 hits – Lady (1979) and Cool Change (1978). Don’t they have great faces for radio? Which one of these guys was the subject of Lonesome Loser? Take your pick!

I remember having a “before and after” mystery round trivia question about them in a 2016 trivia tournament (a player on my team named Archie was able to answer  it – and I heard it was a stumper for most of the teams in the room).

Here’s the whole mystery round we had in that August, 2016 trivia tournament that involved this band:

Mystery – Music Ladder
Each answer will have a word in common with the previous answer.

a) Alternative band with two hit songs, “Runaway Train” and “Misery”, both released in the 1990s.
b) Shared title of different songs by Huey Lewis & the News and T’Pau.
c) 1969 song by Jackie DeShannon with the lyric, “and the world will be a better place”.
d) 1978 single “Reminiscing” by what Australian soft rock band.

We wound up getting all of these correct (Archie and I teamed up well on this one). It never hurts to have a DJ on your trivia team! Without him, I would have only been able to get #1 and #2.

Now that I’ve rattled on QUITE enough about the Little River Band, let’s get into the quiz, shall we? All of the answers will either include the words king, queen, jack, ace, spades, clubs, hearts or diamonds – or be ABOUT any of those things!

And Here’s the Quiz!

Question #11 will be about this character’s nickname!

1. Song Lyrics – In the Eagles’ single Desperado, the lyrics say, “Don’t you draw the Queen of Diamonds, boy…she’ll beat you if she’s able…” What hand do the lyrics say “is your best bet?”
2. Song Titles – What English metal band originally recorded Ace of Spades?
3. Sports Teams – What is the full name of the English Premier League team abbreviated QPR based in White City, London?
4. Actors – What actor was a regular on General Hospital and also recorded the hit song All I Need?
5. Movie Characters – What is Jack’s last name in The Nightmare Before Christmas?
6. Sandwiches – What pork-based meat is the one typically used to make a club sandwich a “club” sandwich?
7. Commercials – Sy Sperling was the spokesman for what company in TV advertisements from the 1980s – where he said “I’m also a client?”
8. Movies – Title of 1971 James Bond film.
9. TV Series – What TV series starring Kate Jackson and Bruce Boxleitner aired between 1983 and 1987?
10. Book to Movie – Name of 1993 film adapted from book of same name starring Rosalind Chao and Ming-Na Wen.
11. Film Characters – Nickname of Sam Rothstein (played by Robert De Niro) in the 1995 film Casino.
12. Sports Teams – Name one of the two California cities that are home to Big Four sports teams using “Kings” as their mascot. Name both for a bonus point.
13. ’90s Movies – Name of 1991 film starring Wesley Snipes that also featured the song I Wanna Sex You Up by Color Me Badd?
14. Song Lyrics – In the Bruce Springsteen hit song Hungry Heart, he mentions having a wife and kids in what specific place?
15. Nicknames – What American businesswoman was known by the nickname “The Queen of Mean?”
16. Brand Names – What brand name is used by the California Cider Company based in Sebastopol, CA?
17. Potent Potables – What specific name is used to describe a potent alcoholic beverage made from apples that was popular in the colonial era of the United States?
18. Book/Movie Characters – What fictional detective was the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett’s novel The Maltese Falcon?
19. Songs – What female singer/songwriter recorded the 1981 country/pop hit Queen of Hearts?
20. Flights of Fancy – What specific type of character did Snoopy from Peanuts pretend to be when he was fighting “The Red Baron?”
21. Film Characters – What is Jack’s last name in the book/movie The Shining?

Look – the questions went to 21! See what I did there?

Mystery Round – What “Jack” am I?

Give the last names of the following people known by the first name “Jack” based on the following clues.

1. Twelve-time nominated actor whose film credits include Five Easy Pieces, Ironweed and Prizzi’s Honor
2. Stage name of San Francisco-based DJ whose birth name is John Stephen Corrigan who is best known for working with the electronic band Meat Beat Manifesto
3. American actor whose “breakout” role was in the 2000 film High Fidelity.
4. Former MLB player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018 whose former teams include the Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twins, Toronto Blue Jays and Cleveland Indians.

Editor’s note: I know #2 was really obscure. I threw that one in there as a nod to my older brother, who really, really likes this band!

Final Category – Movie Titles

Name three of the four highest-grossing films of all time at the U.S. box office that contain either the word “king” or “kingdom” in their titles. Note: “King” MUST be a stand-alone word and will not be a part of another word so “Mockingjay” will not count!