180 free 60s Music trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
65 free 60s Music trivia questions with answers. The 1960s packed more change into ten years than any decade in pop history. It opened with the Twist and Roy Orbison and closed with Woodstock, Abbey Road and Altamont. In between came the British Invasion, Motown's hit factory, Dylan going electric, surf pop, Stax soul, psychedelia and the first supergroups. This quiz covers all of it. The questions range from easy (which show gave the Beatles their US TV debut) to genuinely tough (who improvised the organ riff on 'Like a Rolling Stone', what Motown was called for its first year). Expect chart records, real names, working titles, festival stories and the odd FBI investigation. It works as a warm-up for a pub quiz, a music-night round for a party, or a solo test of how much you really know about the decade. Every answer was checked against a documented source and the citation sits under each explanation, so nothing here rests on half-remembered liner notes.
30 of 180 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On 9 February 1964 the Beatles made their first live US television appearance on which program?
The Ed Sullivan Show
The broadcast is usually treated as the opening shot of the British Invasion; the band did a second Sullivan appearance from Florida a week later.
Q 02Roughly how many viewers watched the Beatles' February 1964 debut on Sullivan's show?
73 million
The record stood for three years until the series finale of The Fugitive beat it.
Q 03Which song was the Beatles' first US number one, entering the Hot 100 at 45 in January 1964?
I Want to Hold Your Hand
It had been planned for a mid-January release to coincide with the band's US TV debut, but radio play forced Capitol to rush it out early.
Q 04What was the Beatles' first hit single, released in late 1962 after they signed with EMI?
Love Me Do
Producer George Martin was unimpressed with Pete Best's drumming at the audition; Ringo Starr had joined by the time the single came out.
Q 05The Beatles played their last commercial concert on 29 August 1966 at which venue?
Candlestick Park
A year earlier they had opened a US tour before a world-record crowd of 55,600 at Shea Stadium; by 1966 the screaming meant nobody could hear them play.
Q 06Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band won the 1968 Grammy for Album of the Year. What milestone was that?
The first rock LP to win
It picked up four Grammys that night, including Best Album Cover, and was later added to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.
Q 07Which pop artist designed the Sgt. Pepper cover with Jann Haworth?
Peter Blake
Hamilton would go on to design the plain white sleeve of the follow-up, The Beatles (the White Album).
Q 08What was the working title of 'Yesterday' before Paul McCartney wrote the lyrics?
Scrambled Eggs
The finished track used a string quartet and no other Beatles, and has since drawn more than 2,000 cover versions.
Q 09'Hey Jude' spent how many weeks at number one on the Hot 100 in 1968, tying the record?
9
McCartney began it as 'Hey Jules', a song to comfort John Lennon's young son Julian during his parents' split.
Q 10On 30 January 1969 the Beatles gave their final public performance from the roof of which building?
Apple Corps headquarters at 3 Savile Row
The unannounced lunchtime set on the roof of their own company's London office was cut short by police after complaints about the noise.
Q 11Which album was the last the Beatles recorded, even though Let It Be came out later?
Abbey Road
Let It Be had been taped earlier but was held up by production problems; the zebra-crossing cover became one of the most imitated in music.
Q 12Brian Jones named his new band after 'Rollin' Stone', a track on an LP by which bluesman?
Muddy Waters
The band's early sets were mostly covers of Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Howlin' Wolf and Bo Diddley.
Q 13Which 1965 single gave the Rolling Stones their first US number one?
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
Q 21Little Stevie Wonder signed to Motown at what age?
11
His 1963 live single 'Fingertips' pushed the album Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius to number one, making him the youngest artist to top the Billboard album chart.
Q 22Which act released the first recording of 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine' in 1967?
Gladys Knight & the Pips
Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong wrote the song in 1966; the Miracles also cut a version before Gaye's became the label's biggest hit to date.
Q 23How many weeks did Marvin Gaye's 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine' top the Billboard pop chart from December 1968?
7
Berry Gordy had resisted releasing it as a single at all; it went on to overtake the Gladys Knight version as Motown's biggest seller to that point.
Keith Richards said the fuzz-tone riff came to him in his sleep; he taped it, went back to bed and found it on the cassette in the morning.
Q 14Which Ray Davies-written 1964 single was the Kinks' breakthrough, topping the UK chart?
You Really Got Me
Dave Davies got the distorted guitar sound by slashing the speaker cone of his amplifier with a razor blade.
Q 15Roger Daltrey's vocal on the Who's 'My Generation' (1965) is famous for what distinctive delivery?
An angry stutter
Pete Townshend reworked the song after hearing John Lee Hooker's 'Stuttering Blues'; the line 'Hope I die before I get old' followed.
Q 16Which guitarist joined Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce in the 1966 supergroup Cream?
Eric Clapton
'Sunshine of Your Love' became their biggest US hit, reaching number five.
Q 17Led Zeppelin, formed in London by Jimmy Page after the Yardbirds folded, came together in which year?
1968
The quartet of Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham briefly toured as the New Yardbirds to fulfil leftover bookings.
Q 18Berry Gordy founded Motown in 1959 in which US city, whose nickname it became?
Detroit
The name is a blend of 'motor' and 'town'; the Hitsville U.S.A. house on West Grand Boulevard served as studio, office and Gordy's home.
Q 19Under what label name did Berry Gordy first found his company on 12 January 1959?
Tamla
The Tamla name lived on as the imprint for artists including Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson.
Q 20How many Hot 100 number ones did the Supremes score, a record for an American vocal group?
12
'Where Did Our Love Go' started the run in August 1964, to the surprise of the group, who were touring with Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars.
Q 24The Temptations' October 1968 hit 'Cloud Nine', produced by Norman Whitfield, pioneered which style?
Psychedelic soul
David Ruffin, the lead voice on 'My Girl' and 'Ain't Too Proud to Beg', had left the group earlier that year.
Q 25Aretha Franklin's 1967 'Respect' was a rearranged cover of a 1965 song by whom?
Otis Redding
Franklin's version earned two Grammys in 1968 and is in the National Recording Registry; she flipped the song's plea into a demand.
Q 26What chart milestone did Redding's '(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay' achieve in 1968?
First posthumous US number one
He recorded it days before his death in a plane crash in December 1967; the whistling was reportedly a placeholder for a verse he never wrote.
Q 27Aretha Franklin's career took off after she signed in 1966 with which record label?
Atlantic Records
Her earlier Columbia years had pushed her toward jazz and pop standards; at Atlantic she was recorded playing piano and singing gospel-rooted soul.
Q 28James Brown's free televised Boston Garden concert on 5 April 1968 was staged to keep the peace after which event?
Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination
City officials had wanted to cancel the show; broadcasting it live is credited with keeping Boston calm while other cities burned.
Q 29Which soul singer, shot dead in a Los Angeles motel in 1964, wrote 'A Change Is Gonna Come'?
Sam Cooke
Rolling Stone placed the song at number 3 on its 2021 list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
Q 30The Jackson 5 formed in 1964 in which Indiana city?
Gary
After signing to Motown they became the first group to debut with four straight Hot 100 number ones, starting with 'I Want You Back' in 1969.