PHOTOS COURTESY

Many cities are closely associated with one genre or another. Jazz in New Orleans, blues in Memphis, hip-hop in New York.

Pittsburgh, on the other hand, has produced virtuosos and hitmakers in every conceivable format and style. Rock ’n’ roll pioneers, superstar rappers, pop icons, Hall of Fame inductees, orchestral maestros — all have been born, bred or influenced in and around the Steel City.

And whether a musician was merely born here or stayed forever, we’re happy to claim and celebrate them. It’s impossible to round up every notable musician and band from the region; there are simply too many, across eras and genres, to make a comprehensive list. So we picked a good place to start: The Billboard Hot 100, the chart that has, for more than 65 years, kept track of what songs America was singing during a given week.

We poured over chart history, biographies and record collections to identify the 10 Pittsburgh (and Pittsburgh-adjacent) artists that made the biggest impact on the Hot 100. It’s a list that could be debated, reconsidered or remixed — and will certainly grow. For now, though, if you’re looking to listen to Pittsburgh’s greatest hits, this list is a great place to drop the needle.

Christina Aguilera

No one from Western Pennsylvania has topped the Hot 100 more than Christina Aguilera, who did so three times on her own, beginning with her breakthrough 1999 single “Genie in a Bottle,” a five-week No. 1.

She returned to the top spot in 2001 by teaming up with Pink, Lil’ Kim and Mya for a cover of “Lady Marmalade” featured on the “Moulin Rouge!” soundtrack — then again 10 years later, appearing on Maroon 5’s hit “Moves Like Jagger,” a four-week winner.

Born in New York but raised in Pittsburgh’s northern suburbs, the singer’s career began in childhood with a stint on the “Mickey Mouse Club” before releasing her debut album, itself a chart-topper, at age 19.

Chart Highlights

• Hits “Genie in a Bottle,” “What a Girl Wants” and “Come On Over Baby” all went to No. 1
• Two more chart-topping collaborations, “Lady Marmalade” and “Moves Like Jagger
• Other Top 10 hits include No. 2 “Beautiful” and No. 3 “I Turn to You”

Listen to This Album:

“Stripped” (2002)

Lou Christie

In 1963, Dick Clark added Lou Christie to his “Caravan of Stars.” Christie — born Lugee Sacco in Glenwillard, on the outskirts of Allegheny County — spent two summers touring the country with Clark and company, bringing rock ’n’ roll to screaming audiences from coast to coast.

And that was before he had his biggest hit.

“Lightnin’ Strikes,” noted for Christie’s octave-hopping vocal, soared to No. 1 in 1966, making him an international star. While he eventually began splitting his time between New York and London (where he married former beauty queen Francesca Winfield), he pined for Pittsburgh — and its cuisine. “They say you can’t go home, but I’m tempted at least once a day,” Christie later wrote. “Nothing compares to the pizza in Pittsburgh.”

Chart Highlights

• Signature hit “Lightnin’ Strikes” reached No. 1 on Feb. 19, 1966
• Scored two more Top 10 hits: “Two Faces Have I,” in 1963, and “I’m Gonna Make You Mine,” in 1969
• 12 songs made the Hot 100

Listen to This Album:

“Lightnin’ Strikes” (1966)

Donnie Iris and The Jaggerz

Around here, “Ah! Leah!” and “Love Is Like a Rock” have stood the test of time as Donnie Iris’ most enduring hits. As far as the charts are concerned, however, the Ellwood City native had his biggest hit a decade before the release of his solo albums.

The Jaggerz were formed (with an “s” on the end; the “z” would come later when they discovered another group of the same name) in 1964. The group spent most of the decade playing regional clubs such as Mancini’s in McKees Rocks, Club Naturale in Beaver Falls and the Sunken Bar in Geneva-on-the-Lake, Ohio, making them stars in and around their hometown.

It was the 1970 single “The Rapper” that earned the group national airplay, rising to No. 2 on the Hot 100 after topping the local charts via heavy airplay on KQV. The band released an album, “We Went to Different Schools Together,” on Kama Sutra Records, but it didn’t match the success of “The Rapper.”

Iris went solo and released the iconic albums “Back to the Streets” and “King Cool,” both of which made the album charts. Surprisingly, his highest charting single isn’t “Ah! Leah!” (No. 29) or “Love Is Like a Rock” (No. 37), but the doo-wop-infused tune “My Girl,” which went to No. 25 in 1981.

Chart Highlights

• “The Rapper,” the signature hit by The Jaggerz, reached No. 2 in 1970
• Three Top 40 hits as a solo artist, peaking in 1982 at No. 25 with “My Girl”
• Briefly a member of chart-toppers Wild Cherry — after their hit “Play That Funky Music”

Listen to This Album:

“King Cool” (1981)

Wiz Khalifa

Other Pittsburgh artists have gone to the top of the charts, but only Wiz Khalifa has done it with an anthem about the Steel City. After years spent building a reputation through mixtapes and underground singles, the Pittsburgh Allderdice graduate broke through with the global hit “Black and Yellow,” a Pittsburgh-themed anthem that topped the charts in the wake of a Steelers Super Bowl appearance.

