High-selling singles that never entered the Billboard top 40

Johnny Cash, "Hurt" (did not chart; gold)

The Darkness, "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" (did not chart; gold)

Bright Eyes, "First Day of My Life" (did not chart; gold)

OK, that's enough from me.

Wait, one more:

Fitz and the Tantrums, "Out of My League" (did not chart; gold), "The Walker" (#67, gold)

No, this is great. I have no idea if a repository for this stuff exists anywhere else.

My research on the subject has mostly just revealed how many songs I had no idea had hit the top 40.

Haha, I can't stop.

Passion Pit, "Take a Walk" (#84, gold)
Vampire Weekend, "A-Punk" (did not chart; gold)
Arctic Monkeys, "Do I Wanna Know" (#70, platinum)
M83, "Midnight City" (#72, platinum)
Phoenix, "1901" (#84, platinum), "Lisztomania" (did not chart; gold)

Possibly a dumb question: do RIAA certifications only take US sales into account? I'm assuming so (judging by "Stairway To Heaven"'s lack of RIAA certification, if nothing else).

xp Oh, and of course: MGMT, "Kids" (#91, platinum), "Electric Feel" (did not chart; gold), "Time to Pretend" (did not chart; gold)

Yes, RIAA is U.S.-only, afaik.

Lily Allen, "Smile" (#49, gold)

Also, I'm pretty sure labels have to ask (or allow) the RIAA to certify their sales. For a long time, I think up until the late 70s, Motown didn't use RIAA certification. So, while there were undoubtedly many 500,000-1,000,000-selling Motown records in the 60s and early 70s, none of them were officially "gold" (or "platinum," but I don't think platinum became a thing until the late 70s anyway).

Yup.

OK, guys, JACK JOHNSON has 6 gold singles: "Upside Down" hit #38, "Sitting, Waiting, Wishing" hit #66, and the rest ("The News," "Good People," "Banana Pancakes," and "Better Together") did not chart on the Hot 100.

i'm also pretty sure labels can't request certification of songs that weren't released or promoted as singles in the us. at least that's what i assume from the fact that there are many songs that have sold over a million digital downloads (single-track purchases, separate from the full albums on which they appear) that haven't even been certified gold despite more recent releases from the same artist having been certified.

there are indeed tons of singles from the past few years, when digital singles sales were quite healthy, that have scanned gold despite not charting in the top 40... in country especially. the cases i find more interesting are the ones where they didn't chart at all, or barely charted. for example kacey musgraves's "follow your arrow" is gold-certified despite only charting for one week (#60, following her grammys performance which gave a significant sales spike). ("merry go 'round" is platinum and peaked at #63, but it actually had a healthy 15-week chart run driven by airplay.)

now that singles sales are going to shit again due to the meteoric rise of streaming services, i doubt we'll be seeing so many low-peaking gold singles now. (although actually streaming is now factored into riaa certification of singles, so who knows.)

one particularly extreme example i noticed recently is israel kamakawiwo'ole's "over the rainbow/what a wonderful world," which has sold 4.2 million according to billboard (it hasn't been re-certified since 2010, when it was certified platinum). it never charted but has been featured in a million commercials and movies and such.

Paramore have several gold singles, 2 of them ("Crushcrushcrush" and "That's What You Get") missed the top 40.

I feel like there has to be more songs from commercials that fit this criteria.

i'm sure there are but when i try to think of them i end up thinking of songs from commercials that actually ended up charting highly due to their ad syncs. amusingly there are songs that don't seem to have gone gold despite having charted in the top 10 due to apple commercials (feist's "1234," yael naim's "new soul").

oh here's a song that qualifies whose minor success was partly spurred by an ad: calabria 2007 (gold, #46)

israel kamakawiwo'ole's "over the rainbow/what a wonderful world"

Great example.

I was looking through lists of songs performed on American Idol to see if there were others like "Hallelujah."

(...but I gave up after looking through two seasons.)

Yeah, Yael Naim was one of the first I thought of. I saw she'd charted (way higher than I ever would've imagined) but I didn't notice that the song didn't go gold.

