10 classics that peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100

“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John (1973)

By 1973, Elton John could do no wrong. The album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was the third of six consecutive number-one albums he would release in just over three years. This one was the biggest of them all. It had his second number-one hit, “Bennie and the Jets.” It had his hardest rocking top-20 single, “Saturday Nights All Right for Fighting.”

It had another beloved song that didn’t chart well in 1973, but would return in a massive way 24 years later to reach number one all across the globe. That was “Candle in the Wind,” originally written as a tribute to Marilyn Monroe, and later reworked to honor Princess Di after her death. Kind of lost in the shuffle was one of the best songs he and Bernie Taupin ever wrote – the highly dramatic title track “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”

From its simple piano open, the song builds to a great crescendo which finds Elton at the very top of his range. But he couldn't reach the very top of the charts because he couldn’t get past the Carpenters “Top of the World.” Speaking as a fan of the Carpenters, Elton’s song was better. And it was better than Charlie Rich’s “The Most Beautiful Girl” another song that occupied the top spot while Elton lingered at two.

“When Will I Be Loved” by Linda Ronstadt (1975)

Linda Ronstadt had a string of modest hits in the early ‘70s. Though the public first became aware of her when the band she sang with, The Stone Poneys, released the folk-pop hit “Different Drum”  in 1967, Ronstadt was positioned as a country pop singer prior to 1975. It all changed with the album Heart Like a Wheel. That album featured a mix of rock & roll, ballads, and pop, and it soared to number one. Its lead single, “You’re No Good,” became her first and only number-one single.

The follow-up, a cover of the Everly Brothers’ 1960 hit “When Will I Be Loved,” almost repeated that success but fell just short. That’s unfortunate for two reasons. First, the song shows off the power in Rondstadt’s voice as well as any song she ever recorded. Secondly, and even more baffling, the song that kept it from the top spot was “Love Will Keep Us Together” by Captain & Tennille. Ronstadt would have a lot more hits but none would get to number one. A decade later, she reached the second spot again with duets with both James Ingram and Aaron Neville.