He repeated the feat five years later with “See You Again,” a duet with Charlie Puth that served as an anthem for the “Fast and Furious” franchise (and memorial for the series’ late star, Paul Walker).

Khalifa has sent four more songs to the Top 10, and his performance on the album charts is equally impressive: 2014’s “Blacc Hollywood” went to No. 1, and a trio of albums all hit No. 2.

Chart Highlights

• No. 1 single “See You Again” spent 12 weeks atop the chart in 2015
• Breakthrough single “Black and Yellow” took the top spot in 2010
• Frequent appearances in hit collaborations, including Maroon 5’s “Payphone” (No. 2) and Snoop Dogg duet “Young, Wild & Free” (No. 7)

Listen to This Album:

“O.N.I.F.C.” (2012)

The Marcels

Dozens of artists have recorded the 1934 ballad “Blue Moon,” including Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday. The only version to top the Billboard charts, however, was by Pittsburgh-based doo-wop group The Marcels.

The group’s uptempo version of the classic song knocked Presley’s “Surrender” out of the top spot and held the crown for three weeks in 1961. Originally formed at Oliver High School, the Marcels — whose lineup changed frequently, but formed with Gene Bricker, Cornelius “Nini” Harp, Fred Johnson, Dick Knauss and Walt “Bingo” Mundy — were among the first rock groups to feature Black and white musicians performing alongside one another (along with another Pittsburgh-based group, the Del Vikings).

After the success of “Blue Moon” and Top 10 single “Heartaches,” the Marcels appeared in a pair of Hollywood hits, 1961’s “Twist Around the Clock” and 1964’s “Bikini Beach.”

Chart Highlights

• Topped the chart for three weeks in hit-packed 1961 with “Blue Moon”
• Returned to the Top 10 later in the year with “Heartaches” peaking at No. 7
• Original members continued performing into the 2000s

Listen to This Album: 

“Blue Moon” (1961)

Bret Michaels and Poison

At a time when most over-the-top metal bands of the 1980s were fading, Poison was still rocking the radio — in fact, they were still on the charts when the neon decade ended, sending hits “Unskinny Bop” and “Something to Believe In” to the Top 10 in 1990.

The band began life in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, when Bret Michaels — a native of Butler — and longtime friend Rikki Rockett started a group dubbed Spectres. A few name changes and lineup additions later, and the band began to generate hits; their biggest became perhaps the most enduring ballad of the hair-metal era, “Every Rose Has its Thorn.”

The group continues to tour, having appeared in Pittsburgh as recently as 2022, when they joined fellow icons Joan Jett, Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard at a PNC Park show — at which Michaels played his Steleers-logo guitar, signifying his allegiance to Western Pennsylvania.

Chart Highlights

• Power ballad “Every Rose Has its Thorn” spent three weeks atop the chart in 1988
• Five additional singles hit the Top 10, including breakthrough hit “Talk Dirty to Me”
• Two albums, “Flesh and Blood” and “Open Up and Say … Ahh!,” peaked at No. 2

Listen to This Album: 

“Look What the Cat Dragged In” (1986)

Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails

Despite being an inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Mercer native Trent Reznor is not a Billboard darling. Influential though Reznor’s industrial outfit Nine Inch Nails has been, their chart impact is limited; no Nine Inch Nails track has reached the Top 10, and while a pair of the band’s records briefly topped the album chart, their most iconic release, “The Downward Spiral,” only gradually achieved fame among alternative-rock fans.

Still, Reznor has to be included in a roundup of the region’s best charting artists for a hit fans may not even know is, technically, his. “Old Town Road,” the country-rap smash by Lil Nas X that topped the Hot 100 for a record-breaking 19 consecutive weeks in 2019, credits Reznor and his Nine Inch Nails collaborator Atticus Ross as two of its four songwriters.

“Old Town Road” is based on a sample of the Nine Inch Nails track “34 Ghosts IV.”

Chart Highlights

• Songwriting credit on the longest-reigning No. 1 in chart history
• Eight songs in the Hot 100, peaking at No. 17 with “The Day The World Went Away” in 1999
• Two chart-topping albums on the Billboard 200: 1999’s “The Fragile” and 2005’s “With Teeth”

Listen to This Album: 

“The Fragile” (1999)

Shanice

If you’d like to exemplify the sound of the early ’90s, listen to Shanice’s “I Love Your Smile.” The R&B anthem, equally influenced by bubblegum pop and New Jack Swing, shot up the Hot 100 in late 1991 and early ’92 — held out of the top spot by the novelty hit “I’m Too Sexy.”