Grouplove, "Tongue Tied" (#42, platinum)

The Temper Trap, "Sweet Disposition" (did not chart; platinum)

Miike Snow, "Animal" (did not chart; gold)

ooh good ones

uhhh here's another that i thought of from remembering it was charting at around the same time as the regina spektor one, w/ a similarly short and sales-driven chart run: mika "grace kelly" (#57, gold)

Two Door Cinema Club, "What You Know" (did not chart; gold)

Matt & Kim, "Daylight" (#95, gold)

another uk hit that didn't do as well in the us but still sold a lot: corinne bailey rae "put your records on" (#64, uncertified(?) but has sold >945,000)

Wow, surprised that didn't chart higher.

Skrillex, ""Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" (#69, double platinum), "Bangarang" (#72, platinum), "First of the Year" (#85, gold), "Kyoto" (did not chart; gold)
Deadmau5, "Ghosts 'n' Stuff" (did not chart; gold)

anna nalick "breathe (2 am)" (#45, gold)

i actually like that song so don't hate :)

Airborne Toxic Event, "Sometime Around Midnight" (did not chart; gold)

one of the nearest gas stations to my house has some kind of incredibly small playlist of like 10 songs in constant rotation and "Breathe (2 am)" is one of them, which is kinda dope

Haha, I am going through someone's Spotify playlist of songs that were on Gossip Girl

I wonder how much "Dancing On My Own" sold ? I'm sure it must have gone gold. She played it on so many talk shows and even the MTV Awards. I was surprised it never became a legit hit à la "Bulletproof", "Lights", "Royals", or "Stay High".

Yeah, I actually just checked Robyn, and nothing has been certified since her '90s output.

Future - "Turn on the Lights" (#50, gold)
Young Jeezy - "And Then What" (#67, gold)
Young Jeezy - "RIP" (#58, gold)

i'm impressed that "RIP" went gold, wasn't even that big of a rap radio song on the scale of a "Turn On the Lights"

Postal Service, "Such Great Heights" (did not chart; gold)

Tegan and Sara, "Closer" (#90, gold)

another adult contemporary person: colbie caillat

"lucky" (w/ jason mraz): #48, gold
"i never told you": #48, gold
"brighter than the sun": #47, platinum

christina aguilera

"tilt ya head back" (w/ nelly): #58, gold
"just a fool" (ft. blake shelton): #71, uncertified but >746,000 sold

rick ross

"hustlin'": #54, platinum
"you the boss" (ft. nicki minaj): #62, gold

speaking of nicki...

"did it on 'em": #49, gold
"beez in the trap": #48, gold
"high school": #64, gold

blake shelton's got plenty of gold singles that reached the 40 to 50 range but more interestingly he also has one that didn't reach the hot 100 at all: "ol' red"

miranda has some impressive singles sales too:

"kerosene": #61, platinum
"famous in a small town": #87, gold
"gunpowder & lead": #52, 2x platinum
"only prettier": #61, gold

plus 3 gold singles that made it to the 40-50 range

The Caesars - Jerk it Out (#70, gold)

Bon Iver - Skinny Love (did not chart, gold)

beyonce "countdown" (#71, gold) :)

another one that's been in a lot of ads:

the ting tings "shut up and let me go" (#55, platinum)

death cab for cutie:

"soul meets body" (#60, gold)
"i will follow you into the dark" (did not chart, gold)

Not unlike the fact that "Pray" is MC Hammer's biggest hit.

Ha. Stranger still is that he has three other songs with higher peaks than "U Can't Touch This."

― jaymc, Thursday, October 30, 2014 7:50 AM Bookmark

This one has not just the factor that Lee626 mentions, but also the fact that the only single format "U Can't Touch This" was released on is 12" (it likely would have gone to #1 otherwise), whereas later Hammer singles were released on more conventional formats.

You can pretty much add every 'Indie' popular songs in this category. I don't know if they don't chart since most of the labels they have are not affiliated to the RIAA.

Back in the day, they were just sold in non-chart shops.

