70s Rock Trivia
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100 free 70s Rock trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The 1970s gave rock its biggest albums, its loudest bands and its first punk records. These 70s rock trivia questions cover Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Queen, the Eagles, Black Sabbath, Fleetwood Mac, Bowie, the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, prog, glam and the arena acts that ruled FM radio, with the studio stories and strange facts behind the hits. Every answer is sourced, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which band released an untitled 1971 album marked by four symbols, one chosen by each member?
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin left both its name and any title off the sleeve, so the record picked up names instead: Led Zeppelin IV, Four Symbols or 'Zoso', after the way Jimmy Page's symbol reads.
Q 02Despite constant FM airplay, what was true of 'Stairway to Heaven' in the United States in the 1970s?
Never sold as a single
Never sold as a single in the US: radio stations got promotional copies, and anyone else who wanted the song had to buy the whole album.
Q 03Who wrote the first lyrics of 'Stairway to Heaven' beside a log fire at Headley Grange?
Robert Plant
Robert Plant was sitting by the fire with pencil and paper when, he recalled, his hand suddenly began writing out the opening lines; much of the lyric came that same evening.
Q 04What was the title of John Bonham's drum-solo showcase, often 20 minutes long live?
Moby Dick
Moby Dick sent the rest of the band offstage for a break while Bonham soloed, at times dropping his sticks to play the drums with his bare hands.
Q 05Who designed the prism sleeve of The Dark Side of the Moon?
Storm Thorgerson
Storm Thorgerson's studio, Hipgnosis, was answering Richard Wright's request for something 'simple and bold'; offered several designs, the band chose the prism at once and unanimously.
Q 06Who suggested session singer Clare Torry for Pink Floyd's 'The Great Gig in the Sky'?
Alan Parsons
Alan Parsons, the album's engineer, brought in Torry, who improvised the wordless vocal for a flat £30; a 2005 settlement finally gave her a co-writing credit.
Q 07Over which power station did Pink Floyd float an inflatable pig for the Animals cover?
Battersea
Battersea made the news when the pig broke its moorings during the shoot, drifted through Heathrow's flight lanes and came down that night on a farm in Kent.
Q 08Which former Pink Floyd member unexpectedly visited the studio during the Wish You Were Here sessions?
Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett arrived overweight, with his head and eyebrows shaved, and his old bandmates did not recognise him at first; the album's 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' is their tribute to him.
Q 09What was Pink Floyd's only UK and US number-one single?
Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2
Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2 has a chorus sung by 23 pupils from a London school near the studio; in 2004 a royalties agent began tracing the grown-up singers so they could claim payment.
Q 10What returned Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' to UK number one in 1991?
Freddie Mercury's death
Freddie Mercury's death that November prompted a reissue whose proceeds went to the Terrence Higgins Trust, an AIDS charity; the single had already spent nine weeks on top in 1975–76.
Q 11In which country is Rockfield, near Monmouth, where Queen began recording 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in 1975?
Wales
Wales: the first sessions were at Rockfield, a studio in converted farm buildings; the opera section's roughly 180 overdubs wore the tape so thin that Brian May could see light through it.
Q 12Which guitarist joined the Eagles for Hotel California, replacing Bernie Leadon?
Joe Walsh
Joe Walsh and Don Felder play the long guitar duel that closes the album's title track, taking turns on lead before harmonising together.
Q 13The Eagles' founding members had all been recruited as band members by which singer?
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt hired them for her backing band in 1971, and the future Eagles first shared a stage behind her at a Disneyland concert before all appearing on her 1972 album.
Q 21Who replaced Ozzy Osbourne as Black Sabbath's singer after he was fired in 1979?
Ronnie James Dio
Ronnie James Dio wanted his own answer to Ozzy's peace signs, so he greeted fans with the 'devil horns' and made the salute famous; he said his Italian grandmother used the gesture against the evil eye.
Q 22Which Southern rock band's plane crashed in 1977, days after releasing Street Survivors?