“I Love Your Smile” was the biggest hit for Shanice Wilson-Knox, but there are plenty of other highlights in a lifetime of music — a career that began before her 10th birthday, singing alongside Ella Fitzgerald in a television commercial.

The Pittsburgh native relocated to Los Angeles in childhood, but she has returned to the city numerous times since, including a 2023 visit to witness the unveiling of a mural in her honor in McKees Rocks.

Chart Highlights

• Most successful single, “I Love Your Smile,” spent three weeks in 1992 at the No. 2 spot
• Closed the year with another song, “Saving Forever for You,” in the Top 10
• Sang backup on Toni Braxton’s No. 1 single, “Un-Break My Heart”

Listen to This Album: 

“Inner Child” (1991)

Bobby Vinton

Canonsburg native Bobby Vinton was a second-generation musician; he and his father both led bands in the area. The younger Vinton frequently led his band at gigs backing up national acts such as Chubby Checker and Fabian. His good relationship with record labels led to an opportunity from Epic Records, which allowed him to record the discarded demo “Roses Are Red” in 1962.

It was the first of four chart-toppers for Vinton, who specialized in reviving older songs such as “Blue Velvet” and “I Love How You Love Me.” He was no cover artist, however, with several of his own compositions reaching the charts — including his last No. 1, “Mr. Lonely,” which claimed the top spot in December 1964.

Vinton later parlayed his fame into a television gig; the syndicated “Bobby Vinton Show,” a musical revue, aired from 1975-78.

Chart Highlights

• Four No. 1 hits: “Roses Are Red (My Love)”, “Blue Velvet,” “There! I’ve Said It Again” and “Mr. Lonely”
• Five more songs in the Top 10, including No. 3 hits “Blue on Blue” and “My Melody of Love”
• Continued to generate hits for two decades, reaching the Hot 100 as late as 1980

Listen to This Album: 

“Mr. Lonely” (1964)

The Vogues

A quartet of top-10 hits is an impressive achievement for a high-school singing group. Technically, the Vogues didn’t form at Turtle Creek High School; initially, the group was called the Valaires, an outgrowth of the school’s a cappella groups that began crooning in 1958.

After recording a few tracks for an in-house record label at the Vogue Terrace nightclub in McKeesport, the group was renamed; in 1965, they recorded a cover of Petula Clark’s “You’re the One.” That song went to No. 4, and more than a dozen singles would follow.

The Vogues would specialize in remaking standards and contemporary songs by other artists, from the classic “As Time Goes By” to Glen Campbell’s “Turn Around, Look at Me,” which became their final Top 10 hit.

Chart Highlights

• Sent two songs to the Top 10 in 1965: “You’re the One” and “Five O’Clock World”
• Repeated that feat in 1968, with Top-10 hits “Turn Around, Look at Me” and “My Special Angel”
• 14 total top 100 Hits; five albums in the Billboard 200

Listen to This Album:

“Turn Around, Look at Me” (1968)

Close … but Not Quite No. 1

Innumerable other artists could’ve appeared on this list — including some, like Canonsburg’s Perry Como, who had considerable success before the Billboard charts even existed.

We’d like to claim orchestral hitmaker Marvin Hamlisch, but it might be a stretch; he didn’t turn up in Pittsburgh until he came here to conduct the Pittsburgh Pops in 1995. Could we make a better claim on Henry Mancini, who was educated in Pittsburgh before sending such sentimental creations as “Moon River” and “Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet” up the charts? Perhaps — but he was a Cleveland native, and his stint in town was also relatively brief.

If there were an 11th entry on this list, it would probably be the R&B (and yacht rock) favorite George Benson, who produced four Top 10 hits — including the catchy “Give Me the Night” — between 1976 and 1981. Doo-wop group The Del Vikings also came close to making the cut; they hit No. 5 with “Come Go With Me” and No. 9 with “Whispering Bells” in 1957.

Had we focused more on the album charts than the Hot 100, the late Mac Miller would’ve been an easy pick; all six of his studio albums hit the Top 5 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and his debut, “Blue Slide Park,” is one of the only independently distributed albums to top that chart. Surprisingly, though, Miller’s singles never did that well in Billboard’s eyes; his highest-charting solo single, the posthumous 2020 hit “Good News,” peaked at No. 17.

And while none quite had the success of the Vogues or the Marcels, Pittsburgh was a hotbed of talent during the early days of rock ’n’ roll. Groups including The Skyliners, The Stereos and The Contrails all sent songs from Pittsburgh to dance floors around the country.

Assistance with this article was provided by Jack “Johnny Angel” Hunt, Shawn Israel and Bob Benedik, as well as Ed Salamon’s “Pittsburgh’s Golden Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”