Breakthrough Hit / Music

Music artists and bands and the songs and albums that made them famous.

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Chanson

• 1962's "Belles, belles, belles" was the first hit song for Claude François and made him "The Idol of the Youth" in France.

Country

• Alabama: The Fort Payne, Alabama quartet did have some chart entries prior to their breakthrough hit, "My Home's in Alabama". The first song, "I Wanna Be With You Tonight" from 1977, was but a blip on the radar, climbing to No. 84 before stalling out. Afterward, their record label (the tiny GRT Records) closed, and a clause in their recording contract left them without a deal for two years. Finally, in 1979, they were able to sign with the new MDJ Records, and their first new song in two years — "I Wanna Come Over" — got Randy, Teddy, and Jeff into the top 40 for the first time in December 1979, peaking at No. 33. Despite CD availability, "I Wanna Come Over" (a mellow love ballad and a style they'd use with much more success on songs like "Feels So Right," "There's No Way" and "Forever's As Far As I'll Go") rarely gets airplay these days, while their breakthrough, "My Home's in Alabama" peaked at No. 17 and, in addition to remaining a popular classic cut, showcased the country-rock/Southern pride side of their repertoire (a la "Tennessee River," "Dixieland Delight" and "Song Of the South"). Indeed, it was "Tennessee River" (the follow-up to "My Home's In Alabama") that got them to No. 1 for the first time, starting a string of hits that lasted into the late 1990s.
• Rodney Atkins: "Honestly," few people remember that as the first top 10 hit for the native of Knoxville, Tennessee. Although it got to No. 4, it would be his advice that "If You're Going Through Hell (Before the Devil Even Knows)" that got him really noticed for the first time. Also, "If You're Going ..." was a "first single from second album" type, although well before his first album, he had a single way back in 1997 that went nowhere and never appeared on an album.
• The Bellamy Brothers: Brothers Howard and David, natives of Darby, Florida, had a double-breakthrough. The first came in 1976 with their country-pop crossover hit "Let Your Love Flow", which was a No. 1 pop hit and barely missed the top 20 on the country side; despite the relatively low country chart peak of "Let Your Love Flow", it still gets a fair amount of oldie airplay today. Then they went a couple of years without a hit until bursting back in 1979 with the most famous pick-up line in history: "If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body (Would You Hold It Against Me)". A No. 1 country smash, the song catapulted the Bellamys into country stardom during the 1980s, and they still are in demand today despite having not hit the country Top 40 since the very early 90s.
• Brooks & Dunn: Both Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn had a bunch of songwriting success, but very little to show for it as solo recording artists, as none of their singles (recorded individually) came close to reaching the top 40 of the country charts. Then some bright fella had the idea to team these two guys together. It worked, and starting with a ditty called "Brand New Man" (No. 1 in the late summer of 1991), the two scored an incredible 20 No. 1 hits together and more than a dozen more top 10 hits. They are the most successful country duo of all time.
• Garth Brooks: "Much Too Young (to Feel This Damn Old)" was his first single release and first top 10 hit, and "If Tomorrow Never Comes" was his first No. 1 hit, but it was "The Dance" that made him a superstar.
• Luke Bryan: Although his debut album was a modest success and spawned a pair of top 10 hits, the first single off his second album ("Do I") went to #2 and became his first Top 40 pop hit, thus helping to launch him into the mainstream for good.
• Glen Campbell: His first chart entry came in the late fall of 1961 with the ballad "Turn Around, Look at Me," which had many young female fans turning around and looking at the handsome, young native of Delight, Arkansas and sending the song into the adult contemporary chart's top 15. But much bigger things lie ahead; by the mid-1960s, he had been a latter-day member of the Champs ("Tequila"), had filled in for a short while for Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys in tours and was in demand as a session musician (one of the group later known as the Wrecking Crew). About five years after "Turn Around ...," his first top 15 country hit came with "Burning Bridges". A well-done ballad written by Walter Scott, that song – peaking in February 1967 – is largely forgotten today ... and ironically enough, the follow-up, a John Hartford folk song called "Gentle on My Mind" (released in July 1967) fared even worse on the charts — it barely even broke into the top 30, and in fact didn't even make the Hot 100's top 40. Yet, "Gentle on My Mind" went on to become an iconic country music hit, would be covered by dozens of country and pop/rock superstars and is the one that's remembered today as his breakthrough hit and sparked a career that's won him international acclaim.
• Kenny Chesney. Already one of many in the "hat act" boom of the mid-1990s, Chesney had his first real hit in 1995 with "Fall In Love." The next few years were up-and-down in terms of success — peaks such as with "Me and You," "When I Close My Eyes" and "She's Got It All" in 1996-1997, followed by a lull in 1997-1998 — before he got on firm hitmaking footing in 1999 with the six-week chart-topper "How Forever Feels", leading to a repertoire that's been influenced by arena rock, Jimmy Buffett-esque island tunes and introspective ballads.
• Eric Church had great commercial success with his first two albums, but neither produced a major hit: nothing off the first album got far into the Top 20, and after calling a mulligan with "His Kind of Money (My Kind of Love)" (which never appeared on an album), he got two minor Top 10 hits off his second disc. But his third album, Chief, got him into #1 territory for the first time with "Drink in My Hand" and "Springsteen". These songs were also crossover successes, getting him into Top 40 on the Hot 100 for the first time. "Springsteen" remains his best-selling single.
  • Church's breakthrough also led to a breakthrough for his producer Jay Joyce, who at the time was mainly known for his work producing Cage the Elephant and had almost never done anything with country acts. After "Drink in My Hand", though, Joyce began producing for other country music singers, including Randy Rogers Band, Little Big Town, Thomas Rhett, and Gary Allan.
• John Conlee: "Rose Colored Glasses", his first single, hit No. 5 in 1978. He followed it up with the #1 "Lady Lay Down". He never stopped churning out hits throughout the '80s, despite a slight slump in the early '80s which he recovered from two years later.
• Earl Thomas Conley: He started his career in the '70s, releasing singles without his middle name that stalled in the bottom half of the country charts. 1980's "Silent Treatment" brought Conley to the Top 10 for the first time, and then, he finally topped the charts with "Fire and Smoke" later. The follow-ups didn't do as well, unfortunately. However, when he released his next album, after "Heavenly Bodies" scraped the lower end of the top 10, he returned to #1 with "Somewhere Between Right and Wrong" (which surprisingly flopped in Canada). After a re-recording of his first chart entry "I Have Loved You Girl" hit #2, he had a huge streak of #1 hits that lasted throughout the '80s and saw Top 10 as late as 1991.
• Dave & Sugar: This was that male-led mixed trio that populated the radio from the mid-1970s through the early 1980s, with a majority of their hits being heartbreak ballads. Led by former Charley Pride-backup singer Dave Rowland and a rotating cast of female vocalists, the trio had their first really big hit in January 1976 with "The Queen Of the Silver Dollar." Despite its relatively low chart peak (No. 25), the song got recurrent airplay for more than a decade and it paved the way for every one of their subsequent releases — 10 total — reaching the top 10 through the end of the 1970s.
• Eli Young Band, a Texas country group, had been recording since 2002. They had minor chart action from their first major-label album Jet Black & Jealous, including the near-hit "Always the Love Songs". But the first hit off their second album, "Crazy Girl", became their first chart-topper and the biggest country hit of 2011. Since then, they've had two more #1 hits.
• Exile: A country-rock group from Kentucky, they initially broke through with their pop-rock side in the fall of 1978 with "Kiss You All Over," a four-week No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. They'd be a One-Hit Wonder for several years until they broke through a second time in the winter of 1984, this time as a country act, with their first of 11 country No. 1 hits, "Woke Up In Love."
• Donna Fargo: "The Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A." was just that when she finally scored her breakthrough hit in the summer of 1972. Beforehand, the wistfully sweet-voiced singer and Mount Airy, North Carolina native had released a handful of single releases and in fact won the Best New Female Artist award from the Academy of Country Music in 1969, but remained unknown to most until her signature song became a huge country and pop hit. One of her very earliest releases was an uptempo song called "Daddy", which she originally released in 1968, but at the time failed to chart; she finally had a top 15 hit in 1979 with a re-recording of the song.
• Janie Fricke: At first, she was the ultimate backup singer, whose voice first became known on several Johnny Duncan singles in the mid-to-late 1970s, the big breakthrough being the Kris Kristofferson-penned "Stranger" in 1976. Work with artists like Billy Crash Craddock, Vern Gosdin, and even Elvis Presley followed, but she did have a recording contract of her own, and first hit the top 15 in the summer of 1978 with a ballad-styled version of the old Hank Locklin smash "Please Help Me, I'm Falling." A duet later that year with Charlie Rich, "On My Knees," got her to No. 1 for the first time (with someone other than Duncan) ... and then her first really big solo breakthrough came in the winter of 1981 with "Down To My Last Broken Heart" ... paving the way for seven solo No. 1 hits and a pair of Country Music Association Female Vocalist Of the Year honors.
• Larry Gatlin: A renowned Nashville songwriter in the early 1970s – one of his best-loved songwriting credits was "Help Me," which became a hit for Elvis Presley in 1974 – Gatlin recorded his first album in 1973 and late that year, released his first single, "Sweet Becky Walker", a ballad (which showcased his sweet tenor falsetto) that reached No. 40 in January 1974. In the late summer of '74, he issued his second hit, the uptempo "Delta Dirt", which did even better: No. 14 at mid-fall. But neither one is played today; it's the third single, the top 5 hit "Broken Lady", that got Gatlin finally noticed by millions of fans. It also was another first: The first single to feature (and credit) his brothers, Steve and Rudy. The act today is Larry Gatlin & the Gatlin Brothers.
• Crystal Gayle: She got her start appearing with big sis Loretta Lynn on the Wilburn Brothers' TV series in the very late 1960s and early 1970s, singing primarily traditional country, and during this time even had a top 40 country hit called "I Cried the Blue Right Out Of My Eyes." Despite great potential and having the star power of her famous older sister, chart success was limited. Then in the summer of 1974, she signed a recording contract with United Artists Records and appeared in the top 40with "Restless." This time, however, it gave her the momentum for her big breakthrough hit, the follow up "Wrong Road Again," which landed her in the top 10 for the first time in February 1975. And then 1976 came her true breakthrough: A second top 10 hit, "Somebody Loves You," and her first No. 1 hit (and first pop chart appearance) "I'll Get Over You" ... and momentum for her really big pop breakthrough the next year, the jazz-pop styled "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue," giving the Coal Miner's Daughter's little sister a signature song of her own.
• Merle Haggard: A pioneer of the Bakersfield Sound had a top 20 hit with his first hit, "Sing a Sad Song" from early 1964. His next hit of consequence, 1965's "(From Now On All My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers" (a cover of a Roy Drusky song that same year) was an even bigger hit, but it wasn't until 1966 that he hit the top 5 for the first time with "Swinging Doors". It was clear that the Okie from Muskogee had arrived.
• Freddie Hart: He had released several singles during the late 1950s through mid-1960s, and although a fair number reached the top 30 (and a couple did sneak into the top 20), and he had one top 10 in Canada, Hart never did have that one key hit. Several record labels saw little to no hit-making potential in Hart. Then, in the summer of 1971, his ballad "Easy Loving" caught on like wildfire, and by that September, Hart had a No. 1 smash on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart (as well as Canada's country chart) ... and a top 20 pop hit to boot, a true breakthrough if there ever was one!
• Hunter Hayes: Hayes had been a touring musician since age four, playing accordion at various festivals and gigs in addition to releasing several mostly Cajun-themed albums. After writing a song for Rascal Flatts, he charted his first hit with "Storm Warning", which reached #14 on the country charts. But it was the country-pop crossover smash "Wanted" that introduced him to the mainstream.
