1970s One-Hit Wonders Trivia
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68 free 1970s One-Hit Wonders trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This 1970s one-hit wonders trivia quiz is about the songs everyone still knows by acts almost nobody can name. It runs from Norman Greenbaum and Shocking Blue at the start of the decade, through Looking Glass, Carl Douglas, Paper Lace and Starland Vocal Band, to the Knack, the Buggles and Rupert Holmes as the seventies ran out. Most questions ask you to match the hit to the artist, but there are plenty on the stories behind the records too: the disco novelty written by a Memphis DJ, the number one inspired by a happy-hour menu, the British chart-topper that featured a mother and son, and the song about a mine cave-in that radio stations tried to ban. If you want the broader picture, BrainPickle's one-hit wonders quiz covers every decade; this one stays in the seventies. Every answer is checked against the Wikipedia article for the song, and each question carries a citation. No lyrics are quoted, so it is safe to use as a pub quiz round.
30 of 68 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who had a worldwide 1974 number one with 'Kung Fu Fighting'?
Carl Douglas
Carl Douglas cut 'Kung Fu Fighting' in two hurried takes as a throwaway B-side; the label flipped the single, and it topped the UK and US charts.
Q 02Who wrote and recorded 'Spirit in the Sky', a 1970 US hit that later topped the UK chart?
Norman Greenbaum
Norman Greenbaum, who is Jewish, wrote 'Spirit in the Sky' after watching Porter Wagoner sing a gospel song on TV and deciding he could write one too; it was a UK number one in 1970.
Q 03Which band took 'Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)' to number one in the US in 1972?
Looking Glass
Looking Glass had such a hit with 'Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)' that Barry Manilow's 1974 cover of another song called 'Brandy' was retitled 'Mandy' to avoid confusion.
Q 04'Play That Funky Music' (1976) was the only Top 40 hit for which Ohio band?
Wild Cherry
Wild Cherry was a hard-rock covers band until a patron at a mostly Black club asked whether the 'white boys' would play some funky music; Rob Parissi wrote the hit from that line.
Q 05Which Canadian singer had a worldwide hit in 1974 with 'Seasons in the Sun'?
Terry Jacks
Terry Jacks, from Winnipeg, built his version on the Kingston Trio's English recording but wrote a new last verse; 'Seasons in the Sun' then topped the US and UK charts.
Q 06'Seasons in the Sun' adapts 'Le Moribond', a 1961 song by which singer-songwriter?
Jacques Brel
Jacques Brel's 'Le Moribond' has a dying man bid farewell to his unfaithful wife and her lover; the 1974 hit version replaced that verse with a gentler goodbye.
Q 07'The Night Chicago Died', a US number one in 1974, was recorded by which British group?
Paper Lace
Paper Lace's writers Mitch Murray and Peter Callander had never been to Chicago; they took the song's 'East Side' from gangster films, though that term belongs to New York.
Q 08Which American act took 'Billy Don't Be a Hero' to number one in the US in 1974?
Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods
Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods, from Cincinnati, took 'Billy Don't Be a Hero' to number one in the US in June 1974, beating the original British version, which had topped the UK chart earlier that year.
Q 09Which 1976 number one took its title from a Washington restaurant's happy-hour menu?
Afternoon Delight
Afternoon Delight: Starland Vocal Band's Bill Danoff took the name from the appetizer list at Clyde's in Washington, and the hit won the band a 1977 CBS summer show with a young David Letterman in the cast.
Q 10Starland Vocal Band beat which band, whose 1976 debut is among the best-selling debuts ever, to Best New Artist?
Boston
Boston's Tom Scholz, a Polaroid engineer, taped most of the 1976 debut in his basement; it has sold over 17 million copies in the US, yet Starland Vocal Band took Best New Artist.
Q 11Ram Jam's 1977 hit 'Black Betty' reworked a work song usually credited to which bluesman?
Lead Belly
Lead Belly popularised 'Black Betty' with his 1939 a cappella recording; when Ram Jam's rock version appeared, civil-rights groups called for a boycott over its lyrics, yet it still reached the US top 20.
Q 12'Hooked on a Feeling', the 1974 'ooga chaka' number one, was recorded by a group from which country?
Sweden
Sweden: Blue Swede, fronted by Björn Skifs, topped the US chart with the song in April 1974, three years before ABBA managed their only American number one.
Q 13The 1974 'Hooked on a Feeling' took its 'ooga chaka' chant from which Genesis discoverer's 1971 cover?
Jonathan King
Q 21Which 1979 US number one did Englishman Robin Scott release under the one-letter name M?
Pop Muzik
Pop Muzik: Robin Scott wrote, produced and sang it as M; the single stalled at number two at home in Britain, then went one better in America that November.
Q 22Which band's singer Ray Dorset wrote their 1970 hit 'In the Summertime' while working in a Timex lab?
Mungo Jerry
Mungo Jerry: Ray Dorset's song ran only about two minutes on tape, so the producer played it twice and spliced in the sound of the engineer's sports car driving past.
Q 23'Wildfire', a 1975 US top three hit about a girl and her lost horse, was recorded by which singer?
