The Hot 100 is not a meritocracy. If it was, then “The Monster Mash” would have just spent its 58th year at the top. Many of the most iconic songs ever recorded were denied the #1 position for comparably worse records. Immortal classics stalled at #2 behind forgettable one hit wonders, frivolous novelties, or just plain garbage. History has vindicated the following ten songs as transcendent. They just were not quite enough to prove it at the time.

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10 Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”

Song that kept it off: Kris Kross’ “Jump”

The stranger thing might be that “Bohemian Rhapsody” nearly topped the charts seventeen years after its 1975 release. The cultural power of Queen’s operatic odyssey has never faded. It took a couple of headbanging doofuses to revitalize interest in the classic rock mainstay. An iconic scene in Wayne’s World features five friends jamming out to the gloriously theatrical “Galileo” breakdown. The movie’s popularity spurred the song to chart seven spots higher than it did decades earlier.

The top two in May of 1992 were as backwards as Kris Kross’ pants. Outside of their gimmick, Kris Kross were a couple of kids who lucked into an irrepressible hit. It is not fair to write Kris Kross off as flashes in the pan, but “Jump” remains their singular defining moment. More importantly, “Jump” launched Jermaine Dupri’s production career.

Compared to the short-lived fame of Kris Kross, “Bohemian Rhapsody” still remains omnipresent. Following the biopic that shares its name, “Bohemian Rhapsody” joined the exclusive list of songs that charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in three separate decades. It has quite the legacy. Still, the fact that Freddie Mercury’s signature tune lost to Kris Kross for eight continuous weeks is wiggida wiggida wiggida wack.^[1]

9 Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone”

Song that kept it off: 50 Cent’s “Candy Shop”

New York’s post-punk revival was all about grit. Indie upstarts in the early 2000’s retreated to the abrasive aesthetics of bygone eras to recapture something lost in a post 9/11 world. It is cosmically unjust that the people who shepherded this sound into the top ten were a prepackaged reality show diva and the Swedish mercenaries responsible for Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys. In their defense, they absolutely nailed it.

Pop Svengali Max Martin felt “Maps” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs was missing something. He was alone. “Maps” is among the most celebrated songs of the new millennium. Martin still thought the tender ode of devotion needed a more powerful chorus. That idea eventually morphed into the single, “Since U Been Gone.” Clarkson’s anthemic roar saved her from American Idol irrelevance and prefaced a new age of pop singers backed by guitars from Katy Perry to P!nk.

On the other hand, her main rival, 50 Cent’s “Candy Shop,” was already a fading relic during its nine-week perch. By 2005, braggadocio rap’s reign was declining. “Candy Shop’s” insipid wit and ham-fisted metaphors encapsulated exactly why the genre waned.^[2]

8 The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby”

Song that kept it off: Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs’ “Sugar Shack”

Phil Spector is one of pop music’s worst villains. He should be remembered as an abusive demented murderer. Equally, he should be hailed for producing one of the purest bursts of euphoria ever put on record. History is funny like that.

Nowhere as bad as the monstrous Spector, Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs are responsible for another great injustice against the Ronettes. In the creative nadir between the explosive birth of rock and roll and the dawn of the British Invasion, goofy treacle like “Sugar Shack” could become the best-selling song of 1963. Among the lone geniuses climbing the charts, the Ronettes were the muses for Phil Spector’s innovative girl group sound. “Be My Baby’s” evocative opening heartbeat drum fill is the most overanalyzed 1963 recording outside of the Zapruder film. Conversely, “Sugar Shack’s” beat is a clumsy Hammond amble resembling a farting accordion. The Ronettes perfected the dizzying rush of new found love. It certain makes for a more compelling subject than a smarmy creep hitting on a woman at her job.^[3]

7 The Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie”

Song that kept it off: The Singing Nun’s “Dominique”

Perhaps, the country needed a balm. Appropriately, the first #1 song in the wake of John F. Kennedy’s assassination was a simple ode to an earlier fallen Catholic leader. Few other justifications explain how the wholesome French ballad “Dominique” beat out one of the foundational chaotic texts in all of rock. Despite the fact that their sole hits could not be more sonically dissimilar, both The Kingsmen and The Singing Nun got into trouble with their respective governments.

