Five #1s from One

Thursday, 18 August 2011

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the fun of tracking Billboard’s #1 hits is the TRIVIA! Today, a performer tied a new record on Billboard’s Hot 100 and, even though I’m not a fan of this performer, I think it’s a pretty cool record and so I’m gonna talk about it here.

Today, singer Katy Perry scored a #1 hit with her song “Last Friday Night” (go ahead and click on the link – the music video is actually kind of fun, especially if you grew up in the 1980s). This marks the fifth #1 song Perry has scored from her album Teenage Dream. The other four #1 hits were:

California Gurls [sic] (hit #1 on June 19, 2010)

Teenage Dream (hit #1 on September 18, 2010)

Firework (hit #1 on December 18, 2010)

E.T. (hit #1 on April 9, 2011)

This is an amazing feat. The album, like most, has 12 tracks on it, meaning that nearly half the songs on the album have gone to #1. This is a rare feat indeed. In fact, no one’s ever done better.

But notice I said she TIED the record? Who, you ask, shares this record with Perry?

I’m glad you asked.

Well, you might be inclined to think of some of the biggest albums from the past 50 years, such as Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon or Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy or Nirvana’s Nevermind. Well, those are pretty lousy guesses actually. Many of rock’s mainstays preferred to not cannibalize their albums by selling the individual songs separately so, in fact, those three albums had a combined total of zero number one hits (and, in fact, Nirvana and Led Zeppelin never had any #1 hits).

Dark Side of the Moon: This enormously selling album scored exactly zero #1 hits.

“Well, then, maybe it was an album that sold well and released separate songs as singles, like the Bee Gees’ Saturday Night Fever or Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA. Those are better guesses – Saturday Night Fever yielded four #1 songs, though, not five. Born in the USA, meanwhile, suffered from a case of really bad luck: it managed to rack up seven top ten singles, but nary a one went all the way to the top (“Dancing in the Dark” stalled at #2).

Back Side of the Springsteen: This enormously selling album also scored exactly zero #1 hits.

“Ah,” you say, “but those albums weren’t big enough! If we’re talking BIG albums, we’re talking Thriller.”

To which I respond: “Yes, Thriller is the best selling album of all time. But since people liked the whole album, they just bought the whole album, not the singles. Thriller ‘only’ achieved two #1 hits.”

Thriller only logged two number one hits? Beat it!

“Oh, well then the record must’ve been set by someone famous for individual songs instead of individual albums, such as Madonna, Mariah Carey, Paula Abdul, or George Michael. ”

These are better guesses. Madonna twice scored three #1 songs from two of her albums, but that’s the best she ever did. Mariah Carey and Paula Abdul, meanwhile, each hit the #1 spot four times with songs from a single album, but not five.

Straight Up now tell me: Would you believe Forever Your Girl garnered FOUR number one hits?

I’m not sure if this album yielded four different #1 songs, or just took the same song to #1 four times.

George Michael, incidentally, came the closest. He achieved #1 four times with songs from his album Faith (“Father Figure,” “Monkey,” “Faith,” and “One More Try”). His song “I Want Your Sex,” however, petered out at #2.

What? You mean Faith wasn’t enough to secure five #1 hits? God, whodda thunk it?

So then you say: “What about Elvis?”

I say: “Sorry, Elvis churned out the albums so fast that none of them had time to churn out five number one hits. He did top the charts as a soloist more than any other act (17 times), but he never managed to wrangle more than two #1 hits off of any album.

So then you say: “Oh – now I know – it must’ve been the Beatles, right?”

Wrong. Like those classic rock acts listed above, the Beatles often preferred to leave their albums in tact. Rubber Soul, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and the white album all went to #1, but none of them were granted a chance at spawning any #1 hit singles. Additionally, they had the nasty habit of releasing some songs without putting them on any album. So even though “Day Tripper” and “Hey Jude” both went to #1, for example, neither of them were credited to a album. The Beatles’ album Help holds two number one songs (“Yesterday” and the title track), Abbey Road had only one, “Come Together,”  Let it Be had three (“Get Back,” “The Long and Winding Road,” and the title track) as did Magical Mystery Tour (“Hello Goodbye,” “Penny Lane,” and “All You Need is Love”). Technically, I suppose, you could argue that their album 1 had those most number one hits on it (20!), but that was compiled retroactively, so it doesn’t count.

All you need is 1: 20 Billboard #1 hits on a single album.

So who did score five number one hits from a single album?

Well, I’ve already said his name, but I threw you off by talking about the wrong album. Michael Jackson hit #1 five times with singles from Bad:

I Just Can’t Stop Loving You (hit #1 on September 18, 1987)

Bad (hit #1 on October 23, 1987)

The Way You Make Me Feel (hit #1 on January 22, 1988)

The Man in the Mirror (hit #1 on March 25, 1988)

Dirty Diana (hit #1 on July 1, 1988)

“Smooth Criminal,” incidentally stalled at #7.

Bad? Not bad.

Anyway, congrats to Perry for tying a record held by the King of Pop for nearly a quarter of a century. HERE’S THE LINK TO BILLBOARD DISCUSSING THE RECORD.

Katy Perry celebrates with class and style.