As I bring to a close this three-week look at major artists who failed to achieve a #1 hit, I wanted to save a big one for last.
Journey has released two Platinum, five multi-Platinum, and one Diamond studio album. They also lay claim to two Platinum or multi-Platinum live albums, and a greatest hits collection that went 18X Platinum. That’s a lot of platinum!
And yet, despite releasing some of the most iconic pop rock songs of the 70s and 80s, Journey has never reached the top of the Hot 100.
Pat Benatar is another rock legend who has never landed a #1 hit on the Hot 100, though she has come close a couple of times.
Like so many artists I’ve featured over the past three weeks, Benatar has had a lot of success selling albums. She released three Platinum and two multi-Platinum albums during a 5-year span in the late 70s and early 80s. But those albums produced just two top ten hits.
Rock bands, especially ones with a harder edge, have historically had a tough time dominating the singles chart. Perhaps no better example exists than Led Zeppelin.
The English rockers are one of the top-selling bands of all time, with more than 300 millions albums sold worldwide, and more than 110 million in the U.S. Of their eight studio albums, four went Diamond while the rest were merely multi-Platinum. Led Zeppelin IV is one of only 12 albums in history to go double Diamond.
All that record-breaking success, and yet Led Zeppelin has never had a #1 hit on the Hot 100.
After working for six years as a music teacher, backup singer, and songwriter-for-hire, Sheryl Crow found major success with her debut album, 1993’s Tuesday Night Music Club. That album went 7x Platinum and remains her biggest hit.
Though she didn’t match her debut’s success, she did release four more Platinum or multi-Platinum albums over the next 12 years, and has sold 50 million albums worldwide while winning nine Grammys throughout her career. She has not, however, had a song reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Tom Petty writes songs that sound like big hits, even if it turns out they weren’t — at least not when they were released. I think of all the artists I’m covering over these three weeks, he has the most bona fide classics that never came close to reaching #1.
Consider this list of songs: ‘Breakdown,’ ‘American Girl,’ ‘Listen to Her Heart,’ ‘Refugee,’ ‘Here Comes My Girl,’ ‘The Waiting,’ ‘You Got Lucky,’ ‘Don’t Come Around Here No More,’ ‘Rebels,’ ‘I Won’t Back Down,’ ‘Running Down a Dream,’ ‘Learning to Fly,’ ‘You Don’t Know How It Feels.’
Forget #1… none of those songs even cracked the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100. Are you kidding me?
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