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Pearl Jam scores another No. 1 hit on a Billboard ranking this week, as their single “Dark Matter” jumps to the top spot on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. The tune brings the group back to the summit after a long time away–so long, in fact, that the band has reset the record for the largest gap between any musical act’s last leader and their most recent one.
According to Billboard, “Dark Matter” hits No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart a little more than 26 years after Pearl Jam last summited the tally. That’s a new record, as no other musical act had to wait a quarter-century between champions on the ranking of the top-performing cuts at mainstream rock stations across the U.S.
Before “Dark Matter” soared to the peak position, this bit of history was owned by Kenny Wayne Shepherd. The guitarist waited just under 21 years between two of his No. 1 smashes on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
Shepherd’s streak looks a bit different from Pearl Jam’s, though. He hit No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart as part of his namesake The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band in 1998 with the single “Blue on Black,” but then when he returned, he wasn’t alone. He was credited as a featured solo artist on a cover of the same hit fronted by Five Finger Death Punch–which also named Brantley Gilbert and Brian May. That tune reached No. 1 in 2009.
Looking only at acts that led with both of their No. 1s–such as Pearl Jam does–the record books change a bit. Billboard notes that The Offspring waited almost 18 years from one leader to another on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, and they served as the leader on both “Gone Away” in 1997 and “Coming for You” many years later in 2015.
“Dark Matter” marks Pearl Jam’s fourth No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. Before this latest win, they’d topped the tally with “Daughter,” “Better Man,” and “Given to Fly,” which ruled in 1998.
Pearl Jam’s new single serves as the first taste from a full-length of the same name. The album is expected to arrive on April 19.
