50s Music Trivia
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192 free 50s Music trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
67 free 50s Music trivia questions with answers. The 1950s is the decade rock and roll was born, and this quiz covers the whole story: Sam Phillips's Sun Records in Memphis, Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show, Chuck Berry walking into Chess Records, Little Richard quitting for the ministry, and the night the music died in an Iowa cornfield. It also makes room for the grown-ups of the era, from Sinatra's Capitol albums to Patsy Cline and the very first Grammy Awards. The questions run from easy (where Elvis was born, what film made 'Rock Around the Clock' a hit) to genuinely tough (who engineered the Million Dollar Quartet tape, which newspaper named it, what the Rate-a-Record scale topped out at). Expect chart firsts, label deals, real names and the odd satellite. It works as a music round for a pub quiz, a nostalgia night with parents or grandparents, or a solo test of how well you know the decade. Every answer was verified against primary sources such as Wikipedia and official archives, and the citation sits under each explanation.
30 of 192 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who sang 'Poor Little Fool', the first song ever to top the Billboard Hot 100?
Ricky Nelson
Ricky Nelson opposed pulling the song off his EP as a single, so he used his contractual veto over cover art and it shipped without a picture sleeve.
Q 02Which future Sire Records founder, who later signed Madonna, helped create Billboard's Hot 100 as a teenager?
Seymour Stein
Seymour Stein was 16: on late review nights Billboard put him up in a nearby hotel so he could take the subway to his Brooklyn high school the next morning.
Q 03Until 1957, Billboard ran a pop chart counting plays in what?
Jukeboxes
Jukeboxes mattered because many radio stations resisted rock and roll, so coin-in-the-slot plays showed what young listeners really chose; the chart ended in 1957.
Q 04Which song won Record of the Year at the very first Grammy Awards, held in May 1959?
Volare
'Volare' had finished only third at the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest, yet Domenico Modugno's record went on to top the US chart for five weeks.
Q 05Music from which TV detective series won Henry Mancini the first-ever Album of the Year Grammy?
Peter Gunn
Peter Gunn's theme owed more to rock and roll than to jazz, Mancini said: one chord throughout, with guitar and piano pounding out the same riff in unison.
Q 06Which instrumental by the Champs won the first Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Performance?
Tequila
'Tequila' was a throwaway, the last tune jammed at the session and tucked on a B-side, until a disc jockey flipped the record and it shot to number one.
Q 07Berry Gordy founded the label that became Motown in January 1959 under what original name?
Tamla Records
Tamla Records was Gordy's second choice: he wanted to name the label after a hit film song of the day, but found that name was already taken.
Q 08How much did Berry Gordy borrow from a family savings cooperative to start his label in 1959?
$800
$800 from the Gordy family's savings club was all it took, and it was Smokey Robinson, leader of the Miracles, who encouraged him to start a label of his own.
Q 09What was Berry Gordy's 1959 Detroit recording studio on West Grand Boulevard nicknamed?
Hitsville U.S.A.
Hitsville U.S.A. was a converted photography studio: the Gordys lived upstairs, and the studio below stayed open 22 hours a day.
Q 10Before founding Motown, Berry Gordy co-wrote 'Reet Petite' and 'Lonely Teardrops' for which Detroit singer?
Jackie Wilson
Jackie Wilson's manager fell out with Gordy over royalties in 1958, so Gordy stopped writing for him and put his song earnings into producing records himself.
Q 11Bandstand was broadcast from which city from its 1952 debut until it moved to Los Angeles in 1964?
Philadelphia
Philadelphia's own Cameo-Parkway label rode the show's exposure to a run of hits, and its influence faded once Bandstand left for California.
Q 12Which slow line dance, popularized by teenagers on American Bandstand, shares its name with a Diamonds hit?
The Stroll
The Stroll came first as a dance: Dick Clark watched couples file between two facing lines on his show and suggested someone write a song to fit it.
Q 13Pop singer Annette Funicello found fame on which 1950s children's TV show?
Mickey Mouse Club
The Mickey Mouse Club found her at a dance recital: Walt Disney, scouting for his new show, saw the 12-year-old dance the lead in Swan Lake, and her hit records followed.
Q 21Which song was Elvis Presley's first RCA Victor single and, in 1956, his first pop number one?
