50s Music Trivia
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165 free 50s Music trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
67 free 50s Music trivia questions with answers. The 1950s is the decade rock and roll was born, and this quiz covers the whole story: Sam Phillips's Sun Records in Memphis, Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show, Chuck Berry walking into Chess Records, Little Richard quitting for the ministry, and the night the music died in an Iowa cornfield. It also makes room for the grown-ups of the era, from Sinatra's Capitol albums to Patsy Cline and the very first Grammy Awards. The questions run from easy (where Elvis was born, what film made 'Rock Around the Clock' a hit) to genuinely tough (who engineered the Million Dollar Quartet tape, which newspaper named it, what the Rate-a-Record scale topped out at). Expect chart firsts, label deals, real names and the odd satellite. It works as a music round for a pub quiz, a nostalgia night with parents or grandparents, or a solo test of how well you know the decade. Every answer was verified against primary sources such as Wikipedia and official archives, and the citation sits under each explanation.
30 of 165 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who sang 'Poor Little Fool', the first song ever to top the Billboard Hot 100?
Ricky Nelson
Nelson was already a TV star on his parents' sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, which is why the song took off as a radio hit from an EP.
Q 02Which future record executive was one of the three journalists credited with creating the Hot 100?
Seymour Stein
Stein went on to co-found Sire Records and sign the Ramones, Talking Heads and Madonna; he said he could not recall who picked the chart's name.
Q 03In what year did Billboard discontinue its Most Played in Jukeboxes chart?
1957
The jukebox chart had mattered because many radio stations refused to play rock and roll, so jukebox plays were one of the few measures of what teenagers actually liked.
Q 04Which song won Record of the Year at the very first Grammy Awards, held in May 1959?
Volare
'Volare' (Nel blu dipinto di blu) by Domenico Modugno took Record of the Year on May 4, 1959, beating Sinatra, Peggy Lee and Perry Como; the ceremony ran simultaneously in Beverly Hills and New York.
Q 05Music from which TV detective series won Henry Mancini the first-ever Album of the Year Grammy?
Peter Gunn
The Music from Peter Gunn also won Best Arrangement, and Mancini shared the two-award tally with Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Domenico Modugno.
Q 06Which instrumental by the Champs won the first Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Performance?
Tequila
'Tequila' by the Champs won Best Rhythm & Blues Performance at the first Grammys in 1959; its only vocal is the single spoken word 'Tequila', and the band was named for Gene Autry's horse, Champion.
Q 07Berry Gordy founded the label that became Motown in January 1959 under what original name?
Tamla Records
Gordy founded Tamla Records on January 12, 1959; the company was not incorporated as Motown Record Corporation until April 1960, and 'Tamla Motown' later became the brand for UK releases.
Q 08How much did Berry Gordy borrow from a family savings cooperative to start his label in 1959?
$800
Gordy borrowed $800 from the Ber-Berry Co-op, his family's savings fund, after some debate; the first Tamla release, Marv Johnson's 'Come to Me', went out regionally in January 1959.
Q 09What was Gordy's 1959 Detroit recording studio on West Grand Boulevard nicknamed?
Hitsville U.S.A.
Gordy bought a second Detroit studio, Golden World, in 1966; it became Studio B to Hitsville's Studio A.
Q 10Before founding Motown, Berry Gordy co-wrote 'Reet Petite' and 'Lonely Teardrops' for which Detroit singer?
Jackie Wilson
Jackie Wilson's hits earned Gordy only modest royalties, which convinced him he needed to own the records himself; he wrote with his sister Gwen and Billy Davis.
Q 11Bandstand was broadcast from which city from its 1952 debut until it moved to Los Angeles in 1964?
Philadelphia
The show began as a local program on WFIL-TV, and Dick Clark's national ABC version premiered on August 5, 1957.
Q 12Who hosted Bandstand as a local WFIL show before Dick Clark took over permanently?
Bob Horn
The show grew out of Horn's WFIL radio program of the same name and originally featured short musical films rather than live acts.
Q 13In Bandstand's Rate-a-Record segment, teenagers scored songs on a scale that topped out at what number?
98
The scale ran from 35 to 98, and the segment gave the world the catchphrase 'It's got a good beat and you can dance to it.'
Q 21Sun Records sold Presley's contract to RCA Victor in 1955 for how much?
$40,000
RCA Victor paid $40,000 in November 1955 ($35,000 to Sun plus a $5,000 bonus to Elvis), relieving Sun's money troubles and funding the careers of Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Q 22What was Presley's first RCA Victor single, released in January 1956 and his first pop number one?
