80s Country Music Trivia
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70 free 80s Country Music trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The 1980s were the decade country music tried on rhinestones and then took them back off. It opened with Urban Cowboy, mechanical bulls and pop crossovers from Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton and Eddie Rabbitt, and it closed with the neotraditional revival of George Strait, Randy Travis, Reba McEntire and the so-called Class of '89. In between came Alabama's run of 21 straight number ones, the Judds, the Highwaymen, Farm Aid, and the first country video ever aired on MTV. This quiz covers all of it: the hits, the songwriters behind them, the awards, the movies and the TV themes that put country in every living room. Questions range from easy chart facts to deep cuts about who wrote what and where a video was shot, so it works for a casual round with friends or a serious test for anyone who lived through the decade. Every answer has been checked against a primary reference and each question links to its source, so if a fact surprises you, you can read where it came from.
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Q 01Both the 1980 film 9 to 5 and Dolly Parton's title song took their name from what?
A working women's organization
9to5 was founded in 1973 to fight for fair pay and equal treatment for women in the workplace, and the film's premise grew from its members' stories. The song earned Parton an Oscar nomination and two Grammys.
Q 02Songwriter Dallas Frazier named "Elvira," the Oak Ridge Boys' huge 1981 hit, after what?
A street in East Nashville
Frazier named "Elvira" after a street in East Nashville, Elvira Street, which he drove past in the mid-1960s; his own 1966 recording flopped, but the Oak Ridge Boys' 1981 cover became a top-ten pop hit and country number one.
Q 03Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton's 1983 duet "Islands in the Stream" was written by which group?
The Bee Gees
The Bee Gees, brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb, wrote it, and the duet topped both the Hot 100 and the country chart in 1983; the title comes from a 1970 Ernest Hemingway novel.
Q 04Emmylou Harris's 1985 concept album about a fictional singer was titled what?
The Ballad of Sally Rose
The Ballad of Sally Rose, released in 1985, was Emmylou Harris's self-written concept album tracing a singer's life and loss, co-written with English songwriter Paul Kennerley.
Q 05Kenny Rogers's 1980 chart-topper "Lady" was written and produced by which Motown star?
Lionel Richie
Richie had first pitched the song to his own band, the Commodores, who turned it down. Rogers later sang on "We Are the World," which Richie co-wrote.
Q 06Randy Travis's 1987 wedding-day standard "Forever and Ever, Amen" was written by which songwriting pair?
Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz
Overstreet had already given Travis "On the Other Hand." The pair wrote "Forever and Ever, Amen" in a couple of hours, and it won the Grammy for Best Country Song in 1988.
Q 07Randy Travis's 1986 debut album Storms of Life eventually earned which RIAA certification?
Triple platinum (3 million)
Three million copies of a debut was unheard of for a hard-country record at the time, and Storms of Life is often credited with kicking off the neotraditional boom.
Q 08Which 1987 George Strait album was the first to debut at number one on the Top Country Albums chart?
Ocean Front Property
Ocean Front Property entered the Top Country Albums chart at number one in 1987, the first album ever to do so; its title track jokes about selling ocean-front property in Arizona.
Q 09The band Alabama was formed by three cousins in which Alabama town?
Fort Payne
Alabama formed in Fort Payne, the cousins' DeKalb County hometown, and honed their act at The Bowery bar in Myrtle Beach before RCA signed them in 1980.
Q 10Which 1980 single, Alabama's first on RCA, began the band's streak of 21 consecutive country number ones?
Tennessee River
"Tennessee River" topped the country chart in 1980, the first of 21 consecutive number-one singles for Alabama, a streak that ran until "Tar Top" stalled at number seven in 1987.
Q 11In which years did Alabama become the first group to win CMA Entertainer of the Year three years running?
1982 to 1984
Alabama won CMA Entertainer of the Year three straight years, 1982 to 1984, the first group ever to take the award; the Academy of Country Music later named them Artist of the Decade for the 1980s.
Q 12Which member of Alabama wrote the band's 1982 anthem "Mountain Music"?
Randy Owen
Owen, the band's lead singer, wrote it as the title track of the album that made Alabama arena headliners; it was the group's sixth number one.
Q 13Naomi Judd, one half of the Judds, was born in which Kentucky city?
Ashland
Naomi and daughter Wynonna went from an Ashland childhood to five Grammys for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group and nine CMA awards.
Q 21George Jones's 1980 comeback "He Stopped Loving Her Today" was written by which duo?
Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman
Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman wrote it; Jones, in a personal tailspin, resisted the song as too morbid before it went to number one in July 1980 and won CMA Song of the Year in 1980 and 1981.
