The five shortest number one songs in music history
The mindset behind any hit single is to keep things short and sweet. While many bands might try to rework the fabric of a traditional pop hit whenever they can, the idea of “don’t bore us, get to the chorus” has been on the lips of many labels that just want to hear the bare minimum. Even though many artists can feel confined to having the smallest timeframe possible, the greatest names in music have used those restrictions to their advantage.
As far back as the 1950s, though, it was almost expected that every song was reasonably concise. Looking back on the celebrated hits of acts like Chuck Berry and Little Richard, for example, most of those songs seem to hover around the two-minute mark, using the single more as a vehicle for their live shows than anything else.
Around the same time as the early rock and rollers, Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs created one of the shortest hits ever made with their song ‘Stay’. Having more in common with the sounds of doo-wop that were happening around the same time, Williams made their statement in just under two minutes, with the final song clocking in at 1:37.
Even though Williams had set the bar for what could be done with such a short timeframe, guitarist Adam Faith wasn’t too far behind, gaining his first number one hit with ‘What Do You Want’, which was only one second longer than ‘Stay’. Outside of the two hits, the music landscape was already beginning to change.
By the time rock and roll had started to spread out, the likes of Little Richard were also giving way to newer artists wanting to make music with the same kind of intensity. Even though rock had remained a niche genre throughout the 1950s, it didn’t take long before a crooner from the South came to turn the music world on its head.
Cutting his teeth playing songs from rock giants, Elvis Presley was able to top the hit parade with another short song, singing his pseudo-ballad ‘Teddy Bear’ for only 1:46. Even though it was common practice to keep runtimes compact in those days, it wasn’t until The Beatles came along.
Taking the sound of rock and roll and filtering them through their unique sense of harmony, John Lennon and Paul McCartney managed to get one of the shortest number ones on the charts with ‘From Me To You’, clocking in at just under two minutes. Though the band would spend the rest of their career taking music in more adventurous directions, there was still room for artists to experiment with what made the band irresistible to begin with.
During the late 1960s, the advent of power pop began out of England and America, with acts like The Box Tops garnering success off their bite-sized single ‘The Letter’, only lasting 1:55. While the band would fizzle out only a few years after their big hit, bandleader Alex Chilton would continue to be a massive force in rock music, playing in the legendary power pop act Big Star a few years later.
Thanks to progressive acts pushing the boundaries of where rock could go during the 1970s, though, many artists began to expand the length of their tracks, either adding different ambient sounds to set the mood for the music or getting the chance to experiment with the traditional construction of a popular song. While the charts may be more adventurous thanks to the larger timeframe, having a song make a compact statement while being this short is truly a lost art.
Five shortest songs to hit number one:
- ‘Stay’ – Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs (1:37)
- ‘What Do You Want’ – Adam Faith (1:38)
- ‘Teddy Bear’ – Elvis Presley (1:46)
- ‘From Me To You’ – The Beatles (1:56)
- ‘The Letter’ – The Box Tops (1:55)