Heartbreak Hotel
'Heartbreak Hotel', released January 27, 1956, became Presley's first pop number one that spring; writers Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden took its mood from a newspaper story about a suicide note.
Q 23Which actor hosted Elvis Presley's first Ed Sullivan Show appearance in 1956 while Sullivan recovered from a car crash?
Charles Laughton
Q 14In which city did Alan Freed stage the 1952 Moondog Coronation Ball, the first major rock and roll concert?
Cleveland
Freed staged the Moondog Coronation Ball at the Cleveland Arena on March 21, 1952; his Moondog persona borrowed its name from New York street composer Louis Hardin, who later sued him over it.
Q 15Alan Freed was fired by WABC in 1959 after refusing to deny he had taken what?
Payola
Freed refused to sign a WABC statement denying he had taken payola, payments from record companies to play their discs, and was fired in November 1959; Dick Clark survived the same congressional hearings.
Q 16Which vocal group recorded the 1954 original of 'Sh-Boom'?
The Chords
The Chords' 'Sh-Boom', on Atlantic's Cat label, crossed into the pop top ten in 1954; the Crew Cuts, a white Canadian quartet, then took their cover to number one.
Q 17Which Los Angeles group recorded the 1954 doo-wop hit 'Earth Angel'?
The Penguins
The Penguins recorded 'Earth Angel' for Dootsie Williams's Dootone label in 1954; it topped the R&B chart and crossed into the pop top ten in early 1955.
Q 18The term 'doo-wop' first appeared in print in 1961, in a review of which group's 'Blue Moon'?
The Marcels
The Chicago Defender used the word just as the style's vogue was ending; the Marcels' record turned a 1934 Rodgers and Hart standard into a nonsense-syllable romp.
Q 19Which Billboard reporter coined 'rhythm and blues' in 1949 to replace 'race music'?
Jerry Wexler
Wexler later became a partner at Atlantic Records and produced Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Wilson Pickett.
Q 20Elvis Presley was born in 1935 in which Mississippi town?
Tupelo
Elvis was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, on January 8, 1935; his twin Jesse Garon was stillborn 35 minutes earlier, and the family moved to Memphis in 1948 when he was 13.
Charles Laughton hosted the September 9, 1956 broadcast while Sullivan recovered from a car crash; it drew about 60 million viewers, an 82.6 percent share, after Sullivan had declared Presley unfit for family viewing.
Q 24On The Steve Allen Show in 1956, Presley sang his new single to what animal in a top hat and bow tie?
A basset hound
On July 1, 1956 Allen had Presley, in white tie, sing 'Hound Dog' to a basset hound wearing a top hat; the next day Elvis cut 'Hound Dog' and 'Don't Be Cruel' in New York.
Q 25Which TV host persuaded Presley to leave his guitar backstage for a June 1956 performance, freeing his hips?
Milton Berle
The Berle appearances drew such ratings and outrage that Presley was immediately booked for The Steve Allen Show.
Q 26On Elvis Presley's third and final Ed Sullivan Show appearance, in January 1957, the cameras famously did what?
Shot him only from the waist up
Shot him only from the waist up is true of that final visit alone; the legend that Elvis was always filmed from the waist up is false.
Q 27After being drafted in 1958, Presley served as an armor intelligence specialist in which country?
West Germany
Presley served with the 3rd Armored Division in Friedberg, West Germany, from October 1958 to March 1960; living in nearby Bad Nauheim, the 24-year-old met 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu, and he donated his Army pay to charity.
Q 28Presley bought which Memphis mansion in March 1957?
Graceland
Elvis bought Graceland, on Highway 51 South in Memphis, for $102,500 in March 1957; the road was later renamed Elvis Presley Boulevard and the house opened to the public in 1982.
Q 29Who founded Sun Records in Memphis in 1952?
Sam Phillips
Sam Phillips opened Sun Records in 1952 as an outgrowth of his Memphis Recording Service at 706 Union Avenue; before Elvis it concentrated on Black blues artists such as Howlin' Wolf and B.B. King.
Q 30Which newspaper's headline named the December 1956 Sun Studio jam the Million Dollar Quartet?
Memphis Press-Scimitar
Memphis Press-Scimitar entertainment editor Bob Johnson's story ran under the headline 'Million Dollar Quartet' with the famous photo of Presley at the piano; the uncropped version shows his girlfriend Marilyn Evans sitting on it.