10 iconic musicians who never had a number one single
The biggest artists on the planet are no strangers to number one hits. Given that the most prominent musicians in the world have tended to enjoy longer careers for a reason, it’s almost expected that they would reach the top of the hit parade later down the line. For artists like The Cure and Nirvana, though, they never managed to reach that top spot.
Then again, very few artists are defined by what the charts have to say. Even though they may not have had hits in the traditional sense, most bands were known as album-based artists, adopting the LP as their primary form of expression and spreading their songs out to massive proportions that wouldn’t usually suit a tight radio single.
At the same time, the charts seemed to be the enemy for several bands, often dragging them through the mud for not being accessible to a larger market. Instead of having to go down the road of catering to radio, most of these acts earned their living the hard way, playing day in and day out to anyone who would hear them until they became too big for the radio to ignore anymore.
While a handful of the acts below may have cleaned up nice on their respective niche charts, the mainstream in the US and UK never gave them the light of day at the top. The idea of a number one might be alluring to any prospective songwriter, but the success of acts like this proves that it’s not always about the singles that make them who they are. As long as bands have the right energy and willingness to succeed, anything is possible in the music world.
10 artists who never had a number one:
10. Talking Heads
The majority of the early 1980s is practically a dead zone for decent rock and roll. Although the punk revolution had cleaned out any of the hangers-on from the previous generation, the ones still standing were left too bloated for any casual rock fan to care anymore. With most of the punk bands dying out or fading out of relevancy, Talking Heads emerged from the punk scene with a dorky approach to rock flair.
While David Byrne’s strange voice may have taken a bit of getting used to at the time, Talking Heads were pivotal in the way alternative music would look a few decades later, with tracks like ‘Burning Down the House’ and ‘Psycho Killer’ being the first significant crossover hits from the underground music scene. Even though the band’s songwriting was fantastic, their real strength was in how elastic they could be with their songwriting.
Compared to the standard rock and roll affair, albums like Remain in Light have remained classics for how well they embraced world music, especially on the grooves on tracks like ‘Crosseyed and Painless’ and ‘The Great Curve’. Kurt Cobain may have come along much later to set the underground scene on fire, but the cries of ‘Once in a Lifetime’ signalled that change was already in the air.
9. Sex Pistols
By the time the 1970s reached its midpoint, fans were getting burnt on every other complicated band on the block. No matter how spellbinding acts like Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin may have sounded at the time, their attention to detail became too much for the average person to take in. It was time for a change of scenery, and a brash kid with blonde hair and an anti-singing style birthed the explosion of punk rock.
Throughout their time together, the Sex Pistols created a beautiful mess of sound, with every band member throwing their instruments into high gear and playing the nastiest riffs imaginable like their life depended on it. While the group may have attracted attention, it was never enough to get them the same admiration on the charts, with their closest hit being ‘God Save the Queen’ reaching number two.
Regardless of what arbiters of good taste were saying at the time, the power behind their debut Nevermind the Bollocks launched thousands of bands, inspiring artists as diverse as Oasis and Mötley Crüe. The Sex Pistols never claimed to be the greatest band in the world, but the fact that they never saw the top of the charts is something to be worn like a badge of honour.
8. Black Sabbath
The beginnings of heavy metal music have been locked in a neverending debate for years. While music enthusiasts claim The Beatles started the genre with ‘Helter Skelter’, others might argue that The Kinks’ ‘You Really Got Me’ signalled a new regime of heavy bands with its carnal approach to riffage. Then again, any self-respecting metal fan contests that Black Sabbath are ground zero for what metal would become.
Kicking off generations of imitators, a whole new genre of music was birthed the minute that people heard Tony Iommi’s guitar. Making the most demented riffs imaginable underneath Ozzy Osbourne’s thick bluesy vocals, every single Sabbath album represented the opposite of the Flower Power dream, driving a firm stake through the heart of hippies everywhere.
Then again, the scariness of the music was enough to turn a few people off, leaving most of their singles to be enjoyed by fans of heavier rock that gravitated towards albums rather than singles. Although Osbourne would become a solo star with multiple hits under his belt outside of Sabbath, no one forgets the first time they get chills while listening to tracks like ‘Iron Man’ or ‘Children of the Grave’.
7. Steely Dan
Steely Dan never really had a concern about being cool. Although Donald Fagen and Walter Becker could play most of their contemporaries under the table, their penchant for being inspired by everything but rock and roll served them well as one of the premier acts of the 1970s. While not every song was radio-friendly, who needs the radio when you have chops like this?
Though the band’s life started out with blue-eyed soul on songs like ‘Dirty Work’, the next few years would see Becker and Fagen creating musical marvels over long stretches on albums. Even when the radio refused to give them a number one hit, the grooves were too good to ignore, with ‘Rikki Don’t Lose That Number’ becoming one of their biggest smashes at number four on the charts.
Despite not being the darlings of the mainstream, Steely Dan’s impact on the music industry at large can’t be ignored, especially considering their innovations in the way records were mixed on masterpieces like Aja. Steely Dan may not have been looking to get hits, but their reappraisal as the epitome of cool today feels like the rest of the world is finally catching up to them.
6. Bruce Springsteen
For years after his prime, rock fans wondered if they would ever see an artist reach the same levels as Bob Dylan. Although Mr Zimmerman never went anywhere, his knack for snide social commentary started to delve inward further down the line, writing tracks about himself rather than the people he saw on the street. Just when he was bowing out of the limelight, a kid from Jersey began toying with the idea of making his own odes to street life.
Utilising the sheer force of his E Street Band, Bruce Springsteen became one of the biggest artists in the world for his graphic tales of blue-collar people who had nothing to lose and would rather die trying to follow their dreams. Even though Springsteen’s wordplay was phenomenal, most casual listeners didn’t have the attention span to learn all the vast intricacies of what Wendy was doing in ‘Born to Run’.