The Kingsman’s formative garage rock stomper “Louie Louie” was so raucous that the FBI investigated its muddled vocals. Apparently not too busy dealing with the Kennedy assassination, federal officials spent two years listening to the amateurish cover to hear if the audio buried any questionable lines. They could have saved a lot of time just listening to the Richard Berry original. In the end, they determined that the lyrics were completely unintelligible. Embarrassingly, they never realized that drummer Lynn Easton shouts “f*ck” after flubbing his cue.

Sister Jeanne-Paule Marie Deckers’ track has a much sadder background. Belgian authorities hounded her for back taxes. They could not believe she never got any residuals from her global smash. Her label and convent scammed her out of a fortune. Decker was forced out of her convent. Following a crisis of faith, Decker started dating Annie Pécher. In 1985, the two long term partners intentionally overdosed on barbiturates and alcohol. A nearby note read, “We hope God will welcome us. He saw us suffer, so He should show clemency.”^[4]

6 Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On”

Song that kept it off: Three Dog Night’s “Joy to the World”

Marvin Gaye had enough. Begrudgingly stuck in the sidelines, he resented not fighting like his brother stationed in Vietnam. He could still serve his country. Using his dissolving family as a microcosm for society at large, Gaye saw how violence divided the nation. His soul-searching call for unity resonated with a bit less people than a song about getting drunk with a bullfrog.

Three Dog Night’s brassy fluke “Joy to the World” is one of the dumbest novelties of all time. “What’s Going On” is such a tightly constructed standalone single that it still served as the title track of a cohesive elegy of an album. “Joy to the World” barely strings along inane non sequiturs into something with the passing semblance of verses. So consumed by Vietnam, Gaye was thrown into depression. The only time the simpleminded Three Dog Night mention the war, they immediately undercut it by saying that they just want to make sweet love. Hopefully, this refers to someone other than their amphibian friend Jeremiah.^[5]

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5 Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”

Song that kept it off: Fergie’s “London Bridge”

In 2006, two songs posed questions. Along with Gnarls Barkley collaborator Danger Mouse, Cee Lo Green contemplated whether he was crazy to think he could will his marriage back from the dead after his wife asked for a divorce. Even if he could rekindle the relationship, would it merely be a bleak visage of what it once was? Why even be a part of a marriage like that? Fergie simply wondered, “how come every time you come around [her] London, London Bridge wanna go down, like London, London, London?”

The ethereal haunt of “Crazy” could not compete with twin raunchy powerhouses, Nelly Furtado’s dynamically flirtatious “Promiscuous” and Fergie’s obnoxiously clunky “London Bridge.” Fergie succinctly describes “London Bridge” in its own opening two words. If one can ignore the incredibly cumbersome simile that some anatomical feature is comparable to either a historical English landmark or a children’s nursery rhyme, it still contains the woefully cringeworthy refrain of “me love you long time”. If only history repeated itself and “London Bridge” had fallen down.^[6]

4 The Rolling Stones’ “19th Nervous Breakdown”

Song that kept it off: SSgt. Barry Sadler’s “The Ballad of the Green Berets”

During one of the most fruitful explosions in pop culture history, a plodding pretentious piece of pro-war propaganda was the bestselling single of 1966. The five weeks stay on the summit meant something assuredly better was blocked off.

In their own ways, “The Ballad of the Green Berets” and The Rolling Stones’ “19th Nervous Breakdown” are both reactionary records against disaffected youth. Their targets could not be more different. The Stones’ condemnation against spoiled elites is filled with venomous derision. Bill Wyman’s propulsive bass line elevates Mick Jagger’s mocking sneer into effigy of London’s Swinging Sixties. Barry Sadler’s take down is comparatively lifeless. The faux military drum roll is the closest thing to a pulse. It carries Sadler’s monotone story where a soldier dies and wishes his child joins the same organization responsible for his death. Stoic Sadler never questions the needlessly cruel conflict. He displays no emotion either way.

