The Best Artists and Bands Without a No. 1 Album

Last option ftw

h/t to some dude for pointing this out on Twitter

I scrounged up 10 fantastic bands that never hit the top. Some make a little sense. Others blew my mind.

It's useful to finally have a list of all of the artists without a no. 1 album.

I don't know the dude who wrote this, I don't work in media, I have no real stake in ridiculing his piece

AND YET I FEEL A BURNING URGE TO DENIGRATE UNTIL THE COWS COME HOME

I mean ffs, who in their right mind is surprised that THE REPLACEMENTS or WILCO never had a number one album

trying to imagine Dan dancing to Pavement.

I was too busy listening to Tool to pay attention to Pavement

Pavement were inescapable in '94, with their glut of Coca-Cola commercials and their sold out stadium tour and winning Album of the Year at the Grammys. It blows my mind that their album only hit no. 2 on the Billboard albums chart. But it's hard to reach the peak with a band as massive as L7 clinging tenaciously to the top spot for a record 49 weeks.

She seems to always fall into an odd pocket of music. Her jazzy, whiskey-soaked piano tone could fit into the Norah Jones realm, but her personal lyrics tend to freak out the average suburbanites who view Jones as “quirky.”

TAKE THAT, JOHN Q. SQUARESVILLE.

On top of that, members of the band have collaborated with everyone you can think of across all genres (Mos Def, Incubus, Dave Matthews Band)

That is literally everyone I can think of.

Their political punk rock, their use/experimentation with dubstep (the real dubstep), and their various fusions with reggae were paramount to future groups.

which, yeah, means i read the whole thing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M4InIAbDZ8

no Los Del Rio? no School of Fish? this list is an outrage.

You know who HAS had a number 1 album, is Lou Bega

Who would believe a list on a website would be pointless

it's good to know that all the black people have had number one albums but the roots

I'll be honest and say I'm a little surprised The Clash never got a #1 album.

For the most part, the bands on this list didn’t strike me as a huge surprise. They’re all praiseworthy, and they’ve all released some of the best albums to date, but some are a little under the radar, so it’s understandable that they never attained that coveted #1. When it comes to The Clash, however, I was absolutely dumbstruck.

I don't think I understand this list?

guys i wd like to riff on "the real Dubstep" for a couple of hours but can i be arsed?

clash hit No. 2 twice in england but no one caresy waresies

The writer is probably just a guy trying to make his way through life as best he can, and god knows it's a struggle, and I like Fiona Apple, so I voted for her rather than 'I would like to heap abuse upon the author'.

The list makes me want to give the writer a hug more than it makes me want to heap abuse upon him.

NAF ‏@GaryDinkledge 11 Nov
Just want to brag that two of the articles I worked on for @coslive in the past few weeks have gained approx. 250k views. Feels good.

NAF ‏@GaryDinkledge 11 Nov
Not to mention that the site is hitting 6million uniques a month or more. Damn thing is on fire. PROUD

People who know about such things, is this a good number of pageviews? It sounds like a lot?

actually kinda surprised wilco never had a #1 album now that billboard is broken and there's a new #1 every week and wilco is a famous band

From the comments:

Eron
• 4 months ago

No Velvet Underground? Way more influential than Pavement or the Ramones, and at least as influential as The Clash. I think they only had one album crack the top 100. To me they are a glaring omission.

Nick Freed
• 4 months ago

I went back and forth on Velvet Underground definitely. I would argue that they weren't as influential as The Ramones necessarily. I also steered away since really the core of the band (Reed, John Cale, etc.) only lasted a couple albums. They definitely had the influence, but the output from the heavy hitters moved me away. Good choice though!

Hey man, he is only concerned with the heavy hitters!

yeah Wilco is the one i would say would be the most plausible of these to have a #1 album -- they've had a couple #4 albums, so if they released something in a really slow week it could totally happen.

Neither the Who nor Miles Davis had a #1 album in the US. Oh wait, I didn't see what he'd said about only focusing on the heavy hitters. Never mind.

I am mildly surprised Fiona Apple hasn't had a #1 album, for some reason I always had this idea she was huge in the US.

She is very huge in the US.

all her albums have been in the top 20. the only one that was a really huge seller was her first, though, and first albums usually never peak high because they're slowly winning new fans over the course of the album cycle instead of having a big debut week.

yeah tidal's still easily her biggest album and it peaked at 15 for the reasons some dude noted, her others have charted well but more as a reflection of where the industry and the charts are now (similar to how cake had a #1 album a couple of years ago well after their actual peak). she's totally someone who could plausibly have a #1 album at some point, she's almost definitely seen her peak on the singles chart though w/ 'criminal' hitting #17. was tempted to look around and put together a list of artists it actually is shocking never had a #1 album, the who were the first who came to mind. rihanna would've made it until her last album. same w/ black sabbath.

replacements, obv

From The Book of Rock Lists

(this list is from 1981, but none of these artists have had a #1 album since then, either)

The Bee Gees
Aretha Franklin
Marvin Gaye
Grand Funk Railroad
Al Green
The Kinks (maybe not too surprising, but they had 23 chart albums)
The Miracles (also 23 chart albums)
Joni Mitchell
James Taylor
The Temptations (27 chart albums)
The Ventures (huh? Yeah, but 36 chart albums)
The Who

Oh, whoops, list should be "Artists Who Never Had A #1 Album"

bee gees' spirits having flown went to #1. grand funk railroad and james taylor never making #1 is pretty shocking.

Yeah, I thought there was a Bee Gees album that had hit #1.

Grand Funk is probably the most surprising of that lot. And the Who are the CCR of the US album charts: four #4s, two #2s, and four others in the top 10.

Ruins
Magma
Van Der Graff Generator
Arab on Radar
Universe Zero
Henry Cow
Eugene Chadbourne
Boredoms
Captain Beefheart
Plastic People of the Universe
Royal Trux
LIghtning Bolt
Venom P Stinger
Borbetomagus
Galloping Coroners
New Blockaders
Copernicus
Zoogs Rift
Radiopuhelimet
Gerogerigegege
Furze
Liquorball
Shit and Shine
Negativland
Sun City Girls
Les Rallizes Denudes
Art Zoyd
Bathtub Shitter
Abruptum
US Maple
Gravitar
Jandek

Rush is the answer. They've had a #2, but not a #1. And they are third behind Beatles and Stones for most consecutive gold and platinum records. Think about that.

yeah they were a big soundscan winner but they've still not managed a number one even though they seem like the textbook example of a megasuccessful cult act that should be hitting number one first week of release w/ every album nowadays

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