Although Springsteen would streamline his sound throughout the years to become one of the biggest names in rock music, the closest he came to the top of the charts on either side of the Atlantic came with ‘Dancing in the Dark’, thanks in no small part to the iconic music video he made for MTV. Springsteen might have built up a rock and roll institution over his years as a bandleader, but the fact that he never reached the top speaks to his blue-collar spirit. Every day, he’s still chipping away at writing the next masterpiece song.
5. The Cure
As the punk waves faded at the end of the 1970s, most fans were wondering where to go next. Since the last rock movement was about self-destruction and causing as much anarchy as possible, where does one go after everything’s burned down? While the new wave began to progress music forward, Robert Smith helped rock move inward with The Cure.
Throughout their iterations as a streamlined post-punk act and one of the forebearers of goth rock, The Cure paved the way for pop-centric songs that toed the line between stunningly gorgeous and heartbreakingly sad. Although the band would get a massive boost in the late 1980s from the success of Disintegration and Wish, the closest they came to a chart-topper came with the singles ‘Love Song’ and ‘Friday I’m In Love’, each featuring Smith’s breathtaking croon.
Regardless of their time in the spotlight, The Cure still manages to garner a massive fanbase, many of whom would take their template to the top of the charts, like Chester Bennington of Linkin Park and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. While The Cure may not have cracked the code on making a hit song, they certainly taught many musicians what can happen if you open your heart on a song.
4. The Who
The massive wave of British Invasion bands of the 1960s restructured how most thought of rock and roll. Although Chuck Berry may have invented the idea of making rave-up music, artists like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones started mining traditional blues and pop textures to become the biggest acts in the world. Though the three-minute single may have had a healthy shelf life, Pete Townshend wanted to take The Who further than pop music.
Coming out amid the flux of British Mod bands, Townshend started incorporating elaborate stories into his music, forming the basis of conceptual rock with albums like Tommy and Quadrophenia. Although Townshend could often distil his masterpieces like ‘Baba O’Riley’ and ‘I Can See For Miles’ into decent pop singles, none of them were able to cross over to the top spot.
Then again, The Who’s existence was never geared towards traditional pop music. Alongside acts like Led Zeppelin, The Who practically invented the album-based rock band format, with fans looking to take in their records as an entire piece of work rather than a set of singles slapped together in a decent order. The average music fan might buy a record for the single, but Townshend was about having an epiphany go off in one’s head when they heard his music.
3. Jimi Hendrix
At the turn of the 1960s, rock and roll was finally starting to become a genre that could have a cultural voice. With acts like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones breaking free of the norms of traditional music-making, it was only a matter of time before newer artists would come out of the woodwork to build upon the legacy that The British Invasion was leaving behind. Just when acts like Cream were starting to make a mark on the British rock scene, an American transplant named Jimi Hendrix put every guitar player to shame.
Coming over with his band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Hendrix became known as one of the kings of rock guitar overnight, pioneering techniques that most guitarists are still trying to figure out to this day. Whereas most fans might know Hendrix these days for his blues-drifter persona, his strength was in his songwriting, able to pull off hard rock on ‘All Along the Watchtower’ and delicate ballads on ‘The Wind Cries Mary’.
While fans could appreciate Hendrix’s technical complexity, the song ‘Purple Haze’ remained his highest-charting record, making it to number three on the British charts, while acts like The Beatles continued to dominate. Even though Hendrix was not long for this world, the innovations he brought to the guitar in such a short timeframe are a work of superhuman genius.
2. Metallica
When metal was still finding its feet, few average listeners would count themselves as fans. Even if a handful of kids could recognise the riff of ‘Iron Man’ or sing along to a Van Halen track now and again, the grizzly flavour of metal seemed to be reserved for the underground, always a niche for kids that were into heavy music rather than whatever was clogging the charts. Time can be strange, though, and once the 1990s kicked in, one of the biggest metal acts of all time found themselves on the hit parade.
Considering their pedigree for long songs that would have identifiable sections, Metallica seems like the last band to have a hit record reach number one. Then again, teaming up with producer Bob Rock on The Black Album made it suddenly seem possible, especially off the back of radio-friendly rockers like ‘Enter Sandman’ and ‘Nothing Else Matters’.
Once the decade was out, though, the band’s closest thing to a massive chart hit was ‘Until it Sleeps’, by which point most metal fans were decrying their favourite band for selling out to the mainstream with a more alternative-leaning look onstage. Then again, Metallica were never meant to be chart darlings. They made their living on the road, and their reputation as the ultimate road dogs has persisted ever since.
1. Nirvana
It’s never easy to judge the biggest bands in the world unless it’s in hindsight. Although the counterculture of the 1960s seemed easy to realise at the time, there was still a lot of toothless bubblegum pop on the charts when Jefferson Aeroplane made records like ‘White Rabbit’. Then again, there has never been as sharp a pivot in the history of rock music as what Nirvana did in 1991.
Erupting out of the Pacific Northwest, Kurt Cobain garnered the title of cultural leader off the back of Nevermind, convincing millions of kids to leave the spandex at home and get immersed in the sounds of loud guitars and lyrics about alienation. Since the charts weren’t ready for the ‘80s to be over, their signature hit ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ only reached as high as number six, with ‘Come As You Are’ only scraping to the mid-30s.
While ‘Teen Spirit’ may not have reached the top of the charts, the writing was on the wall that music was changing. Beyond alternative music, Cobain kicked down the door for anything to have a shot on the charts, to the point where acts from genres like swing, metal, and everything in between had a shot at the big time. Cobain may not have conquered Billboard, but his breakthrough into the charts opened the door for legions of other musical eccentrics to make their warped classics.
