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70 free 1980s One-Hit Wonders trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This 1980s one-hit wonders trivia quiz covers the decade when MTV could turn an unknown band into a chart-topper overnight and then forget them just as fast. It runs from Lipps Inc. and Gary Numan in 1980, through Dexys Midnight Runners, Soft Cell, Nena, Falco and Men Without Hats, to Martika, Young MC and Bobby McFerrin at the end of the decade. Most questions ask you to match the hit to the act, but many dig into the stories behind the records: the German number one about balloons drifting over the Berlin Wall, the Chicago house record that changed the UK chart rules, the a cappella song that knocked Guns N' Roses off number one, and the school choir that beat John Lennon to a Christmas number one. Both the American and British definitions of a one-hit wonder are used, so a few acts here had other hits at home. If you want the broader picture, BrainPickle's one-hit wonders quiz covers every decade; this one stays in the eighties. 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.
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Q 01Which group recorded 'Come On Eileen', Britain's best-selling single of 1982?
Dexys Midnight Runners
It was their second UK number one after 'Geno', but their only American hit; it won Best British Single at the 1983 Brits.
Q 02Soft Cell's 1981 smash 'Tainted Love' was a cover of a 1964 recording by which soul singer?
Gloria Jones
Jones's B-side flopped in 1965 but became a Northern soul favourite in Britain, which is how Marc Almond heard it.
Q 03Soft Cell's 12-inch version of their 1981 hit segues halfway through into a cover of which Supremes song?
Where Did Our Love Go
Almond later lamented that putting an original song there instead would have made the duo considerably richer.
Q 04Balloons released at whose 1982 West Berlin concert inspired '99 Luftballons'?
The Rolling Stones
He wondered what would happen if they drifted over the Berlin Wall; in the US the German original charted while the English '99 Red Balloons' did not.
Q 05Which is the only German-language song ever to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100?
Rock Me Amadeus
Falco's song about Mozart's fame and debts was inspired by the film Amadeus; the US album carried an eight-minute 'Salieri Mix'.
Q 06Which British band took an English cover of Falco's 'Der Kommissar' into the US top five?
After the Fire
Falco had wanted 'Helden von heute' as the A-side because the hook sounded too much like Rick James's 'Super Freak'.
Q 07The Vapors' managers were Bruce Foxton, bassist of which band, and John Weller, father of its frontman?
The Jam
Writer David Fenton said the chorus came to him at 4 a.m. and that the words did not really mean much.
Q 08Toni Basil's 'Mickey' was originally recorded by the British band Racey under what title?
Kitty
Basil, a choreographer who had worked on the Monkees' film Head, denied the long-running rumour that she renamed it for Micky Dolenz.
Q 09Ivan Doroschuk wrote 'The Safety Dance' after being thrown out of a club for doing what?
Pogo dancing
The Canadian band's single peaked higher in the US (number three) than at home (number eleven).
Q 10Who wrote 'Puttin' On the Ritz', a 1983 synth-pop hit for Taco, back in the 1920s?
Irving Berlin
The Indonesian-born Dutch singer's original video included blackface characters and has since been banned by many networks.
Q 11Which British TV scientist shouts 'Science!' on Thomas Dolby's 'She Blinded Me with Science'?
Magnus Pyke
The video was storyboarded before the song existed; Dolby wrote the song to fit it, then directed it himself.
Q 12Tommy Tutone's 1982 hit '867-5309' started a nationwide fad for doing what?
Prank-calling it and asking for Jenny
The band members told conflicting stories about who Jenny was, but all agreed the number came off a bathroom wall.
Q 13Matthew Wilder's 1983 hit 'Break My Stride' was later interpolated in which 1997 Puff Daddy single?
Can't Nobody Hold Me Down
Q 21'In a Big Country' (1983), famous for guitars that sound like bagpipes, was by a band from which country?
Scotland
The video, filmed partly at the derelict Corfe Castle railway station, has the band chasing treasure on three-wheelers.
Q 22The Dream Academy's 1985 hit 'Life in a Northern Town' was co-produced by which Pink Floyd guitarist?
David Gilmour
The song is about the collapse of the British shipping industry and was written as 'a folk song with an African-style chorus'.
Q 23Peter Schilling's 1983 hit 'Major Tom (Coming Home)' continues the story from which David Bowie song?
Space Oddity
It is one of the few Neue Deutsche Welle records that crossed over into English-speaking pop culture.
Wilder wrote it about his frustrating time at Arista, whose boss Clive Davis dropped him without hearing a hit in it.
Q 14Rockwell's 1984 hit 'Somebody's Watching Me' has uncredited chorus vocals by which superstar?
Michael Jackson
Rockwell is the son of Motown boss Berry Gordy, who was unimpressed by his music until he heard that familiar voice on the chorus.
Q 15Timbuk 3's 'The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades' was written as an ironic song about whom?
A young nuclear scientist
His wife had said the line in earnest about their improving prospects; he heard it as a quip and wrote it down.
Q 16'Voices Carry', the 1985 hit by 'Til Tuesday, was written and sung by which future solo artist?
Aimee Mann
Epic Records pressured the band to change the lyric's addressee from a woman to a man before it was recorded.
Q 17Martika's 1989 US number one 'Toy Soldiers' was written about a friend struggling with what?
Cocaine addiction
Eminem built his 2005 single 'Like Toy Soldiers' around a sped-up sample of Martika's chorus.
Q 18Bobby McFerrin's 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' was the first US number one of what kind in 1988?
A cappella
It knocked Guns N' Roses' 'Sweet Child o' Mine' off the top and swept Song and Record of the Year at the Grammys.
Q 19Eddy Grant's 'Electric Avenue' is named after a street in which London district, hit by 1981 riots?
Brixton
Grant wrote it in anger after the riots, then moved to Barbados and lost most of his new songs in transit.
Q 20In Musical Youth's 1982 hit 'Pass the Dutchie', a 'dutchie' is Jamaican patois for what?
A Dutch oven cooking pot
The Birmingham schoolboys sold over five million copies and topped the chart in at least nine countries.
Q 24Animotion's 'Obsession' was first recorded by writers Holly Knight and which former Silverhead singer?
Michael Des Barres
Animotion's version became the theme for WWF's Saturday Night's Main Event and later turned up on the radio in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
Q 25Eddie Murphy's 1985 hit 'Party All the Time' was written and produced by which funk star?
Rick James
Richard Pryor bet Murphy $100,000 he could not make an album without jokes; Murphy says Pryor never paid up.
Q 26Which Red Hot Chili Peppers member played bass on Young MC's 1989 Grammy-winning hit 'Bust a Move'?
Flea
The song spent 39 weeks on the Hot 100 and won the 1990 Grammy for Best Rap Performance.
Q 27Lipps Inc.'s 1980 hit "Funkytown" was written by members dreaming of leaving which city for New York?
Minneapolis
It went to number one in at least eight countries and sold over eight million copies.
Q 28'Cars' (1979) was the first single released under whose own name after he dropped the band name Tubeway Army?
Gary Numan
He has since called it 'a pretty average song', though it remains his only major American hit.
Q 29Which disc jockey's push on Southeastern US radio made Devo's 'Whip It' a hit in 1980?
Kal Rudman
Warner Bros. had bet on 'Girl U Want' as the single because it sounded like 'My Sharona'; it flopped.
Q 30Which former 1950s teen idol co-wrote his teenage daughter's 1981 UK number two 'Kids in America' with his son Ricky?
Marty Wilde
It reached number one in Finland and South Africa and has sold over three million copies.