Which Green Day song was their first number one on the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart? The answer is “Longview.”
Released in 1994 as the debut single from Dookie, “Longview” became Green Day’s first song to reach No. 1 on Billboard’s modern-rock chart. That chart was later renamed Alternative Songs and is now known as Alternative Airplay, so older references may use a different title for the same chart lineage.
The song’s sluggish bass line and restless lyrics helped introduce Green Day to a much wider audience. Its music video, filmed in a rundown Oakland house, received heavy MTV rotation and helped establish the band during the mainstream breakthrough of Dookie.
“Basket Case,” “When I Come Around,” and later “American Idiot” also topped the alternative chart, but they were not Green Day’s first chart leader there. “Longview” reached the milestone before those better-known singles.