The top of the Billboard singles charts is perhaps the most cherished piece of real estate in the music world. You can win Grammys, and you can get year-end critical acclaim, but releasing a song that tops all others in the land, even if only for a week, represents an achievement that many of the biggest names in the music world never could quite manage. In fact, you might be surprised at some of the luminaries that fell short over the years, with the seven below being perhaps the most prominent examples.
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1. Bob Dylan
In terms of influence on songwriters the world over for the past sixty years, Bob Dylan stands alone. And yet he has never been able to stand alone atop the pop charts as an artist. Mind you, both Peter, Paul and Mary (“Blowin’ in the Wind”) and The Byrds (“Mr. Tambourine Man”) took Dylan’s songs to the peak. But when recording his own material, Bob was stuck with the old close-but-no-cigar treatment. Both “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” made it to No. 2 in the mid-’60s, while “Positively 4th Street” and “Lay Lady Lay” crept into the Top 10. As a fun fact, Dylan, as an artist, wouldn’t top any Billboard chart until 2020, when “Murder Most Foul” hit the acme of the Rock Digital Song Sales spot.
2. Jimi Hendrix
Turn on any classic rock station, and it’s likely you won’t go more than a few hours without hearing something from the Hendrix catalog. And yet, when songs like “Purple Haze,” “Hey Joe,” and “Foxy Lady” were released as singles in the US, they largely went ignored by radio. In 1968, Hendrix’s incendiary cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” made it No. 20, but that was close as he would get to a top-charting single. Hendrix did much better as an album artist. Of course, you have to wonder if he eventually would have reached the top spot had he lived longer.
3. Bruce Springsteen
This might be the name on the list that shocks the most people. But you have to remember that even though Springsteen’s 1975 Born to Run album made him a superstar, his singles were still somewhat unwieldy for radio. “Hungry Heart” in 1980 was the first time he hit the Top 5. In 1984, Springsteen made a concerted effort to go the commercial route, and it paid off with a stunning six Top 10 hits from Born in the U.S.A. Lead single “Dancing in the Dark” seemed like a sure bet to top them all, but it ran up against a little song called “When Doves Cry” and stalled at No. 2. The Boss did have the consolation of seeing one of his songs covered by others reach the top when Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s everything-but-the-kitchen-sink version of “Blinded by the Light” got there in 1976.
4. Joni Mitchell
Don’t limit Joni Mitchell by only talking about her impact on female artists. She has inspired countless songwriters and performers with her unique musical approach and soul-baring lyrics. Some might argue that the complexity of her songs precludes pop music success. But that suggests that classics like “Big Yellow Taxi” and “Free Man in Paris” aren’t immediately engaging, which just isn’t true. (The fact that stunners like “The Circle Game” and “A Case of You” were never released as singles also hurt her chances.) In any case, “Help Me” was as close as she came to the Billboard summit, reaching No. 7 in 1964.
5. Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were famously dismissed by critics for much of the early part of their career, even as their albums sold like gangbusters and they packed concert venues around the world. But as far as their lack of a No. 1 song, well, they could partly be blamed for that. The band generally frowned on their songs being released as singles, as they preferred fans to check out the albums in their entirety. Occasionally, individual tracks were released as singles in the US, with “Whole Lotta Love,” which reached No. 4 in 1969, being their biggest chart success in that department. In case you’re wondering, the immortal “Stairway to Heaven” was never released as a single, although, let’s face it, some serious editing would have likely been needed to get that eight-minute track into radio rotations.
6. The Who
The Who’s first Top 20 Billboard hit came in 1967 (“I Can See for Miles”) and they still were hitting the Top 20 as late as 1981 (“You Better You Bet”). Yet in all that time, they never quite made it all the way to the apex of the charts. As a matter of fact, “I Can See for Miles” at No. 9 was as close as they ever got. Maybe you could blame the conceptual bent of their albums. But that argument doesn’t really hold up all that well when you consider that they’ve been responsible for an endless string of iconic rock songs (“Pinball Wizard,” “My Generation,” “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” and so on) that stand alone just fine.
7. Creedence Clearwater Material
Henry Mancini. Tommy Roe. The Archies. These are just a few of the artists who caused Credence Clearwater Revival the ultimate agony when it comes to the Billboard Hot 100. CCR hit the No. 2 spot five times, with the above artists, along with Simon & Garfunkel and Diana Ross, keeping them away from the top. Perhaps even more amazing, they scored nine Top 10 singles in a stretch of just three years (1969-1971.) And yet the top spot always eluded them, even when novelty numbers and soundtrack instrumentals kept them out. Many of the singles that missed were double A-sides, meaning that fans were getting twice the bang for their buck when they bought the 45s, and it still wasn’t enough.’
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