• George Jones: One of country music's all-time greatest vocalists and talents struggled in the very early years to find his footing. Rockabilly singles recorded as "Thumper Jones" and Hank Williams-sounding songs didn't really catch with audiences, but finally he got through in the fall of 1955 with a ditty called "Why Baby Why." A No. 4 hit, it soon began something that has been (to this day) unmatched in country music: A string of hit songs, wherein he would reach the top 10 every year, without fail, from 1955 to 1990, 36 consecutive calendar years. (In the end, he had 77 of his 148 single releases reach the top 10 and 13 go the distance to No. 1; of those, eight of those top-10 singles were with Tammy Wynette, with three going all the way to the top.)
• Lady Antebellum, "Need You Now". Technically, "Love Don't Live Here" was a major hit on the charts, and "I Run to You" hit #1 beforehand; it also hit the Hot 100's Top 40. However, "Need You Now" was their breakout on pop radio. In fact, many people are unaware that they had a full album out before that song...
• Miranda Lambert: She had already scored two platinum albums by late 2007, but the biggest hit off either was "Gunpowder & Lead" at a mere #7. Finally, Revolution brought Lambert her first Top 5 hit with "White Liar"^note although she had to call a mulligan with the #37 "Dead Flowers" first, and her first #1 with "The House That Built Me", which spent four weeks on top (likewise, it brought her to the pop Top 40 for the first time). Since then, her career has been nothing but high notes.
• Little Big Town: They first signed to Mercury in the late 1990s but achieved nothing more than a backing vocal credit on a Collin Raye album, and an album released in 2002 had most fans saying — about their only top 40 hit from said album — "Don't Waste My Time". But they kept persisting and in 2005 finally broke through with "Boondocks", a tribute to small-town pride, and known for each of the members trading off leads and singing in various harmony combinations. Although their success was sporadic during the next several years, with big hits — "Bring It On Home" and "Little White Church" — followed by under-performing singles, LBT's success was finally sustained with "Pontoon" (the first single off their fifth album), which became their first No. 1 hit and first Top 40 pop hit, and netted them several awards. As far as pop breakthrough, their 2015 song "Girl Crush" became a phenomenal crossover smash; despite a lack of pop airplay it garnered the band an even wider audience.
• LoCash had been around for several years under their original name LoCash Cowboys. They released a few singles for R & J Records, but the label closed before they could get an album out. They then moved to Average Joes and put out an album though none of its singles went anywhere, despite the duo writing "You Gonna Fly" for Keith Urban and "Truck Yeah" for Tim McGraw. But it was upon signing to the newly started independent Reviver label that the duo scored Top 10 hits in 2015 and 2016 with "I Love This Life" and "I Know Somebody" — quite a feat for an upstart label.
• Loretta Lynn: Her breakthrough came in 1960 when the Butcher Hollow, Kentucky native and "Coal Miner's Daughter" had her first major hit, "Honky-Tonk Girl". Success didn't become sustained until her second big hit, titled (incidentally enough) "Success", and thereafter came her iconic series of hits that pushed the boundaries of country music.
• Barbara Mandrell: One of the genre's most telegenetic, versatile performers, both vocally and instrumentally, had a pair of top-20 singles in 1970, "Playing Around With Love" and "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" (the latter a cover of a Aretha Franklin hit), but didn't hit the top 10 until late in the year when she duetted with David Houston on "After Closing Time." As a solo artist, she went even deeper into charts, hitting the top 15 in the summer of 1971 with "Treat Him Right" (a female-version cover of a Roy Head soul hit (as "Treat Her Right"), and for many that is considered her breakthrough. The hits got bigger and eventually she got her first pop breakthrough in 1978, with her signature song "Sleeping Single In a Double Bed."
  • Barbara's sisters, Louise and Irlene, were also vastly talented. Although Irlene never had solo hits of her own, her breakthrough was more as part of the Mandrell Sisters act and their hit television show from 1980-1982. Louise, meantime, broke onto the country chart for the first time in 1979 with then-husband R.C. Bannon on "Reunited" (covering the Peaches & Herb smash), and as a solo artist "Save Me," her first top-5 hit in the spring of 1983.
• Martina McBride, "My Baby Loves Me" in 1993. It was the first single from her second album, The Way That I Am. This album also included her Signature Song "Independence Day". Although the next album (Wild Angels) got Martina her first #1 with its title track and another Top 10, she kind of went quiet after that, only to experience a second breakthrough in late 1997 with "A Broken Wing". This song became her second #1, her first solo hit on the Hot 100 and pushed her into the country-pop crossover territory that made her a force to be reckoned with through 2003.
• Mel McDaniel — In 1977, he signed a recording contract with Capitol Records and was a consistent, if not unspectacular hitmaker for the next four years, just missing the top 10 in the fall of '77 with "God Made Love." Then in 1981, he finally had his first really big, memorable hit: "Louisiana Saturday Night," which peaked at No. 7. That opened the door for big things, and by 1985, he was at No. 1 for the first (and only) time with "Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On." His blend of good-time honky-tonk and rockabilly — covers of Bruce Springsteen(!) and Chuck Berry also followed — went on to make their marks.
• Reba McEntire – In 1978, the pretty, red-headed 22-year-old rodeo singer and native of Chockie, Oklahoma, was paired with a successful country artist of the time, Jacky Ward, for a song called "Three Sheets in the Wind". The song broke through and soon became a top 20 country hit for Ward and McEntire ... but the even more amazing thing is, the song would mark a turning point in both singers' careers. Ward, who had just scored his biggest hit with the No. 3 hit "A Lover's Question" (covering an old Clyde McPhatter R&B hit) saw his career fade less than two years later, despite a nice string of top 10 hits; McEntire, however, had her breakthrough solo hit in 1980 with "(You Lift Me) Up to Heaven", and has never looked back. While Ward is largely forgotten, McEntire went on to a career that's included 24 No. 1 hits (amongst more than 50 top 10 singles) and gold albums, an acting career that has included a hit TV series and Broadway starring roles, and a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
• Tim McGraw – In 1992, McGraw – a handsome young Delhi, Louisiana, native and son of New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies great Tug McGraw – signed a recording contract with Curb Records and released a self-titled album. Four singles were released, but the first didn't even chart, and the other three fell short of Top 40 on Billboard. (One single from the debut album, "Welcome To the Club" did scrape the top 30 of a competing country chart, Radio and Records, in January 1993). Curb Records, however, saw hit-making potential in McGraw, and in early 1994 released the album Not a Moment Too Soon. The release of the lead single, "Indian Outlaw", was indeed not a moment too soon: The song – which controversially paid homage to Native American culture – soared to No. 8 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, and was even a top 20 pop hit, and since then McGraw has never looked back, scoring 28 No. 1 hits and nearly 50 top 10 singles, earning a high-profile marriage to Faith Hill, and a lucrative acting career to boot.
• Ronnie Milsap: Although he had two top 10 hits beforehand ("I Hate You" and "That Girl Who Waits on Tables", both 1973), those songs are largely forgotten today. His third top 10 hit – "Pure Love", which topped the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in June 1974 – is often considered his true "breakthrough" and is, as a result, the oldest Milsap song in many country music libraries.
• Anne Murray: One of country and pop music's first true divas, this native of Halifax, Nova Scotia had a few minor hits in her native Canada in the late 1960s and appeared as a regular on several TV shows in Canada. A little "Snowbird" in the summer of 1970 changed her future forever ... and Murray would go on to massive worldwide success, with the bulk coming in the United States and Canada during the 1970s through the early 1990s.
• Willie Nelson: The legendary songwriter, poet, actor, activist … the list goes on. It all began as one of Nashville's bright new songwriters in the early 1960s, and his songwriting breakthrough came with a hit Claude Gray recorded called "Family Bible". Dozens of songwriting hits followed, most notably Faron Young's "Hello Walls" and Patsy Cline's "Crazy". But even though he had a top 10 country hit of his own in 1962 called "Touch Me", that one key hit eluded him for years. Most, if not all of his songs were critically acclaimed, but just didn't have that hit. Things perked up in the fall of 1973 with Shotgun Willie, which got some much-needed momentum going (including a cover of Bob Wills' "Stay a Little Longer" and a remake of his "Bloody Mary Morning"), but things really didn't gain steam until 1975 when he released an album called Red Headed Stranger. It was on Red Headed Stranger he dipped outside of his own catalog to an old Fred Rose-penned song called "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain". The song was a massive No. 1 country smash early in the fall of 1975 and a top 20 pop hit as well, and that and several high-profile follow-up singles finally etched his name into the realm of success and had dozens of more hits to follow.
• The Oak Ridge Boys: One of the three most successful country groups of the 1980s – Alabama and The Statler Brothers were the other two – the group traces its origins to the 1940s when they were a gospel-based group called the Oak Ridge Quartet. Multiple membership changes took place through the early 1970s, but they became renowned for their four-part harmonies and enthusiasm for gospel music. Once the membership was sustained in 1973 – except for a few years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it's been Duane Allen, Joe Bonsall, William Lee Golden, and Richard Sterban – the group began drifting toward mainstream country music. And in 1977, they had their first big country smash, the No. 3 hit "Y'All Come Back Saloon". While they always did gospel music in the years since – and, in fact, several of their later 1980s mainstream songs did have Christian themes – one cannot ever imagine them not doing songs like "Elvira", "Bobbie Sue", "American Made", "Gonna Take a Lotta River", or their other major hits.
• Jake Owen: He had two modestly-performing albums for RCA Nashville before "Barefoot Blue Jean Night", the title track and first single from his third album, became his first #1. He followed it up with three more off the same album.
• Buck Owens: Depending on one's definition of success and breakthrough, either one of two songs could be considered his breakthrough for the originator of the Bakersfield Sound: "Under Your Spell Again", his first top 5 hit from November 1959; or "Act Naturally", the Johnny Russell-penned song that became Owens' first No. 1 hit from the summer of 1963. Often lost are the early hits, where Owens and his band, the Buckaroos, were perfecting their new sound that would eventually result in 20 No. 1 hits from 1963–72 and make Owens a household name, long before Hee Haw was a twinkle in that show's creator Sam Lovullo's eye.
• Dolly Parton: The native of Sevier County, Tennessee released two singles that were local successes but failed to reach a national audience. After a lucrative contract with Monument Records and a few non-charting singles, she finally hit paydirt with her 1966 single "Dumb Blonde". Shortly after, country music superstar Porter Wagoner asked her to be on his show to perform as a regular. Although she recorded solo songs, she was primarily Porter's duet partner in those days, their first top 10 hit together being "The Last Thing on My Mind" in late 1967. Her first really big solo hit was in 1970 with "Muleskinner Blues", a rollicking, modern remake of an old blues tune done by Jimmie Rodgers. And it just kept growing and growing ... movies, TV shows, multi-million selling LPs and songs ... it just went on.
  • When she branched out to a wider, mainstream pop audience in 1977, she bridged the gap with a song called "Light of a Clear Blue Morning". Although it only made an impression on the country charts, peaking at No. 11, it bridged the way for a huge pop hit (and a five-week No. 1 country hit to boot) called "Here You Come Again". That was her pop chart breakthrough.
• Ray Price: Many consider the Cherokee Cowboy's breakthrough was his double-A sided monster hit from 1954, "I'll Be There (If You Ever Want Me)" and "Release Me" (the latter famously covered by Engelbert Humperdinck). However, Price had enjoyed consistent, if not spectacular success with lost gems like "Jealous Lies" (1950), "If You're Ever Lonely Darling" (1951), "Talk to Your Heart" (1952) and a cover of the Perry Como hit "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" (1953), but most of those early songs are long forgotten and rarely played today ... even though they – like his later hits such as "Crazy Arms" (1956), "City Lights" (1958) and "Heartaches by the Number" (1959) – introduced to fans a critical part of his style: the 4/4 honky-tonk rhythm.
  • In a way, his cover of Como's pop song would foreshadow Price's even later success in the Nashville style, most notably on 1970's "For the Good Times". Indeed, "For the Good Times" was Price's big pop breakthrough. A No. 1 country hit, the song gained mass Top 40 airplay and peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 10 on the Adult Contemporary Singles chart.
