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50 free Motown trivia questions with answers. Motown started in 1959 with an $800 family loan and a converted photographers' studio on West Grand Boulevard, and within a decade it was the most successful independent label in America. This quiz covers the whole story: how a former boxer and assembly-line worker built the company, the session players in the Snake Pit, the Friday quality-control meetings, the finishing school for artists, and the hits that came out of that little house in Detroit. Easy questions cover the Supremes, the Temptations, the Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder and the moonwalk on Motown 25; harder ones get into Holland-Dozier-Holland's lawsuit, the Motortown Revue, Mary Wells' walkout, the move to Los Angeles, the 1988 sale and the Broadway musical. Every answer was checked against a published primary source such as Wikipedia or an official page, and the citation sits under each question, so you can settle a Motown argument on the spot. Good for soul fans, Detroiters, pub-quiz teams and anyone who grew up with these records.
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Q 01Motown began operating on January 12, 1959 under which label name?
Tamla
The name Motown itself is a blend of 'motor' and 'town'; the two labels merged into Motown Record Corporation in April 1960.
Q 02How much did Berry Gordy borrow from his family's savings co-op to start the company?
$800
The loan came from a cooperative family savings account and was needed to cover his end of a distribution deal for a Marv Johnson single.
Q 03Hitsville U.S.A., the house Gordy bought in 1959, sits at number 2648 on which Detroit street?
West Grand Boulevard
Within seven years Motown had spread into seven additional neighbouring houses along the same block.
Q 04What was the Hitsville building used for before Gordy bought it in 1959?
A photographers' studio
The Gordy family lived in the second-floor apartment while the little studio downstairs ran 22 hours a day.
Q 05Under which slogan did Motown market its acts during the 1960s?
The Sound of Young America
From 1961 to 1971 the company placed 110 records in the Billboard top 10, an unmatched run for an independent label.
Q 06How many Billboard top-10 hits did Motown score between 1961 and 1971?
110
The run made Motown the most successful independent record company in America and the biggest Black-owned business in the country.
Q 07Before music, what did the future Motown founder do professionally after dropping out of high school?
Boxer
He fought until 1950, was drafted in 1951 and served in Korea as a chaplain's assistant playing organ at services.
Q 08Which jazz shop did the future Motown founder open, and lose money on, in the 1950s?
3-D Record Mart
The shop sold jazz along with 3-D glasses; when it failed he took a job on the Lincoln-Mercury assembly line.
Q 09Before starting his label, Berry Gordy co-wrote 'Reet Petite' and 'Lonely Teardrops' for which singer?
Jackie Wilson
'Lonely Teardrops' topped the R&B chart and reached No. 7 on the pop chart, and its royalties helped convince Gordy to run his own company.
Q 10On which day of the week did Motown hold its weekly quality-control meetings?
Friday
Records that survived the vote also had to pass Gordy's test of whether a teenager would buy them over a sandwich with their last dollar.
Q 11Who ran Motown's in-house finishing school, teaching artists grooming, poise and social graces?
Maxine Powell
The artist development department also had a house choreographer, Cholly Atkins, drilling the acts on their stage moves.
Q 12Motown's Studio A earned which nickname, thanks to all the cables running out of the ceiling?
The Snake Pit
The room stayed open 22 hours a day, and the session players who worked there were known as the Funk Brothers.
Q 13Which group of Detroit session musicians backed most Motown records from 1959 to 1972?
The Funk Brothers
A line in the documentary claims they played on more No. 1 records than the Beatles, Elvis, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys combined.
Q 21Whose 1964 hit 'My Guy', written by Smokey Robinson, was her only Hot 100 No. 1?
Mary Wells
She was nicknamed the Queen of Motown and became the first Motown star to perform in the UK, opening for the Beatles.
Q 22Under what name did the Supremes form in Detroit in 1959?
The Primettes
They were conceived as a sister act to the Primes, whose members Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams went on to join the Temptations.
Q 23The original Supremes all grew up in which Detroit public housing project?
Brewster-Douglass
Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross and Betty McGlown were the four founding members.
Q 14Motown session bassist James Jamerson was famous for playing with what unusual technique?
Only his index finger
The digit was nicknamed 'The Hook', and Jamerson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
Q 15Motown's studio musicians went uncredited on records until which 1971 Marvin Gaye album?
What's Going On
Gordy initially resisted the concept album, worried it was too political for radio, before it became one of the label's landmark releases.
Q 16The first Motortown Revue live album was recorded during a December 1962 week-long stand at which venue?
The Apollo Theater
The early package tours mostly worked the 'Chitlin' Circuit', and in the South audiences were sometimes split by a police-guarded rope.
Q 17Which 1961 Marvelettes single was the first Motown record to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100?
Please Mr. Postman
A young Marvin Gaye played drums on the session, and both the Beatles and the Carpenters later covered it.
Q 18Which 1960 Miracles single was the first record to sell 1,000,000 copies for the company?
Shop Around
It was the Miracles' first No. 1 R&B hit and peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100, and Gordy famously recalled the group for a faster re-recording in the middle of the night.
Q 19Which 1970 record was the Miracles' only Hot 100 No. 1 during Smokey Robinson's years with the group?
The Tears of a Clown
It had sat on a 1967 album for three years before Motown's UK office released it as a single.
Q 20What executive title did Smokey Robinson hold at Motown from the early 1960s until after the 1988 sale?
Vice president
He also wrote 'My Guy' for Mary Wells and 'My Girl' for the Temptations, and Bob Dylan reportedly called him America's greatest living poet.
Q 24How many Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 singles did the Supremes achieve?
12
Their first, 'Where Did Our Love Go' in 1964, kicked off a run of five consecutive chart-toppers.
Q 25How many of the Supremes' Hot 100 No. 1 singles were written and produced by Holland-Dozier-Holland?
10
The trio quit Motown in a dispute over royalties in 1967, and during the lawsuit their songs were credited to the pseudonym 'Wayne-Dunbar'.
Q 26Which 1965 single by Smokey Robinson and Ronnie White was the Temptations' first No. 1 pop hit?
My Girl
It was released on December 21, 1964 and topped the chart in March, with David Ruffin on lead vocal.
Q 27Which Temptations record won Motown its very first Grammy Award, in 1969?
Cloud Nine
Producer Norman Whitfield's turn to psychedelic soul paid off; 'Papa Was a Rollin' Stone' brought a second Grammy in 1973.
Q 28Which Temptations lead singer was formally fired by the other four members in June 1968?
David Ruffin
Dennis Edwards was hired the next day, and the ousted singer took to jumping on stage uninvited at the group's shows.
Q 29Which Temptations co-founder was the group's only surviving original member in 2024?
Otis Williams
His memoir became the basis for the Broadway musical 'Ain't Too Proud', and the group entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.
Q 30The Tops formed in Detroit in 1953 under what original name?
The Four Aims
The same four men stayed together without a single personnel change until 1997.