Welcome to the second part of our countdown through the forty highest selling acts (worldwide) that have never managed a UK chart-topping single. Before cracking on with numbers 35-31, check out the first installment here, featuring some surprisingly big names and also an explanation of how the concept of ‘highest selling’ has been worked out.
All caught up? Then here’s the next five:
35. Green Day
Biggest hit: ‘The Saints Are Coming’ with U2 (#2, in 2006)
I was all ready to write about ‘American Idiot’ (#3, in 2004) as Green Day’s biggest hit… But the discographies don’t lie. Who knew, or remembered, that this duet with U2 had charted a place higher?
Recorded to raise money for those affected in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, and with a snatch of ‘House of the Rising Sun’ in the intro, this is a good cover of the Skids’ original. Yet it is also frustrating that this is Green Day’s biggest hit over some of their earlier pop-punk classics, or their era-defining ‘American Idiot’ hits. Though I feel some personal pride here, as Skids are from my hometown, and they always get slightly overshadowed by Big Country (the band Stuart Adamson formed post-Skids).
34. Nirvana
Biggest hit: ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ (#5, in 1993)
Two of the biggest alt-rock acts of the nineties, back to back. And again, not many people would pick ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ as Nirvana’s biggest hit, over you-know-what (it made #7). But I’m so glad it is, because it is a freakin’ tune! No band has more perfectly balanced heavy rock with pop melodies, and this is them at the peak of their powers, the lead single from third album ‘In Utero’, and probably the best song ever written about children with terminal cancer. Plus, the scene in the video with the band playing against a blood-red sky is the most gorgeous snapshot of that early-nineties, grunge aesthetic.
33. Imagine Dragons
Biggest Hit: ‘Sucker for Pain’ with Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, Ty Dolla Sign & Logic (#11 in 2016)
Up next, Imagine Dragons. Or, as I like to call them, Everything That Is Wrong With Rock Music in the 21st Century. And of course they’ve sold more than Nirvana and Green Day… But like the illustrious pair that they outrank, Imagine Dragons biggest UK chart hit is not their most famous. (You know, the one that goes thump thump shout shout thump shout). In ‘Sucker for Pain’, from the ‘Suicide Squad’ soundtrack, they act as mere comperes, singing the same chorus over and over for a revolving cast of rappers, and their douchebaggery is diluted. It’s still not a very good song though.
32. Tom Petty
Biggest hit: ‘I Won’t Back Down’ with the Heartbreakers (#28, in 1989)
Like so many artists in this Top 40, Tom Petty was far more succesful in his native US (where this track made #12). And it’s kind of easy to see why, because this is proper, chugging, heartland rock that doesn’t quite translate to our green and sometimes pleasant land. But there’s a strong British influence on display here, with Jeff Lynne writing and producing (that beat has Lynne written all over it) and George Harrison on guitar. Speaking of Lynne and Harrison, the biggest UK hit that Petty featured on had come a year earlier: the Travelling Wilbury’s ‘Handle With Care’.
31. Van Halen
Biggest hit: ‘Jump’ (#7, in 1984)
Unlike every other act in this section, Van Halen’s biggest hit in the UK is the song you’d probably expect. In actual fact, ‘Jump’ was Van Halen’s first Top 40 hit in Britain. It’s interesting, American disinterest towards British glam rock in the seventies was largely replicated by the British public towards American glam metal in the eighties. And I have to admit that ‘Jump’ has always left this Brit fairly cold. It’s catchy, and the synth riff is memorable, but it pales in comparison to earlier, harder rocking Van Halen hits. It pales in comparison too to the other singles from ‘1984’, like ‘Panama’ and ‘Hot for Teacher. It was also perhaps a reason in lead singer David Lee Roth’s leaving the band the following year, as he saw it as too much of a departure from their original sound.
Before finishing this section, we should also mention three artists who would have featured here had they ever had a British hit. Luke Bryan (a 21st century C&W megastar who has had 30 Billboard country chart #1s), Johnny Hallyday (France’s biggest ever male star), and Ayumi Hamasaki (Japan’s best-selling solo star, and ‘Empress of Pop’ to much of Asia).
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Interesting topic for a series. I was definitely surprised about the Green Day-U2 song. I don’t recall their cover of “The Saints Are Coming” at all. While when it comes to Green Day I find “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and “Wake Me Up When September Ends” more memorable, this cover is pretty good and an intriguing blend of both bands. “Heart-Shaped Box” by Nirvana is decent, though once again, I find “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Come As You Are” are more memorable. Last but not least, I find it really dismal Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers didn’t make it higher than no. 28 in the UK. With “I Won’t Back Back Down,” it least it’s a decent song.
Yes I remembered the Green Day-U2 collaboration when it popped up, but had forgotten about it before then. A last hurrah on the singles chart for both bands, right at the start of the download era. Since then neither has really troubled the top 10 in the UK.
Frankly, I haven’t been very impressed with U2’s output over the past 20 years – and I say this as somebody who really digs their first six albums.
Green Day’s “21 Guns” was a pretty big hit for them in 2009 that hit Platinum status here in the U.S., so I’m a bit surprised it only got to no. 36 in the UK. That said, I guess scoring a top 40 still ain’t too shabby!
Except for Imagine Dragons – who I don’t even hate, they’ve got some good songs – I love all these artists. My favourite era for Green Day is actually the one between Dookie and American Idiot where they experiment with different styles/genres like power pop, glam rock, pop rock, hardcore punk, surf rock, etc. Billie Joe Armstrong is a really good classic-rock inspired songwriter. I’m shocked they didn’t get a No. 1 in the UK considering how big they are in the UK. Even My Chemical Romance – a band who would not exist without Green Day – has a UK No. 1.
