1984 Music
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50 free 1984 Music trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
1984 was one of pop's great years. Twenty different songs reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, from synth-driven rock and movie themes to soul ballads and British imports, and music video turned singers into household faces. This quiz starts with the song Billboard ranked number one for the year and works through the rest of the chart-toppers, then moves on to the albums, films, debuts, award shows and news stories that surrounded them. Prince, Madonna, Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen all feature. It is pitched for anyone who remembers the radio of the mid-eighties or has picked the songs up since, with a few tougher questions for chart obsessives. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so it works for an 80s party, a reunion or a quick solo run.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Prince single, recorded with no bass line, did Billboard rank as the number one song of 1984?
When Doves Cry
When Doves Cry spent five weeks at number one that summer, and Prince said he stripped out the bass because the track sounded too conventional with it.
Q 02Michael Jackson's hair caught fire in January 1984 while he filmed a commercial for which soft drink brand?
Pepsi
Pepsi settled out of court, and Jackson gave the $1.5 million to a California hospital that named its burn centre after him.
Q 03Who became, at 44, the oldest solo woman yet to top the Hot 100 with What's Love Got to Do with It?
Tina Turner
Tina Turner got the song only after Cliff Richard turned it down, and it won her the Grammy for Record of the Year.
Q 04Which 1984 comedy's theme song gave Ray Parker Jr. three weeks at number one and a plagiarism lawsuit?
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters brought a claim from Huey Lewis, who said its melody copied his hit I Want a New Drug, and he received a settlement.
Q 05The 1984 charity single Do They Know It's Christmas raised money for famine relief in which African country?
Ethiopia
Ethiopia received £8 million from the record within a year, after it sold a million copies in its first week in the UK.
Q 06Which album won a record eight Grammys at a single ceremony in February 1984?
Thriller
Thriller also spent a record 37 weeks at number one on the Billboard 200, a run that only ended in April 1984.
Q 07Which future sitcom star did Bruce Springsteen pull on stage to dance in his 1984 Dancing in the Dark video?
Courteney Cox
Courteney Cox played the fan in a video directed by Brian De Palma, a decade before she became Monica in Friends.
Q 08Which Leonard Cohen song first appeared in 1984 on Various Positions, an album his American label declined to release?
Hallelujah
Hallelujah was barely noticed until John Cale covered it in 1991, and Cohen's own version reached the Billboard charts only after he died in 2016.
Q 09Which 1984 film about a town that bans dancing gave Kenny Loggins his only number one with its title song?
Footloose
Footloose kept its title song at number one for three weeks that spring, then sent a second single from its soundtrack to the top in May.
Q 10Which hard rock band scored its only US number one in early 1984 with the synthesizer-led single Jump?
Van Halen
Van Halen got there with a keyboard line that guitarist Eddie had written around 1981, only for his bandmates to reject it at first.
Q 11Which singer scored the first of his seven solo US number ones in 1984 with the ballad Against All Odds?
Phil Collins
Phil Collins was not asked to sing it at the Oscars, so he watched from his seat while dancer Ann Reinking performed it.
Q 12Which Lionel Richie ballad topped the Hot 100 in 1984 with a video about a blind sculpture student?
Hello
Hello also spent six weeks at number one in Britain, and its video shows the student sculpting a clay likeness of the singer's head.
Q 13Which singer earned her first US number one in 1984 with Time After Time, from the album She's So Unusual?
Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper went on to become the first woman with four top-five Hot 100 singles from one album, and won the Grammy for Best New Artist.
Q 21Which Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson duet held number one for six weeks, a run that carried into January 1984?
Say Say Say
Say Say Say was even named the top song of 1984 on radio's American Top 40 countdown, which tallied its year differently from Billboard.
Q 22Let's Go Crazy, a US number one in the autumn of 1984, was credited to Prince and which backing band?
The Revolution
The Revolution shared the billing as Prince became the only act to reach number one more than once that year.
Q 23Which Culture Club single spent three weeks at number one in America in February 1984, the band's only US chart-topper?
Karma Chameleon
Q 14Which Madonna single became her first US number one in December 1984 and stayed on top for six weeks?
Like a Virgin
Like a Virgin got a famous airing at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards, where Madonna rolled across the stage in a wedding dress.
Q 15Which Motown star won an Oscar for I Just Called to Say I Love You, a number one in October 1984?
Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder wrote it for the comedy The Woman in Red, and it remains his only solo number one in the UK.
Q 16Which British duo scored a first UK and US number one in 1984 with Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go?
Wham
Wham! built the song on a note Andrew Ridgeley left for his parents, in which he had accidentally written one word twice.
Q 17Which progressive rock veterans scored their only US number one in 1984 with Owner of a Lonely Heart?
Yes
Yes owed the hit to guitarist Trevor Rabin, who first wrote the song in 1979 and taped his early ideas on a home four-track machine.
Q 18Which singer's 1984 number one Caribbean Queen was re-recorded under other titles for Europe and Africa?
Billy Ocean
Billy Ocean first released it in Britain as European Queen, where it flopped, before the renamed version climbed to number one in America.
Q 19Which former singer of The Babys topped the Hot 100 in 1984 with the break-up ballad Missing You?
John Waite
John Waite later fronted the supergroup Bad English, who went to number one again in 1989 with When I See You Smile.
Q 20Which singer topped the Hot 100 in May 1984 with Let's Hear It for the Boy, from a hit dance film?
Deniece Williams
Deniece Williams had been to number one once before, duetting with Johnny Mathis on Too Much, Too Little, Too Late.
Karma Chameleon had already been Britain's biggest-selling single of 1983, and it went to number one in 20 countries.
Q 24Which British band reached number one in America for the first time in June 1984 with The Reflex?
Duran Duran
Duran Duran had the album track heavily remixed by Nile Rodgers for its single release, and it also gave them a second UK number one.
Q 25Which Hall & Oates single became the duo's sixth and final US number one in December 1984?
Out of Touch
Out of Touch led off the album Big Bam Boom, and its video shows the pair dwarfed by a gigantic drum kit.
Q 26Which Prince album spent 24 straight weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 from August 1984?
Purple Rain
Purple Rain was also the soundtrack to his first film, making Prince only the third act, after Elvis Presley and the Beatles, to hold the number one album, single and movie at once.
Q 27Which 1984 album, whose seven singles all reached the US top ten, was the first CD manufactured in America?
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A., by Bruce Springsteen, was pressed at a newly opened plant in Terre Haute, Indiana; until then Columbia's discs had been made in Japan.
Q 28Which soul singer was shot dead by his own father in Los Angeles on the eve of his 45th birthday in 1984?
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye had recently staged a comeback with Sexual Healing, the hit that won him two Grammys.
Q 29Which band's You Might Think beat Michael Jackson to Video of the Year at the first MTV Video Music Awards?
The Cars
The Cars won with one of the first videos to use computer graphics, in which singer Ric Ocasek turns up as a fly and as King Kong.
Q 30Which broadcaster banned Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood in January 1984, only to see it reach number one?
BBC
The BBC acted after Radio 1 DJ Mike Read voiced his distaste for the record on air, and the ban ran for most of the 37 weeks it spent in the UK Top 40.