Number-One Songs
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
50 free Number-One Songs trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Every December Billboard adds up a year of sales, radio play and streams and names one single the biggest hit of the year. The winner is not always the song you would guess: some chart champions never spent a week at the top, and some of the most famous songs of their era lost out to a novelty hit or a film theme. This quiz walks through the most popular song of the year across the decades of the Hot 100, from the first rock and roll million-sellers to disco, power ballads, hip-hop and the streaming era. Along the way it covers the records and firsts behind the chart-toppers: the longest runs at the top, the slowest climbs, surprise debuts and the stories of who wrote, sang and inspired the hits. It suits anyone who likes to argue about music year by year, a quiz host building a chart round, or a family testing which generation knows its hits best. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still leaves you with a story.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Lil Nas X hit, Billboard's top single of 2019, spent a then-record 19 weeks at number one?
Old Town Road
Old Town Road was recorded in a day over a beat Lil Nas X bought online for $30, and Billboard pulled it from the country chart before it conquered the Hot 100.
Q 02Elton John's rewritten Candle in the Wind, Billboard's top single of 1997, was a tribute to whom?
Princess Diana
Princess Diana had died in a car crash two weeks before the single came out; the 1973 original had been written about Marilyn Monroe.
Q 03Which country star wrote I Will Always Love You, Billboard's top single of 1993 for Whitney Houston?
Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton wrote it in 1973 as a farewell to her mentor Porter Wagoner, and Houston's cover later spent a then-record 14 weeks at number one.
Q 04Which dance-craze single by the Spanish duo Los del Río was Billboard's top Hot 100 song of 1996?
Macarena
Macarena only took off in America after Miami producers the Bayside Boys added English lyrics, and that remix then held number one for 14 weeks.
Q 05Which Police song about obsessive surveillance, often mistaken for a love ballad, was Billboard's top single of 1983?
Every Breath You Take
Every Breath You Take was the Police's only Hot 100 number one, and its writer Sting has called the song sinister and ugly rather than gentle.
Q 06Pharrell Williams's Happy, Billboard's number-one single of 2014, was written for which animated film?
Despicable Me 2
Despicable Me 2 came out in 2013, but Happy peaked a year later and became the best-selling song of 2014 in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
Q 07Which artist became the first act to fill the Billboard Hot 100's entire top ten in a single week, in 2022?
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift managed it with songs from her album Midnights, led by Anti-Hero at number one.
Q 08Which single, built on the bass line of Under Pressure, was the first hip-hop song to top the Billboard Hot 100?
Ice Ice Baby
Ice Ice Baby gave Vanilla Ice the milestone in 1990, and Queen and David Bowie only received songwriting credit and royalties after it had become a hit.
Q 09Which fictional cartoon band had Billboard's number-one single of 1969 with Sugar, Sugar?
The Archies
The Archies were characters from Archie Comics, so studio musicians made the record, with Ron Dante singing lead.
Q 10Which Hollywood actress is named in the title of Kim Carnes's 1981 single, Billboard's biggest hit of that year?
Bette Davis
Bette Davis was 73 when Bette Davis Eyes topped the chart, and she wrote to Kim Carnes to thank her for making her a part of modern times.
Q 11Which Beatles single, the group's first American chart-topper, was Billboard's number-one song of 1964?
I Want to Hold Your Hand
I Want to Hold Your Hand entered the Hot 100 at number 45 in January 1964 and set off the British Invasion of American pop.
Q 12Which Beatles single, more than seven minutes long, was Billboard's top Hot 100 song of 1968?
Hey Jude
Hey Jude began as Hey Jules, which Paul McCartney wrote to comfort John Lennon's young son Julian while his parents were separating.
Q 13Which duo's Bridge over Troubled Water, Billboard's top single of 1970, won the Grammy for Record of the Year?
Simon & Garfunkel
Q 21Which country produced Ace of Base, whose The Sign was Billboard's number-one single of 1994?
Sweden
Sweden's Ace of Base formed in Gothenburg, and The Sign made them the first group from the country to top the American singles and album charts at the same time.