• Charley Pride: The first widely successful African-American country artist, Pride's breakthrough was actually a song that never charted on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart — "The Snakes Crawl at Night", from the spring of 1966. However, to make his breakthrough song and the first few follow-up singles successes, the singles that were distributed to radio stations and record stores featured no photographs of the young native of Sledge, Mississippi. (Country music at the time was exclusively a white medium.) Once he had sustained his success, it was revealed that he was black ... and country fans embraced him. He is still the most successful non-white country music artist by far.
• Eddie Rabbitt: As with Milsap, his "breakthrough" hit came after he had already scored a number of moderately successful songs. For Rabbitt, the breakthrough was 1976's "Drinkin' My Baby (Off My Mind)", and that put two other top 15 hits – the ballads "I Should Have Married You" and "Forgive and Forget", both 1975 – off everybody's minds. The two earlier songs are available on iTunes, but they are all but forgotten otherwise.
  • Some even consider his 1970s songs "forgotten", looking at his early 1980s crossover hits – first, with "Drivin' My Life Away" – as his true breakthrough.
• Eddy Raven: A rare Cajun country singer, he had been performing since the early 1970s and sporadically making the charts. As a songwriter, Raven's first hits conveyed the beauty of the countryside, with Don Gibson turning both into country top 10 smashes: "Country Green" in 1971 and "Touch the Morning" in 1973. Although he first hit Top 10 with "She's Playing Hard to Forget" in 1982 (and had gotten close a few times before), it wasn't until a change to RCA in 1984 that he first hit No. 1 with "I Got Mexico," his true breakthrough. That was the first of 17 Top 10 hits that he would have between then and 1990, despite being the first single off his sixth studio album.
• Charlie Rich: He had two top 40 pop hits in 1960's "Lonely Weekends" and 1965's "Mohair Sam", but otherwise, nothing major came out of him. That is, until 1972 when he scored a top 10 country hit with "I Take It On Home". That got the ball rolling, and a year later, things were busted wide open with two huge hits: "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl", the latter one a No. 1 country and pop smash.
• Marty Robbins: This true cowboy, whose musical styles were vastly diverse and ranged from straight pop and rockabilly to western and Hawaiian and true traditional country, got his start on his own radio and later TV show in Phoenix, Arizona. After being discovered by fellow up-and-coming star "Little" Jimmy Dickens, he got his first big break and signed with Columbia Records and by becoming a favorite on the Grand Ole Opry. On the radio and at record stores, he was a hit right out of the gate, with his first song, "I'll Go On Alone", becoming a big No. 1 country hit in early 1953. And it didn't stop for three decades – even after his untimely death in 1982.
• Jimmie Rodgers: While he did have a couple of modest hits before it, "Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas)" was the first big hit for Rodgers with the original issue selling over half a million copies and making Rodgers a star. Rodgers would later record 12 sequel songs to this hit throughout his career.
• Kenny Rogers: In 1968, he fronted a rock group called The First Edition, and recording mainly psychedelic rock Rogers broke through with a song called "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)". But while most psychedelic rock-only artists stuck around the scene a brief time, those that considered Rogers a one-trick pony didn't know this guy very well, as he came through in 1969 with his folk-countryish "Ruby (Don't Take Your Love to Town)". After switching to his current country-pop style and a pair of top 20 hits in 1976 – a reworking of the spiritual "Love Lifted Me" and a cover of "Laura (What's He Got That I Ain't Got)" – 1977's "Lucille" would be the one that finally earned Rogers his true country-pop breakthrough and began his longest run of sustained success, which would last through the early 1990s.
• John Schneider: In the early 1980s, right at the height of his fame as Bo Duke on The Dukes of Hazzard, someone thought he would make a great singer. They were right, and in 1981, his first single – a cover of Elvis Presley's "It's Now or Never" was a top 5 country and top 15 pop smash. Despite its success, that song is rarely heard today (although he has been known to perform the song in concert, and has done so as recently as 2019). What's considered his career breakthrough came three years later with "I've Been Around Enough to Know", the first in a string of No. 1 and top 5 country hits through 1987.
• The Seals family:
  • Johnny Duncan, the first to have breakthrough success on the country chart. He had several top 40 country hits in the late 1960s and just missed the top 10 in the winter of 1972 with "Baby's Smile, Woman's Kiss", but it was 1973's "Sweet Country Woman" that got him into the top 10 for the first time. Yet, his most sustained success (and what many consider his true breakthrough) began in 1976 when, along with an unknown backup singer named Janie Fricke, hit the top 5 with the Kris Kristofferson-penned "Stranger". Three number one hits and a bunch more top 10 singles followed.
  • Although not a country act, Seals and Crofts includes Duncan's cousin, Jim Seals; their breakthrough was in the late fall of 1972 with "Summer Breeze".
  • Dan Seals: Three years after splitting with John Ford Coley, the former "England Dan" began his successful country career. He had several top 20 hits in 1983, but the one that really got him noticed was "God Must Be a Cowboy", which hit in the spring of 1984.
  • Brady Seals of Little Texas. Tim Rushlow was the lead singer on most of their hits, including their breakthrough "Some Guys Have All the Love" (not to be confused with the Rod Stewart song also covered by country singer Louise Mandrell), but Brady got a turn at the mike on what turned out to be the band's only No. 1 song, the 1994 ballad "My Love".
• Taylor Swift: She hit right out of the box in 2006 with her first release, a song titled "Tim McGraw." Her follow-up singles did increasingly better until "Our Song" (third single from first album) got her to No. 1 on the country charts for the first time. At the same time, she was receiving increasingly more attention from pop audiences, and in 2008, her first massive crossover hit, "Love Story," came to be.
  • As with Eric Church and Jay Joyce above, Swift's breakthrough was also one for her producer, Nathan Chapman. He had almost no production experience before Taylor's first album but has become a popular Nashville producer, working with Lady Antebellum, Keith Urban, The Band Perry, and Shania Twain among others.
• Mel Tillis: The singer with a Stutter Stop – a stutter that goes away when he sings – made his first breakthrough as a gifted songwriter, with his first songwriting top 5 hit being Webb Pierce's "I'm Tired", and his first No. 1 hit, Pierce's "Honky Tonk Song" He went on to write dozens of hits, the most famous being Pierce's "I Ain't Never" (later recorded by Tillis, which became a No. 1 country hit), Bobby Bare's "Detroit City" and Kenny Rogers and the First Edition's "Ruby (Don't Take Your Love to Town)". As a singer, Mel's big breakthrough was 1966's "Stateside", the song that went on to be a signature of sorts "Statesiders" was the name of his backing band; however, his first top 10 hit – and a string of uninterrupted success through the 1970s and early 1980s – was 1969's "Who's Julie".
• Mel's daughter, Pam Tillis, had begun recording in The '80s and put out several country-pop singles for Warner (Bros.) Records to no success (although one of these singles, "Those Memories of You", was later Covered Up by Dolly Parton). She then moved to the then-new Arista Nashville label in 1990, where she hit Top 5 right out of the gate with "Don't Tell Me What to Do", the first in a long string of country hits lasting throughout most of The '90s.
• Randy Travis: In a very odd example, Travis's breakthrough was a re-release of his first major-label single. That song, "On the Other Hand", only went to No. 67 its first time out. The label followed it up with "1982", which went to No. 6. Afterward, they made the extremely unorthodox move of re-releasing "On the Other Hand", which turned out to be the right move — it went all the way to No. 1 and started a very fruitful career. Travis was seen as one of the artists who moved the genre back to a more traditionalist bent following the Urban Cowboy-esque pop crossovers of the early-mid 80s, and he continued to have hits as late as 1999, with a momentary return in 2003.
• Josh Turner: "Your Man". Yet another example of the "first single from second album becomes first #1" variant. Although "Long Black Train" from the first album had an extremely long chart run that got it to No. 13, that song (which sounds more like a 1940s gospel song than anything in mainstream country) is mostly forgotten today.
• Shania Twain, "Any Man of Mine". Twain already had a solid, if unremarkable album for Mercury in 1993 which sounds like it could've been recorded by just about anybody. After getting "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?" to #11 in 1995, she followed up with this #1 smash from her album The Woman in Me, thus paving the way for a country-pop career that made her one of the most famous Canadian country singers ever, not to mention one of the best-selling. Her next album, Come On Over, is the best-selling ever by a female artist, and produced a staggering twelve singles.
• Conway Twitty: Harold Lloyd Jenkins, who according to legend took his stage name from the names of two towns on a map (Conway, Arkansas and Twitty, Texas), has two to his name, each representing his start in a particular genre. When he was a teen heartthrob in the rock music world in the late 1950s, he first hit it big with "It's Only Make Believe". Amazingly, that 1958 No. 1 million seller stuck with him throughout his country music career ... and it was a 1968 top 5 hit called "The Image of Me" that was his first big country hit, after which followed his immortal hits such as "Hello Darlin'" (1970) and "You've Never Been This Far Before" (1973), five No. 1 duets with Loretta Lynn and 33 more solo No. 1 hits.
• Keith Urban: The New Zealand-born Australian cut an album in his homeland in 1991, and spent the next several years finding some bit parts in Nashville. He founded a short-lived band called The Ranch, which scraped the bottom of the country charts with two cuts from their only studio album in 1997, and followed with his first American solo album for Capitol Records in 1999. The album was somewhat successful, getting him a Top 20 right away with "It's a Love Thing", followed by the top 5 hit "Your Everything", the #1 "But for the Grace of God" (which ended a nearly three-year spell in which no artist on Capitol's Nashville division topped the charts), and the #3 "Where the Blacktop Ends". After a nearly year-long hiatus, he returned in late 2002 with "Somebody Like You", a six-week #1 hit that started a streak of Top 10 country hits that remains unbroken more than a decade later. "Somebody Like You" was named by Billboard as the biggest country hit of the 2000-2010 decade, and everything before it has long since been forgotten.
• Keith Whitley. His debut EP A Hard Act to Follow was a bomb, and 1985's L.A. to Miami was only mildly successful despite producing a Signature Song in "Miami, My Amy" and having not one, but two of its tracks Covered Up by other superstars of the era (Randy Travis with "On the Other Hand" and George Strait with "Nobody in His Right Mind Would've Left Her", although the latter was recorded by Dean Dillon first). But he had his breakthrough in 1988 with "Don't Close Your Eyes", the third single off his 1988 album of the same name. The song started a streak of five straight #1 hits that managed to outlive the singer himself, who met his untimely death from alcohol poisoning at 34 in 1989.
• Hank Williams Jr.: The son of country music's premier superstar, "Bocephus" notched his first hit at age 15 with "Long Gone Lonesome Blues". At age 17, he spoke about "Standing in the Shadows" and how he vowed to someday break free. He couldn't — soft ballads were his main bread-and-butter throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, and his first two No. 1 songs were ballads: "All for the Love of Sunshine" (featuring the Mike Curb Congregation) and "Eleven Roses". It wasn't until his 15th year on the charts, several years after his fall off a tall mountainside, that he finally broke free with what is considered his signature song: the autobiographical country-rocker "Family Tradition". Put in perspective, Hank Jr. had had 11 top 10 hits, including two No. 1 singles before his true breakthrough. Despite his outspokenness that has sometimes landed him in hot water, Hank Jr.'s unique fusion of country, his father's songs, and southern rock have made its mark on the genre.
• Tammy Wynette: Although her first single release, "Apartment No. 9", didn't even hit the top 40 when released in the fall of 1966, it was the signal that something very special was coming. It would be her second single release, "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad", from the summer of 1967, that she really broke the ice and set the standard for songs about heartbreak ("I Don't Wanna Play House", "D-I-V-O-R-C-E") and loyalty ("Stand By Your Man") that she became famous for.
• Chris Young, who won the fourth season of Nashville Star in 2006, had a complete dud of a debut album, with neither of its singles reaching Top 40. The lead single to his second album, "Voices", stalled out at #37, and it looked like he would never be heard from again. But then in 2009, he released "Gettin' You Home (The Black Dress Song)", which went all the way to #1. Thus started a streak of successful singles and albums (including a re-release of "Voices" two singles later, which placed third in a streak of five consecutive #1 hits), marred only by the #23 "Neon" in 2012 before quickly recovering.

