The Byrds
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50 free The Byrds trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
For a couple of years in the mid-1960s the Byrds were America's most convincing reply to the British Invasion. A chiming twelve-string guitar, close harmonies and a knack for electrifying other people's songs took them to the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Then they kept changing: into psychedelia, into country, and through more line-ups than most fans can list. This quiz follows the whole story. It covers the founders and the musicians who came after them, the hit singles and what lay behind them, the albums from the 1965 debut to the 1973 reunion, the sackings and walk-outs, and the session players, producers and famous friends in the background. It also looks at where the members went next and at the artists who borrowed the Byrds' sound. It works for a trivia night as well as for a solo player. The early questions are ones most classic rock fans can reason out, and the later ones reward people who know the deeper catalogue. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you leave with the story as well as the score.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The words of the Byrds' number one "Turn! Turn! Turn!" come almost entirely from which book of the Bible?
Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes supplied nearly every word, which is why the single is often called the US number one with the oldest lyrics. Only the title refrain and the last two lines were newly written.
Q 02Which songwriter wrote "Mr. Tambourine Man", the Byrds' debut single and first number one?
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan had not yet released the song when the Byrds' manager got hold of an acetate of it in 1964. He later dropped in on a rehearsal to hear their electric version and gave it his blessing.
Q 03Gene Clark quit the Byrds in 1966 after a panic attack made him refuse to do what?
Board a plane
Board a plane: Clark, who had witnessed a fatal air crash as a boy, got off a New York-bound flight, and McGuinn told him that a Byrd had to be able to fly.
Q 04Which 1966 Byrds single was banned by many US radio stations for alleged drug references in its lyrics?
Eight Miles High
Eight Miles High was blacklisted after a trade journal claimed it promoted drugs. The band insisted it described their flight to London and the English tour that followed.
Q 05Which 1968 Byrds album, made with newcomer Gram Parsons, is hailed as a landmark of country rock?
Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Sweetheart of the Rodeo swapped psychedelia for pedal steel and country standards, which lost the band hippie fans and angered Nashville's old guard. It stalled at number 77 on release.
Q 06Which made-for-TV band inspired the Byrds' sarcastic single "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star"?
The Monkees
The Monkees had shot to fame through their TV series only months earlier, and McGuinn and Hillman's song poked fun at how such pop stars were manufactured.
Q 07Which 1969 counterculture road film features the Byrds' "Wasn't Born to Follow" on its soundtrack?
Easy Rider
Easy Rider star and producer Peter Fonda asked for the track himself, and McGuinn went on to write and sing the film's theme song as well.
Q 08Byrds drummer Michael Clarke was reportedly hired for his resemblance to which member of the Rolling Stones?
Brian Jones
Brian Jones's hairstyle was the look the band wanted, and Clarke had it. His musical experience at the time amounted to playing congas around San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Q 09Which singer's rival version of "All I Really Want to Do" beat the Byrds' single on the US chart in 1965?
Cher
Cher reached number 15 in America while the Byrds stalled at 40, even though their label rushed the single out to bury hers. In Britain the result was reversed: the Byrds made number 4.
Q 10On the cover of The Notorious Byrd Brothers, which animal was rumoured to stand in for the sacked David Crosby?
A horse
A horse on the album's cover was taken by some fans as an unkind stand-in for Crosby, who had been fired during the sessions. McGuinn and Hillman have both denied that was the idea.
Q 11Roger McGuinn of the Byrds bought his twelve-string Rickenbacker after watching which Beatle play one?
Harrison
Harrison's chiming twelve-string caught McGuinn's ear, and in the studio he had his own heavily compressed to get an even brighter, longer-sustaining tone.
Q 12Byrds frontman Roger McGuinn was known by which first name until he changed it in 1967?
Jim
Jim was short for James Joseph McGuinn III. His spiritual teacher asked for new names beginning with R and picked Roger from a list that also offered Rocket and Ramjet.
Q 13After the Byrds fired David Crosby, which pair joined him in a supergroup named after its members?
Stills and Nash
Stills and Nash came from hit bands of their own when they teamed up with Crosby in 1968. A year later the group, by then joined by Neil Young, played Woodstock.
Q 21The Byrds settled on their deliberately misspelled name over which holiday dinner in 1964?
