Read this first!
I can guarantee this will be controversial, but the answers listed here are all documented and backed up by the most authoritative book on the history of US pop music, Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles. I strongly recommend you click the link to it on the quiz page if you have any interest in pop music. Whitburn's books are the bibles of the industry.
I'm sure several of the answers will surprise regular classic rock station listeners. But what is big on classic rock stations today and what actually made it to Pop stations back in the day is often very different.
So to anticipate some arguments:
Why isn't "Stairway To Heaven" on here? Because it was never released as a single, mostly. And only singles could appear on the Hot 100 in the 1970's. But even if Stairway had come out on a 7", at almost 8 minute long, it would have limited appeal on radio stations that, back then, were playing The Osmonds, Helen Reddy, or Gilbert O'Sullivan. If Led Zeppelin had released Stairway as a single, I really don't think it would have even made the top ten in its day. BTW, the song listed isn't just Led Zep's highest charting song, it's the only top ten single they ever had on the pop charts!
In fact, the same is true of Pink Floyd & The Who. The songs listed here are the only top ten songs these two acts ever had. Hard to believe, I know.
Are you $#!**ing me? AC/DC never had a song any higher than #23 on the charts? Sabbath never even reached the top 40? Nope, I'm not.
But Nirvana! That song had to get higher than #6, right? Wrong. Nirvana were surprisingly lucky to get that high back in 1989, since at the time the charts were stuffed with Michael Jackson and New Kids On The Block and Paula Abdul. What were we thinking? Ehhhh, we were young and didn't know any better.
You may think that other songs were bigger in their day. You may even want them to be with all your soul. But sadly, they often weren't. This quiz is an attempt to put truth ahead of truthiness. |
Superstars' Greatest Hits
Classic Rock in Other Words
Modern Rock Hits (2000s)