Dance/Electronic

• Daft Punk and their first album Homework as well as its leading single "Da Funk". Their album Random Access Memories and its lead single "Get Lucky", however, transformed them from a cult act to a mainstream pop act, leading to some high-profile collaborations with well-known artists such as The Weeknd. Ironically, said album would be their last before their retirement in early 2021.
• Avicii: "Levels", to the point that he got disgusted at how overplayed it was and it didn't appear on his first studio album True. Fortunately for him, he escaped the looming shadow of "Levels" with "Wake Me Up", which broke him out of the club scene and has become a much bigger hit than "Levels" ever was (especially in the U.S.). Even though he's considered a One-Hit Wonder mainstream-wise for the latter (despite the fact that its follow-up "Hey Brother" went top 20), he remained one of the most respected and successful artists among the electronic music scene up until his untimely death in 2018.
• Skrillex: He broke through with the EP Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites as well as its title track released as a single. The single remains his best-selling single to date.
  • Skrillex's side project with Diplo, Jack Ü, got mainstream attention with "Where Are Ü Now", but probably because Justin Bieber was vocalist.
• Ellie Goulding: "Starry Eyed", considered the first true showcase of her dreamy, ethereal style. In the U.S., this honor goes to "Lights".
• The Chainsmokers: 2014's "#SELFIE" broke them out from being an underground DJ duo into being well-known to general audiences due to the Forced Meme nature of the song. However, it was also seen by many as an annoying novelty song that destined them for One-Hit Wonder status. As such, the true honor goes to 2015's "Roses", a well-received song that proved the detractors wrong and that they were more than just a one-off novelty act, becoming bigger than "#SELFIE" ever was. This opened the door for the follow-up "Don't Let Me Down" to go Top 5 and "Closer" to go straight to #1, where it stayed for a whopping twelve weeks (and itself was a breakthrough hit for featured artist Halsey). The success continued with "Paris" and "Something Just Like This".
• Martin Garrix: "Animals" made Garrix the youngest producer to ever reach the number-one spot on the electronic-oriented music store Beatport, and the track (perhaps most infamously) became the Ur-Example of the "big room" fad it helped to usher.
• Major Lazer: Although "Bubble Butt" was a minor hit in 2013, it was 2015's "Lean On" that turned them into a red-hot name on the market.
• The Prodigy: "Charly" was their commercial breakthrough in the UK and Europe, even if they'd rather not acknowledge it now. Despite critical acclaim for their second album, it was their third The Fat of the Land and particularly its lead single "Firestarter" that broke them into North America, and made them hugely popular at home beyond the standard dance music crowd.
• Jean-Michel Jarre: Oxygène (1976 in France, 1977 world-wide) made him one of the biggest superstars in electronic music ever. Few people know that he had already released material before it, including one regular studio album (Deserted Palace, 1972) and one movie soundtrack (Les granges brûlées, 1973, re-released on CD in 2003).
• Kraftwerk: They started out as a regular Krautrock band, originally named Organisation, and even releasing three albums. Apart from one of their songs being used on German TV, they were hardly known beyond Düsseldorf. In 1973, they got rid of their guitar player Michael Rother and their drummer Klaus Dinger because they were fed of the two's constant bickering and hired Wolfgang Flür as a new drummer. Since neither Kraftwerk nor Flür had a drum kit, they built an electronic one, thereby going almost full electronic. This trio recorded a new album, Autobahn, which was released in early 1974 — and earned them instant huge popularity especially in the UK and the USA. Kraftwerk's official discography has started with Autobahn ever since.
• Donna Summer: "Love to Love You Baby", which was also a turning point (if not strictly the first breakthrough) for producer Giorgio Moroder.
• Owl City: "Fireflies" undoubtedly put him on the map. Despite being also a One-Hit Wonder mainstream-wise, he has maintained a fairly successful career (which included contributing a song for Wreck-It Ralph) and a loyal following after said hit.

Hip Hop/Rap

• Dr. Dre and Ice Cube: Following their acrimonious split from Eazy-E and the breakup of N.W.A, both Dre and Cube released solo albums that would later be considered classics of the Gangsta Rap sub-genre — The Chronic and Ameri KK Kas Most Wanted, respectively.
• Eminem: The Slim Shady LP, particularly its first single, "My Name Is". The music video would eventually reach the #1 spot on Total Request Live (a spot usually dominated at the time by the likes of the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC and Britney Spears), starting him on his path to stardom. "My Name Is" didn't really go very far on the Billboard Hot 100 ("The Real Slim Shady" from The Marshall Mathers LP was his first top 10 there), but since it is very well-remembered, it's a much more appropriate song to hold this title.
• Jay-Z: This Brooklyn rapper initially charted at #3 on rap albums and #23 on pop albums with his debut album Reasonable Doubt, which is often considered to be his best record to this day. He eventually cemented himself as one of the most successful rappers of all time with his third album Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life, and although it was criticized for being much more "poppy" than his earlier work, it became his first #1 on the pop album chart.
• Kanye West: Yeezy first established himself as one of rap's best producers with his mentor Jay-Z's album The Blueprint. He aspired to be a rapper himself, but many didn't believe in his ability to rap at first. Despite this, he eventually released The College Dropout, a massive critical and commercial success.
• Things Fall Apart for The Roots. It was their fourth studio album, and the first one to sell at least 500,000 copies, as well as the group's first Grammy award for the single "You Got Me"^note Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, 2000.
• Psy: While he was already well-known in his home country of South Korea, "Gangnam Style" is what made him an international sensation, mainly because of the memeticness of the song's music video.
• Snoop Dogg: Back when he was called "Snoop Doggy Dogg", he broke through with "Gin and Juice", the second single from his debut album Doggystyle.
• Tupac Shakur: "Brenda's Got a Baby".
• The Wu-Tang Clan burst onto the scene with "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)", and helped bring about the resurgence of East Coast rap in the early- to mid-90s. Some of the group's artists, such as Ghostface Killah and Method Man would go on to have very successful careers as solo artists.

