The context: I worked at a summer camp for many years, and I still go back an volunteer a week or two every summer. All the music I hear the staff listening to is old, mostly very mainstream hits from the 70s and 80s (I should have asked them if they even listened to new music, but for whatever reason I didn’t think to at the time). They were seeing who could identify songs from their playlists, and some of them were doing as well as I could (granted, even though I’d heard most of these songs, some weren’t stuff I’d actively listen to and might not remember who they were by).

I picked some songs. It wasn’t the exact same group of people participating and they weren’t there the whole time, but there were maybe 6 or 7 who participated and an age range of 15 or 16 to 19, maybe 20 (one guy who is around 30 was there for a little of it). They were all male (although there are female staff). The same two people got most of the songs. Here are the results that I remember (if I say “they got it” then that just means somebody got it, not all of them, we didn’t listen to the songs all the way through but we kept going until they got it or gave up, so if they didn’t get something then they actively gave up on it):

Led Zeppelin - Immigrant song -got this instantly

Metallica (one of them had Enter Sandman on a playlist)- Fade to Black - they gave up on this
Sad But True - they didn’t know this song, but they guess that it was Metallic because the guitar tone and vocals sounded like Enter Sandman.

Nirvana - Come as You Are - they got this
About a Girl - didn’t get this

The Temptations - Just My Imagination - didn’t get this, but they liked it

Pink Floyd - Time - somebody got this before the actual music, as opposed to clock noised, started

Wish You Were Here - it took that same guy a while to remember the title, but he got it before they lyrics said it, and he could sing along to the song

The Mamas and the Papas - California Dreamin’ - got this pretty fast

Bob Dylan (I was going to do Like a Roling Stone, but one of them had a harder Dylan song on their playlist, I think it was actually Gotta Serve Somebody, although that seems weird unless they learned it from their youth pastor or something, so maybe I’m remembering it wrong) - Tangled Up in Blue - they recognized Dylan’s voice, although they guessed Tom Petty first, but they didn’t know the song.

Black Sabbat - Paranoid - didn’t get the title, I can’t remember now if they eventually got the band right or not, they said they’d heard it, I’m sure of that.

Ozzy - Mama I’m Coming Home - didn’t get this, to my disappointment, considering they knew songs by Poison and Bon Jovi

Crazy Train - got this right away

Jefferson Airplain - Somebody To Love - everyone could sing along with this, but nobody knew who it was. They had We Built This City on a playlist though.

Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun - Said that it sounded like Pink Floyd before the vocals came in, said that it reminded them of Nirvana (but that wasn’t an actual guess), got the title before it appeared in the lyrics, but not the band.

Hendrix - Purple Haze - no, but somebody guessed it was Cream

Cream - Sunshine of Your Love - that same guy got the band but thought the song was White Room, didn’t get the title until the lyrics said it.

Alice In Chains - Them Bones - everyone was instantly sure that they had no idea what this was :(

Neil Young - Rockin’ in the Free World - didn’t get it
Cinnamon Girl - was not familiar, but someone guess (and explicitly said it was a guess) that the song was called “Cinnamon Girl,” since it appears in the opening line

I knew they’d get Beatles songs if I gave them easly ones, so I gave them Tomorrow Never Knows and Happiness Is a Warm Gun, and they recognized the band by the vocals, but had never heard these songs. Before the vocals came in on Tomorrow Never Knows someone said it sounded like Pink Floyd.

Smashing Pumpkins - Zero - had no idea

Pearl Jame - Even Flow - got it instantly
Alive - didn’t get the band or artist

Janis Joplin - Piece of My Heart - didn’t have any guesses, but said they’d heard it

CSNY - Teach Your Children - nope

Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated - 30 year old, who wasn’t there for most of this, knew it from a Tony Hawk game, but nobody knew the band.

Alice Cooper - No More Mr. Nice Guy - 30 year old got it after a long time and my hint that it was someone known for elaborate stage shows.

Otis Redding - Dock of the Bay - 30 year old got the title and “Otis” as the artists first name. I forget what the wrong last name he had was, but then he looked up that name online to see what he was thinking of, and it was a video game character.

Rush - Subdivisions - didn’t get it, I should probably have tried Tom Sawyer

Yes - Roundabout - they’d heard it and it was a song people liked, but nobody knew artist/title

Santana - Black Magic Woman - I thought they’d get this but they didn’t

Rolling Stones - Wild Horses - nope

Aerosmith (was was going to do Sweet Emotion, but they had Dream On on a playlist so I thought I’d pick something slightly harder) - Last Child - didn’t get it, or even the artist

Guns’n’Roses (they had Sweet Child O’Mine on a playlist) - You Could Be Mine - they didn’t know this song, but they still got the band

Greatful Dead - Touch of Grey -didn’t know it

B.B. King - The Thrill Is Gone - didn’t know it

The Who (somebody who wasn’t present for the game had Baba O’Reilly on their playlist, so I assumed everyone heard it at some point and wanted to give them an earlier song) - My Generation - didn’t get it but thought it sounded like The Beatles

Green Day - When I Come Around - I picked this because someone had Time of Your Life on their playlist, but they didn’t get this one

Deep Purple - Highway Star - didn’t get it
Smoke on the Water - got it

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Pride and Joy - didn’t get it

Outkast - Hey Ya! - which I intruduced as the most significant hit I remembered from college - They knew the song but not who did it.