170 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 170 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Billboard Hot 100 chart launched in which year, with a teen TV star's single as its first number one?
1958
'Poor Little Fool' topped the very first Hot 100 dated August 4; the song was written by a 15-year-old, Sharon Sheeley.
Q 02Who 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 03Which 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 04In 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 05Which song won Record of the Year at the very first Grammy Awards, held in May 1959?
Volare
Domenico Modugno's Italian-language hit beat Sinatra, Peggy Lee and Perry Como; the ceremony was held simultaneously in Beverly Hills and New York.
Q 06Music 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 07Which instrumental by the Champs won the first Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Performance?
Tequila
The 1958 record features a single spoken word as its only vocal, and the Champs took their name from Gene Autry's horse, Champion.
Q 08Berry Gordy founded the label that became Motown in January 1959 under what original name?
Tamla Records
The company was not incorporated as Motown Record Corporation until April 1960; 'Tamla Motown' later became the brand used for UK releases.
Q 09How much did Berry Gordy borrow from a family savings cooperative to start his label in 1959?
$800
The loan came only after some family debate; the first Tamla release, Marv Johnson's 'Come to Me', went out regionally that January.
Q 10What 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 11Before Motown, Gordy co-wrote 'Reet Petite' and 'Lonely Teardrops' for which Detroit singer?
Jackie Wilson
Gordy wrote with his sister Gwen and Billy Davis; the modest royalties from those hits convinced him he needed to own the records himself.
Q 12Bandstand 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 13Who 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 21Elvis Presley was born in 1935 in which Mississippi town?
Tupelo
His twin brother Jesse Garon was stillborn 35 minutes before him, and the family moved to Memphis when Elvis was 13.
Q 22Sun Records sold Presley's contract to RCA Victor in 1955 for how much?
$40,000
The sale relieved Sun's money troubles and let Sam Phillips fund the careers of Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Q 23What was Presley's first RCA Victor single, released in January 1956 and his first pop number one?
Heartbreak Hotel
It took twelve weeks to reach the top; the moody recording was inspired by a newspaper story about a suicide note.
Q 14In 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 15In which city did Alan Freed stage the 1952 Moondog Coronation Ball, the first major rock and roll concert?
Cleveland
Freed's Moondog persona borrowed its name from the New York street composer Louis Hardin, who later sued him over it.
Q 16Alan Freed was fired by WABC in 1959 after refusing to deny he had taken what?
Payola
The scandal over record companies paying DJs to spin their discs ended Freed's career, while a certain American Bandstand host survived the same hearings largely unscathed.
Q 17Which vocal group's 'Sh-Boom' (1954) was the first R&B record to reach the Billboard top ten?
The Chords
The Chords reached number 5, then watched a Canadian white group, the Crew Cuts, take a cover of the song to number one for nine weeks.
Q 18Which Los Angeles group took 'Earth Angel' to number one on the R&B chart in 1954?
The Penguins
The record was produced by Dootsie Williams, and it crossed over into the pop charts in 1955 alongside doo-wop hits by the Moonglows and the Heartbeats.
Q 19The 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 20Which 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 24Which actor hosted Elvis Presley's first Ed Sullivan Show appearance in 1956 while Sullivan recovered from a car crash?
Charles Laughton
The broadcast drew about 60 million viewers, an 82.6 percent share; Sullivan had earlier declared Presley unfit for family viewing.
Q 25On The Steve Allen Show in 1956, Presley sang his new single to what animal in a top hat and bow tie?
A basset hound
Allen's stunt was meant to tame Presley's image; the next day Elvis went into the studio and cut 'Hound Dog' and 'Don't Be Cruel'.
Q 26Which 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 27Presley's third and final Ed Sullivan appearance in January 1957 is famous because the cameras did what?
Shot him only from the waist up
The legend that he was always shot from the waist up is false; it happened only on that final visit.
Q 28After being drafted in 1958, Presley served as an armor intelligence specialist in which country?
West Germany
It was in Bad Nauheim that the 24-year-old met 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu; he donated his Army pay to charity and bought TVs for the base.
Q 29Presley bought which 18-room Memphis mansion in March 1957?
Graceland
The stretch of Highway 51 South it sits on was later renamed Elvis Presley Boulevard, and the house opened to the public in 1982.
Q 30Who founded Sun Records in Memphis in 1952?
Sam Phillips
Sun grew out of his Memphis Recording Service, and before Elvis it concentrated on Black blues artists such as Howlin' Wolf and B.B. King.