One-Hit Wonder Trivia
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97 free One-Hit Wonder trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
48 free one-hit wonder trivia questions with answers. Everyone knows the song; almost nobody can name the band's second single. This quiz celebrates the one-hit wonders, the artists who owned the radio for one summer and then vanished: Norman Greenbaum, Carl Douglas, the Knack, Toni Basil, a-ha, Falco, Vanilla Ice, Los del Río, Chumbawamba, Aqua, Lou Bega, Eiffel 65, Baha Men, Daniel Powter, Gotye, Psy and Baauer. The questions cover who sang what, the samples and lawsuits behind the hits, the chart records they set, and the strange stories of how they were made: the Rolling Stones concert that inspired 99 Luftballons, the pub that inspired Tubthumping, the Coca-Cola advert that launched Bad Day, and the toy company that sued over Barbie Girl. There are no lyrics to complete, just the facts behind the songs. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's article on each song, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
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Q 01By the most common definition, a one-hit wonder reached which part of the Billboard Hot 100 only once?
The top 40
The top 40: by that strict test even Jimi Hendrix is a one-hit wonder, because All Along the Watchtower, which peaked at number 20, was his only American single to climb that high.
Q 02Which band's singer barges past everyone along a London street in the Bitter Sweet Symphony video?
The Verve
The Verve's Richard Ashcroft strides down Hoxton Street bumping into passers-by without breaking step, a knowing echo of the walking shot in Massive Attack's video for Unfinished Sympathy.
Q 03Which Spanish duo recorded the original Macarena in 1993?
Los del Río
Los del Río released it in Spain in 1993; a remix by Miami's Bayside Boys added English verses, and that version spent 14 weeks at number one in America in 1996.
Q 04Delegates at which 1996 gathering were famously filmed dancing the Macarena?
The Democratic convention
The Democratic convention: delegates did the dance in the hall, and Vice President Al Gore, known for his stiffness, then performed his own 'Macarena' on stage by standing completely still.
Q 05Which gospel-rock hit did Norman Greenbaum write?
Spirit in the Sky
Spirit in the Sky's writer is Jewish, despite its lines about Jesus; covers by Doctor and the Medics and Gareth Gates later took the song back to number one in Britain.
Q 06Which band recorded My Sharona, the top single of 1979 in the US?
The Knack
The Knack had America's best-selling single of 1979 with it, and the song reached a new generation in 1994 through a gas-station singalong scene in the film Reality Bites.
Q 07Who was the real Sharona who inspired the 1979 hit My Sharona?
A teenager the singer fell for
A teenager the singer fell for: Doug Fieger was 25 when he met high-school student Sharona Alperin, who posed for the single's sleeve and later sold homes to celebrities in Los Angeles.
Q 08The 1970s band Wild Cherry took their name from a box of what?
Cough drops
Cough drops: founder Rob Parissi saw the box while in hospital and borrowed the flavour's name; the Ohio rockers' one big hit came after a club-goer heckled them to play dance music instead.
Q 09Which song opened MTV's first broadcast on 1 August 1981?
Video Killed the Radio Star
Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles was nearly two years old in 1981; when MTV shut its British music channels at the end of 2025, MTV Music signed off with the same video.
Q 10Which 1982 hit was first recorded as Kitty by the British band Racey?
Mickey
Mickey began as Kitty, written by hitmakers Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman; Toni Basil, who had choreographed the Monkees film Head, switched the name and added the cheerleader chant herself.
Q 11Come On Eileen was a 1982 hit for which group?
Dexys Midnight Runners
Dexys Midnight Runners topped the US chart with it in April 1983, their only American hit, though at home they had already had a number one with Geno.
Q 12Which synth-pop duo's 1981 hit Tainted Love covered a forgotten 1960s B-side by soul singer Gloria Jones?
Soft Cell
Soft Cell revived a song that had flopped as a 1960s B-side for Gloria Jones; DJs on Britain's Northern Soul club circuit had kept it alive through the 1970s.
Q 13Nena's 99 Luftballons was inspired by balloons released at a concert by which band in West Berlin?
The Rolling Stones
Q 21Which Tag Team anthem topped the R&B chart but stalled at number two on the Hot 100?
