Ask Billboard: Which Artists Have the Best Average of Hitting No. 1 on the Hot 100?

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Let’s open the latest mailbag.

“Mariah Carey’s latest hit is a great achievement, considering she is a legacy artist on the Billboard Hot 100. Out of her 50 career entries, 19 are No. 1s and, by the end of the year, she may hold the record for the longest-running No. 1, ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You.’

“On a side note, Mariah has Hot 100 No. 1s in eras dominated by physical releases (1990s), digital distribution (2000s) and streaming (‘10s, ‘20s).”

Filoteo Uy
(on Billboard’s Facebook)

Lambs are smiling this week, as Carey claims her 50th Hot 100 hit, “Type Dangerous.”

The feat had Carey fans, and chart fans, noting the impressive percentage of her career entries that have gone to No. 1 or the top 10 on the Hot 100. With 50 making for easy math (phew), her 19 No. 1s translate to a 38% success rate in ruling the chart, while her 28 top 10s make for 56% of her charted titles hitting the top 10.

How do those numbers compare to others over the Hot 100’s nearly 67-year history?

Twenty-five acts have notched eight or more Hot 100 No. 1s. Among them, here’s a ranking of the artists with the highest rate of chart entries having hit No. 1, through the survey dated June 21.

Artist, Percentage of Hot 100 Entries Hitting No. 1:

George Michael reigns with the best percentage of Hot 100 hits reaching No. 1, at 42%. In baseball terms, that’s a Ted Williams-esque .420 batting average. Carey follows at a likewise Cooperstown-worthy .380.

Notably, Michael’s total covers only his solo Hot 100 hits, including Wham!’s “Careless Whisper,” on which he’s also listed as a solo featured artist. If rolling up the duo’s history — three No. 1s among nine entries — into his as a soloist, Michael would still rank first with a 39% rate of topping the Hot 100, just above Carey’s 38%.

Clearly, the relatively recent evolution of music consumption works against this stat, as Drake (4%), Taylor Swift (5%) and The Weeknd (6%) round out the ranking above. Unlike in prior eras, so-called album bombs have swelled certain acts’ totals of charted hits — and in a week that Swift holds the top 14 titles, only one can be No. 1. If anything, their placements on the list above make for a badge of honor, with Drake boasting a record 358 career entries and Swift, a runner-up 264.

How about artists’ rates of hitting the Hot 100’s top 10?

Again, in looking at the 25 artists with eight or more Hot 100 No. 1s, here’s a rundown of the acts with the highest frequencies to date of chart entries having hit the top 10.

Artist, Percentage of Hot 100 Entries Hitting the Top 10:

George Michael again takes top honors, with a lofty 79% of the late singer-songwriter’s Hot 100 hits having reached the top 10. (His only four that didn’t: “Waiting for That Day,” No. 27 peak, 1991; the song’s B-side that became popular amid the Gulf War, “Mother’s Pride,” No. 46, 1991; “Somebody to Love,” with Queen, No. 30, 1993; and “Killer”/“Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” No. 69, 1993.)

As with his percentage of No. 1s, Michael would still rank first on the list above if factoring in Wham!, whose nine Hot 100 hits have resulted in seven top 10s — an almost identical high rate, 78%, to his 79% solo. It took some time for the totals to nearly align: Following its 1984 release, Wham!’s “Last Christmas” jingled to the top 10 at last in 2021, reaching a No. 3 best this past holiday season. (Michael is also two-for-two on songs named “Freedom.”)

Carey has the eighth-best rate of Hot 100 charted titles making the top 10, and the fourth-best among women, after Janet Jackson, Madonna and Whitney Houston, with all four driven largely by their sterling track records (of tracks, or records) in the ‘80s and/or ‘90s.

Two coincidences stand out above. Paul McCartney has hit the Hot 100’s top 10 with 48.9% of his solo entries on the chart, just a touch above the Beatles’ 48.6% showing. Meanwhile, it takes three decimal points for Swift (22.348%) to place just above Drake (22.346%) when it comes to their titles reaching the top 10.

One other act comes to mind regarding this research. Of the 307 artists with at least five Hot 100 top 10s, only one has perfect attendance in terms of all its entries on the chart having reached the top 10. In fact, all five hit the top five, and three ascended to No. 1 — “Baby Don’t Forget My Number,” “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You” and “Blame It on the Rain” all led, “Girl You Know It’s True” hit No. 2 and final charted single “All or Nothing” peaked at No. 4.

Milli Vanilli, thus, owns a unique slice of Hot 100 history, even if it’s somewhat owed to the abrupt end of its chart run. Perhaps the mark adds further shine to the pair, which in recent years has been looked upon much more kindly than when it was always a lock for the chart’s upper reaches.