Benny Goodman
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50 free Benny Goodman trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Benny Goodman was the clarinetist who turned hot jazz into America's popular music in the 1930s. A tailor's son raised in poverty, he became a household name through late-night radio, packed ballrooms and a concert that carried jazz onto a stage built for symphonies. This quiz covers the facts people search for most, starting with his famous nickname and the lesser-known ones used by radio announcers and by his own musicians. It also covers his West Coast breakthrough, the integrated trio and quartet, the sidemen and singers he launched, his film appearances and the classical works he commissioned. The questions suit jazz fans, music students and anyone curious about the big-band years. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you pick up a story with each one.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Benny Goodman's 1930s big-band fame earned him which royal nickname from the press?
King of Swing
King of Swing stuck to Goodman in 1936, though a drum company had first used the title to promote his own drummer. Radio announcers had been calling him something else entirely.
Q 02'Why Don't You Do Right?', recorded by Benny Goodman's band in 1942, is sung by which character in a 1988 film?
Jessica Rabbit
Jessica Rabbit performs it in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, with actress Amy Irving supplying the singing voice. The tune began life in 1936 under a different title.
Q 03The NBC radio show that gave Benny Goodman his 1934 break was sponsored to promote which new snack?
Ritz Crackers
Ritz Crackers were brand new when Nabisco sponsored the three-hour show, which ended abruptly in 1935 after a labor dispute at the company.
Q 04Benny Goodman's 1938 concert, hailed as jazz's 'coming-out party', filled which New York venue?
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall sold out weeks in advance, and the recording, released twelve years later, was among the first jazz albums to sell a million copies.
Q 05Which drummer starred on Benny Goodman's 'Sing, Sing, Sing', then quit shortly after the famous 1938 concert?
Gene Krupa
Gene Krupa joined in December 1934 and became a national celebrity, until conflict with Goodman sent him off to form his own orchestra.
Q 06In 1962 the Benny Goodman Orchestra made a Cold War cultural-exchange tour of which country?
Soviet Union
Soviet Union audiences heard the band in 1962, and a live album, Benny Goodman in Moscow, reached American record shops that December.
Q 07Which singer joined Benny Goodman's band in 1941 and later voiced several characters in Disney's Lady and the Tramp?
Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee became famous through the band's hit 'Why Don't You Do Right?', which sold more than a million copies. A radio host had renamed her from Norma Egstrom.
Q 08Which bandleader, later the voice of King Louie in The Jungle Book, wrote Benny Goodman's hit 'Sing, Sing, Sing'?
Louis Prima
Louis Prima wrote and first recorded it in 1936; Goodman's 1937 version ran past eight minutes and filled both sides of a 12-inch record.
Q 09The lost recordings of Benny Goodman's famous 1938 concert resurfaced around 1950 in which unlikely place?
A family closet
A family closet held them: his sister-in-law had the acetate discs, which Goodman then used as leverage to land a new record deal.
Q 10Which trumpeter, raised in a traveling circus, left Benny Goodman to lead a band that hired a young Frank Sinatra?
Harry James
Harry James launched his own big band in 1939 with financial backing from Goodman himself, then signed Sinatra for $75 a week.
Q 11Benny Goodman, the ninth of twelve children, grew up in poverty near Maxwell Street in which city?
Chicago
Chicago gave him his start: his father enrolled the ten-year-old in free music classes, hoping music would lift his sons out of poverty.
Q 12Which future jazz legend made her recording debut at 18 on a 1933 Benny Goodman session?
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday cut 'Your Mother's Son-In-Law' with Goodman's studio band after a talent scout heard her singing in a New York club.
Q 13Which future bandleader co-wrote his first known composition, 'Room 1411', with Benny Goodman in 1928?
Glenn Miller
Glenn Miller was then a young trombonist working beside Goodman, and the tune came out on Brunswick under the name Benny Goodman's Boys.
Q 21Which electric guitar pioneer joined the Benny Goodman Sextet in 1939 and died of tuberculosis at just 25?