Tom Petty is awesome. One of the most consistently good artists. Really good songwriter. I’d highly recommend you check him out. At least check out his masterpiece Damn the Torpedoes or his solo album – which is basically just a Heartbreakers record – Full Moon Fever which “I Won’t Back Down” comes from. Damn the Torpedoes and Tom Petty in general kinda epitomises American classic rock. Interestingly enough, Tom Petty was very briefly bigger in the UK than the US in the early days of their career since they had a few charting singles in the UK before they did in the US.
Nirvana are of course Nirvana. Even with such a small catalogue, they are of the greats. And they’re still huge today even with Gen Z, just like Green Day. I’m a little surprised “Heart Shaped Box” was their highest charting song in the UK, but I guess since it was the lead single to In Utero, it would’ve been highly anticipated so lots of people checked it out Week 1.
And Van Halen, I mean, one of the greatest and most influential rock bands ever. Revitalised proper hard rock after punk, AOR, new wave and disco threatened to make it irrevelant. Hard rock/metal doesn’t seem to be anywhere near as popular in the UK as it is in in the US, though obviously bands like Guns N’ Roses and Deep Purple and Black Sabbath and Bon Jovi and Led Zeppelin have had success in the UK whether it be on the singles chart or album chart or both. Not shocked “Jump” is their biggest hit internationally and I do really enjoy the song, but I agree they have much better in their catalogue. Even on that album, there are 3 to 4 songs I like better. Their popularity is like 75% focused in the US. Could’ve been the Beach Boys of the 80s bring California to the rest of the world, but they barely toured outside the US, to the point that Van Hagar had to open up for Bon Jovi of all people in the mid-90s on international dates.
I’m not sure it is that surprising that Green Day didn’t manage a number one. Closest they would have come was with the American Idiot singles, which all went Top 10 I think. MCR actually making #1 is the real suprise, but a welcome one.
Showing latter-day Rock Acts not as big in the UK. Not Shock horror. The tradition of album sales over singles was set early on with Zep and Floyd, singles seen as for teens (which they mostly always were in the days albums were too expensive for pocket money).
Green Day, ah I loved The Skids. Catchy pop-punk. Which is Green Day really, but I also prefer their ballads by and large, with the occasional upbeat track thrown in. Nirvana – it’s Smells Like Teen Spirit or nothing for me. That was the game changer. But I prefer Foo Fighters, sorry Nirvana fans! Imagine Dragons know how to write a catchy singalong banger, Radioactive, Believer and many more ear-worms – those two have more legs than the highest charter. Radioactive topped my charts, so they went a bit higher than Green Day and Nirvana in my charts, oops!
Tom Petty, I was there in ’77 liking his stuff when he was more punk than Rock, but he remained good, and got it right when teaming with Jeff Lynne – but he never had that elusive chart smash anywhere really, more a body of work. Van Halen, not a fan, Jump was fun, and I quite liked some solo Lee Roth, but 80’s US Glam-ish rock acts mostly just came over as cartoon copies, though Halen were never as blatant as Motley Crue – nothing had the same level of quality as Bolan, Bowie, Roxy, or the oomph of Chinn-Chapman, Slade, we even imported Americans like Suzi who did it first and better, and went big on Alice Cooper, their older brother.
Smells Like Teen Spirit is in that position of clearly being Nirvana’s best song, but also a song I’d happily never hear again, it having felt like it was on constant repeat in my teenage years…
You’re right that Imagine Dragons know how to write a catchy tune, and it feels to me like they’ve been writing the same one for the past decade. (I joke, I don’t know much of their stuff beyond the big hits, which do all sound similar.)
I completely agree on British glam being superior, and I think its all to do with our appreciation of camp. US glam, despite the make up and hairspray, was still so testosterone heavy, as if they had to behave like brutes to compensate for the lipgloss. I will say though that, despite them being probably the worst behaved, utter morons to a man, Motley Crue were the most accomplished of them all. Some of the best rock songs of the decade, I think.
I’m one of those strange people who remains resolutely unmoved by Nirvana and anything they ever recorded, although Green Day are OK. I’m with you on Van Halen though. ‘Jump’ is one of those extraordinary earworms, based on a riff that sounds so simple and so infectious that you almost wonder why nobody else came up with them long before it. And as for Tom Petty, I too find it extraordinary that with his back catalogue that he never charted any higher over here. Like Bob Seger, I really think he should be up there with Bruce Springsteen – although three Top 10 albums, including one at No. 3, must say something (or if you take the Wilburys into account, a No. 1 when the two albums were eventually reissued together).
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Stewart…thank you for having these! They are like an oasis…not the band lol. I still can’t believe Petty’s biggest hit was that…I mean it was a hit over here but I would have thought…Free Fallin’ would have hit over there.
Nirvana…at the time I didn’t like them a bunch but they brought music back to rawness…so…I admired them for that. I was the same age as Cobain…it was my generation…but I just didn’t bite…which you probably expected. Anyway I agree with Christian… they had much better songs than this one.
I didn’t like Jump as much either.
Yes I don’t know why Tom Petty was never that big in the UK. Maybe because Springsteen had already cornered that sort of rock music in the 80s?
Yea maybe…him and Mellencamp I think had the same problem.