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176 free 70s Music trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
90 free 70s Music trivia questions with answers. The 1970s began with the Beatles splitting and ended with the Walkman. In between came disco and Studio 54, punk and the Sex Pistols, Ziggy Stardust, Rumours, Dark Side of the Moon, Songs in the Key of Life, Hotel California and Saturday Night Fever. This quiz covers all of it, plus Kraftwerk, Bob Marley, the Ramones, Carole King, Elton John, Donna Summer, ABBA at Eurovision and the night Chicago blew up a crate of disco records. The early questions are for anyone who has heard 'Stayin' Alive'; the later ones ask how many weeks Dark Side of the Moon spent on the chart, who kept 'God Save the Queen' off number one and what Carole King's cat was called. It works for a themed party, a pub quiz round or a long car ride with someone who was there. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and shows its citation once you have answered.
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Q 01Whose late-1970s hit 'Stayin' Alive' became shorthand for the disco era?
Bee Gees
The Bee Gees wrote and sang it for Saturday Night Fever, the 1977 soundtrack that pushed disco into the global mainstream; its beat is now used to time CPR compressions.
Q 02What is Pink Floyd's influential 1973 album, with a prism refracting light on its cover, called?
The Dark Side of the Moon
The Dark Side of the Moon came out in March 1973 and stayed on the Billboard chart for over 14 years, its prism cover now as famous as the music.
Q 03The epic rock ballad 'Stairway to Heaven' is famously associated with which British band?
Led Zeppelin
'Stairway to Heaven,' released in 1971, is one of Led Zeppelin's most enduring and recognizable songs, often considered a masterpiece of progressive rock.
Q 04Which 1977 Bob Marley and the Wailers album was recorded in London after an assassination attempt in Jamaica?
Exodus
Exodus was recorded in London after Marley survived a December 1976 shooting at his Kingston home; its songs include 'Jamming', 'One Love' and 'Three Little Birds'.
Q 05Which 1971 Marvin Gaye concept album, on war, poverty and the environment, did Motown initially resist releasing?
What's Going On
What's Going On broke from the Motown formula: Gaye produced it himself, singing as a Vietnam veteran coming home to an America of poverty and pollution.
Q 06In what year did Boston release their self-titled debut album featuring 'More Than a Feeling'?
1976
Boston's debut came out in August 1976 and became one of the best-selling debuts in US history, built largely in Tom Scholz's basement studio.
Q 07Which 1975 Led Zeppelin double album mixed new songs with leftovers from earlier sessions?
Physical Graffiti
Physical Graffiti was Zeppelin's first double album, and its die-cut sleeve of a New York tenement, with windows that change, became a design landmark.
Q 08What is Thin Lizzy's 1976 breakthrough album, featuring 'The Boys Are Back in Town', called?
Jailbreak
Jailbreak, Thin Lizzy's sixth album, carried 'The Boys Are Back in Town' to the band's biggest US hit and the 1976 NME award for Best Single.
Q 09What is Joni Mitchell's acclaimed 1971 album featuring 'A Case of You' and 'River' titled?
Blue
Blue, released in June 1971, is Mitchell's fourth album and the benchmark for confessional songwriting; 'River' borrows its opening from 'Jingle Bells'.
Q 10At which ballpark did the 1979 Disco Demolition Night riot take place?
Comiskey Park
Comiskey Park, home of the Chicago White Sox, hosted the 12 July 1979 promotion; thousands stormed the field after a crate of disco records was blown up between games of a doubleheader.
Q 11In which English seaside town did ABBA win the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest?
Brighton
ABBA won at the Brighton Dome on 6 April 1974, Sweden's first Eurovision victory; the group had nearly entered 'Hasta Mañana' instead.
Q 12How many weeks did 'Bohemian Rhapsody' spend at UK number one on its original 1975 release?
Nine
'Bohemian Rhapsody' spent nine weeks at UK number one from November 1975 to January 1976, then returned for a further five weeks after Freddie Mercury's death in 1991.
Q 13Fleetwood Mac's 1977 album Rumours was recorded amid the collapse of which two band members' marriage?
John and Christine McVie
Q 21Never Mind the Bollocks, released in October 1977, was the one and only full-length record by which band?
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols' one album got a Nottingham shop prosecuted for obscenity over the word 'bollocks'; Time later named it one of the 100 greatest albums.
