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60 free The Beach Boys trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
51 free The Beach Boys trivia questions with answers. The Beach Boys have 37 top-40 hits, more than any other American band, and a story stranger than most: three brothers and a cousin from Hawthorne, a father-manager who was fired, a genius who quit touring after a panic attack, a lost masterpiece, a Manson connection, and a comeback number one from a Tom Cruise film. This quiz covers all of it. The early questions are the ones anyone with a copy of Endless Summer will get: who sang lead on God Only Knows, which song borrowed its tune from Chuck Berry, where the band came from. The later ones dig into the making of Good Vibrations, the shelving of Smile, the Landy years, and which surf-loving member could actually surf. Every answer has been checked against the band's published history and carries a linked source, so you can settle a Pet Sounds argument on the spot. Suitable for a summer road trip, a pub quiz round or any fan who wants to prove it.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which California city were the Beach Boys formed in 1961?
Hawthorne
The Wilson brothers shared a bedroom in the family home there; Brian was 16 when he got the reel-to-reel recorder that started it all.
Q 02How were the three Wilson brothers related to Mike Love?
He was their cousin
Family gatherings brought them together; the fifth founder, Al Jardine, was a school friend of Brian's.
Q 03What was the band's original name, a pun on a brand of woollen shirt worn by surfers?
The Pendletones
When their first single came out, they discovered the label had renamed them the Beach Boys without asking.
Q 04Which member of the band was the only one who actually surfed?
Dennis Wilson
His brother Carl said so outright; Dennis was also the drummer and the one who later fell in with Charles Manson.
Q 05Who managed the band in its early years?
Murry Wilson, the boys' father
They fired him in early 1964 for being overbearing at sessions and shows; he later sold their publishing for $700,000.
Q 06Which label signed the Beach Boys in 1962 and released 'Surfin' Safari'?
Capitol
That single launched a five-year run of 16 consecutive US top-40 hits.
Q 07Which teenage guitarist filled the rhythm-guitar spot when a founding member left during 1962-63?
David Marks
He was an 11-year-old neighbour when he first played guitar with Carl; Jardine returned in late 1963.
Q 08'Surfin' U.S.A.' is a rewrite of which Chuck Berry song?
'Sweet Little Sixteen'
Berry now shares the writing credit with Brian Wilson.
Q 09Which 1964 single was the Beach Boys' first US number one?
'I Get Around'
Its B-side was 'Don't Worry Baby', and the hit proved an American band could compete with the British Invasion.
Q 10Which member sings lead on 'Help Me, Rhonda', a rarity for him in that era?
Al Jardine
On its first album appearance the title was spelled 'Ronda'; Brian said she was not based on a real person.
Q 11Which country star briefly toured with the Beach Boys in 1965 as a stand-in for Brian Wilson?
Glen Campbell
He declined an offer to join permanently, and Bruce Johnston took the spot in April 1965.
Q 12What made Brian Wilson quit touring at the end of 1964?
A panic attack on a flight
He was flying from Los Angeles to Houston; from then on he stayed home to write and produce.
Q 13Which Beatles album pushed Brian Wilson to make Pet Sounds as a 'complete statement'?
Rubber Soul
He also wanted to out-do Phil Spector's Wall of Sound; the album peaked at only number 10 in the US.
Q 21Brian Wilson described the abandoned Smile album as what?
'A teenage symphony to God'
He wanted it to surpass Pet Sounds and launch the Brother Records label; a stripped-down Smiley Smile came out instead in 1967.
Q 22Who was Brian Wilson's lyricist on Smile?
Van Dyke Parks
The two envisioned it as a Rhapsody in Blue-style answer to the British Invasion; they finished it together in 2004.
Q 23Which two projected Smile singles were about early California history and organic food respectively?
'Heroes and Villains' and 'Vega-Tables'
Q 14Who wrote most of the lyrics on Pet Sounds with Brian Wilson?
Tony Asher
He was an advertising jingle writer Wilson met at a Los Angeles studio in 1965.
Q 15Who sings the lead vocal on 'God Only Knows'?
Carl Wilson
It is often called his finest performance; naming God in a pop title was considered taboo at the time.
Q 16Which Pet Sounds single was actually a Bahamian folk song suggested by the band's resident folk fan?
'Sloop John B'
Jardine even tweaked the chord progression to make it more interesting for Wilson.
Q 17Which Pet Sounds track was released as Brian Wilson's official solo debut single?
'Caroline, No'
It came out under his own name before 'Sloop John B' and 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' appeared as group singles.
Q 18Roughly how many recording sessions went into 'Good Vibrations'?
Twenty
They ran across four Hollywood studios over seven months at a time when singles were normally cut in two days.
Q 19The eerie whooping sound on 'Good Vibrations' comes from what instrument?
An Electro-Theremin
It is not a true theremin, but the record set off a revival of interest in theremins and synthesizers.
Q 20On what date did 'Good Vibrations' reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100?
December 10, 1966
It replaced 'Winchester Cathedral' and had already become the band's first million-seller and a two-week UK number one.
'Heroes and Villains' eventually came out on Smiley Smile in 1967.
Q 24In what year did Brian Wilson finally complete and perform Smile?
2004
Brian Wilson Presents Smile earned him the greatest acclaim of his solo career; the band's original sessions were boxed up in 2011.
Q 25Which Beach Boys B-side was a rewritten Charles Manson song, released without crediting him?
'Never Learn Not to Love'
Manson's 'Cease to Exist' reached the band through Dennis Wilson, whose house the Family had taken over.
Q 26Which member took over as the band's de facto leader and chief producer in the early 1970s?
Carl Wilson
He produced Sunflower, Surf's Up and Holland while Brian gradually withdrew.
Q 27Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar, who joined the band in 1972, came from which country's band the Flames?
South Africa
They arrived after the band moved from Capitol to Reprise Records in 1970.
Q 28Which 1974 compilation revived the band's fortunes and spent 156 weeks on the Billboard albums chart?
Endless Summer
It went three-times platinum and Capitol followed it with Spirit of America the next year.
Q 29Bruce Johnston wrote which Barry Manilow hit?
'I Write the Songs'
He recorded his own version on his 1977 solo album Going Public.
Q 30The band's drummer died in December 1983 at age 39. How?
He drowned at Marina del Rey
He was diving to recover belongings of his ex-wife thrown from his yacht three years earlier; he was 39.