Michael Martin Murphey
Jonathan King added the 'ooga chaka' chant to his 1971 cover, a UK top-30 hit; he said the idea was to use a reggae rhythm in an unusual way, and the 1974 number one borrowed it.
Q 14Which group's 'Rapper's Delight' was the first rap record to reach the US Top 40?
The Sugarhill Gang
The Sugarhill Gang rapped over the groove of Chic's 'Good Times'; Chic's Nile Rodgers first heard the record in a club and threatened to sue, and he and Bernard Edwards ended up with the writing credits.
Q 15Which band's debut single 'My Sharona' spent six weeks at US number one in 1979?
The Knack
The Knack's Doug Fieger co-wrote 'My Sharona' about Sharona Alperin, later a Los Angeles real estate agent. He also liked 'Weird Al' Yankovic's parody 'My Bologna' and helped persuade Capitol to release it.
Q 16The Buggles' 'Video Killed the Radio Star' made history in 1981 as what?
The first thing MTV ever aired
The first thing MTV ever aired: 'Video Killed the Radio Star' had stalled at number 40 in the US in 1979, yet MTV chose its video to open the channel on 1 August 1981.
Q 17Which producer, later behind Frankie Goes to Hollywood, was in The Buggles with Geoff Downes?
Trevor Horn
Trevor Horn formed the Buggles with Geoff Downes; after 'Video Killed the Radio Star' topped the UK chart in 1979, both briefly joined Yes, and Horn went on to produce Frankie Goes to Hollywood's 'Relax'.
Q 18'Popcorn', a 1972 worldwide hit for Hot Butter, was originally composed in 1969 for which electronic instrument?
The Moog synthesizer
The Moog synthesizer: Gershon Kingsley wrote 'Popcorn' for his 1969 album 'Music to Moog By'; Stan Free, who had played it live in Kingsley's Moog quartet, re-recorded it as Hot Butter for a US top-ten hit.
Q 19Which trucker anthem was credited to C. W. McCall, a character from a bread commercial?
Convoy
Convoy: Omaha adman Bill Fries invented trucker C. W. McCall to sell Old Home Bread, then voiced him on record; the CB-radio hit topped the US pop and country charts and inspired a 1978 Sam Peckinpah film.
Q 20Which 1979 disco number one, written for an eleven-year-old, went to Anita Ward instead?
Ring My Bell
Ring My Bell: Frederick Knight wrote it for 11-year-old Stacy Lattisaw, but she signed elsewhere, so he rewrote the lyric for Anita Ward, who had doubts about the song and still took it to US number one.
Michael Martin Murphey said 'Wildfire' came to him whole in a dream, drawn from a ghost-horse story his grandfather told him as a boy; it reached number three in the US in 1975.
Q 24Pilot, the 'Magic' band formed by two ex-Bay City Rollers, came from which Scottish city?
Edinburgh
Edinburgh: Pilot's 'Magic' was produced by Alan Parsons, and when the band wound down, three of its members joined his next venture, the Alan Parsons Project.
Q 25Which 1974 hit sounds like a song about infidelity but was really about a bassist moonlighting with another band?
How Long
How Long: Paul Carrack wrote it after Ace found bassist Terry Comer had been quietly playing with the Sutherland Brothers and Quiver; Comer came back in time to play on the record.
Q 26King Harvest's 1972 hit 'Dancing in the Moonlight' was covered in 2000 by which English band?
Toploader
Toploader's 2000 cover of 'Dancing in the Moonlight' reached the UK top ten; writer Sherman Kelly composed the song while recovering from a gang assault in St. Croix, imagining a peaceful celebration instead.
Q 27Which future 'Piña Colada Song' star wrote 'Timothy', the Buoys' 1971 hit about a cannibalism-tinged mine cave-in?
Rupert Holmes
Rupert Holmes wrote 'Timothy' hoping a radio ban would generate publicity for the Buoys; many stations did refuse it, yet it reached number 17 in the US in 1971, eight years before his own 'Escape (The Piña Colada Song)'.
Q 28Shocking Blue, whose 'Venus' topped the US chart in February 1970, came from which country?
Netherlands
Netherlands: Shocking Blue's songwriter miswrote 'goddess' on the English lyric sheet, and singer Mariska Veres, not yet fluent, sang the slip as written on the record that topped the US chart.
Q 29Shocking Blue's 'Venus' is based on 'The Banjo Song', a reworking of which Stephen Foster song?
Oh! Susanna
Oh! Susanna: 'The Banjo Song', recorded by the Big 3 in 1963, set Stephen Foster's 'Oh! Susanna' lyrics to a new melody, and Shocking Blue's Robbie van Leeuwen lifted that tune for 'Venus'.
Q 30Les Emmerson wrote 'Signs' after being annoyed by billboards blocking the scenery on which highway?
Route 66
Route 66: Les Emmerson wrote 'Signs' after billboards along Route 66 spoiled a drive to California; first buried as a B-side, it was reissued in 1971, reached the US top five and was covered by Tesla in 1990.