Tom Petty never had a song hit number one on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. Not as a Heartbreaker or as a Wilbury. Not as a crutch of mud. Not all by his lonesome. He got close to singing “Stop Dragging My Heart Around” with Stevie Nicks in 1981, but even that number fell just short of the top. It’s hard to get to number one.
And yet Rick Astley has done it. Twice.
I’ve been writing recently about all the terrible songs that have climbed the Billboard mountain in the rock & roll era, so today I thought I flip the script. Today we’re going to talk about ten great rock songs that didn’t quite make it. These songs climbed all the way to number two, but ran out of steam - or ran into a juggernaut – before crossing the finish line.
10 classics that never reached number one of the Billboard Hot 100
And please note – I’m talking rock & roll songs today. So if you’re looking for Eminem’s “Without Me” or Fetty Wap’s “Trap Queen,” that’s for a different list. “Drunk in Love” couldn’t match “Crazy in Love.” It stalled out at number 2, but I’m not talking about Beyonce or Jay Z today.
I’m not even going to mention Green Day’s highest-charting single, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” because it came out in 2004, and I am arbitrarily drawing the line on these classic rock songs at 2000. Sorry Green Day.
Don’t worry, we still get ten excellent rock songs that were worthy of being number one but didn’t quite get there. Let’s see why.
“Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby” by the Beatles (1966)
Look at that, right off the bat you get a two-fer. The Beatles had so many spectacularly successful songs that they could afford to put out double-sided singles. These two songs were released together, and a weirder pairing could hardly be imagined. The exquisite chamber music portrait of loneliness, “Eleanor Rigby,” had nothing but harmonizing voices and strings. Meanwhile, the carefree nursery rhyme “Yellow Submarine” had sound effects galore. Geroge Harrison’s new wife Pattie Boyd was credited with “laughter.” It has a classic Ringo vocal.
Ringo songs weren’t supposed to be the hits. They were change-of-pace amusements. According to Far Out Magazine, “Eleanor Rigby” did indeed drive sales in the UK. But in the USA, concerns over John Lennon’s incendiary reference to the Beatles being “bigger than Jesus” caused the record label to push the harmless “Yellow Submarine” over the story of Eleanor and Father McKenzie.
Though it hit number one in the UK, it was not able to overtake the Supremes “You Can’t Hurry Love” in the USA. Never fear – the lads had already scored a dozen number-ones and would rebound with eight more after this.
“Barbara Ann” by the Beach Boys (1966)
OK, if you want to get technical, the Beach Boys cover of the Regents’ “Barbara-Ann” hit number two on the charts before the Beatles’ double single. I just wanted to start you off with a two-fer. Besides, it was the same year. The Beach Boys released “Barbara Ann” at the very end of 1965, but it didn’t claim its number two position until the following year.
The “Barbara Ann” that the Beach Boys put out is a much more vocally dynamic version than the somewhat drone-like Regents’ song. The instrumentation is minimal, but it allows for some cool harmonies, and an undeniable paired lead from Brian Wilson and the Boys' pal Dean Torrence, of Jan and Dean fame. The Beach Boys already had a couple of number ones in the bank and would get there again with “Good Vibrations.”
Not many subsequent groups would try to outdo the Beach Boys’ version, but both the Who and John Travolta – as Vinnie Barbarino – would give it a try. Oh, and the song that prevented “Barbara Ann” from hitting number one? The Supremes” “You Can’t Hurry Love.” If you have to be a runner-up, that’s not a bad song to follow.
“Bad Moon Rising” by Credence Clearwater Revival (1969)
CCR was the king of the number twos. (That kind of sounds like it should be a Bloodhound Gang title, doesn’t it?) John Fogerty and the boys had five releases reach number two (seven, if you count both sides of the double-sided singles) without ever having a chart-topper. “Proud Mary” came first, and then later in the same year, it was “Bad Moon Rising,” one of their definitive swamp rockers.
Perhaps surprising to today’s audiences, Henry Mancini’s lovely piano-based arrangement of the “Love Theme from ‘Romeo and Juliet’” kept “Bad Moon Rising from number one. But don’t feel too bad – it showed up big time on the soundtrack of John Landis’ 1981 cult favorite “American Werewolf in London.”
