Musical Prodigies Who Recorded No. 1 Hits Before Turning 20

One of the most addictive songs to come out of 1970 was the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back," the first No. 1 hit for the group and the then-11-year-old Michael Jackson, whose four elder brothers in the band were all teens at the time. Several solo artists also topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart when they were not that much older than the members of the Jackson 5, and for this article, we're going to focus on the solo prodigies who had No. 1 songs before reaching 20 years old. 

While it's rare for teenagers to snag the No. 1 spot, it has happened often enough that patterns emerge. Almost all of the young artists are female, and the 1960s were the biggest decade by far for major teenage hits (even more specifically, something seemed to be in the water in 1963). When it comes to styles, however, the tunes are all over the place, ranging from a country ballad to a live  Motown vamp to pop recordings so perfect they seemed almost scientifically calibrated to appeal to millions of people. Here are the musical prodigies who hit No. 1 before turning 20. 

Lesley Gore said that she always loved to perform as a child, and she was singing in a local girl group by middle school. At 15, she began taking professional vocal lessons. The following year, she got her big break. Quincy Jones told NPR that after being given a tape of a colleague's friend's niece, instead of sending it back with a rejection as everyone expected, "I said I'd like to try this because she had a great sound for a rock singer in those days. She could sing really in tune. She was 16 years old." 

The pair considered 250 demos and recorded three others besides its "It's My Party." On May 11, 1963, one week after its release (and three days after she turned 17), the song debuted at No. 60 on the Billboard Hot 100; on June 1, it topped the chart. It would not be Gore's last hit: before she turned 18, she had three additional records in the Top 10.

While she had 19 songs on the Hot 100 before the end of the decade, she also thought it was important to go to college. "The record company wasn't thrilled, my agent wasn't thrilled — but I sensed very early just how fickle this business is," she told The Sacramento Bee in 2006 about enrolling at Sarah Lawrence. She eventually moved into songwriting and in 1981, Gore was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Out Here On My Own" from 1980's "Fame." She also appeared on Broadway and released a final studio album in 2005.

Stevie Wonder lost his sight at birth, but this did not affect his precocious musical abilities. By the age of 8, he could play at least four musical instruments, including the piano, drums, and harmonica, as well as sing like an angel. He was signed to Motown Records just a few years later.

"Fingertips (Pt. II)" was recorded during a concert in Chicago in 1963, and would become the first live single to top the Billboard chart. The original version of "Fingertips" was recorded in a studio and included on the album "The Jazz Soul Of Little Stevie," but the live version had a completely different sound. Everything seemed to come together at the Regal Theater that night, with the 12-year-old Wonder playing a harder, extended version of the tune, and another future star, Marvin Gaye, on drums.

The live version was too long to be released as a single, but since fans were clamoring for it, the record company split it into two, with the second half becoming the bigger hit. It spent three weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and propelled the album "Little Stevie Wonder — The 12-year-old Genius" to No. 1 on the album chart. It would be a decade before Wonder landed another No. 1 single, but while the wait might have been concerning at the time, we all know he went on to become an iconic star for Motown and beyond.

Olivia Rodrigo was just 5 years old when she started taking voice lessons, but her raw talent combined with that early start and a precocious dedication to performing paid off at a young age. Before she was a successful singer-songwriter, Rodrigo had already found fame starring in two Disney Channel shows, "Bizaardvark" and "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series."

While plenty of Disney actors famously transitioned from the small screen to pop stardom, few saw the overnight success that Rodrigo did with her debut single "Drivers License." The song not only hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 but also debuted there, making her the youngest solo artist ever to debut in the top spot. The song also topped charts and broke records on other platforms, including Spotify and Apple, after taking the world by storm. It was such a phenomenon that it even inspired a sketch on "Saturday Night Live." 

"It's been the absolute craziest week of my life," Rodrigo told The New York Times after hitting No. 1. "My entire life just, like, shifted in an instant." Rodrigo co-wrote the song based on her own experiences, and she had, in fact, gotten her driver's license the previous year. When it topped the chart in January 2021, she was still a month shy of her 18th birthday.

Tiffany Darwish was born a natural performer, and there wasn't really a time she wasn't showing off her talents, which led to success at a young age. She told The Guardian, "When I was a kid, I used to sing everywhere – the bathroom, the grocery store. When some musician friends of my parents had a party, my dad suggested I get up and sing. ... Before I knew it, I was singing on bills with people like Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis." 

She was 15 when word of mouth led to a record contract, although she wasn't excited about recording "I Think We're Alone Now" when she first heard it — the original version by Tommy James and the Shondells was from the 1960s and sounded very uncool to her young ears. Fortunately, Tiffany agreed to do it anyway. Her dancier version was a massive hit and topped the Billboard chart for two weeks in 1987. Billboard pointed out that she was the first artist born in the 1970s to hit No. 1. She recalled, "Having a No. 1 hit at 15 was a wild ride. I met Michael Jackson. Girls copied my earrings and my crimped hair." Not long after her meteoric success, however, she was in court seeking legal emancipation from her mother, a reminder of how young she still was despite her enviable career.

Brenda Lee was little in both stature and age, but she had a big voice. Her father died when she was only 8 years old, but by then she had already seen more of life than most children, as she had already been performing for years on radio and television. She signed her first recording contract when she was 11.

She had some early success, and critics noted that while she was a country singer, she had crossover appeal. But it wasn't until Lee recorded "I'm Sorry" in 1960 that she got her first big hit. Despite her record company's concerns that the public would think a 15-year-old was too young to be singing a song about love, it would go on to top the Billboard chart. "I'm Sorry" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. The country musician is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, as well.

Lee hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 one more time with the song "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." The holiday classic, originally released in 1958, finally topped the chart in 2023. Had it hit No.1 when it first came out, it would have made Lee the youngest female artist to ever top the chart. Instead, because it hit that milestone when she was 78, it made her the oldest person to ever have a No. 1.

Peggy March was singing by the time she was a toddler, and performing on TV and radio by age 5, so it was no surprise that she signed with RCA at just 14. While her first single didn't do great, March didn't complain when informed that she would record "I Will Follow Him" next, or when her producers wanted take after take. "I was a freshman in high school. My Latin tests were a lot harder than doing this song 15 or 20 times," she told Blogcritics. "The next day, if it wasn't a weekend, I most likely had some English test. I had a dual life going on — I absolutely loved it."

As per Billboard, March was 15 years, 1 month, and 13 days old when "I Will Follow Him" topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963. At the time of writing, she is still the youngest female solo artist to land the No. 1 spot, a record she has held for 63 years and counting.