JediTalentAgent posted:

A lot of songs kind of hit #1 on either non-Billboard, in Billboard sub-genres, or in non-US charts. I was going to say "LIfe is a Highway" and "Runaway Train", but they actually did hit #1 outside the US. Something like "Hazard" by Richard Marx hit #1, but only on the 'Adult Contemporary' chart, but not the main one.

In the vein of "Hazard": "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Warrant. That song was everywhere for a few months. Huge MTV rotation airplay, lots of radio airplay, but it did far worse on the charts than the band's previous "I Saw Red" and "Cherry Pie" which despite their popularity never hit #1, either.

Michael Penn's "No Myth" never went higher than 13, despite winning MTV's 'best new artist' the year the song came out and still gets a lot of store radio airplay.

"Magnet and Steel" by Walter Egan seems like it has been so popular and constant AM and top 40 adult contemporary over the years that it should have had a #1, somewhere, but never did.