Pop

• Burt Bacharach and Hal David: The legendary songwriting team began working together in 1957, and almost immediately had their first breakthrough hit: "The Story of My Life", a No. 1 country and No. 15 pop hit by Marty Robbins. Dozens of hit singles followed, including those by acts as diverse as Dionne Warwick, Herb Alpert, B.J. Thomas, the Carpenters, Bobby Vinton, the 5th Dimension, the duet pairing of Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald, the 1980s synth-pop duo Naked Eyes and many others.
• The Bee Gees: The three Gibb brothers – Barry, Robin, and Maurice – are so closely identified with disco that their 1960s and early 1970s output is all but forgotten. But let's remember that as awesome and defining of a dance-based disco band that they were, they also had the pop/close harmony side in which they excelled, and it was their first top 20 hit, "New York Mining Disaster" from 1967, that gave fans their first taste of the brothers Gibb. Their early top 20 hits are also proven breakthroughs: "To Love Somebody" and "Massachusetts", also from 1967, charted even higher and has been heavily played on oldies stations, and 1968's "I Gotta Get a Message to You" broke them into the top 10 for the first time. They had a hiatus in 1969 and most of 1970, but broke back through at the end of 1970 with "Lonely Days", their biggest hit yet, and topped the Hot 100 for the first time with "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" in the summer of 1971. And then, after a few of their follow-up releases charted progressively lower, they had another breakthrough – their disco-years breakthrough, and it was by doing a little "Jive Talkin'", a No. 1 smash in August 1975. The Bee Gees' music wasn't the same since then, and it is the Gibbs' third breakthrough that is generally regarded as the one that brought them the most lasting, sustained success.
• Justin Bieber: "One Time" was the song that first garnered him attention, but it was "Baby" that turned him into a superstar. It is now his Signature Song.
• BLACKPINK has been popular from the start in their native Korea, with debut single “Whistle” even being a number 1 hit, but their first US Hot 100 hit, “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du”, was the song that blew them up internationally, to the point of getting them booked for a Coachella performance and appearances on American TV to promote their tour.
• Blondie: Prior to 1979 and the release of the group's album Parallel Lines, this new wave-punk band from New York City had a cult following but not a mainstream one. Then, Debbie Harry and her bandmates rang in 1979 with a daftly new sound: a mix of disco and a mix of new wave to serve as the perfect bridge between eras of prevailing styles, and it turned out to be a "Heart of Glass". The song, the band's breakthrough, quickly went to No. 1 and became one of its signature songs. By this time the group were already stars in the UK and Europe, where their breakthrough had been "Denis (Denee)", a single that didn't chart at all in the US.
• Björk: Prior to her solo career and after her brief career as a Child Popstar, the Icelandic singer started out fronting bands like the Punk Rock band Tappi Tikkarass, the Goth Rock band KUKL and later the Alternative Rock band The Sugarcubes. Following the Sugarcubes' disbandment in late 1992, Björk scored moderate success outside her native Iceland with the first two singles from her album Debut, "Human Behaviour" and "Venus as a Boy" but it was the single "Play Dead" that served as her breakthrough single in the UK, followed by "Big Time Sensuality", which became her breakthrough single in the US.
• Michael Bolton: He started out in 1975 as a hard rock singer, but after a Genre Shift to adult contemporary in the mid-'80s and some success as a songwriter in that genre, he broke through with two 1987 hits, the original song "That's What Love Is All About" and a cover of Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" that gained the enthusiastic approval of Redding's widow. Those led to Bolton becoming a consistent hitmaker well into the 1990s.
• BTS: Although always huge in their home country of South Korea, as well as the international K-pop community, their crack at international superstardom came with the 2017 remix of their song "Mic Drop," off their EP Love Yourself: Her. The remix involved DJ Steve Aoki and had an opening verse from rapper Desiigner (whose breakout hit "Panda" tore up the charts the year prior). The result was the first Korean group act to hit the top 40 on Billboard’s Hot 100, and did respectably on other charts outside of Korea and Japan as well. Then came "Fake Love," the lead single from Love Yourself: Answer, the next album in their Love Yourself era, which became the first top 10 Billboard hit for a Korean act since Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” and the first of what would be many hits on that chart - including the later number ones "Dynamite," "Life Goes On" (the first single not in English to hit the summit since "Despacito," and the first in an Asian language to do so since Kyu Sakamoto’s "Sukiyaki" in 1964), and "Butter" - and ultimately paving the way for Korean pop music to cross over into the mainstream outside of Asia.
• Alessia Cara: "Here".
• Cheap Trick: The Rockford, Illinois-based rock band had a bunch of hit albums and singles ... in Japan. While their early albums did, at best, modestly well in the United States, In Color and Dream Police each were gold records in the Orient, and the frenzy over the band's 1978 tour in that country was said to be reminiscent to that of Beatlemania in the United States. During that 1978 tour, they recorded a song called "I Want You to Want Me", an uptempo rocker that became their first successful American hit, peaking at No. 7 in the summer of 1979. It took nine years before their second breakthrough, the ballad "The Flame", got them in the top 10 again, reaching No. 1 and beginning their period of their most sustained success.
• Dr. Hook: Their first top 10 hit, and probable breakthrough, was a 1972 Tear Jerker ballad "Sylvia's Mother", a despondent man trying to say goodbye to his now permanently-ex girlfriend, holding out hope that he can revive their failed relationship. But want real evidence that they had broken through? Look no further than their 1973 follow-up, when, after several weeks of that song's hit status becoming apparent, they finally got to appear on "The Cover of Rolling Stone". (Both hits, by the way, were released under their previous moniker, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show.)
• Andy Gibb: Barry, Robin and Maurice's kid brother became a star in his own right. After a failed single release in late 1976, he recorded the smash hit "I Just Want to Be Your Everything", which became a No. 1 hit in 1977 and eventually became one of the biggest hits ever in pop music.
• Daryl Hall & John Oates: This Philadelphia-based duo fused elements of pop, soul, and rock music to create "rock and soul". In the fall of 1973, Daryl Hall and John Oates recorded and released "She's Gone" as a single but it went nowhere. In December 1975, they issued their next single, "Sara Smile"... and nearly 4 1/2 months later, in April 1976, it became a legitimate top 10 hit. "She's Gone" would then be reissued in August 1976, and it finally became a top 10 hit, paving the way for their first wave of success that also included the No. 1 hit "Rich Girl". After that, their success subsided, but then came a second breakthrough in the late fall of 1980 with their remake of The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'". Although that was only a No. 12 hit, it provided more than enough momentum to make them one of the most successful acts of the 1980s, with five No. 1 hits – starting with 1981's "Kiss on My List" – and a bunch of other top 10 hits to boot.
• Carly Rae Jepsen: After three years of mild success (but only in Canada), the Canadian Idol contestant skyrocketed to international fame after the release of "Call Me Maybe" thanks to the support of Justin Bieber. Most people aren't even aware the single came from an EP, or that she released a full album three years earlier. She turned out to be a One-Hit Wonder mainstream-wise, but E•MO•TION and subsequent albums led to a pivot to being a critically acclaimed indie pop darling.
• Lady Gaga: "Just Dance", after several years in the business and a shift from being a piano-pop-type singer/songwriter.
• Cyndi Lauper: In the late 1970s, this completely hot singer from Queens, New York released a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "You Make Loving Fun", which is forgotten today. In the early 1980s, she fronted a new wave-punk band called Blue Angel. Few remember her output from their one album, but it did show stylistic trends that would appear in her far-more famous music of the mid-to-late 1980s. Her breakthrough, from early 1984, proved more than just that "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" – it proved she was around to stay, with a famous career in professional wrestling and – recording ballads (most notably, "Time After Time" and the sugary sweet "True Colors") and uptempo songs alike – becoming an iconic figure of the 1980s to boot.
• Lorde: "Royals", probably one of the most unlikely megahits ever. Just a 16-year-old girl living on the outskirts of Auckland, New Zealand, who prior to had never even been to America got discovered singing it by an agent at a school talent show. Next thing you know, "Royals" topped charts worldwide including the US Pop and Alternative charts (staying on the former for a whopping nine weeks, the longest of any female artist that year, and became the first female artist to top the latter since before she was born), which made her the first New Zealand artist to achieve this feat. Her debut album Pure Heroine went double platinum, outselling some of the biggest pop acts in the business.
• Madonna: The girl who would practically challenge every censorship trope, particularly during the 1980s and early 1990s, had a good-sized dance hit in 1982 called "Everybody". But not everybody remembers that song. They remember her late 1983 breakthrough hit "Holiday", which despite reaching only No. 16 paved the way for massive success later in the 1980s – her first top 10 was "Borderline" in mid-1984, and her No. 1 hit came in December 1984 with Like a Virgin – plus a career that's included acting, being a best-selling author (although several of her books have been banned), entrepreneur and philanthropist.
• Olivia Newton-John: She had some success in the UK (where she was born) and Australia (where she grew up), but in the United States, her big break came with the 1971 single "If Not for You". On the pop side, the song just missed reaching the top 20, but it was a sign of things to come for the beautiful Australian. Although a follow-up hit eluded her for the next two years, she continued to have several hits worldwide ... and then in 1973, she really broke through with "Let Me Be There", her first huge country smash hit and a top 10 pop hit as well. She had arrived, reaching the pinnacle of multi-genre success in 1978 with her starring role in Grease and in 1981 with her huge hit "Physical".
• One Direction: "What Makes You Beautiful". While they were well known in the UK on The X Factor, international audiences didn't discover them until this song became a massive worldwide hit. The band's popularity would begin to eclipse that of reigning teen phenomenon Justin Bieber at that point.
• Fifth Harmony: Similar to One Direction, they were already signed to the X-Factor prior to their radio success, but they didn't gain mainstream attention until their breakthrough hit: "Worth It". Their debut single "Miss Movin' On" garnered moderate traction, but it failed to become massive, ultimately peaking at #75. "Sledgehammer" was their first top 40 hit, just making it to the #40 spot, but it was forgotten very quickly outside their fanbase. "Worth It" was the real hit that rose the American girl group to prominence, peaking at #12 and holding a strong spot in the Top 20. However, "Work from Home" is their most successfully-charting single, peaking at #4, but "Worth It" is most definitely their breakthrough hit.
• Kesha: The pop singer started off as an unknown songwriter, but she then provided uncredited vocals for Flo Rida's massive #1 hit "Right Round", this however didn't bring her to fame. Her real rise to prominence was when she released her debut single "Tik Tok" in 2009, which became a smash hit peaking at #1 in several countries and eventually becoming the #1 song on the 2010 Year-End Charts. She is arguably the most successful artist of 2010, having had seven Top 10 hits that year.
• Katy Perry: She first started recording music under her birth name, Katy Hudson, but after she adopted her mother's maiden name, she broke through with the album One of the Boys and its lead single "I Kissed a Girl", which rebelled against her fundamentalist Christian upbringing and establishing her as one of the decade's biggest female pop acts.
• Rihanna: Her debut single, 2005's "Pon De Replay", peaked at #2 in the USA, kickstarting her career and making her a mainstay on pop radio for the next decade. "S.O.S" in 2006 became her first #1, and 2007's "Umbrella", her Signature Song, is widely considered to be the song that firmly put her on the A-list.
• B.J. Thomas: This handsome country-pop singer from Hugo, Oklahoma, had his first hit that was a cover of an iconic country song, and his second and true breakthrough was a song that would later be covered and become an iconic hit in pop music. That first hit came in 1966, with a song that was a then little-known B-sided hit for Hank Williams Sr.'s biggest hit, "Lovesick Blues", the song being "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". In the years since, Williams' version would become a staple of classic country playlists. Meanwhile, for Thomas, his true breakthrough came in the winter of 1969 with a song that became iconic with its 1974 "ooga-chaka, ooga-chaka" remake by Blue Suede – "Hooked on a Feeling".
  • On the country charts, although his first No. 1 hit, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" and the follow-up "I Just Can't Help Believing", did get some country airplay as a recurrent/oldie in the early- to mid-1970s, it wasn't until 1975 that he had his first major hit on that chart: "Hey Won't You Play Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song".
• Meghan Trainor: "All About That Bass"
• TWICE: "Like OOH-AHH" was a Sleeper Hit that crawled up to the top ten of the Korean digital chart despite some bumps in the road, but the song that really blew them up was "Cheer Up", their first of nine consecutive number ones in Korea. Their first original English single, "The Feels", was their first Hot 100 hit and their Western breakthrough.
• Ariana Grande: After becoming unexpectedly popular on Nickelodeon's Victorious, she released the Pep-Talk Song "Put Your Hearts Up". However, the song didn't go much anywhere, and Grande later expressed distaste for the song and a desire to be more passionate about her music. In 2013, she released "The Way", a song heavily inspired by 90's R&B the likes of Mariah Carey, and the song was a critical and commercial success, debuting at number 10 and peaking at 9 on the Hot 100. Her star was firmly solidified with 2014's "Problem", which hit #2.
• Soft Cell: Their first record release was an EP titled "Mutant Moments", one of whose tracks was included on their debut album. This was followed by "Memorabilia", which was a club hit but failed to make any impact on the charts. The duo's breakthrough came when they released their cover of the Gloria Jones song "Tainted Love", which topped the British singles charts in September 1981.
• Ed Sheeran became a star overnight in the UK thanks to his massively successful single "The A Team", and he's been churning out hits ever since. While the song (and its parent album +) were modest hits in America, it was the follow-up album x that truly made him a superstar over there.
• Bruno Mars has been writing several hits for other artists since 2008, such as "Right Round" by Flo Rida. He first got noticed as a singer with his guest appearances on BoB's "Nothin' on You" and Travie McCoy's "Billionaire". Both were top 5 hits in the U.S., with the former hitting #1. This exposure was enough to get his first single "Just The Way You Are" immediately to the top of the charts. Since then, he's been one of the most consistent hit-makers in the business.
• ABBA: All four members had been part of the Swedish music scene since the 1960s. Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson were members of The Hootenanny Singers and The Hep Stars respectively, while Anni-Frid Lyngstad (AKA Frida) and Agnetha Fältskog were solo singers. They first worked together in 1970 and, by the end of 1972, were a fully-fledged group. However, because Sweden was then considered to be something of a musical backwater, the only way they could hope to achieve international recognition was via the Eurovision Song Contest. Their first attempt (1973's "Ring Ring") failed to make it past the selection contest, but they returned the following year with "Waterloo" and, this time, they not only reached the finals in Brighton, England but went on to win. They subsequently became one of the most successful groups of the Seventies.
• Eurythmics: It was a couple of years, a couple of albums, and five flop singles in a row before anyone took much interest in the career of two ex-members of briefly popular new wavers The Tourists. Then "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" was released; the rest is history.
• Spice Girls: "Wannabe".
• Britney Spears: "Baby One More Time".
• Christina Aguilera: "Genie in a Bottle".
• Bananarama: Their breakthrough was a collaboration with The Fun Boy Three on "It Ain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It)". Their international breakthrough was "Cruel Summer", which also established them at home as more than just a covers band (they had issued original songs as singles before but to much less success than their cover versions).
• Tessa Violet: 2018's "Crush" propelled her from a niche artist in the YouTube music scene to a major indie star, making her album Bad Ideas wildly successful on streaming services.
• The Monkees: "Last Train to Clarksville".
• Sia: While "Breathe Me" brought initial attention to herself as an artist, the later album We Are Born brought her into stardom in Australia. Her featured spots on "Wild Ones" and "Titanium", and her single "Chandelier", the next album 1000 Forms of Fear broke her into the mainstream worldwide.