Whoomp! (There It Is)
Whoomp! (There It Is) was rejected by labels, so DC Glenn borrowed $2,500 from his parents to press 800 singles, which sold out around Atlanta by word of mouth.
Q 22Which song does the drinker sing in the 1997 hit Tubthumping?
Danny Boy
Danny Boy is what the song's drinker sings; guitarist Boff Whalley traced him to an Irish neighbour who came home drunk every weekend from the band's Leeds local, the Fforde Grene.
Q 23Which band recorded the 1997 hit Tubthumping?
Chumbawamba
Chumbawamba had been making music for 15 years before the hit; at the 1998 Brit Awards member Danbert Nobacon tipped water over Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.
The Rolling Stones released balloons at a 1982 West Berlin show, and Nena's guitarist Carlo Karges imagined them drifting over the Wall and being taken for something hostile.
Q 14Which version of 99 Luftballons became Nena's only US hit?
The German-language original
The German-language original was the one US radio played, climbing to number two in 1984 behind Van Halen's Jump; the English rewrite, 99 Red Balloons, was the hit in Britain instead.
Q 15a-ha's Take On Me video used which animation technique?
Rotoscoping
Rotoscoping: animator Mike Patterson spent 16 weeks sketching some 3,000 drawings over frames of live footage, and the video went on to win six MTV Video Music Awards.
Q 16a-ha come from which country?
Norway
Norway: a-ha's Take On Me reached number three at home in its first 1984 version but flopped elsewhere until it was re-recorded and given a new video.
Q 17Falco's 1986 number one holds what Billboard distinction?
The only German-language song to top the Hot 100
The only German-language song to top the Hot 100: Falco reached number one in March 1986 with a US mix that kept his German verses and added English narration rather than a translation.
Q 18Ice Ice Baby lifted its bassline from which song?
Under Pressure
Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie was used without permission; only after the single was a hit did they get songwriting credit and a payout, agreed out of court.
Q 19Ice Ice Baby was originally released as the B-side to Vanilla Ice's cover of what?
Play That Funky Music
Play That Funky Music was the A-side until a DJ pushed the flip instead; Ice Ice Baby then became the first hip-hop single to top the Hot 100.
Q 20Sir Mix-a-Lot's Baby Got Back won which 1993 Grammy?
Best Rap Solo Performance
Best Rap Solo Performance went to a single whose video MTV briefly banned; the fuss only helped, and it spent five weeks at number one in summer 1992.
Q 24Aqua wrote Barbie Girl after seeing an exhibition devoted to which kind of culture?
Kitsch
Kitsch: the exhibition gave the group the idea for the song. They had got nowhere much as Joyspeed before starting over as Aqua, and the new single went to number one in Britain.
Q 25Which company sued Aqua's record label over Barbie Girl?
Mattel
Mattel sued MCA Records over the song and lost; the appeals judge closed his ruling with the line 'The parties are advised to chill.'
Q 26The 1999 hit Mambo No. 5 was built on an old instrumental by which Cuban bandleader?
Dámaso Pérez Prado
Dámaso Pérez Prado, known as the King of the Mambo, recorded the original as an instrumental; the women's names were all added for the 1999 version.
Q 27Eiffel 65, of Blue (Da Ba Dee) fame, are from which country?
Italy
Italy: the Turin trio let a computer program pick 'Eiffel' at random, and the 65 crept in when two digits of a phone number scribbled on the label copy were printed by mistake.
Q 28Which DJ reworked Blue (Da Ba Dee) into the 2022 hit I'm Good (Blue)?
David Guetta
David Guetta and Bebe Rexha had made their version years earlier and shelved it; when a clip went viral on TikTok in 2022 they released it, and it topped the UK chart just as the original had.
Q 29Bitter Sweet Symphony sampled an orchestral version of which Jagger-Richards song?
The Last Time
The Last Time, in an Andrew Oldham Orchestra arrangement, supplied the strings; after a legal fight Jagger and Richards got the songwriting royalties, which they signed over to Richard Ashcroft in 2019.
Q 30Which 1999 hit by Len loops the disco track More, More, More?
Steal My Sunshine
Steal My Sunshine first appeared on the soundtrack of the film Go; Marc Costanzo wrote it after a night at an outdoor rave and sang it with his sister Sharon.