English-Irish teen-pop boy band formed during the British TV singing competition "The X Factor" in 2010. They finished third in the series and subsequently signed with Simon Cowell's label Syco Music. In November 2011 they released their debut album "Up All Night". The album went straight to number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, which made One Direction the first UK group in US chart history to debut at number one with their first album. Propelled to international success by social media, One Direction's four albums, Up All Night (2011), Take Me Home (2012), Midnight Memories (2013) and Four (2014) topped charts in most major markets, and generated hit singles including "What Makes You Beautiful", "Live While We're Young", "Story of My Life" and "Night Changes".
Whitesnake are an English hard rock band formed in London in 1978. The group was originally put together as the backing band for singer David Coverdale, who had recently left Deep Purple. Though the band quickly developed into their own entity, Coverdale is the only constant member throughout their history. Whitesnake enjoyed much success in the UK, Europe and Japan through their early years. Their albums Ready an' Willing, Come an' Get It and Saints & Sinners all reached the top ten on the UK Albums Chart.
What was the hardest-rocking band ever to notch three Top Ten hits? For our money, it s Steppenwolf. Formed from the Canadian band The Sparrow (including Dennis Edmonton a.k.a. Mars Bonfire), and led by vocalist John Kay, Steppenwolf scored with Born to Be Wild, Magic Carpet Ride and Rock Me in the space of nine months back in 1968-1969, and hit the charts eleven more times up though the mid- 70s. Often tagged as a biker band mostly due to their prominent presence on the soundtrack to Easy Rider Steppenwolf was actually a socially-conscious, highly political outfit, never more so than on their controversial LP Monster, one of 14 charting albums released by the band over a 20-year period.