The Supremes Trivia
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50 free The Supremes trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Supremes trivia quiz covers the three girls from Detroit's Brewster-Douglass projects who became the most successful American vocal group of all time. The easy questions are the ones every Motown fan knows: the lead singer who went solo in 1970, the label boss who signed them, the songwriting team behind their hits and the number of Billboard number ones they racked up. From there it moves through the Primettes years, the run of five straight chart-toppers, the Copacabana and Ed Sullivan appearances, and the switch to Diana Ross & the Supremes. The harder end is for the collectors: the name Berry Gordy nearly gave the group instead, the single that finally knocked Hey Jude off number one, why the group's final number one had none of the other Supremes on it, the boxer whose sister replaced Ross, the album that beat Revolver, the test oscillator mistaken for a Moog, and how much money each Supreme received in January 1965. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for the group, its members and its singles before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Nothing here quotes a lyric; if you want the words, sing along to the records. If you enjoy this one, try our Motown, Diana Ross and 1960s music quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Under what name did the Supremes form in Detroit in 1959?
The Primettes
The Primettes. A local manager put them together as the sister act to his male group, the Primes, and gave the girls a matching name.
Q 02How many Billboard Hot 100 number one singles did the Supremes have?
12
12. Every one of them came between 1964 and 1969, after a start so slow that the group's first six singles all missed the Top 40.
Q 03In which Detroit public housing project did the future Supremes grow up as neighbours?
Brewster-Douglass
Brewster-Douglass. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt came to its ground-breaking in 1935, when it was Detroit's first public housing built for Black families.
Q 04Which member of the group chose the name 'the Supremes' from Berry Gordy's list?
Florence Ballard
Rejected alternatives on the list included the Darleens, the Sweet Ps, the Melodees and the Jewelettes.
Q 05Which Motown star did Diana Ross ask to arrange the group's audition for Berry Gordy in 1960?
Smokey Robinson
Smokey Robinson. Ross's old neighbour got them in front of Gordy, but he liked their guitarist, Marv Tarplin, even more and hired him away for his own group, the Miracles.
Q 06Why did Berry Gordy send the future Supremes away after their first Motown audition?
They were too young and inexperienced
They were too young and inexperienced. Gordy told the schoolgirls to finish high school first, so they hung around his studio after class until he gave in and signed them in January 1961.
Q 07Which founding member of the Supremes left in 1960 and was replaced by Barbara Martin?
Betty McGlown
Betty McGlown. Her exit, and her replacement's own two years later, turned the original quartet into the famous trio that had all the big hits.
Q 08The 'no-hit Supremes' sang backing vocals on Can I Get a Witness, a 1963 hit for which singer?
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye. With no hits of their own yet, the trio earned their keep at the studio by clapping hands and singing backup on other Motown artists' records.
Q 09On which Motown subsidiary label were the Supremes' first two singles released?
Tamla
Tamla. Both singles flopped, so in 1962 the group was switched to the Motown label itself, where every one of its hits came out.
Q 10Which songwriting and production team wrote most of the Supremes' number one hits?
Holland-Dozier-Holland
Holland-Dozier-Holland. Lamont Dozier and the brothers Brian and Eddie Holland wrote most of them, then walked out of Motown in 1968 in a fight over royalties and set up labels of their own.
Q 11What was the Supremes' first number one, in August 1964?
Where Did Our Love Go
Where Did Our Love Go. The trio disliked the song and had to be talked into recording it, then watched it climb to the top while they toured at the bottom of the bill on Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars.
Q 12Which Motown girl group, per Mary Wilson, turned down the song that became the Supremes' first number one?
The Marvelettes
The Marvelettes. The backing track had been cut in a lower key than Diana Ross was used to, which is why she sings the hit in such a low, breathy voice.
Q 13Which single completed the Supremes' run of five straight number ones?
Back in My Arms Again
Q 21The Supremes A' Go-Go knocked which Beatles album off the top of the Billboard 200 in October 1966?
Revolver
Revolver. It had been on top for six weeks when the Supremes knocked it off with an album filled out by covers of other acts' hits, from the Four Tops to Nancy Sinatra.