Charlie Christian
Charlie Christian, in the best-known telling, was slipped onto the bandstand unannounced; Goodman called a tune to trip him up, and the jam ran 45 minutes.
Q 22Which bandleader, a trained chemist, wrote the arrangements behind Benny Goodman's 1935 breakthrough?
Fletcher Henderson
Fletcher Henderson had disbanded his own debt-ridden orchestra during the Depression, and Goodman hired its players to teach his band the style.
Q 23Which talent scout, who later championed Bob Dylan, guided Benny Goodman's career and became his brother-in-law?
John Hammond
Q 14Which star, a pianist who had never played clarinet, took the title role in The Benny Goodman Story?
Steve Allen
Steve Allen took clarinet lessons so his fingering would look right on screen, while Goodman himself recorded the clarinet heard on the soundtrack.
Q 15Which pianist joined Benny Goodman's trio in 1935, forming one of the first racially integrated jazz groups?
Teddy Wilson
Teddy Wilson first played with the trio during the big band's intermissions, after a jam at a house party caught a producer's ear.
Q 16Which vibraphonist turned the Benny Goodman Trio into a quartet in 1936?
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton was invited to join after Goodman came to hear him play, and he stayed until 1940, when he left to form his own big band.
Q 17Benny Goodman's 1935 stand at the Palomar Ballroom, often called the big-band era's launch, was in which city?
Los Angeles
Los Angeles dancers had heard the band on late-night radio, and they erupted once Goodman dropped stock arrangements for his hotter charts.
Q 18Which trumpet legend fell out with Benny Goodman during a 1953 joint tour of their two bands?
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong refused to return to the stage when Goodman called him back to close a show, and their friendship never recovered.
Q 19Which composer's Clarinet Quintet and Clarinet Concerto did Benny Goodman record in 1956 with Boston Symphony players?
Mozart
Mozart suited Goodman's early training: as a boy he took two years of lessons from a classically trained symphony clarinetist.
Q 20Benny Goodman's CBS radio series from 1936 to 1939 was sponsored by a brand of which product?
Cigarettes
Cigarettes paid the bills: the show was the Camel Caravan, which ran for 21 years and featured Goodman's band from June 1936.
John Hammond persuaded Goodman to hire black musicians and produced many of his records; Goodman married his sister Alice in 1942.
Q 24Which American composer wrote the clarinet concerto Benny Goodman commissioned in 1947 and premiered on NBC radio?
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland's concerto later found a second life on stage, when Jerome Robbins choreographed it as the ballet The Pied Piper.
Q 25Benny Goodman's hit 'Stompin' at the Savoy' is named after a famous ballroom in which New York neighborhood?
Harlem
Harlem's Savoy Ballroom is also where Goodman's orchestra challenged the house band to a battle of the bands in 1937, and lost.
Q 26Besides clarinet, which instrument did Benny Goodman sometimes play as a young New York session musician?
Saxophone
Saxophone work, on both alto and baritone, helped him earn a living in radio, Broadway musicals and recording studios.
Q 27Benny Goodman's boyhood idols, such as Jimmie Noone and Johnny Dodds, were clarinetists from which city?
New Orleans
New Orleans players had moved north for work, so the teenage Goodman could study them up close in the clubs of his hometown.
Q 28Which modern jazz style did Benny Goodman try with a new band in the late 1940s, then publicly dismiss?
Bebop
Bebop won him critical praise, but after more than a year he returned to the music he knew best and later called the style mostly publicity.
Q 29Which opening theme, adapted from a Carl Maria von Weber piece, did Benny Goodman use for over 50 years?
Let's Dance
Let's Dance took its name from the radio show that made the band famous, and Goodman never recorded it with its lyrics.
Q 30Trumpeter Cootie Williams made headlines in 1940 by leaving which bandleader to join Benny Goodman?
Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington's loss was big enough news that Raymond Scott wrote a tune about it, 'When Cootie Left the Duke'.