This Is the Artist With the Most No. 1 Hits

Usher Raymond IV joined his first singing competition at age 12, and released his first album four years later, in 1994. His second album, “My Way,” earned him his first No. 1 single, “Nice & Slow,” and the hits just kept on rollin’ from there, with a grand total of nine chart-toppers to his name, including four consecutive No. 1s on his 2004 smash hit, “Confessions,” including “Yeah!” and “Burn”.

Born Stevland Hardaway Morris in 1950, Stevie Wonder was a child prodigy who signed with his first record label in 1961 and got his first No. 1 hit, “Fingertips – Pt 2,” two years later at age 13. He didn’t top the charts again until 9 years later, with the supremely funky “Superstition,” kicking off his “classic period” that saw the release of huge hits including the chart-topping “You Are the Sunshine of My Life.” Wonder has won 25 Grammy Awards, the most by any solo artist.

From the mid-’80s straight through to the early 2000s, the youngest child of the Jackson family had a string of massive hits, starting with her first No. 1, 1986’s “When I Think of You.” Additional No. 1s included “That’s the Way Love Goes” and “Again,” and she was named the second most successful recording artist of the ’90s by Billboard, after Mariah Carey. Her final chart-topper, “All For You,” was released in 2001.

The legend, the icon, the one, the only, Whitney Houston remains the only artist to have seven consecutive No. 1 hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100, beginning with 1985’s “Saving All My Love for You” and concluding with “Where Do Broken Hearts Go” in 1988. In-between? Classics including “How Will I Know,” “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” and “Greatest Love of All.” Her reign continued well into the ’90s, as she racked up additional No. 1s with towering hits like “I Will Always Love You.” All told? Eleven No. 1s, the seventh-most on record.

The most successful American vocal group of all time, The Supremes were rivaled only by The Beatles in worldwide popularity during their reign as Motown Records’ top act during the 1960s. Comprised of Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard, and lead singer Diana Ross during their peak years, the trio released classic after classic, including the No. 1 hit singles “Where Did Our Love Go,” “Baby Love,” “You Can’t Hurry Love,” and “Stop! In The Name of Love.” Their final No. 1, “The Happening,” topped the charts in 1967.