DAILY DIRT: How was ‘Rock and Roll All Nite’ no higher than No. 12?

Daily Dirt for Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025

That’s only one of the questions that might sift through your rock-and-roll brain while examining our top 10 acts to never claim a No. 1 single on the Billboard chart … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 1,191 of The Daily Dirt.

1. I’m pretty sure at least some of the names on this list will be surprising, if not downright shocking.

The Daily Dirt has assembled what it feels are the 10 most surprising artists from the rock era to never have a No. 1 record on the Billboard singles chart. Never.

Not that a particular non-accomplishment like that will devalue their contribution to music history, it’s just eye-opening.

Today we’ll examine Nos. 10 through 6, concluding the countdown on Sunday:

10. AC/DC: Even though these guys have sold more than 200 million albums, the group has not only never had a No. 1 single, but has never even had a top-10 effort. Its highest-charting single was “Moneytalks” at No. 23. My personal favorite, “You Shook Me All Night Long,” only reached No. 35.

9. Pat Benatar: She was a top-40 machine in the 1980s, but only four of her 17 hits reached the top 10 and none went higher than No. 5 (“Love Is A Battlefield” and “We Belong”). I have to lean toward “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” as her finest overall release, but, alas, it reached no higher than No. 9.

8. The Who: No one can ever deny the band’s worldwide popularity, but most of those kudos were due to overall album success. The Who’s best single showing was No. 9 “I Can See For Miles” back in 1967 when I was in seventh grade.

7. Moody Blues: I always thought these guys added a touch of class to the rock scene, from their overall style to their tone of music. That said, the closest the band got to No. 1 was the mesmerizing “Knights in White Satin” at No. 2.

6. KISS: I would have bet money that these shocker rockers would have reached No. 1 at some point at the height of their zaniness, but nope. KISS never climbed higher than No. 7 (“Beth”), and my own KISS favorite, “Rock and Roll All Nite” reached no father than No. 12.

To be continued on Sunday …

2. Did you know (Part 264)

• That 12 months’ worth of “Wheel of Fortune” TV game shows are filmed over just a 35-day period each year.
• That Whitney Houston had been chosen to play one of the daughters on “The Cosby Show,” but declined to pursue her music career.
• That “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” was the first program to use the word “Google” as a verb on TV.
• That Kelsey Grammer was the first actor to be nominated for an Emmy for the same character on three different series: “Frasier,” “Cheers” and “Wings”.
• That “Friends” was originally titled “Insomnia Café.” The creators went through several name changes before settling on the iconic title we know today.

3. Our medal stand for this week’s Great Plate Debate remains unchanged from a week ago.

Although some worthy license plates were spotted, none were deemed creative enough to knock out any of the following as season four of our competition enters month No. 2:

Gold medal: XQQQME

Silver medal: XCUSEUS 

Bronze medal: SXYLXI

The best finds from the previous seven days:

• AUGGIE
• PAL GAL
• KAM FAM 8
• LA 8
• HONEY 19
• ASHTAR 9
• BAY CTY 2
• X RAY 95
• HAP 30
• MOLE 10

Steve Thought O’ The Day – For those of you a bit sad that the Feb. 9 Super Bowl signals the end of football season … think again. The United Football League kicks off March 30. The UFL is a combination of the old XFL and USFL.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. If the NFL decided to break its seasons up into two 14 game seasons in each calendar year, it would crush every other sport.