How many songs can you sing from Hallel, and what do you know about the backstories?

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t’s that time of year again, and in the best of our annual tradition, with Chanukah coming up, we have another trivia quiz for you. This time, it’s not a game to test your knowledge of obscure facts in the music industry, or identifying singers who have long ago dropped off the stage. Instead, it’s all about what you all already know — Hallel! Back in the 1980s, we released an entire album of Hallel songs. How many songs can you sing from Hallel, and what do you know about the backstories?

Questions

1. Before MBD recorded the famous “Mah Ashiv,” composed by Rav Aviezer Wolfson a”h, on our Hallel album, someone else recorded it. Who was the first to record this enduring classic?
2. On the classic Shlomo Carlebach live album, Yisrael B’tach Bashem, the iconic cover photo was a soldier next to a tank, wearing a tallis. What was the soldier holding in his hands?
3. Which Yossi Toiv song, from Hallel, was the first song on the third Ohr Chodosh album?
4. Two songs from the second Toronto Boys Choir album are taken from Hallel. What are they, and who composed them?
5. Which song from Hallel, composed by Rabbi Baruch Chait, was written for Menachem Ehrenthal a”h, whose parents founded Zichron Menachem after his passing?
6. Which Shlomo Carelbach song from Hallel has only three words?
7. Which Abie Rotenberg song from Hallel (one of his very first compositions), whose tune became a famous JEP song, was featured on Noach Dear’s 1971 Clei Zemer album?
8. Who was the graphic artist on our Hallel album cover (left)?
9. Which song from the first Simchatone album, composed by Shloimy Lowenbraun, comes from Hallel?
10. Which Shlomo Carlebach Hallel song was used for the tune “A Nation Apart” on the second JEP album?
11. Which Hallel song did the Diaspora Yeshiva Band often sing as their concert opening?
12. On which Pirchei album was “Odcha Ki Anisani” featured?
13. From all the Chabad niggunim, this Hallel song, composed by Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi (the Alter Rebbe and Baal HaTanya) is probably the most popular.
14. Which two songs from Hallel did Shlomie Gertner sing on his album Say Asay?
15. Rabbi Baruch Chait composed “Hallelu Es Hashem” on the first Rabbis’ Sons album back in 1967. What famous Hallel song did he write on the first Kol Salonika album in 1972?
16. When do we sing Hallel sitting down?