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60 free Chuck Berry trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Chuck Berry trivia quiz covers the man most often called the father of rock and roll, from his childhood in the Ville neighbourhood of St. Louis to the cherry-red guitar bolted inside his coffin. The easy questions are the ones any classic-rock fan can answer: his home town, his label, his signature stage move and the song that left the Solar System on the Voyager Golden Record. The middle of the set digs into how the hits were made: the western swing fiddle tune that became his first single, the mascara box on the studio floor that gave it a name, the DJ who mysteriously ended up with a writing credit, the sister whose classical piano practice inspired Roll Over Beethoven, and the Beach Boys song built on one of his melodies. The hardest questions are for real students of the music: session pianists, sequel songs, chart-topping country covers, his 1979 comeback label, the president who booked him for the White House and the crater on Mercury that carries his name. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for Berry and his best-known songs before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Rock and Roll, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and 1950s music quizzes next.
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Q 01By what paternal nickname is Berry widely known?
The Father of Rock and Roll
He was cited at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for laying the groundwork for a rock and roll stance as well as a sound.
Q 02Berry died at his Missouri home in March of which year, aged 90?
2017
His funeral was held at The Pageant in St. Louis, with a public viewing for fans.
Q 03In which decade did Berry score his first run of hits, including Roll Over Beethoven and Johnny B. Goode?
1950s
By the end of that decade he was an established star with film appearances and a lucrative touring career.
Q 04Which record label released Berry's classic early singles?
Chess Records
The label was run by brothers Leonard and Phil Chess, who also produced his sessions.
Q 05What was Berry's first hit single, released in 1955?
Maybellene
It sold over a million copies and topped the rhythm and blues chart.
Q 06Which blues great suggested Berry contact Leonard Chess in 1955?
Muddy Waters
Berry expected Chess to want his blues material; Chess preferred his take on a country tune instead.
Q 07Berry's first hit was adapted from which western swing tune?
Ida Red
Berry called it his favourite song to sing at racially integrated 'salt and pepper' clubs.
Q 08Per Berry's pianist, what did Leonard Chess spot on the studio floor that inspired the title of Berry's first hit?
A mascara box
Chess thought the working titles were too rural.
Q 09Berry said the name of his first hit came from a third-grade reader, where it belonged to what?
A cow
He also said the lyrics drew on high-school memories of trying to get girls to ride in his 1934 V-8 Ford.
Q 10Which disc jockey was mysteriously listed as a co-writer of Berry's first hit?
Alan Freed
Assigning writing credit to DJs was a form of payola; the credit was withdrawn in 1986.
Q 11What was Berry's only number-one single?
My Ding-a-Ling
It was a live recording of a novelty song he had earlier cut as 'My Tambourine'.
Q 12Johnny B. Goode is the only rock-and-roll song on the Golden Record carried by which spacecraft?
Voyager
Both probes, launched in 1977, carry a copy of the record into interstellar space.
Q 13What is the name of Berry's famous crouching, one-legged stage move?
The duck walk
He said he first did it as a child, scooting under a table to retrieve a ball.
Where in St. Louis did Berry give his first public performance in 1941?
Q 21Which band recorded the 1938 version of the fiddle tune Berry reworked into his first hit?
Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys
Black audiences at the Cosmo Club nicknamed Berry the 'black hillbilly' for playing country numbers.
Q 22Whose classical piano practice at home is said to have provoked Berry to write Roll Over Beethoven?
His sister Lucy
The song asks the classics to step aside for rhythm and blues.
Q 23Which Beatle sang lead on the band's 1963 recording of Roll Over Beethoven?
George Harrison
Sumner High School
He was still a student there in 1944 when he was arrested.
Q 15For what crime was the teenage Berry sent to a reformatory in 1944?
Armed robbery
He said the pistol he used to flag down and steal a car did not work.
Q 16On which birthday was Berry released from the reformatory in 1947?
21st
Inside, he formed a singing quartet that was eventually allowed to perform outside the facility.
Q 17Besides singing, which sport did Berry take up while in the reformatory?
Boxing
The reformatory in Jefferson City is now the Algoa Correctional Center.
Q 18What trade did the young married Berry train for at Poro College in St. Louis?
Beautician
The college was founded by the Black hair-care entrepreneur Annie Turnbo Malone.
Q 19Which blues guitarist's riffs and showmanship did Berry borrow most heavily in his early career?
T-Bone Walker
He also took lessons from a jazz guitarist friend, Ira Harris.
Q 20Which pianist led the trio Berry joined in 1953, beginning a decades-long collaboration?
Johnnie Johnson
In 2000 the pianist sued, claiming he had co-written over 50 of Berry's songs; the case was dismissed as too old.
It opened the US album The Beatles' Second Album and reached number one in Australia.
Q 24Which 1963 Beach Boys hit used the melody of Berry's Sweet Little Sixteen?
Surfin' U.S.A.
Cover versions by British Invasion bands kept Berry's music alive while he was in prison.
Q 25What autobiographical detail hides in the title of the 1958 song about a country guitar boy?
He was born on Goode Avenue
Berry said the song began as a portrait of his pianist before becoming mostly a self-portrait.
Q 26The opening riff of Johnny B. Goode borrows from a 1946 record by which bandleader?
Louis Jordan
The solo on 'Ain't That Just Like a Woman' was played by guitarist Carl Hogan.
Q 27Who played piano on the Chess session for Johnny B. Goode?
Lafayette Leake
Willie Dixon played bass and Fred Below drums on the same session.
Q 28In which 1985 film does a teenager perform Johnny B. Goode at a high-school dance?
Back to the Future
A fictional bandleader named Marvin Berry phones his cousin Chuck to let him hear 'that new sound'.
Q 29Berry's 1960 Johnny B. Goode sequel, in which Johnny leaves home to chase stardom, was on which album?
Rockin' at the Hops
The Rolling Stones later covered the sequel, Bye Bye Johnny, too.
Q 30Which country star took a live version of Johnny B. Goode to number one on the country chart in 1969?
Buck Owens
The record came from an album cut live in London.