Q 22Before The Supremes Sing Country, Western and Pop, which soul star's country covers album reached US number one?
Ray Charles
Ray Charles. His Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music knocked the West Side Story soundtrack off number one, while the Supremes' own country set stalled at number 79.
Q 23Which New York supper club did Berry Gordy book the Supremes into to broaden their audience?
The Copacabana
Back in My Arms Again. It was their fifth chart-topper in under a year, and the streak died with the very next single, which stalled at number 11.
Q 14Which Supremes single was the group's only one to top the UK chart as well as the US chart?
Baby Love
Baby Love. Berry Gordy wanted a carbon copy of the hit before it, so the producers reused the same cooing vocal and even the same foot-stomping for the beat.
Q 15Come See About Me opens with which then-novel studio technique?
A fade-in
It topped the chart twice, non-consecutively, swapping places with the Beatles' I Feel Fine.
Q 16The Supremes unveiled their traffic-cop 'stop' hand routine on a 1965 British TV special hosted by which singer?
Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield. A champion of Motown who covered its songs herself, she hosted the special to sell the label's acts, the Supremes among them, to British audiences.
Q 17Which 1965 single's number 11 peak prompted Berry Gordy's memo that the Supremes would 'only release number-one records'?
Nothing but Heartaches
Nothing but Heartaches. It ended a run of five straight chart-toppers, and its writers answered the memo with I Hear a Symphony, which put the group straight back at number one.
Q 18Phil Collins had a UK number one with his cover of which Supremes hit?
You Can't Hurry Love
You Can't Hurry Love. Its writers had lifted the idea from a 1950s gospel number by Dorothy Love Coates, (You Can't Hurry God) He's Right on Time.
Q 19Which British singer took You Keep Me Hangin' On back to number one in the US in 1987?
Kim Wilde
Kim Wilde. Her dance remake stalled at number two at home in Britain but went all the way in America, where it was the only chart-topper of her career.
Q 20The signature guitar riff of You Keep Me Hangin' On was inspired by what?
A Morse-code-style radio news sting
A Morse-code-style radio news sting. By his own account, one of the song's writers heard the stuttering signal that came before news flashes and turned it into a guitar line for a tougher, rockier Supremes single.
The Copacabana. Their debut there in July 1965 was taped for a live album and went over so well that Motown began booking its other stars into the club.
Q 24Which programme hosted Diana Ross's TV farewell as a Supreme?
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show. The trio had appeared on it more than a dozen times since 1964, and it was there that they sang Someday We'll Be Together, weeks after Motown announced that Ross was leaving the group.
Q 25Which unusual product did the Supremes endorse with their own brand in the mid-1960s?
Bread
Bread. A loaf sold as Supremes white bread carried the trio's faces on its wrapper, one of dozens of products the group put its name to at its peak.
Q 26Who ran Motown's finishing school that readied the Supremes for 'kings and queens'?
Maxine Powell
Maxine Powell. She taught Motown's young singers how to walk, talk and carry themselves, because Berry Gordy wanted acts that would win over white audiences as well as Black ones.
Q 27After Diana Ross won top billing over the Supremes in 1967, which Motown singer demanded the same in his own group?
David Ruffin
David Ruffin. Motown refused to put his name in front of the group's, the rows that followed soured everything, and after he missed a show his bandmates fired him.
Q 28Cindy Birdsong was recruited from which group in 1967?
Patti LaBelle & the Blue Belles
That group's lawyers filed an injunction after her Hollywood Bowl debut, so Gordy had to buy out her contract.
Q 29At which Las Vegas hotel was the group's founding member dismissed on 1 July 1967?
The Flamingo
She had performed inebriated after discovering an extra set of gowns brought along for her replacement.
Q 30With which Motown group did Diana Ross & the Supremes record the 1968 hit duet I'm Gonna Make You Love Me?
The Temptations
The Temptations. The duet reached number two, and the pairing also produced joint albums and two television specials; the Supremes had begun as the sister act to a forerunner of the Temptations.