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Lynyrd Skynyrd's chartered plane ran out of fuel over Mississippi, killing singer Ronnie Van Zant and five others; the label then withdrew the album's cover, which showed the band in flames.
Q 23'Sweet Home Alabama' was written as a response to songs by which artist?
Neil Young
Q 14Which album was the first ever to receive the RIAA's new Platinum certification in 1976?
Eagles' Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975)
Eagles' Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) took the first award because record sales had grown so much that the RIAA added Platinum in 1976, for albums shipping a million copies.
Q 15Which Fleetwood Mac album won Album of the Year at the 1978 Grammys?
Rumours
Rumours was recorded while the band's couples were breaking up, and the members turned the splits into songs such as 'Dreams' and 'Go Your Own Way'.
Q 16Which two musicians joined Fleetwood Mac for their 1975 self-titled album?
Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks
Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks came as a pair: Mick Fleetwood heard their duo album at a studio and invited the guitarist, who agreed only on condition that his partner joined too.
Q 17A fire during whose concert inspired 'Smoke on the Water'?
Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa and the Mothers were playing when someone fired a flare gun at the ceiling; the lyric's 'Funky Claude' is the festival director who helped pull fans out of the burning hall.
Q 18In which Swiss town did the casino fire of 'Smoke on the Water' happen in 1971?
Montreux
Montreux's casino burned down just before the band was due to record there, so they made the album in a hotel closed for the winter, using the Rolling Stones' mobile studio.
Q 19Which band did Guinness list as the world's loudest after a 1972 London concert?
Deep Purple
Deep Purple earned the listing at the Rainbow Theatre, where the sound was measured at 117 decibels and three people in the audience are said to have passed out.
Q 20Which Black Sabbath single was the band's only UK top-ten hit, reaching number four in 1970?
Paranoid
Paranoid was written in the studio in under half an hour as a three-minute filler for the album, with Ozzy Osbourne reading the lyrics off a sheet as he sang.
Neil Young's 'Southern Man' and 'Alabama' drew the reply, but it was no feud: the band's singer often wore Neil Young T-shirts on stage, and Young later wrote that 'Alabama' deserved the shot.
Q 24Who's Next grew out of which abandoned Who rock-opera project?
Lifehouse
Lifehouse was Pete Townshend's science-fiction rock opera, shelved when he could not get it finished; the band salvaged eight of its songs, 'Baba O'Riley' among them, for a conventional album.
Q 25In which country did the Rolling Stones, living as tax exiles, hold the main sessions for Exile on Main St.?
France
France: owing more tax than they could pay, the band left Britain in 1971 and recorded through the night in the basement of Nellcôte, a villa Keith Richards rented in the south of the country.
Q 26On the Born to Run cover, Springsteen leans on the shoulder of which E Street Band member?
Clarence Clemons
Clarence Clemons, the band's saxophonist, came to the shoot because Springsteen wanted him on the cover; the photo wraps around the sleeve, so he appears in full only when it is turned over.
Q 27Which critic wrote in 1974 of seeing 'rock and roll future' in Springsteen?
Jon Landau
Jon Landau wrote the line in Boston's Real Paper, then crossed from critic to insider: he co-produced Born to Run and went on to manage Springsteen.
Q 28Roughly how much did the Ramones' 1976 debut album cost to record?
$6,400
About $6,400 was a tiny budget even then, so producer Craig Leon and the band finished the whole album in a single week in January 1976.
Q 29Which New York City borough, home to the Forest Hills neighborhood, produced the Ramones in 1974?
Queens
Queens: the four met around Forest Hills and all took the same stage surname, borrowed from 'Paul Ramon', an alias once used by Paul McCartney.
Q 30Which album was the only studio LP the Sex Pistols ever released?
Never Mind the Bollocks
Never Mind the Bollocks came out in October 1977, and a Nottingham record-shop manager was arrested for displaying its title; a court found him not guilty, and the band split within months.