As anybody who turned on the radio or watched MTV in the late '80s will remember, the music from Def Leppard's diamond-selling 1987 album Hysteria was truly inescapable (not that hard rock/hair metal fans wanted to get away).

Let’s make something crystal clear. There are two things at the top of the list when it comes to difficult things for human beings to do. The first is to be in a band—that chemistry experiment is hard. The second is to write a No. 1 hit song—yes ...

Although Motown dealt predominantly in funk and soul, they had a flirt with rock and roll during the late 1960s, in the form of etroit outfit Rare Earth.

“Desire” debuted at No. 3 before it quickly climbed to the top spot on Oct. 8, 1988, and became U2’s first chart-topping single in the United Kingdom, according to the Official Charts Company.

Architects ’ “Everything Ends” rises two spots to No. 1 on Billboard ’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart dated Sept. 27, becoming the band’s maiden ruler on the tally — or any songs-based ranking. The quartet, which formed in Brighton, England, in 2004, first reached Mainstream Rock Airplay with “Animals,” which peaked at No. 5 in 2021.