R&B, Blues, and Soul

• The Jackson 5: This band of brothers from Gary, Indiana were originally a local hit performing in local talent shows, and eventually signed onto the legendary Motown label in 1969. They eventually released their hit single, "I Want You Back", launching a string of three other singles topping the Hot 100 ("ABC", "The Love You Save", "I'll Be There"), becoming the first artist to top the chart with their first four singles. They went on to become Motown's most popular group, as well as launching the career of...
  • Michael Jackson: Originally known as the adorable and talented frontman of The Jackson 5, he started his solo career at age 13 when he was still with them, and he had scored one #1 hit ("Ben") and two other top 10 hits ("Got to Be There", "Rockin' Robin") at that point, but said hits didn't exactly set him apart from his brothers just yet. In 1979, four years after leaving Motown, he teamed up with Quincy Jones to release Off the Wall, and its lead single "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough" introduced listeners to his now-signature musical style and mannerisms. Not only did this cement him as a far bigger artist as a solo act than he ever was with his brothers, it also established him as the definitive pop musician of The '80s, leading to his landmark album Thriller three years later.
• Prince – Many consider his 1983 hit "Little Red Corvette" to be his breakthrough hit, reaching No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1983. Nobody, it seems, remembers his true breakthrough: "I Wanna Be Your Lover", which stopped just short of the top 10 in January 1980, some three years earlier. Additionally, his second bonafide hit, "1999", is considered to have come after "Little Red Corvette" (No. 12 in the summer of '83), forgetting that "1999" was climbing the charts in October 1982 (stopping at No. 44).
• Billy Ocean – The Trinidad-born R&B singer had a moderate hit in 1976 in the United States with "Love Really Hurts Without You"; that, plus at least two other late 1970s songs, were huge hits in the United Kingdom. But his real U.S. breakthrough didn't come until 1984 when he scored with "Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run)".
• The Commodores: This American funk band, which originated in Tuskegee, Alabama, began by recording strictly funky soul during the early and mid-1970s, and their first hit was the instrumental hit "Machine Gun" in the summer of 1974. But fans know them far better for their smooth ballads, most of them led by their most dynamic and prolific member, Lionel Richie. Their first ballad hit was "Sweet Love", their breakthrough hit in the spring of 1976. The Commodores became so closely identified with R&B ballads that they had only one funk-styled hit after that: 1977's "Brick House" – they instead focused on memorable songs like "Easy", "Three Times a Lady", "Still", "Sail On", and "Lady (You Bring Me Up)".
  • As for Lionel Richie, what else can be said that hasn't? In 1980, he had his first major solo songwriting hit apart from the Commodores with Kenny Rogers' "Lady", and as a solo artist apart from the Commodores, he recorded the lush duet with Diana Ross – "Endless Love", a nine-week No. 1 hit in 1981. He even spread his wings into the country arena, scoring his first big hit in that genre with "Stuck On You" in the summer of 1984. And then, after two decades of mediocre sales in the U.S., he made a triumphant comeback in 2012 with the No. 1 album Tuskegee, a compilation of 13 of his biggest hits re-imagined as country duets.
• Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul had a top 10 pop hit early in 1967 with "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", but that bluesy soul song is all but forgotten today. Aretha's follow up would gain far more "Respect", and forever be ingrained in American pop culture.
• Marvin Gaye: A key member of the Motown scene from the 1960s through his untimely death in 1984 (OK, by the early 1980s, he was recording on Columbia Records ... still), Gaye's soulful sound took root in the early 1960s, with his first big hit coming in 1963 with "Pride and Joy", although many consider his real breakthrough to be the original version of "How Sweet It Is (to be Loved by You)" two years later.
• Gladys Knight & the Pips: In 1961, this Atlanta family soul group (leader Gladys Knight, her brother Bubba, and cousins William Guest and Edward Patten) had their first national hit in 1961 with "Every Beat of My Heart". Credited just as Pips, the song was just a "pip" on the radar for the then 16-year-old Gladys and her mates, and even though it was a strong No. 6 hit it has long since been forgotten. Fast forward 6 1/2 years later, and a record deal with subsidiary Motown label Soul Records, the group tried their luck again ... and finally had their true breakthrough with the original version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine". "Grapevine" (which became even better known by Marvin Gaye later in 1968) would set the stage for their 1970s hits, most notably "Midnight Train to Georgia".
• The Supremes: In the early 1960s, this Detroit-based girl group fronted by Diana Ross (with Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson joining in) struggled to find that breakthrough hit. No fewer than five singles had been released from 1960-1963, with only the fifth of them barely making a dent in the song "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes", which reached No. 29. That was the group's first top 30 hit, but the follow-up, "Run, Run, Run", fared far worse. Before Motown Records could run, run, run from Diana, Florence, and Mary, the group released the latest sure dud single, "Where Did Our Love Go". But this was no dud ... but rather, the song that finally caught on. Less than two months after its release, instead of finding itself at the bottom of the discount bargain bin at record stores, "Where Did Our Love Go" went straight to No. 1 and in addition to being the breakthrough, led to the most successful girl group of the 1960s. (Florence later left, replaced by Cindy Birdsong.)
  • As far as Diana Ross goes, after departing the Supremes in January 1970, as "Someday We'll Be Together" was at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, she had a very lucrative solo career (musically and acting, and many TV appearances). Her first solo hit, "Reach Out and Touch Somebody's Hand" was a top 20 hit in the late spring of 1970 and has been closely tied to her career, but what really made her star was her dramatic redo of the Marvin Gaye-Tammi Terrill smash "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".
• Chris Brown: "Run It!".
• Ray Charles: "I Got a Woman". It introduced his revolutionary fusion of R&B with Gospel, which would later become the Soul genre, and was his first #1 on the R&B chart.
• The Weeknd: "Earned It". Prior to, the Canadian singer had built up a large fanbase on the internet but wasn't quite a mainstream artist. While he managed a Top 10 hit as a duet with Ariana Grande's "Love Me Harder", it wasn't seen as his hit. Then he made "Earned It" for the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack, which went Top 5 and turned him from an artist with a large cult following to a bonafide mainstream act. His follow-ups, "Can't Feel My Face" and "The Hills" both hit the top of the charts, his album Beauty Behind the Madness was one of the biggest of 2015, and he got plenty of recognition at the next year's Grammys.
• Amy Winehouse: "Rehab" converted her overnight from a critically acclaimed cult artist to a major star.
• R. Kelly: "Bump n' Grind".