Q 22Loretta Lynn picked Sissy Spacek to play her in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) based on what?
A photograph of the actress
Lynn chose Spacek from a photograph of the actress, having never seen one of her films; Spacek did all her own singing and won the Best Actress Oscar for the role.
Q 23In 1982, which bluegrass-rooted singer became the youngest Grand Ole Opry inductee up to that time?
Q 14The Judds' 1986 hit "Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout the Good Old Days)" was written by whom?
Jamie O'Hara
O'Hara, later half of the O'Kanes, won a Grammy for the song, and the Judds won another for performing it — one of five they took home as a duo.
Q 15Gilley's Club, the honky-tonk setting of Urban Cowboy (1980), was in which Texas city?
Pasadena
Gilley's stood in Pasadena, an industrial suburb southeast of Houston; part-owned by Mickey Gilley, it was billed as the world's largest honky-tonk, and its mechanical bull became a national craze after the film.
Q 16Who played Sissy, the wife of John Travolta's Bud, in Urban Cowboy?
Debra Winger
Debra Winger played Sissy opposite John Travolta's Bud, a breakthrough that preceded her Oscar-nominated roles in An Officer and a Gentleman and Terms of Endearment.
Q 17Which Texas songwriter wrote "Pancho and Lefty", a 1983 number one for Nelson and Haggard?
Townes Van Zandt
Van Zandt first recorded it in 1972 to little notice. He never confirmed whether Pancho was meant to be Pancho Villa, but did not rule it out.
Q 18The supergroup the Highwaymen took their name from a 1985 hit written by which songwriter?
Jimmy Webb
Webb, of "Wichita Lineman" fame, first cut "Highwayman" on his 1977 album El Mirage; the Highwaymen's version won him a Grammy for Best Country Song.
Q 19In the Highwaymen's recording of "Highwayman," Johnny Cash sings the final verse as what?
A starship captain
The song follows one soul through four lives — highwayman, sailor, dam builder and finally a starship captain — with each Highwayman taking a verse.
Q 20"Always on My Mind" was a UK top-ten hit a decade before Willie Nelson's 1982 version for which singer?
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley's 1972 recording of "Always on My Mind" reached number nine in the UK; Nelson's 1982 version won three Grammys and was CMA Song of the Year in both 1982 and 1983.
Ricky Skaggs
Ricky Skaggs joined the Opry in May 1982 at 27, then its youngest member; as a boy he had been told he was too young to perform there, and his 1982 album Highways and Heartaches went platinum.
Q 24Which New York mayor played a cabdriver in the 1985 video for "Country Boy"?
Ed Koch
Ed Koch, New York's mayor from 1978 to 1989, played the cab driver in the "Country Boy" video, with Bill Monroe appearing as Uncle Pen; the clip was nominated for the CMA's first Music Video of the Year award.
Q 25Dwight Yoakam's 1986 debut 'Honky Tonk Man' was a cover of a 1956 hit by whom?
Johnny Horton
Yoakam's version peaked at number three and opened Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.; Horton is better remembered for "The Battle of New Orleans."
Q 26What was the title of Steve Earle's 1986 debut album?
Guitar Town
Guitar Town, recorded in Nashville and released in 1986, included "Hillbilly Highway" and earned Earle a Grammy nomination for Best Male Country Vocal Performance while winning him a college-rock audience.
Q 27Which Nashville legend, best known for his work with Patsy Cline, produced k.d. lang's 1988 album Shadowland?
Owen Bradley
Owen Bradley, who produced Patsy Cline's classic records, came out of retirement to produce Shadowland, which also paired lang with Kitty Wells, Loretta Lynn and Brenda Lee on the "Honky Tonk Angels' Medley."
Q 28Which 1981 single, written by Rosanne Cash herself, was the title track of her breakthrough album?
Seven Year Ache
"Seven Year Ache" topped the country chart in 1981 and reached the pop top 40, launching a run in which Cash notched eleven country number ones during the decade.
Q 29Who first won CMA Entertainer of the Year in back-to-back years, 1980 and 1981?
Barbara Mandrell
Barbara Mandrell won CMA Entertainer of the Year in 1980 and 1981 while starring in NBC's Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters, becoming the first artist to take the award in consecutive years.
Q 30In Ronnie Milsap's "Smoky Mountain Rain", the narrator has left Los Angeles for which Tennessee city?
Knoxville
The narrator thumbs his way from LA back to Knoxville, then flags down a trucker bound for Gatlinburg; in 2010 the Tennessee legislature made "Smoky Mountain Rain" an official state song.