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving 1964 fell two weeks after the band signed to Columbia. The new name kept the theme of flight and copied the Beatles' trick of a deliberate misspelling.
Q 22Which jazz trumpeter's recommendation helped the Byrds win their Columbia Records contract in 1964?
Miles Davis
Miles Davis put in a helpful word through a contact of the band's manager, and the then-unknown group signed with the label on November 10, 1964.
Q 23David Crosby, newly out of the Byrds in 1967, bought which kind of boat that he later called his muse?
A schooner
Q 14Which rocker covered the Byrds' "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" on his 1989 album Full Moon Fever?
Tom Petty
Tom Petty tipped his hat to the band that shaped his sound by recording the song for his first solo album. His version reached number 18 on the US rock chart.
Q 15Which band's 1972 hit version of "Jesus Is Just Alright" borrowed heavily from the Byrds' 1969 arrangement?
The Doobie Brothers
The Doobie Brothers took the gospel song into the US Top 40 three years after the Byrds' own single had stalled at number 97, keeping much of the older band's arrangement.
Q 16Critics hear the Byrds in which Beatles album, home to "Nowhere Man" and "If I Needed Someone"?
Rubber Soul
Rubber Soul's "If I Needed Someone" rides a guitar riff much like the one in the Byrds' cover of "The Bells of Rhymney". The Beatles had named the Byrds their favourite American group.
Q 17Which folk singer set the biblical words of "Turn! Turn! Turn!" to music before the Byrds made it a hit?
Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger wrote the melody, the title refrain and the closing lines. The song was first released in 1962 by the Limeliters, a folk group McGuinn was backing at the time.
Q 18Gram Parsons quit the Byrds in 1968 rather than tour which country, objecting to its racial segregation?
South Africa
South Africa was two days away when Parsons walked out in London. The others went, found themselves playing to segregated audiences despite promoters' assurances, and left amid death threats.
Q 19Under which name did McGuinn, Clark and Crosby perform as a trio in 1964 before becoming the Byrds?
The Jet Set
The Jet Set was a nod to McGuinn's love of aeronautics. The band kept the theme of flight when they renamed themselves later that year.
Q 20Which genre label did the American music press coin in June 1965 to describe the sound of the Byrds?
Folk rock
Folk rock entered the vocabulary just as "Mr. Tambourine Man" reached number one. The single set off a boom of Byrds-influenced acts on the American and British charts through 1966.
A schooner named Mayan, 59 feet long, was the boat Crosby chose. He wrote "Wooden Ships" and several of his other best-known songs aboard it.
Q 24At which 1967 festival did David Crosby's onstage speeches about politics and LSD infuriate the other Byrds?
Monterey Pop
Monterey Pop crowds heard Crosby hold forth on the Kennedy assassination and the merits of giving LSD to politicians. Four months later he was out of the band.
Q 25Which jazz saxophonist's free-form solos did the Byrds' Roger McGuinn try to copy on guitar in 1966?
John Coltrane
John Coltrane's albums were on constant rotation on the Byrds' tour bus, alongside tapes of Ravi Shankar, and both fed the band's leap into psychedelia.
Q 26Which country music institution's crowd heckled the Byrds in 1968 as its first long-haired rock act?
Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry regulars greeted the band with boos and mocking bird calls, and Gram Parsons then broke with the agreed set list to sing a song of his own.
Q 27Which country rock band did Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons form after both left the Byrds in 1968?
The Flying Burrito Brothers
The Flying Burrito Brothers brought the two men back together within months of their separate exits, and former Byrds drummer Michael Clarke later joined them too.
Q 28David Crosby annoyed his fellow Byrds in 1967 by performing with which rival group in place of Neil Young?
Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield were a man short for a major June festival, and Crosby's guest spot with them, on top of his own behaviour that day, soured relations with McGuinn and Hillman.
Q 29Which accessory worn by the Byrds' Roger McGuinn in 1965 became a fashion among American hippies?
Granny glasses
Granny glasses with rectangular lenses were McGuinn's trademark, worn alongside David Crosby's green suede cape. The band's casual clothes stood out when most groups still dressed alike.
Q 30Which nickname is given to the Los Angeles session players who backed McGuinn on the Byrds' debut single?
The Wrecking Crew
The Wrecking Crew were hired because the producer doubted the new band could deliver a perfect take in the studio time available. Only McGuinn played, while he, Crosby and Clark sang.