songs that weren't a bands biggest hit, but have gone on to be their legacy song and biggest iTunes seller

I saw the Prodigy last night and was surprised to find out that the biggest reaction wasn't for "Breathe" or "Firestarter" or "Poison", but for "Smack My Bitch Up." I checked on iTunes and it's their biggest selling track! Sometime in the last 10 years it became their legacy track. How? Why? What other bands is this true?

so, yeah. Please cross-reference with iTunes for this.

1. Prodigy - "Smack My Bitch Up"

great thread idea, i definitely have sat around and figured this out w/ a few bands, will have to look some up when i get home tonight

would be interesting to cross-reference this with licensing

like maybe in the long run that impacts sales more than radio/video play

my guess is that there are a large number of people out there who did not know the band Prodigy but knew there was a song called "Smack My Bitch Up"

i always thought smack my bitch was the big prodigy song!!

it wouldn't have sold as well as nearly half their other 90s songs esp. the two #1s

notoriety was helped by banned video, no?

2. Elton John - "Tiny Dancer"
^^ someone can doublecheck this and refute it if necessary since i'm looking at a cached browser page of his top iTunes songs, but that's a very prominent example of a song that movie licensing turned into a much bigger part of the artist's legacy than it had been before

wouldn't be surprised if 'Wonderwall' was biggest-selling Oasis song online (was probably their biggest hit in the US if not in the UK tho)

Don't have iTunes right here, but just guessing on a few...

Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes (wasn't even a single from So)
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
Lou Reed - Perfect Day

Bohemian Rhapsody was always Queen's biggest hit surely

"Bohemian Rhapsody" benefitted from the 90s re-release and Wayne's World, but it was always one of their biggest hits, I gotta veto that. xpost

Perfect Day? It must still be "Walk on the Wild Side"

Journey's only two top 5 songs in the US were "Open Arms" and "Who's Crying Now."

"Don't Stop Believing," meanwhile, is the biggest-selling catalogue track in iTunes history.

no way was bohemian rhapsody a bigger hit than "another one bites the dust" or "crazy little thing called love"

What about "Son of a Preacher Man" by Dusty Springfield?

obv I don't know the UK chart stuff much, but was that actually her biggest hit?

ooh good call, put a 3 on that. xpost re journey

"Bohemian Rhapsody" held a sales record in the UK for almost a decade and was Queen's first US top 10. I would say songs that establish a band on that level count as one of their biggest hits whether there are higher charting songs or not.

Bohemian Rhapsody was always Queen's biggest hit surely

Not in the U.S., where No. 1 hits "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (!) and "Another One Bites The Dust" both charted higher. (So did "We Are The Champions," at first, but then "Rhapsody" came back in 1992 and hit No. 2 off of Wayne's World; it had only hit No. 9 on its original release.)

The Romantics' legacy song is almost certainly "What I Like About You" (big jock-rock hit, right?), though in their lifetime "Talking In Your Sleep" charted way higher (No. 3, compared to No. 49.)

what about "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond....again, i'm a lil ignorant of his history but wiki says "Song Sung Blue" was a bigger chart hit

yeah that's really interesting, i don't think i've ever even heard "Talking In Your Sleep" but I've heard "Like" a million times. xpost

this icon should be next to all these songs in the iTunes store: http://www.soulstrut.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/badassbuddy_com-slowburner.gif

I think I've heard those 2 about an equal # of times--but I guess "Like" is more of a party song.

what about "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond....again, i'm a lil ignorant of his history but wiki says "Song Sung Blue" was a bigger chart hit

Yeah, I think "Sweet Caroline" and "Cherry Cherry" are both more famous today than "Song Sung Blue" or "Cracklin' Rosie" -- but they were all in the top 5.

Freebird? That's certainly Skynyrd's legacy song, but probably not their biggest iTunes seller (Sweet Home Alabama?).

(Meant to add "Song Sung Blue" and "Cracklin' Rosie" were his only two solo #1s.)

oh wow here's the ultimate one:

according to wiki, "Dancing With Myself" by Billy Idol only reached 102 on the U.S. charts and FAILED to chart in the U.K.

usually a soundtrack or placement in a television show will raise a song out of the bands "hits" into a totally different demographic

Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes (wasn't even a single from So)

This was released as a single off of the "Say Anything" soundtrack and received massive amounts of radio play.

oh wow here's the ultimate one:

according to wiki, "Dancing With Myself" by Billy Idol only reached 102 on the U.S. charts and FAILED to chart in the U.K.

― stank pony (M@tt He1ges0n), Friday, March 27, 2009 1:27 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah but "Rebel Yell" and "White Wedding" are both bigger iTunes sellers

i mean this could very easily turn into "early hits that established a band's identity but didn't chart as high as later singles when they were more famous" list and get away from the original idea

yeah that's true

i was more just shocked that that hadn't even charted at the time, being how catchy it was and all

"Should I Stay or Should I Go?"

Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes (wasn't even a single from So)

...

This was released as a single off of the "Say Anything" soundtrack and received massive amounts of radio play.

"In Your Eyes" was released as a US single, peaking at #26 Billboard Hot 100 and #1 Billboard Mainstream Rock in 1986.