Heartbreak Hotel
'Heartbreak Hotel' came with a deal: co-writer Mae Boren Axton offered Elvis a third of the royalties if he made it his first single for his new label.
Q 22Which actor hosted Elvis Presley's first Ed Sullivan Show appearance in 1956 while Sullivan recovered from a car crash?
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton filled in for a host who had vowed never to have Elvis on his show, then paid an unprecedented $50,000 for three appearances.
Q 23On The Steve Allen Show in 1956, Elvis Presley was made to sing to what animal dressed in a top hat?
A basset hound
Q 14In which city did Alan Freed stage the 1952 Moondog Coronation Ball, the first major rock and roll concert?
Cleveland
Cleveland's fire authorities shut the show down after the opening act's first song, fearing a riot: more tickets had been printed than the arena had room for.
Q 15Alan Freed was fired by WABC in 1959 after refusing to deny he had taken what?
Payola
Payola, record-company money paid for airplay, finished Freed's career, while Dick Clark sold his shares in music companies and kept his show.
Q 16Which vocal group recorded the 1954 original of 'Sh-Boom'?
The Chords
The Chords' label only reluctantly let them put it on a B-side; it reached the pop top ten, and then the Crew-Cuts, a white Canadian quartet, took a cover to number one.
Q 17Which Los Angeles group recorded the 1954 doo-wop hit 'Earth Angel'?
The Penguins
The Penguins named themselves after Willie the Penguin, the Kool cigarettes mascot, and cut 'Earth Angel' as a rough demo in a Los Angeles garage.
Q 18Which doo-wop group turned the 1934 ballad 'Blue Moon' into a 1961 number one with a nonsense-syllable bass intro?
The Marcels
The Marcels, named after the marcel-wave hairstyle, cut it in just two takes, with an intro their producer lifted from another song to give the old ballad a kick.
Q 19Elvis Presley was born in 1935 in which Mississippi town?
Tupelo
Tupelo is where his father Vernon was jailed for altering a check, which cost the family their home; they moved on to Memphis when Elvis was 13.
Q 20Which manager brokered Elvis Presley's $40,000 move from Sun to RCA Victor?
Colonel Tom Parker
Colonel Tom Parker struck the deal, and because Elvis was still legally a minor at 20, his father had to sign the contract for him.
A basset hound got 'Hound Dog' sung to it because Allen, no fan of rock and roll, wanted a tamer Elvis; Presley called it the most ridiculous performance of his career.
Q 24Which TV host persuaded Elvis Presley to leave his guitar backstage for a June 1956 performance, freeing his hips?
Milton Berle
Milton Berle's advice set Elvis's hips loose on 'Hound Dog', and the ratings and notoriety that followed got him booked on Steve Allen's show within weeks.
Q 25On Elvis Presley's final Ed Sullivan Show appearance, in January 1957, the cameras famously did what?
Shot him only from the waist up
Shot him only from the waist up is true of that final visit alone; the legend that Elvis was always filmed from the waist up is false.
Q 26After being drafted in 1958, Elvis Presley served with the 3rd Armored Division in which country?
West Germany
West Germany is where he served as a regular soldier, having turned down the easier Special Services on his manager's advice, and where he met Priscilla Beaulieu.
Q 27Elvis Presley bought which Memphis mansion in March 1957?
Graceland
Graceland was the answer to the fans crowding his previous Memphis house; the estate already had its name, from Grace Toof, daughter of an earlier owner.
Q 28Which song became Elvis Presley's first single after he started fooling around with it late in a 1954 Sun session?
That's All Right
'That's All Right' was an Arthur Crudup blues that Elvis sped up for fun; days later a Memphis DJ played the acetate over and over and hauled him in for an interview.
Q 29What nickname did a Memphis newspaper give Elvis Presley and fellow Sun stars after an impromptu 1956 jam session?
The Million Dollar Quartet
The Million Dollar Quartet was a Press-Scimitar headline for a fluke: Elvis dropped in on an old labelmate's session at Sun, and the engineer let the tape roll.
Q 30Which Elvis Presley ballad of 1956 set new words to the Civil War tune 'Aura Lea'?
Love Me Tender
'Love Me Tender' drew more than a million advance orders, so the studio dropped its planned title, The Reno Brothers, and renamed the whole film after the song.