Which musician had the most number-one hits from a single album?
For any artist coming up in the industry, the end goal is always to get their track to number one. It’s not an easy task, but the idea of making a tune so undeniable that everyone in the country is jamming along to it is the dream scenario that makes all those years of hard work pay off. While many pop stars saw their albums as vehicles to create hits, Michael Jackson and Katy Perry still hold records for having the most hits land on top of the hit parade.
While Michael Jackson has become so omnipresent in pop culture, there was a time when he was still being looked at as the kid among pop legends. Yes, he did have natural talent spilling out of him at every turn, but it wasn’t until Off the Wall that he actually started to move in a more adult direction, blending disco and R&B together. It was certainly a great project, but Thriller ended up setting the world on fire.
Despite being known as one of the greatest-selling albums of all time, nearly every song turned into a hit, but Jackson was still just revving up his engines. There are many classic moments on Thriller, but when broken down, Bad might actually be the superior project, if only because of how many tunes got to the top spot.
Boasting five number-one singles, Bad has a far more eclectic mix than Jacko’s last record. The title track was what most people expected following Thriller, but hearing ‘Man in the Mirror’ was a step into power ballad territory, and ‘Dirty Diana’ started his first flirtation with rock and roll that we had seen since ‘Beat It’.
That statistic wouldn’t be matched until the 2010s when Perry struck gold with Teenage Dream, matching with five chart-dominating singles. Whereas Jackson’s record ran the gamut of styles, it’s easy to see what Perry was going for on each of her hits, with the pure sugar rush of ‘California Gurls’ or the macabre take on pop music on ‘ET’.
Without a doubt, the tune that will stand the test of time is the title track. It’s not the most complex take on romance or anything, but hearing Perry break down the rush of being in love for the first time is the closest that she had ever come to hitting on something sentimental in her chart toppers.
Despite winning the musical lottery, though, both Jackson and Perry did have a significant dropoff after their respective projects. Jackson’s fall was noticeably smaller since Dangerous did pretty well on the charts, but by the time he entered the 2000s with Invincible, he seemed to completely wash his hands of his classic sound and wouldn’t put out another full album during his life.
And even with the success of Prism’s songs like ‘Dark Horse’, the rest of the world collectively checked out of what Perry was doing, which turned out to be for the best since Witness turned into a massive bomb where she went in the exact opposite direction of all her strengths. If anything, having the most hits off of a single project seems like both a blessing and a curse since it’s impossible to top. All that hard work wasn’t in vain, but considering where Jackson and Perry ended up, you have to wonder if the success is worth the cost.
