Chester Bennington's Biggest Billboard Hits
Chester Bennington was at the forefront of nu metal's brief affair with the pop charts in the early 2000s as the non-rap vocalist for Linkin Park, one of the era's most successful bands.
In a career spanning more than two decades and beginning with Linkin Park's first charted title, "One Step Closer," in September 2000, Bennington -- who died Thursday (July 20) in Los Angeles of an apparent suicide -- reigned as one of rock's defining voices in the new millennium. That extended to his non-Linkin Park projects, including a two-year stint as frontman of Stone Temple Pilots, in Scott Weiland's absence, as well as side project Dead by Sunrise. (Weiland died Dec. 3, 2015.)
Linkin Park's 11 No. 1s on Billboard's Alternative Songs airplay chart tie the band for the second most all-time (with Green Day) and mark the most leaders since 2000. Beyond its rock core, Linkin Park rode a wave of interest in nu metal and rap-rock in the early 2000s that saw the six-piece land multiple hits on the Billboard Hot 100, led by its top-performing song, "In the End," a No. 2 hit in 2002.
The band's Hot 100 run extended on through the 2000s, as it earned two more top 10s, "What I've Done" (No. 7, 2007) and "New Divide" (No. 6, 2009), both featured on the soundtracks for Michael Bay's Transformers films.
Even as Linkin Park turned two decades old, the group was still racking up Hot 100 hits. "Heavy," the lead single from the band's seventh studio album, this year's One More Light (a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200), peaked at No. 50 on the Hot 100 in June, marking the band's 23rd charted title on the ranking. The track, with Kiiara, also hit No. 16 on the Pop Songs airplay chart, becoming Linkin Park's highest-charting hit in more than nine years, and No. 22 on Alternative Songs. The group landed 10 Pop Songs entries, starting with "In the End," which reigned for five weeks in 2002.
Here are Chester Bennington's top 10 hit songs on the Billboard Hot 100, all by Linkin Park:
1, "In the End," No. 2 peak, May 30, 2002
2, "Numb," No. 11, March 6, 2004
3, "What I've Done," No. 7, April 21, 2007
4, "New Divide," No. 6, June 6, 2009
5, "Shadow of the Day," No. 15, March 8, 2008
6, "Numb/Encore" (with JAY-Z), No. 20, Feb. 12, 2005
7, "Breaking the Habit," No. 20, Sept. 18, 2004
8, "Somewhere I Belong," No. 32, May 3, 2003
9, "Burn It Down," No. 30, May 5, 2012
10, "Waiting for the End," No. 42, Feb. 19, 2011
Chester Bennington's biggest Billboard Hot 100 hits are based on actual performance on the weekly Billboard Hot 100, through the July 29, 2017 ranking. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. Due to changes in chart methodology over the years, eras are weighted to account for different chart turnover rates over various periods.
Meanwhile, here are Linkin Park's 11 No. 1s on the Alternative Songs chart: "In the End," five weeks, beginning Dec. 22, 2001; "Somewhere I Belong," five, April 12, 2003; "Faint," six, Aug. 9, 2003; "Numb," 12, Nov. 22, 2003; "Lying From You," three, May 29, 2004; "Breaking the Habit," four, Aug. 28, 2004; "What I've Done," 15, April 21, 2007; "New Divide," 12, June 20, 2009; "The Catalyst," four, Sept. 4, 2010; "Waiting for the End," four, Jan. 8, 2011; and "Burn It Down," one, Aug. 4, 2012.
The band's Mainstream Rock Songs No. 1 output, although not as potent as on Alternative Songs, was still nothing to downplay, as eight songs led the list: "Somewhere I Belong," one week, beginning April 12, 2003; "Numb," three, Jan. 3, 2004; "Breaking the Habit," three, Sept. 11, 2004; "What I've Done," eight, May 12, 2007; "New Divide," eight, July 11, 2009; "Burn It Down," one, June 30, 2012; "Guilty All the Same" (feat. Rakim), three, May 17, 2014; and "Until It's Gone," one, Sept. 20, 2014.
Bennington earned an additional No. 1 on Mainstream Rock Songs with a different band: "Out of Time," the lead single from his one-album career with Stone Temple Pilots, topped the chart dated Aug. 17, 2013. He left the group in 2015 to refocus on his work with Linkin Park. Meanwhile, his side project, Dead By Sunrise, notched a pair of entries on the Mainstream Rock Songs chart, led by "Crawl Back In" (No. 11, Oct. 31, 2009).