Barry Sadler did not have much success outside of pop music. The royalties off one song dried up pretty quickly. He moved to Nashville to revitalize his career. In 1978, he shot Lee Emerson Bailey, Marty Robbins’ and George Jones’ former manager, over a woman. Sadler claims that he saw a glint of metal in the unarmed Bailey’s hand. Sadler only served 28 days in prison for the lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter. Out of prison, Sadler moved to Guatemala to train Nicaraguan contras. Either accidentally by his own hand or in a robbery, Sadler was shot in the head. The resulting coma contributed to a fatal heart attack at 49. The Rolling Stones ended up doing pretty well for themselves.^[7]

3 Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg’s “Nuthin’ But A G Thang”

Song that kept it off: Snow’s “Informer”

Snow was not an imposter. He was a criminal living among Jamaican immigrants. Yet compared to the effortless swagger of Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, Snow seems desperate. Every choice sounds like a man floundering his credibility. Gangstas threatening to stab someone are a lot more believable when they call it anything other than “licky boom-boom down.”

Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre were at the door, ready to make an entrance. Snow did not back on up. Snoop and Dre would have given the #1 slot some much needed legitimacy. The first batch of rappers to top the chart were an assortment of ridiculous wannabees, like Vanilla Ice and Marky Mark, or momentary highlights, like P.M. Dawn. With his Toronto born patois, Snow is firmly in the first category. Snoop and Dre are neither. They were pioneering artists trailblazing a whole new style of hip hop, G-funk. Instead, the public chose a Canadian putting on a fake accent bragging about being anally probe by a police officer.^[8]

2 Sam Cooke’s “Chain Gang”

Song that kept it off: Larry Verne’s “Mr. Custer”

The only time Sam Cooke hit #1 it did not count. Cooke’s shimmery coo “You Send Me” peaked in an early forerunner of the Billboard charts, the Best Sellers in Stores. In 1958, Billboard consolidated their respective lists into the Hot 100. When it came time to properly ascend, he was blocked by one of the most repellent hits ever.

In theory, both “Chain Gang” and “Mr. Custer” describe historical minorities suffering. In practice, the differences are stark. Cooke empathizes with the plight of abused prisoners yearning to reconnect with loved ones. Verne idolizes a genocidal madman and treats those fighting his invasion as a punchline. “Chain Gang’s” beat is driven by inmates’ sledgehammers, turning their tortuous exploitation into a celebration of resilience in an intolerant justice system. Conversely, “Mr. Custer” destroys any momentum by interrupting the melody with yelped out racist caricatures of Native American war cries and spoken word sketches. For a week in 1960, the record buying public preferred a yokel belching out a southern twang over the angelic voice of one of the greatest soul artists of all time. American taste has always been inexplicable.^[9]

1 Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street”

Song that kept it off: Andy Gibb’s “Shadow Dancing”

The most egregious block in chart history has nothing to do with the respective songs’ quality. Both “Baker Street” and “Shadow Dancing” have merits. They work as companion pieces for the same ennui. “Baker Street” wallows in bourbon-soaked dread. “Shadow Dancing” is cocaine propelled anxiety. Nor does it have anything to do with fatigue of Bee Gee’s cultural onslaught. In the height of disco, Barry Gibb was so prolific that his younger brother could turn his runoff into the biggest selling song of 1978. The problem with the “Baker Street’s” silver medal status is that its gold was stolen.

For six of “Shadow Dancing’s” seven-week run, “Baker Street” sat within striking distance. In one weeks, chart tabulators told America’s Top 40’s producers “Baker Street” finally broke through. Billboard chart director Bill Wardlow protested. Gibb’s managers threatened to remove him from a Billboard show if “Baker Street” knocked off “Shadow Dancing.” Host Casey Kasem re-recorded after Wardlow called. Even outside of the lyrics, “Baker Street” could not win.^[10]

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About The Author: Nate Yungman’s favorite song is “Baker Street.” If you thought this article was a load of number two, then you can email comments or questions to [email protected]. If you thought it was the tops, follow him on Twitter, @NateYungman

Many people have a bad habit of taking knowledge for granted. When it’s something a little more esoteric like advanced calculus or how to make the perfect mole poblano it can be very obnoxious and even arrogant to act like everyone should know it. But sometimes even what you consider common knowledge may be lost on others and we shouldn’t mock others for that. After all, whatever it is, there was literally a time when we had to learn that information, too.

With all that said, it can still be surprising to learn just how few people know certain things or perform certain tasks that, to many others, seem like they should be everyday things.