Q 22Which former Beatle organised the Concert for Bangladesh with Ravi Shankar in August 1971?
George Harrison
George Harrison staged two shows at Madison Square Garden on 1 August 1971 with Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Leon Russell; the benefit model later inspired Live Aid.
Q 23Peter Frampton's best-selling 1976 live album made him synonymous with which guitar effect?
Talk box
John and Christine McVie's marriage ended during the Rumours sessions while Buckingham and Nicks were also splitting up; the album won the 1978 Grammy for Album of the Year.
Q 14Before Thriller, which 1977 soundtrack was the best-selling album in music history?
Saturday Night Fever
Saturday Night Fever held the title until Thriller: it sat at number one for 24 straight weeks in the US and has sold over 40 million copies.
Q 15'Rapper's Delight' (1979) borrowed its bassline from which Chic song?
Good Times
Sugarhill Gang's 'Rapper's Delight' replayed the bassline of Chic's 'Good Times' (1979); Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards threatened to sue and were given songwriting credits.
Q 16Chic wrote 'Le Freak' on New Year's Eve 1977 after being turned away at the door of which New York nightclub?
Studio 54
Rodgers and Edwards were refused entry to Studio 54 on New Year's Eve 1977 despite an invitation from Grace Jones; the original refrain 'Fuck off!' was softened to 'Freak out!'.
Q 17Which artist broke 'American Pie's' 50-year record as the longest song to reach number one in 2021?
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift's 'All Too Well (10 Minute Version)' topped the Hot 100 in November 2021, beating the 8:42 'American Pie' as the longest number-one single.
Q 18Which 1973 debut album was Virgin Records' first release and took off after use in The Exorcist?
Tubular Bells
Tubular Bells was Virgin's first release, catalogue number V2001, in May 1973; Mike Oldfield played almost every instrument himself, and its opening theme featured in The Exorcist.
Q 19Gloria Gaynor's 'I Will Survive' was released in 1978 as the B-side to which forgotten single?
Substitute
'I Will Survive' was the B-side of Gloria Gaynor's October 1978 single 'Substitute'; DJs flipped the record and the B-side topped the US and UK charts in 1979.
Q 20Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell grew from a Jim Steinman musical that was a futuristic rock version of which story?
Peter Pan
Jim Steinman's musical Neverland, a futuristic retelling of Peter Pan, supplied the core songs; Todd Rundgren produced the 1977 album, which has sold more than 43 million copies.
Frampton's talk box on 'Show Me the Way' and 'Do You Feel Like We Do' defined Frampton Comes Alive!, which climbed from a number 191 debut to ten weeks at number one.
Q 24The word 'disco' is short for the French 'discothèque', which literally means what?
A record library
The term was coined on the model of 'bibliothèque'; in occupied Paris, hidden basement discothèques were where people met to hear banned jazz.
Q 25In which city did Régine Zylberberg make Le Whisky à Gogo the first discothèque in 1953?
Paris
Paris: Régine replaced the jukebox with two turntables she worked herself, so the music never stopped between records, an idea every DJ since has taken for granted.
Q 26Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' (1977) was built almost entirely on which instrument?
A Moog synthesizer
The track was built on a Moog modular synthesizer, with only the kick drum played live; Brian Eno reportedly told David Bowie he had heard 'the sound of the future'.
Q 27Before disco fame, Donna Summer moved to Munich in 1968 to perform in which musical?
Hair
Summer joined the Munich production of Hair in 1968 and stayed in Germany for years, where she met the producers behind her 1975 breakthrough 'Love to Love You Baby'.
Q 28What jailed Manhattan's Studio 54 owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager in January 1980?
Tax evasion
Rubell and Schrager pleaded guilty to tax evasion after investigators found about $2.5 million in skimmed cash receipts; each was sentenced to three and a half years.
Q 29In 1998, the former Studio 54 building at 254 West 54th Street reopened as what?
A Broadway theatre
It began life as the Gallo Opera House in 1927 and spent decades as CBS Studio 52 before the disco years; the Roundabout Theatre Company has run it as a Broadway house since 1998.
Q 30How many straight weeks did the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack spend at No. 1 on the Billboard 200?
24
The soundtrack held number one for 24 consecutive weeks, from January to July 1978, and has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide.