The Oak Ridge Boys basics Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Oak Ridge Quartet

In 1963 they changed their name from the Oak Ridge Quartet to the Oak Ridge Boys so as not to be lumped in with all the other gospel quartets at the time. They were trying to set themselves apart.

Answer: Elvira

With the memorable bass singing 'oom pah pah mou mou', the Oaks were catapulted into super-stardom with the song 'Elvira'. This song was written by Dallas Frazier.

Answer: Y'all Come Back Saloon

"Y'all Come Back Saloon" from the album of the same name, was released in 1977. It went all the way to #3 finally making them a national success.

Answer: William Lee Golden

On Christmas 1979, William Lee decided to quit cutting his hair. The following Thanksgiving, he quit trimming his beard. William Lee grew up without the amenities of life we are all accustomed to, and when he became a man, he felt the need to go back to his roots and become a "mountain man".

Answer: Steve Sanders

Singin' Steve Sanders, who had been playing rhythm guitar for the Mighty Oaks Band for about 5 years, was given the baritone spot in the Oak Ridge Boys after William Lee left. Steve had been singing since he was a child, even recording albums as 'Little Stevie Sanders'.

Answer: True

Tommy Fairchild was the pianist 99% of the time for the Oak Ridge Quartet/Boys from 1957 to 1972. His son, Ronnie, became the Oaks' pianist in 1980.

Answer: Richard Sterban

Born on April 24, 1943 in Camden, New Jersey, Richard became an Oak Ridge Boy in 1972.

Answer: Elvis Presley

Richard sang with the Stamps from 1970-72.

Answer: False

Even though there was some bad blood for a few years, all ill feelings were eventually smoothed over. Then, finally, at 12:00am on January 1, 1996, William Lee Golden once again became an Oak Ridge Boy, joining the others on stage in Merriville, IN. after an 8 year split.

Answer: The atomic bomb was being manufactured

In January 1943, there was no Oak Ridge - no town, no name, and no people. Only two months earlier the Army had designated 59,000 acres of land in a valley between the Cumberland and Smoky Mountain ranges, the center of which was about eighteen miles west of Knoxville, TN., as the Kingston Demolition Range, and all 3,000 residents of the settlements like Scarboro, Robertsville, and Wheat had been evacuated.

A few construction workers had arrived in November of 1942, and at their suggestion the place was named Oak Ridge, after Black Oak Ridge, one of the five pine-and-oak covered ridges in the area. Within two years, 75,000 people had moved there, and nobody, not even the majority of the new residents, knew why! But from the tight security at the guard gates, it was obvious the military was involved in a secret project.

It was secret, all right! It was the best kept secret of World War II. It was the Manhattan Project...the atom bomb!