Rock/Metal

• Pat Benatar: Probably the most successful female hard rock artist of the 1980s, and one of the few solo female artists to consistently be played on classic rock stations, the queen of hard rock had to suffer a "Heartbreaker" to score her first really big hit in early 1980. Bigger hits followed: "Hit Me with Your Best Shot", "Treat Me Right", "Fire and Ice", "Love Is a Battlefield", and so on. Being an early staple artist of the fledgling MTV (the music-intensive cable television network debuted in mid-summer 1981) definitely helped.
• Rick Springfield: Although he peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 with the folkish "Speak to the Sky" in 1972, the song sounds nothing like the song most regard as his true breakthrough hit – "Jessie's Girl", from 1981. In fact, given that most of Springfield's later hits had the power-pop sound of "Jessie's Girl", fans generally are unaware that "Speak to the Sky" was ever associated with him (although he does still perform the song in concert, albeit in his trademark power-pop arrangement).
• Fleetwood Mac: Hardcore fans knew this Anglo-American band as a British blues-oriented rock group, featuring the two men whose names make up the band's name (Mick Fleetwood and John McVie). Formed in 1967, they had major success in Great Britain but, except for a few alternative stations, weren't really that well known in the United States. That is, until 1975 when the band — with newcomer members Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks having joined the fold (Christine McVie came on board in 1970) — the band released an album, titled, appropriately enough, Fleetwood Mac. This new album showcased their pop-oriented sound, and featured their U.S. Top 40 radio breakthrough songs, starting off with "Over My Head", "Rhiannon", and "Say You Love Me". Christine McVie at one point retired but has since returned, and Buckingham and Nicks also briefly left at various times, but for the most part, the five core members of Fleetwood Mac's success have remained intact.
  • Stevie Nicks: Nicks herself had her solo breakthrough in 1981 when she released the album Bella Donna, a smashing success that stayed on the Billboard 200 for three years. The debut single from said album, "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around", a collaboration with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100.
• Elvis Presley: In 1955, he was charting only on the country chart with songs like "Mystery Train" and "That's Alright, Mama", and at the end of the year was climbing the charts with his first No. 1 country hit, "I Forgot to Remember to Forget". All of those titles were for the Sun Records label – legendary performances to be sure from the King of Rock and Roll. But then he signed with RCA in 1956, released a cover of a Mae Axton-penned tune called "Heartbreak Hotel" – and his career broke wide (and it really is WIDE) open.
• Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons: New Jersey born-and-bred Francesco Stephen Castelluccio (better known to us as Frankie Valli) had been recording since the early 1950s, and issued his first national hit in 1953: "My Mother's Eyes", which fell just short of the Billboard pop chart. Through the next nine years, he and his group released just over a dozen singles, but none were smash hits until August 1962, when a new song called "Sherry" hit the airwaves. That song became a huge No. 1 hit and finally launched the group, led by Valli's powerful falsetto vocals, into stardom... and it never stopped.
  • As a "solo" artist, Valli released several songs from his 1953 debut, but it wasn't until 1967 when he released "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" that he proved he was just as good "solo". That led to signature "solo" hits like "My Eyes Adored You" and "Grease".
• The Beach Boys: The group's initial single in November 1961, "Surfin'", went to #1 in Los Angeles and charted well in a few other markets, but that only added up to a national charting of #75. However, their next single in June 1962, "Surfin' Safari", shot to #14 in the national chart with the B-side "409" also charting at #76, putting the five guys from Hawthorne, California on the musical map. The key to their breakthrough was the label: "Surfin'" was released by the small-time Candix label (which folded the next year), while "Surfin' Safari" was released by powerhouse Capitol Records, by then a long-established major label.
• The Beatles: They got their start in the UK, and had several huge British hits prior to their little trip overseas to America. Their first hit in their homeland was "Love Me Do", a top 20 hit on the UK chart in the fall of 1962. Their second hit, "Please Please Me" in the winter of 1963, reached No. 1 in the UK, but when released in the US at about the same time, few people did more than shrug their shoulders. Then came January 1964, the release of "I Want to Hold Your Hand", and some exposure on The Ed Sullivan Show... and an incredible musical legacy that had been sown in England finally took root in the US. ("Please Please Me" was re-released in the US, and this time skyrocketed to #3, held out by "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You".)
  • As solo artists, the breakthroughs for the Fab Four:
    • John Lennon: "Give Peace a Chance" (1969) or "Instant Karma!" (1970); both were Top 10 hits.
    • Paul McCartney: Either "Another Day" or "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey", both from his 1971 album Ram. Although "Another Day" was a top 5 hit in the spring of 1971, "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" – and not just because it was his first solo No. 1 – is far better known.
    • George Harrison: "My Sweet Lord" from All Things Must Pass. Reaching No. 1 on December 26, 1970, he was the first Beatle to have a solo No. 1 hit. (Incidentally, 17 years later, he also had the last, with "Got My Mind Set on You".) As a Beatle, the first song that really got him noticed was "Something", the flip side of "Come Together".
    • Ringo Starr: "It Don't Come Easy", from the spring of 1971. Although it was not his first single release – that honor goes to "Beaucoups of Blues" a year earlier, shortly after the breakup of the Beatles – this was his first legitimate hit. Ringo was the last Beatle to taste individual success, but for a time in the 1970s, he was more consistently successful than Paul.
• The Rolling Stones: "I Wanna Be Your Man" was this in the UK. In America, it was "Tell Me".
• The Who: "I Can't Explain"
• The Kinks: "You Really Got Me". Prior to this, they had two unsuccessful singles.
• The Animals: "The House of the Rising Sun"
• Motörhead: Ace Of Spades. Specifically, the Title Track.
• The Verve: Urban Hymns
• Accept: Breaker, fittingly enough.
• Metallica: The reached the top 30 with Master of Puppets, but their mainstream success began with "One" (which was even their first music video), and the top 10 album that yielded it, ...And Justice for All (1988).
• Megadeth: Countdown to Extinction
• Anthrax: Among the Living
• Slayer: Reign in Blood. Before that, they were just another Thrash Metal band. Afterwords, they were one of the Big Four of Thrash alongside Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax.
• Elton John: Although the song "Skyline Pigeon" from his debut album Empty Sky got some radio airplay, the album wasn't quite the success that this British singer-songwriter and his lyricist Bernie Taupin were hoping for. Come 1970, he released his Self-Titled Album, and "Your Song" became the hit that established his lasting fame.
• Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run. Although he never had a Top 10 hit until 1980's "Hungry Heart", his 1975 hit – which peaked at #23 – got him on the covers of Time and Newsweek (the same week), resulted in a parody of both the singer (Bruce Stringbean and the S Street Band) and song ("Born to Add") on Sesame Street and remains a staple of oldies and classic hits station playlists.
• Yes: The Yes Album was their first to have significant sales, and the only single from that album, "Your Move", was also their first song to make the Top 40 in the US. It also established their symphonic-prog rock sound.
• Genesis: Debuting in 1968 fronted by Peter Gabriel, they would develop a massive cult following as one of the big pioneers of Progressive Rock. However, after Gabriel left the band and drummer Phil Collins would take over as frontman, they would slowly shift towards a more pop rock sound to greater commercial success. Although they had a top 25 hit with "Follow You, Follow Me" in 1978, there was no "Misunderstanding" that their true breakthrough came in 1980. The song "That's All" from 1983 would later cement their pop rock image; their album Invisible Touch would further solidify that later on.
  • Phil Collins: Collins as a solo artist broke through in 1981 with "In the Air Tonight".
  • Peter Gabriel: While his first four self titled albums gave him a moderate amount of success with singles like "Solsbury Hill", "Games Without Frontiers", and "Shock the Monkey", it was the release of So that truly cemented him as a successful solo artist in his own right, with "Sledgehammer" being nigh-inescapable on MTV for quite some time afterwards, and the album's other singles "Big Time" and "In Your Eyes" also ranking high on the charts.
• Jethro Tull: Aqualung (Jethro Tull Album)
• Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon. For a specific song, "Money" is probably the best fit.
• The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed, more specifically "Nights in White Satin".
• Supertramp: Their first two albums were commercial failures, and then Crime of the Century was released to commercial and critical acclaim, with "Dreamer" being a major hit.
• Billy Joel: "Piano Man". His first Top 10 hit was 1977's "Just the Way You Are".
• In This Moment: Blood. They were a little known band before, but the release of the album and its Title Track becoming their first radio hit established them as one of the biggest, if not the biggest, female-fronted metal band of the '10s in America, dominating the female rock scene alongside Halestorm and The Pretty Reckless.
• Korn: While Life Is Peachy solidified their credentials in the metal world, it was the runaway smash of Follow the Leader, spurred by the cross-over success of lead single "Freak on a Leash", that saw them become a household name.
• Linkin Park: Hybrid Theory
• Limp Bizkit: Significant Other
• Electric Wizard: Dopethrone
• New Order: "Blue Monday". In the U.S., it was "True Faith" and its parent Substance compilation.
• Pentagram: The compilation First Daze Here: The Vintage Collection.
• David Bowie: 1972's "Starman", a last-minute addition to The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (because RCA wanted a song they could push as a single), finally established him as a topflight act after four previous albums and only one Top 5 hit – he'd been recording since 1964. Of course, that previous top 5 hit, "Space Oddity", is still one of his best-known and most-beloved songs. In the US meanwhile, Bowie's breakthrough came in 1975 with "Fame", while his album Let's Dance in 1983 made him a household name worldwide.
• Talking Heads: Critical darlings from the get-go, their cover of Al Green's "Take Me to the River" on More Songs About Buildings and Food was their first single that did any business on the Top 40.
• The Doors: "Light My Fire", from The Doors (Album).
• Opeth: Blackwater Park
• Black Sabbath: The Title Track of Paranoid
  • Ozzy Osbourne: "Crazy Train"
  • Ronnie James Dio: "Holy Diver"
• Led Zeppelin: "Whole Lotta Love" from Led Zeppelin II