Q 22Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise, Billboard's top single of 1995, reworks Pastime Paradise by which Motown star?
Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder released Pastime Paradise on his 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life, and Coolio's version led the soundtrack of the film Dangerous Minds.
Q 23Which singer's Believe, an early showcase for Auto-Tune, was Billboard's number-one single of 1999?
Cher
Cher was 52 when Believe reached the top, and its robotic vocal sound was imitated so widely that it became known as the Cher effect.
Simon & Garfunkel had already split by the time of that Grammy win; Paul Simon wrote the song on guitar, then moved it to piano for a gospel feel.
Q 14Which Blondie song, the theme from the film American Gigolo, was Billboard's number-one single of 1980?
Call Me
Call Me was composed by Giorgio Moroder, who first asked Stevie Nicks to sing it before Debbie Harry wrote the words.
Q 15Which Olivia Newton-John single spent ten weeks at number one and was Billboard's top song of 1982?
Physical
Physical held the top spot from November 1981 into January 1982, the longest run of the 1980s, even though some radio stations banned it as too suggestive.
Q 16Which Prince single, famous for having no bass line, was Billboard's top Hot 100 song of 1984?
When Doves Cry
When Doves Cry was Prince's first Hot 100 chart-topper; he took the bass part out after deciding the song sounded too conventional with it.
Q 17Which saxophone-led George Michael ballad, co-written with Andrew Ridgeley, was Billboard's number-one song of 1985?
Careless Whisper
Careless Whisper came to George Michael at 17, on a bus to his job as a DJ at a restaurant.
Q 18Which all-female band had Billboard's top single of 1987 with Walk Like an Egyptian?
The Bangles
The Bangles were handed a song its writer dreamed up on a ferry, watching passengers flail for balance like figures in Egyptian tomb paintings.
Q 19Which Canadian rocker's ballad from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was Billboard's number-one single of 1991?
Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams also spent 16 straight weeks at number one in Britain with (Everything I Do) I Do It for You, a record unbroken run on the UK chart.
Q 20Which Philadelphia vocal group's End of the Road was Billboard's number-one Hot 100 single of 1992?
Boyz II Men
Boyz II Men recorded it for the Eddie Murphy film Boomerang, and its 13 weeks at number one set a record that Whitney Houston broke within months.
Q 24Which 50 Cent single from the album Get Rich or Die Tryin' was Billboard's number-one song of 2003?
In da Club
In da Club held the top of the Hot 100 for nine straight weeks and gave 50 Cent the first chart-topper of his career.
Q 25Usher's Yeah!, Billboard's top single of 2004, features Lil Jon and which other rapper?
Ludacris
Ludacris guested on a single that stayed on top for 12 straight weeks, until Usher's own follow-up, Burn, replaced it.
Q 26Which Mariah Carey single held number one for fourteen weeks and was Billboard's top Hot 100 song of 2005?
We Belong Together
We Belong Together entered the Hot 100 at number 81 before its long climb, and Billboard later named it the most popular song of the 2000s.
Q 27Which song, played on American Idol as contestants were eliminated, was Billboard's top Hot 100 single of 2006?
Bad Day
Bad Day made the Canadian singer Daniel Powter a star, and it was the first song to sell two million digital copies in the United States.
Q 28Which Beyoncé single, co-written by Ne-Yo, held number one for ten weeks and was Billboard's top song of 2007?
Irreplaceable
Irreplaceable began life as a country-style song: Ne-Yo wrote it from a man's point of view, with singers like Shania Twain in mind.
Q 29Which Black Eyed Peas song replaced the group's own Boom Boom Pow at number one in 2009?
I Gotta Feeling
I Gotta Feeling stayed on top for 14 weeks, so with Boom Boom Pow, Billboard's top single of 2009, the group held number one for 26 weeks in a row.
Q 30Which singer's debut solo single Tik Tok was Billboard's top Hot 100 song of 2010?
Kesha
Kesha's Tik Tok spent nine weeks on top as the first Hot 100 chart-topper of the 2010s, and it was the best-selling single worldwide in 2010.