How No Doubt missed out on their only number one song
There were two different worlds in the alternative rock explosion of the 1990s: the true pop crossovers and the surprising success stories. The latter was mostly filled with lifelong Seattle bands or influential underground acts who got swept in the post-Nirvana boom and landed a fluke hit on the Alternative charts. These are your Butthole Surfers, your Meat Puppets, or your Dinosaur Jrs – elder statesmen who briefly rode the wave of commercial success.
In truth, most alternative acts weren’t really pop stars (‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ peaked at number six and was Nirvana’s only top ten hit), but some crossed over in major ways. R.E.M. was probably the first to do so when ‘The Only I Love’ became a surprise top ten hit in America in 1988. From that point on, bands and artists with a mix of rock and pop sounds found themselves at a contentious crossroads between what it meant to be popular and what it meant to be a sellout.
No Doubt were one of the bands at the forefront of this controversy. Originally a ska-punk outfit spearheaded by keyboardist Eric Stefani, the lineup changed and dramatically shifted throughout the late 1980s until the band fully removed the horn players and paired themselves down to a five-man lineup. Well, actually a four-man lineup, plus original backing (now main) vocalist/Eric’s younger sister Gwen.
Eric left as the band completed what would be their breakthrough L.P., 1995’s Tragic Kingdom. With Gwen mainly taking over the musical direction, the band gravitated towards more melodic and less ska/punk-specific material. Tracks like ‘Spiderwebs’ and ‘Just A Girl’ still had elements of their earlier sound, but it was clear that No Doubt was one of the few bands originally from the alternative scene with a real chance of crossover pop success.
That’s exactly what happened with ‘Don’t Speak’, the melancholic minor-key ballad focused on the breakup between Stefani and bassist Tony Kanal. Far and away, No Doubt’s most commercially successful song, ‘Don’t Speak’, hit number one on charts worldwide, including in the UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand and was certified multi-platinum with over two million singles sold. In America, the song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart but never charted on the Hot 100.
That’s because ‘Don’t Speak’ was never technically released as a commercial in the United States. In the era where Billboard still required physical singles for songs to be eligible for their flagship chart, ‘Don’t Speak’ only ever saw a foreign single release and a promotional single release for radio stations to play the track. In the modern day, largely thanks to the dawn of digital media, no physical copies of a single are required. But back in 1996, there was no way for ‘Don’t Speak’ to make it onto the Billboard Hot 100.
Based on radio sales figures and foreign sales numbers, ‘Don’t Speak’ would have been a number one hit for No Doubt. Instead, the band never got that elusive chart-topper, with their closest entry being 2002’s ‘Underneath It All’, which hit number three in November of that year.
It’s not impossible for No Doubt to land a number one song, especially in the streaming age where songs like ‘Running Up That Hill’ and ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ defy the logic of “contemporary pop hits”, but it seems likely that No Doubt missed out on their only number one thanks to an old chart technicality.
