Order Songs by Release Year — From Rock Around the Clock to Espresso
Each card in this quiz names a song and its artist. The board starts with one card already on it. The quiz then gives you one card at a time, and you put each card in the row from the oldest song to the newest.
A correct placement shows the year and keeps the card on the board. One wrong placement ends the run. You cannot move a card after you place it, so each choice is final.
The pool holds 52 famous songs and each run deals 20 of them, so two runs are never the same. The pool spans seventy years, from Rock Around the Clock in 1954 to Espresso in 2024, with one song for each artist.
The cards carry no cover art and no photo. Album artwork is under copyright, so this quiz uses text only.
How to play
The row is sorted by release year. The oldest song is at one end and the newest song is at the other end.
One card starts on the board. Its year is shown.
The quiz gives you one card at a time. Put it in the gap where you think it belongs.
A correct placement shows the year of the song. The card stays on the board and the quiz gives you the next card.
A wrong placement ends the run. The quiz then shows you the correct gap.
You cannot move a card after you place it.
Your score is the number of cards on the board at the end. The maximum score is 20.
A perfect run places all 20 cards with no mistake.
What counts in this quiz
The year a song FIRST came out. When the album came before the single, the album year counts — Billie Jean is 1982, because Thriller came out in November 1982.
A song with more than one famous version uses the version its card names. I Will Always Love You is 1992, the Whitney Houston version.
Two songs from the same year count as equal. Creep and I Will Always Love You are both 1992, so the board takes either order.
One song per artist, so the 52 cards cover 52 different acts.
What's not included — and why
Songs whose first release and famous version sit in different years that people argue about are not in the pool. Hotel California and Mr. Brightside are left out for this reason.
The chart peak does not decide the year. Rock Around the Clock reached number one in 1955, but the record came out in 1954, and 1954 is the answer.
The quiz does not rank the songs by sales or by streams. The release year is the only measure.
Good to know
Rock Around the Clock only became a hit a year after its release, when the movie Blackboard Jungle used it over its opening titles.
Bohemian Rhapsody reached number one in the UK twice: in 1975, and again in 1991 after Freddie Mercury's death.
Take On Me flopped on its first release in 1984. The 1985 version with the pencil-drawn video is the hit the card dates.
Blinding Lights set the record for the most weeks in the top ten of the US singles chart, and it is one of the most streamed songs ever recorded.