I think "Where's Captain Kirk" was one years' top indie seller, and would have come pretty high up a year-sales chart if such a thing could have been compiled.

it's nielsen that compiles data for charts, not the riaa. the data they collect isn't obtained from labels, but from retailers and radio research. most popular 'indie' songs are not really selling that much.

don omar "danza kuduro" (#82, 5x platinum)

should be noted that it got all its 2-5x platinum certifications at the same time as soon as riaa decided to incorporate streaming numbers into certification for singles (may 9, 2013). a glance at its youtube numbers will make it pretty clear that it's an absolute monster in that regard, so it probably hasn't sold 5 million. but before that point it had already been certified gold and platinum, so evidently it has sold at least a million, which is pretty major for a song that only reached #82. (also it was certified under the standard 'digital' category, not the 'latin' category which has lower thresholds for certification.)

birdy's version of "skinny love" also didn't chart but went gold lol

Old Crow Medicine Show's "Wagon Wheel" was certified platinum in 2012, before Darius Rucker covered it. The OCMS version didn't chart on the Hot 100 or country airplay chart, but Rucker's version hit #1 at country radio, #15 on the Hot 100, and won a Grammy.

Possibly a dumb question: do RIAA certifications only take US sales into account? I'm assuming so (judging by "Stairway To Heaven"'s lack of RIAA certification, if nothing else).

The song was never released as a single.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (did not chart; platinum)

That's intriguing. It can't be because of Community. Was this used in a prominent commercial or movie?

As for all the modern rock songs upthread, is it just a matter of steady modern rock airplay?

"Home" was in a couple ads too, iirc.

maybe Community viewers buy music on iTunes en masse? Childish Gambino has never had a top 40 hit but two of his songs have gone gold. xp

britt nicole "gold" (#83, gold)

aaron carter "saturday night" (did not chart, gold)
janet jackson "i want you" (#57, platinum)
seether "fake it" (#56, platinum)
goo goo dolls "stay with you" (#51, gold)
green day "american idiot" (#61, gold)
blink-182 "feeling this" (did not chart, gold); "i miss you" (#42, gold)
eminem "space bound" (did not chart, gold)
lifehouse "broken" (#83, platinum)
nickelback "figured you out" (#65, gold)
3 doors down "citizen/soldier" (#96, gold)
o-zone "dragostea din tei" (did not chart, gold)
ashley tisdale "he said, she said" (#58, gold)
john legend "tonight (best you ever had)" (#79, platinum)
ludacris "blueberry yum yum" (did not chart, gold)
kanye west "diamonds from sierra leone" (#43, gold); "touch the sky" (#42, gold); "can't tell me nothing" (#41, platinum); "gotta have it" (#69, gold); "no church in the wild" (#72, gold)
jay-z "dead presidents" (#50, gold); "gotta have it" and "no church in the wild" (see kanye)
big & rich "save a horse (ride a cowboy)" (#56, gold)
system of a down "chop suey" (#76, gold); "hypnotize" (#57, gold)
fall out boy "alone together" (#71, gold)
rihanna "cockiness (love it)" (did not chart, gold)

taylor swift

"i'm only me when i'm with you" (did not chart, gold)
"hey stephen" (#94, gold)
"breathe" (#87, gold)
"enchanted" (#75, gold)

Capitol Cities "Safe and Sound" is another example of it breaking the top 10 other than Foster the People although I secretly fux with that song (and it rips off M83 instead of MGMT)

― I Love Makonnen: New Answers (The Reverend), Thursday, October 30, 2014 4:23 AM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Q: Does "Sweater Weather" by the Neighbourhood count?

(Not top 10, but top 20.)

ugh, safe and sound is the worst

xp not really. right audience, wrong style imo

ugh, safe and sound is the worst

Seriously. It makes me stabby.

drowning pool "bodies" (did not chart, gold)

Just discovered this:

"Tempted" was the second single released from Squeeze's fourth album, East Side Story. Over the years it has become one of Squeeze's best-known songs, despite failing to crack the Top 40 in any country in which it was released (UK No. 41, Canada No. 45, US No. 49, Australia No. 90)

That completely blows my mind.

Paula Abdul - 'Knocked Out'. It peaked at 41!

DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - 'Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble'. It peaked at 57!!