• AC/DC: "Highway to Hell"
• Deep Purple: "Hush" was their first hit, but "Smoke on the Water" from Machine Head (Album) established their legacy.
• Judas Priest: Screaming for Vengeance, specifically the single "You've Got Another Thing Comin'".
• Iron Maiden: The Number of the Beast. Specifically, the title track and "Run to the Hills".
• Red Hot Chili Peppers: They first started to chart in the US with Knock Me Down, worldwide with their cover of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground", and became superstars after a label change and Blood Sugar Sex Magik, which spawned the inescapable crossover smash "Under the Bridge".
• The Offspring: Smash, and its lead single "Come Out and Play".
• Green Day: They first rose to fame at the height of the Alternative Rock craze of the '90s with their album Dookie, and it was specifically "When I Come Around" that broke them in a big way to general pop audiences. However, it was not until the success of American Idiot, specifically "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", that Green Day transitioned from a popular rock radio act to mainstream music icons. Fortunately, this didn't create false perceptions that American Idiot is their debut album, since at the very least "Good Riddance" and "Basket Case" are as well-known among the greater public as their mid-'00s hits.
• Jawbreaker: 24 Hour Revenge Therapy
• Nirvana: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from Nevermind.
• Alice in Chains: Their single "Man in the Box", which brought them into MTV's Buzz Bin and served as one of the heralds of the imminent alternative explosion. The following year brought them even more critical and commercial success with their sophomore album Dirt.
• Nine Inch Nails: Pretty Hate Machine, which hit the top 100 on Billboard's album charts in fall of '91, almost two years after its release, thanks to Lollapalooza exposure and "Head Like a Hole" being added to MTV's Buzz Bin. The next few years saw their star rise, with the '92 EP Broken debuting at #6 and The Downward Spiral bowing at #2 and making a bonafide star of Trent Reznor.
• Duran Duran: In their native United Kingdom they had a hit right out of the park with their 1981 debut single Planet Earth (from their self-titled debut album), but in the United States they were considered purely an underground/club band until 1982's Hungry Like the Wolf (from their sophomore smash Rio), which peaked at number 3 on the Billboard charts.
• Pearl Jam: "Alive" from Ten.
• Soundgarden: Superunknown
• Cannibal Corpse: Tomb of the Mutilated
• Dragonforce: "Through the Fire and Flames", after its appearance in Guitar Hero.
• R.E.M.: "The One I Love" in 1987 was their first major taste of mainstream success, but it was "Losing My Religion" in 1991 that cemented their status as superstars.
• 311: "Down"
• Pantera: Vulgar Display of Power
• Sepultura: Beneath the Remains for the metal community; Roots for the mainstream.
• Queen: "Seven Seas of Rhye" (UK), "Killer Queen" (US)
• Nickelback: And how. "How You Remind Me", a song by an unlikely small-time Canadian hard rock band with no mainstream hits in any country, shot to US No. 1 and became the biggest-selling song of 2002, securing them a career for the rest of the decade. Two years beforehand, "Leader of Men" was a top 10 hit on rock radio, but received very little alternative radio play and did not chart on the Hot 100.
• Journey: Originally an experimental prog-rock band referred to by critics as "The Dead on steroids". With the addition of the talented Steve Perry in 1977, they shifted to a radio-friendly Arena Rock style with the album Infinity, recording classics such as "Wheel in the Sky" and "Lights". But today, it is hard to fathom that the two were not major hits, much less even got that much airplay on mainstream Top 40 radio. But that's how it was for them in 1978. However, they surely got attention, and even had a feature spot on both The Midnight Special and Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. Their first substantial chart was in 1979 with "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'", reaching the top 20 that summer. Their first top 10 hit came in 1981 with "Who's Crying Now" (#4, and the song that immediately preceded "Don't Stop Believin'")
• Aerosmith: "Dream On". According to Steven Tyler, he was insecure about how his voice sounded on tape with all other songs on their debut Self-Titled Album, and he decided to use his "real" voice for "Dream On". It paid off, and it's now one of their signature hits and a staple on classic rock radio. As mainstream acts, the album Toys in the Attic and "Walk This Way" broke through past core rock stations and into mainstream radio. Quite tellingly, "Walk This Way" would later facilitate a Career Resurrection after a lengthy down period when it was recorded as a collaboration with Run–D.M.C..
• U2: They started with a few low-charting singles, most notably "I Will Follow" from Boy, but the album that brought them into prominence was the politically-minded War, which had their first successful single internationally: "New Year's Day". However, the song didn't really catch on in the US, where "Pride (In the Name of Love)" brought them to the Top 40 and "With or Without You" to #1.
• Evanescence: After releasing a few demos, this Gothic alt-metal band released the full studio album Fallen, and its single "Bring Me to Life" became one of the biggest hits of the Nu Metal era.
• Paramore: They first exploded onto the modern rock scene with "Misery Business", the lead single from their second album Riot!, and established themselves as a band with a bright future. Eventually, after a shift from their Emo/Pop Punk style to a pure Pop Rock/Power Pop style, their fourth album Paramore and its single "Still Into You" established them on the pop charts (also leading to inevitable cries of "sellout").
• Twenty One Pilots: They had been around for a while and garnered mass acclaim from fans for their Genre Mashup style, but never truly had a hit of their own until the one-two punch 2013's "Holding on to You" and "House of Gold". Although they both did reasonably well and got parent album Vessels some attention, it went largely unnoticed by mainstream audiences. 2015's "Tear in My Heart", which became their first huge hit on alternative radio and propelled its parent album Blurryface to the top of the charts, is regarded as what got them more mainstream attention. Then they released "Stressed Out", which made it all the way to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became bigger than "Tear in My Heart" ever was.
• Rammstein: "Du Hast" and its parent album, Sehnsucht.
• Kate Bush: "Wuthering Heights". Hounds of Love and "Running Up That Hill" were her American breakthrough.
• Avenged Sevenfold: "Bat Country", from major-label debut City of Evil, was their first radio hit.
• System of a Down: While their self-titled debut got some attention, it was sophomore album Toxicity that really put them on the map.
• Godsmack: "Voodoo", the third single from their 1998 debut, largely is considered their breakthrough hit.
• Slipknot: Their self titled album from 1999. In the mainstream, however, it’s probably Vol. 3.
• Deftones: White Pony
• Stone Sour: A side band of members of Slipknot, their debut album in 2002 gained little attention outside the surprise hit "Bother" and they were written off as a One-Hit Wonder. Come What(ever) May, however, changed those perceptions and is considered their true breakthrough.
• Three Days Grace: "I Hate Everything About You", their debut single off their self-titled album, is considered their Signature Song to this day.
• Breaking Benjamin: We Are Not Alone, their second album, was their first major era. But follow-up Phobia
• Seether: The South African rock band made a splash in 2003 with "Fine Again" from their debut album Disclaimer. "Broken", from follow-up Disclaimer II.
• Shinedown: Leave a Whisper
• Disturbed: The Sickness
• Five Finger Death Punch: The band had modest success with debut album The Way of the Fist, but it is follow-up War Is the Answer that is largely credited with making them into one of the biggest names on rock radio.
• Volbeat: Beyond Heaven/Above Hell, at least in North America.
• Hinder: Extreme Behavior, their first and most successful album to date.
• Buckcherry: "Lit Up" was their first breakthrough, while "Crazy Bitch" is considered the song that revitalized their career.
• Skillet: Long known in the Christian scene, Awake gained them recognition to secular rock audiences.
• Mudvayne: Lost and Found
• Puddle of Mudd: Come Clean. For songs, "Control" broke them through on the rock charts and its follow-up "Blurry" firmly established them atop the charts, and remains their biggest hit to date.
• P.O.D.: Satellite
• Chevelle: Wonder What's Next. Song-wise, it's "The Red".
• Papa Roach: Infest and its lead single "Last Resort"
• Theory of a Deadman: Although they had hits beforehand, Scars & Souvenirs practically made them stars on rock radio overnight.
• Creed: Human Clay
• Alter Bridge: One Day Remains
• The Ramones: "Blitzkrieg Bop"
• Gentle Giant: Gentle Giant
• Oasis: "Live Forever"
• 3 Doors Down: "Kryptonite"
• Panic! at the Disco: "I Write Sins Not Tragedies"
• Slade: After a series of flops stretching back to 1966 when they were still The N'Betweens, the 1972 single "Get Down and Get with It" was their first hit. Their next, "Coz I Luv You", was their first huge success and established the hit-making ability of the Holder/Lea songwriting partnership ("Get Down and Get with It" was a cover version).
• Pulp: Their fourth album, His N' Hers (particularly the singles "Do You Remember the First Time?" and "Babies") really got them noticed, but it was "Common People" which made them a household name.
• Marilyn Manson: Antichrist Superstar, and especially its lead single, "The Beautiful People".
• Revocation: Great Is Our Sin
• The Black Dahlia Murder: Nocturnal
• Whitechapel (Band): This Is Exile
• Cattle Decapitation: The Anthropocene Extinction
• Carnifex: Slow Death
• The Acacia Strain: Continent
• Thy Art Is Murder: Dear Desolation
• Deacon Blue: "Dignity" was their first charting single and remains their Signature Song to this day. "Real Gone Kid" was the big hit that really broke them out of the "cult" bracket.
• Thin Lizzy: "Whiskey in the Jar" was their first hit, but proved to be a false start after which they returned to obscurity for a few years before making their true breakthrough with "The Boys Are Back in Town".
• Gary Glitter: "Rock and Roll".
• The Jimi Hendrix Experience: "Hey Joe".
• Blur: "There's No Other Way".
• The Stone Roses: "Sally Cinnamon".
• The Smiths: "What Difference Does It Make?"
• Noah: "Mimpi yang Sempurna" is their first single (back when they're named Peterpan) from a various-artists compilation album and a hit, leading to their first album and long successful career.
• Sheila on 7: While their first single is a respectable hit, their second single "Dan" is what catapulted their first album sales into million-copies and made them a household name.
• My Chemical Romance: "Helena" launched the band into the mainstream.
• Foo Fighters have been popular from the start in alternative rock circles, but 1999's "Learn to Fly" solidified them as a household name in the mainstream by being their first Hot 100 hit.

Miscellaneous

• Vocaloid
  • Jin: "Kagerou Daze", the third song in the Kagerou Project.
  • mothy: "Daughter of Evil" and "Servant of Evil" from the Evillious Chronicles.
  • sasakure.UK: "*Hello, Planet.", the chronologically fourth song in the Doomsday series.

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