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60 free Quincy Jones trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Quincy Jones trivia quiz covers seven decades of the producer's life, from a Chicago childhood and Seattle trumpet gigs with a teenage Ray Charles to Thriller, We Are the World and a posthumous honorary Oscar. The easy questions cover the three Michael Jackson albums, the charity single, Austin Powers, The Fresh Prince and his Grammy count. Medium questions dig into Lesley Gore, Mercury Records, Sinatra's ring, The Pawnbroker, Roots, The Dude and Back on the Block. The hard and expert questions are for people who have read the autobiography: Nadia Boulanger, Garfield High, The Jones Boys, the Elvis TV band, the Dismas House benefit, his Tikar ancestry, Playground Sessions and Hillside Memorial Park. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation, so the dates, titles and names can be trusted. Difficulty is shown on every question, which makes it easy to build a round for a music quiz night or play the whole set. When you finish, try our Michael Jackson and other music-legend quizzes.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city was Quincy Jones born in 1933?
Chicago
His family later moved to Bremerton and then Seattle, where he took up the trumpet.
Q 02How many Grammy Awards did Quincy Jones win over his career?
28
He also won a Primetime Emmy and a Tony, and was nominated for seven Oscars.
Q 03Which three Michael Jackson albums did Quincy Jones produce?
Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad
Bad, which sold 35 million copies, was the last time they worked together.
Q 04Jones and Michael Jackson first worked together on which 1978 musical film?
The Wiz
Jackson asked Jones to recommend a producer for his solo album, and Jones offered himself.
Q 05Roughly how many copies did Thriller sell, making it the best-selling album of all time?
70 million
Off the Wall sold about 20 million and Bad about 35 million.
Q 06Which 1985 charity single did Jones produce and conduct for Ethiopian famine relief?
We Are the World
He taped a sign on the studio door reading "Check Your Ego at the Door".
Q 07What sign did Jones tape to the studio entrance for the "We Are the World" session?
Check Your Ego at the Door
He also insisted nobody wear a tuxedo to "make a hunger record".
Q 08Who wrote "We Are the World"?
Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie
They finished it the night before the January 28, 1985 recording session.
Q 09Which activist-entertainer's idea for an American Band Aid led to 'We Are the World'?
Harry Belafonte
Manager Ken Kragen then enlisted Lionel Richie and Kenny Rogers.
Q 10Whose 1963 hit "It's My Party" gave Jones his first No. 1 record as a producer?
Lesley Gore
He produced all four of her million-selling singles, including "You Don't Own Me".
Q 11In 1961 Jones became the first African American vice-president of which record label?
Mercury
Its boss Irving Green had bailed him out with a loan after his big band went broke.
Q 12Which bandleader's orchestra took the 20-year-old Jones on a European tour in 1953?
Lionel Hampton
He said seeing Europe's own ethnic conflicts changed his view of American racism.
Q 13With which two composers did Jones study in Paris in 1957?
Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen
He also became music director at the French label Barclay.
Q 21Jones's 1962 tune "Soul Bossa Nova" was later used as the theme for which 1997 comedy?
Austin Powers
He cameoed as himself in Austin Powers in Goldmember in 2002.
Q 22For which 1977 miniseries did Jones win his Primetime Emmy for music composition?
Roots
He wrote the theme for the opening episode.
Q 23Which 1985 film marked Jones's debut as a film producer?
The Color Purple
He is credited with bringing Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey to film audiences through it.
Q 24Jones's 1985 Spielberg score broke the director's unbroken run with which regular composer?
Q 14Jones played in the studio band for whose first six television appearances in 1956?
Elvis Presley
The show was CBS's Stage Show hosted by the Dorsey brothers.
Q 15Which then-unknown 16-year-old pianist did the teenage Jones befriend in Seattle?
Ray Charles
Charles was then performing as R.C. Robinson.
Q 16Which Seattle high school did Jones attend?
Garfield
His classmate Charles Taylor's band backed Billie Holiday and Billy Eckstine.
Q 17Jones arranged and conducted Frank Sinatra's 1964 album with Count Basie. What was it called?
It Might as Well Be Swing
He first worked with Sinatra in 1958 at a Monaco benefit arranged by Princess Grace.
Q 18What did Frank Sinatra leave Jones when he died in 1998?
His ring
Jones joked that in Sicily he needed no passport, just the ring.
Q 19Which 1964 Sidney Lumet film was the first of Jones's nearly 40 movie scores?
The Pawnbroker
He then moved to Los Angeles and was in constant demand as a composer.
Q 20Jones composed "The Streetbeater", the theme to which sitcom starring his friend Redd Foxx?
Sanford and Son
He also wrote themes for Ironside and The Bill Cosby Show.
John Williams
Jones, Thomas Newman and Alan Silvestri are the only others to score a Spielberg feature.
Q 25Jones's 1981 album The Dude yielded "Just Once" and "One Hundred Ways", both sung by whom?
James Ingram
"Ai No Corrida", a Chaz Jankel remake, was the album's other hit.
Q 26Which 1989 Jones album won the 1991 Grammy for Album of the Year?
Back on the Block
It won seven Grammys in all, including a rap award shared with Ice-T and Big Daddy Kane.
Q 27Which sitcom, Will Smith's first acting credit, was produced by Quincy Jones Entertainment from 1990?
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The company also produced In the House and Fox's Mad TV.
Q 28Which sketch show did Jones produce for Fox from 1995 to 2009?
Mad TV
It ran for 14 seasons.
Q 29Jones persuaded which trumpeter to revisit his 1950s Gil Evans material at Montreux in 1991?
Miles Davis
Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux was Davis's last album.
Q 30Jones hosted an episode of which sketch show in February 1990 with a record ten musical guests?
Saturday Night Live
He impersonated Washington mayor Marion Barry in a sketch.