“Kodachrome” by Paul Simon (1973)
“Kodachrome” was one of two songs that fell short of the top spot from Simon’s second solo album after breaking away from Art Garfunkel. The other near miss from There Goes Rhymin’ Simon was “Loves Me Like a Rock.” With Art Garfunkel, he had gotten to number one three times, but he would have to wait two more years to do it on his own, with 1975’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.”
Billy Preston’s “Will It Go ‘Round in Circles” was the song that blocked “Kodachrome.” That is a better fate than that of “Loves Me Like a Rock.” Cher’s “Half Breed” played the villain in that story.
“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.
“We Got the Beat” by the Go-Gos (1982)
The Go-Gos’ Beauty and the Beat was the number-one album in the USA for six consecutive weeks in the Spring of 1982. Rolling Stone ranked it as the 60th-best debut of all time. Paste had it at 39 on their list. Its first single, “Our Lips are Sealed,” cracked the top-twenty. The next one, a song written by guitarist Charlotte Caffey and released as a non-album single in 1980, just missed out on number one.
The Go-Gos’ rerecorded “We Got the Beat” for Beauty and the Beat. Caffey's keyboard propelled the new version, which allowed her guitar to wander a bit more. And they dropped the fluffy background vocals. It made the song sound a little fuller and rock a little harder. But the Go-Gos never rocked as hard as the woman who kept them from number one – Joan Jett, whose cover of “I Love Rock n Roll” ensured that, at least for a brief moment in 1982, female rock & rollers held the top two spots on the Billboard chart.
“Dancing in the Dark” by Bruce Springsteen (1984)
I mentioned at the beginning that Tom Petty never had a number-one song. Neither has Bruce Springsteen, which is pretty shocking. The man had a dozen top-ten singles. Almost half of his albums – nine in all – made it to the top of the album chart. But no single ever got there. The closest he ever came was with the lead single from his biggest album, the 17X platinum Born in the USA.
“Dancing in the Dark” has the typical strong beat you associate with Springsteen’s rockers, but keyboardist Roy Bittan tosses in some synthesizers to liven things up. And Springsteen still delivers the desperation that characterizes so many of his best vocals on lines like “I check my look in the mirror – Wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face.” But two different songs kept “Dancing in the Dark” from number one. There’s no shame whatsoever in finishing second to Prince’s groundbreaking “When Doves Cry.” Coming in behind Duran Duran’s “The Reflex” – that’s a different matter.
“Purple Rain” by Prince (1984)
Prince’s “When Doves Cry,” the lead single from his international smash album Purple Rain, is one of the songs that prevented Bruce Springsteen from getting to number one, so I suppose it’s only fair that third single from Purple Rain – the title track – was itself kept one spot shy of number one. But did it have to be Wham’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” that played the spoiler? I don’t really hate that snappy little George Michael confection, but come on – it’s no “Purple Rain.”
“Purple Rain,” in its full album form, is a titanic piece of music. Clocking in at just under nine minutes, it features Revolution stalwarts Wendy and Lisa on guitar and synths, as well as a rhythm section, electric grand piano, and the equivalent of a string quartet. And, of course, Prince plays a million instruments and sings the hell out of it. The single release was cut in half but lost little of its epic grandeur. Even so, it got left hanging like a yo-yo.
“Under the Bridge” by Red Hot Chili Peppers (1992)
RHCP was a constant presence at the top of the rock chart at the end of one millennium and at the dawn of a new one. But they only cracked the top ten on the Hot 100 three times. Two of those top-ten hits, “Scar Tissue” and “Dani California,” were indeed number-one rock chart hits. But the other one – the song that got closer to the top than any other, was only number-six on the rock chart. That makes “Under the Bridge” the only RHCP single that scored higher on the Hot 100 than on the rock chart.
It also served as something of an early turning point. Though it bothered some early fans who didn’t appreciate the move away from funk rock, it broadened the appeal and introduced them to many new listeners. They would continue to balance harder funk with more introspective ballads to great popular success for the next several decades.
The song that kept “Under the Bridge out of number one was not quite as introspective, though it did promise to “make you bump, hump, wiggle and shake your rump,” which is something that RHCP might well do I a different song. Only this time it was Kris Kross doing it in “Jump.”
That's it for today. I think I'll try to write something called "King of the Number Twos" and see if Bloodhound Gang is interested.