These Best-Selling Classic Rock Albums Never Actually Hit No. 1

Some of the most listened to and familiar classic rock albums ever released achieved their status through steady sales to multiple generations of music fans. But when they were initially released, they weren't altogether blockbusters. These are foundational rock albums that found a home in more collections than most all other LPs ever released, selling millions of copies each consistently across decades. And that's according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which has long tracked sales of records, tapes, eight-tracks, CDs, and digital formats. 

But for whatever reason, it took some time for the public to warm up to these albums before they became extraordinarily well known. While they're among the most-bought albums in the long run, in the short term, they lost out on the Billboard 200 album charts to other massively popular singers and bands — or to briefly white-hot '70s musicians we completely forgot about and other such flashes in the pan. And so, nearly perfect and almost universally popular LPs by the likes of AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Boston, and more moved a lot of copies, but not even for one week did they occupy the No. 1 spot on the U.S. album chart.

The first album that AC/DC attempted after the death of singer Bon Scott, "Back in Black" was recorded and released within three months of belter Brian Johnson joining the straightforward, no-nonsense hard rock band from Australia. The LP was a defiant statement that the group would carry on in the wake of tragedy with hard-edged party music that bridged the gap from 1970s arena rock to 1980s heavy metal. "Back in Black" included some of AC/DC's most notable hits and best-known songs, such as "Hell's Bells," "You Shook Me All Night Long," and the title track.

First hitting the U.S.'s Billboard 200 album chart on August 23, 1980, "Back in Black" finally peaked at No. 4 on December 20, 1980. It just couldn't surpass some blockbuster releases by broadly popular singers that likely made for great holiday gifts. The Top 3 LPs that week: Kenny Rogers' "Greatest Hits," Barbra Streisand's "Guilty," and Stevie Wonder's "Hotter Than July." Nevertheless, "Back in Black" kept selling well past the 1980 holiday season. In the U.S. alone, the LP has sold 27 million copies, giving it the No. 4 spot on the all-time top-selling albums list.

Led Zeppelin is objectively one of the most successful bands of all time, selling around 300 million copies of its various bluesy, hard rock albums. The heavy foursome's fourth studio effort, "Led Zeppelin IV," from 1971, is tightly packed with classics and many of the group's biggest songs, such as "Black Dog," "Rock and Roll," and the indefatiguable "Stairway to Heaven."

While Zeppelin's previous two albums both made it to No. 1, "Led Zeppelin IV" did not. It debuted on the chart on November 27, 1971, and it peaked at No. 2 on December 18, 1971. Preventing the album with "Stairway to Heaven" from ascending to the glorious No. 1 position: "There's a Riot Goin' On" by Sly & the Family Stone, which itself dethroned Santana's "Santana III." Over the course of more than 50 years, however, sales of Led Zeppelin's "IV" greatly outpaced those of its 1971 competitors. The RIAA has certified the album for sales of 24 million copies, landing it in the No. 6 spot on the all-time best-seller list.

Developing out of a series of guitarist Tom Scholz's expertly produced home recordings, Boston burst onto the rock scene in 1976 with a self-titled album. It generated hits that became classic rock radio stalwarts like "More Than a Feeling" and "Peace of Mind" and powered the arena rock band to a Grammy Award nomination for best new artist. After first popping up on the Billboard 200 on September 25, 1976, "Boston" reached its lifetime peak of No. 3 on December 4, 1976. 

That feat fell during a multi-week run at the top spot by Stevie Wonder's blockbuster and album of the year Grammy winner "Songs in the Key of Life." "Boston" landed numerous songs into the firmament of the classic rock radio canon, and more than 17 million have purchased the record in the last 50 years. As of now, the LP is tied for 20th on the all-time most popular albums list.

Big-voiced singer Meat Loaf had a flair for the dramatic and the bold, and songwriter Jim Steinman wanted to create sweeping and operatic rock 'n' roll epics. The pair's sensibilities meshed perfectly on the former's 1977 solo debut "Bat Out of Hell." Built around a loose, anguished romantic narrative, "Bat Out of Hell" is full of grand and ambitious songs that became popular singles, including "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad," "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth," and "Paradise By the Dashboard Light."

While the long-gestating 1993 and 2006 sequels "Bat out of Hell II: Back Into Hell" and "Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose" climbed to No. 1 and No. 8 on the Billboard 200, respectively, the original article never made it into the Top 10. It finally reached an all-time high of just No. 13, and that was decades after its release, in February 2022. "Bat Out of Hell" first popped onto the chart on October 29, 1977, one of the many weeks in which Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" was the No. 1 LP in the U.S. But fans still loved "Bat Out of Hell," which sold 14 million units in the U.S.

Billy Joel melded the sensitive, singer-songwriter ethos of the 1970s with rock 'n' roll elements and a dominant piano to create something wholly new. His fifth studio LP, 1977's "The Stranger," featured some of Joel's best '70s songs and biggest hits of the decade, like "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," "Just the Way You Are," "Only the Good Die Young," and "She's Always a Woman." Commercially, "The Stranger" marked the first time that a Joel album arrived in the Top 20 of the Billboard 200 LP chart. After squeaking onto the list in October 1977, it took just over four months for it to reach the highest place it would ever get, No. 2. 

Joel happened to release the album during a period where it had to compete with the sales juggernaut that was the disco-loaded "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack, which at one point was the top-selling album in history. Still, Joel's collection of emotional piano rock did quite well for itself, long after disco came and went.  As of this writing, "The Stranger" has been certified for sales of 12 million copies.