10. Many Americans Don’t Know Their Blood Type

Humans have four major blood types of A, B, AB, and O. Those can be broken down as negative or positive as well based on the Rh or rhesus factor. But the basic difference between the four blood types is caused by antigens in your blood.  

If you ever need a blood transfusion, you’re going to want to have the right blood type. If you are given the wrong type, your immune system will react to the new blood and try to destroy it, which could be fatal. That’s a big deal so everyone needs to know their blood type, right?

While it may be true, you should know your blood type, there’s a good chance you don’t. One poll in 2020 suggested that only 62% of Americans knew their blood type, meaning 38% didn’t. At a population of 331 million, that’s 12.6 million people. A different survey the year before said 43% didn’t know their blood type. 

For some perspective, about 66% of Americans know their astrological sign. Also, age has a lot to do with this information as the younger a person is, the less likely they are to know. Only 32% of Gen Z knew their blood type in one survey. 

Britons seem to be in the same ballpark with more than 50% clueless about their blood type while in Asia it’s far more common to know and as many as 90% of the Japanese population are aware of their blood type. 

9. Over 40% of People Don’t Know How Much Money Their Partner Makes

Do you consider marriage a true partnership? Historically, this may be a word we choose but, in action, it’s not always the case. For most of modern, Western history there’s been an imbalance where the man is the head of the house and the woman stays home. 

Gradually, over the last several decades the economy and the women’s rights movements have seen a shift to a more true partnership where more women are also income earners. If you’re in such a relationship right now, do you know how much money your partner even makes? A large number of people don’t.

Data from 2015 suggested that 43% of people don’t know how much money their spouse makes. Traditionally, money has always been a thing people tend to keep secret. Employers don’t even want coworkers to know what everyone else is making in case someone finds out they make less than someone else. People guard their salary like it’s a state secret from friends and family and maybe they’ll let their lifestyle give a vague idea of how things are, but that’s all. 

Six years later in 2021, numbers were not much better. Forty percent of couples who lived together were in the same boat, not knowing how much the other made. This was made even more awkward by the fact people in the survey had to guess what their partner made and it was a multiple choice question with $25,000 ranges, meaning two in 5 people guessed what their partner made incorrectly by over $25,000. At the same time, over 70% said they communicated about finances with their partners very well. 

8. Over a Quarter of Americans Can’t Cook

Here’s a tough one – do you know how to cook? The word “cook” is a very vague term when you stop to ponder it. Boiling an egg is technically cooking, so if you can do that you can cook. But is that the same as making a crown rack of lamb with some dauphinoise potatoes and quenelles of a fresh mint sorbet on the side? Not exactly.

In 2011, one survey concluded that 28% of Americans couldn’t cook. In 2023, another concluded that 56% struggled to cook even basic recipes. So we have can’t and then struggled to and both are damning enough that we’ll call them “poor cooks” and leave it at that. 

The first survey covered over 1,000 people over the age of 25, so we can’t claim these are college kids with no world experience. 

Britain didn’t fare a lot better. In 2014 a survey suggested 10% of the population can’t cook anything at all and by that, they meant literally anything. Another 25% laid claim to only being able to cook about three things, and that included super basic dishes like eggs and porridge.

7. 3% of the Population Can’t Picture Things in Their Minds

When you hear that three percent of people can’t do a thing you can almost write it off as a statistical anomaly. Three percent is nothing, right? If you lose three percent on a test, you still get 97%. That’s basically perfect. But three percent can have significant meaning when the whole is a big enough number like the population of the earth.

At eight billion people, three percent of the population works out to 240 million. That’s more than 6 times the population of Canada. If it was a country, it would be the 5th largest country on earth with a population greater than Brazil or Russia. And that’s how many people in the world have no imagination.

Based on research, three percent of people are unable to conjure an image in their minds. So while most of us can hear the word “dog” and picture an adorable little chihuahua, 240 million people have something called aphantasia where they cannot visualize things in their minds. They can understand the concept of a dog, and describe a dog, and give you all the same dog facts you know, but for them, there is no image in their head to accompany it.

Until 2003 this phenomenon didn’t even have a name and came about after a man who had surgery reported he had lost the ability. Doctors had no way to explain it but when it made headlines tons of people wrote in to say they were the same way and had always thought when people talked about picturing things in your mind’s eye that it was metaphorical. 

6. 40% of Americans Don’t Know Why They Celebrate July 4th

One of the dangers of tradition is losing the meaning behind it. Sometimes it’s a harmless adaptation, like how many people celebrate Christmas as a holiday devoid of religious connotations.  But sometimes it can get a little embarrassing if you’re engaging in some celebration and you don’t even know what it’s for originally.

In 2023, a truly stunning report suggested that as many as 40% of Americans don’t know why the Fourth of July is celebrated. Despite being one of the most fiercely and clearly patriotic holidays on the calendar, the exact reason for the holiday was unknown to them. 

The stat came from a poll of 1,000 people identified as born or naturalized citizens of the US. 

In 2011, a similar poll concluded only 58% of Americans knew what America was celebrating. Only 76% knew which country America declared independence from, which should have informed the previous question a bit better, but obviously didn’t. 

5. 70% of People Can’t Identify the Seafood They Eat

You can’t see the endless shrimp special at Red Lobster and deny the popularity of seafood. People love it. But loving it and being knowledgeable about it are two different things. According to one survey, 70% of people can’t identify what they are eating. And if that sounds preposterous, consider how well you’d do if someone placed six different, whole fish in front of you with no labels and asked you to identify each one.

In Europe, people were asked to do just that with six commonly eaten fish, and on average they got two of six correct. Brits and Belgians couldn’t quite score that high overall. Brits did the worst, and the Spanish did the best.

Part of the problem, of course, is that people often buy fish as filets rather than whole, and another problem is they’re mislabeled very often. 

4. More Than Half of Americans Can’t Name All Their Grandparents

For some people, especially those in the Fast and Furious, family is everything. But for many, family bonds are not that tight. That doesn’t mean you dislike your family, either, it just means you’re not as familiar as you might think. For instance, you had four grandparents whether or not you knew them. Can you name all four?

A 2022 survey showed that 53% of Americans are unable to name all four of their grandparents. Three years earlier a different survey concluded it was a third of Americans. Average it out and still, a lot of people don’t know the names of their family members. 

One in seven people had no idea what their grandparents did for a living, and 21% didn’t know where even one grandparent was born. 

3. 25% of Americans Didn’t Know the Earth Orbited the Sun

There’s a lot to know in the universe and astronomy is by no means something widely taught throughout schools but the bare bones basics are usually covered early in science. Things like how many planets there are and how we all orbit the sun. But maybe some people skip that day.

The National Science Foundation conducted a poll in 2012 and discovered that 26% of people when asked if the Earth went around the sun or the sun went around the earth got the answer wrong. Only 39% of respondents answered that the universe began with an explosion, otherwise known as the Big Bang, and only 48% were on board with the idea of humans evolving from a more primitive species. 

The entire survey asked 10 questions of 2,200 people and the average worked out to 65% correct answers.

2. 300 Million People in the World Don’t Have a Single Friend

Sometimes people refer to loneliness as an epidemic and that sounds very metaphorical and maybe even hyperbolic. There are eight billion people in the world, is anyone truly alone? Yes. Yes, they are.

According to polls, 300 million people in the world, which is close to the population of the entire United States, don’t have a single friend. Not one person they consider an actual friend. Over 20% of people feel like they don’t have friends or family they could count on. Now maybe some of those people are being overly dramatic and maybe not but either way it’s a very sad statistic. 

Other surveys have shown that 27% of millennials report having no close friends and 22% have no friends at all. That drops to 16% for Gen X and 9% of Boomers. 

1. Three Billion People Have Never Used the Internet

How important is the internet to your life? For some it’s indispensable, for others, it’s just a really nice feature. Some people even avoid it, if you can believe that. But how many people have never used it at all?

It’s easy to imagine parts of the world where no one has used the internet from the comfort of our computers and phones but the numbers are remarkably high. According to the UN, over a third of the people in the world have never used the internet. That works out to around 3 billion people, most of whom live in developing nations with limited access to things like electricity let alone YouTube. That’s close to the population of the entire world outside of Asia.

In America, where you’d be more inclined to take easy access to electronics and the internet for granted, 7% of the population, or about 23 million people, do not use the internet. Of that number, 25% are over the age of 65.