Say Anything gave "In Your Eyes" a second chart run in 1989, but it peaked at #41. No Top 40 for you!

...and became PG's first certified Gold single in 2005 lol

"Only You" did marginally better than "Situation" on the US charts (67 vs. 73) and much better on the UK charts (2 vs. wasn't even released), but "Situation" seems much more like Yaz's legacy song.

"Born to Run!" Peaked at #23.

(Well, technically it's outsold by "Radio Nowhere" on iTunes, but I think that was thanks to some "Magic" promotion)

yeah acts with recent singles kinda skew this, but i think it's safe to assume "Born To Run" ultimately sells more than "Radio Nowhere"

Oh oh oh!

"American Girl" was the second single off Tom Petty's debut album, after "Breakdown," but did not even chart.

Radiohead. Creep is their biggest hit, but probably not their "signature" song. NOt sure what is, though.

Bruce's biggest chart hit is Dancing In The Dark

"Creep" is Radiohead's legacy song to millions of non-Radiohead fans

I'm not sure what Bob Marley's legacy song is, but I have a feeling that "Roots, Rock, Reggae" (his only U.S. Hot 100 hit, peaking at # 51) isn't it. It might not even be in the Top 10.

(Well, Marley has lots of Legacy songs, obviously. Or at least an album full of them.)

Cheap Trick's only #1 is "The Flame." ("I Want You to Want Me" was #7, "Surrender" #62.)

What about remixes doing this with a song? Because Run DMC's It's Like That was just a b-side until it became like their biggest song (v. walk this way obv.)

Also presumably this must have happened by tunes that were sampled a bunch, although none come to mind immediately.

'Hallelujah' wins this thread, surely?

Run DMC's It's Like That was just a b-side

Not really. It was on side one of the 12-inch, and came before "Sucker MCs"; ditto with the instrumentals on side two:

http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=257372

How do I find out Itunes sales numbers? Is there some page for them?

Talking Heads. Their biggest charting US single is Wild Wild Life. Biggest in UK is Road To Nowhere. Their signature/legacy song is clearly Once In A Lifetime, which never even charted.

I tried to a search for a specific tune on the Itunes store, but when I click on the song name, I'm thrown back to the Apple store home page.

Anyway, I suspect "Oh Yeah" by Yello is their biggest download seller, even though it wasn't their biggest hit.

Which of course is due to it being used in that movie.

i dunno how iTunes store works in your country, but here every artist page has their top songs listed. but what i've been doing is just googling "(artist name) top itunes sales" and going to the browser cache of the store page since i don't have iTunes on my work computer.

"Born to Run!" Peaked at #23.

(Well, technically it's outsold by "Radio Nowhere" on iTunes, but I think that was thanks to some "Magic" promotion)

I'm pretty sure "Radio Nowhere" was also the iTunes Free Single of the Week when it was released, and that iTunes counts free downloads as sales. (Or at least as volume for measuring popularity.)

One problem is that, with lots of these artists (Neil Diamond, Skynyrd, Billy Idol, Springsteen, Petty, Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, Radiohead), it's a real stretch to say they "clearly" have just one legacy song. (So with them, the formulation only really works if their biggest hit has been totally lost in the dustbin of history. "Wild Wild Life" might actually come close to that, though. "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Creep" definitely don't. Chuck Berry's only #1 "My Ding-A-Ling" probably does.)

I tried to search "Yello", but the Itunes home page doesn't even allow me to click the band name, so I don't know how to see the artist page.

(xx-post)

fwiw, "Oh Yeah" (at #51) was the only Yello song ever to chart in the U.S. No idea about the rest of the world, where I assume they were bigger. ("Bostich" will always be their legacy song in my house.)

Likewise, Boney M's only U.S. hit was "Rivers of Babylon," but the rest of the planet would presumably disagree.

I think in Europe at least "The Race" and "Bostich" were bigger hits than "Oh Yeah", maybe some others too.

My bad, I thought Sucker MCs was Side A.

..just googling "(artist name) top itunes sales" and going to the browser cache of the store page since i don't have iTunes on my work computer.

Talking Heads top 5 appear to be: Once In A Lifetime, Burning Down The House, And She Was, Psycho Killer, Take Me To The River

I don't look at iTunes but I would assume Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah?

I saw the Prodigy last night and was surprised to find out that the biggest reaction wasn't for "Breathe" or "Firestarter" or "Poison", but for "Smack My Bitch Up." I checked on iTunes and it's their biggest selling track! Sometime in the last 10 years it became their legacy track.

i am pretty sure that every single person in the world except for you was aware of this.

and the title of this thread is confounding...if a track is their legacy song and their best seller period (i will assume that the iTunes best seller is generally the overall best seller) then doesn't that make said song their biggest hit by default? do you mean songs that were someone's biggest hits but didn't necessarily peak as high as others (like Wonderwall, as referenced above)? because that list would go on forever. or songs that were totally unknown at the time and later came out of nowhere (like Hallelujah)?

But what was Leonard Cohen's bigger hit?

He never had a real "hit" in the U.S., but I would assume "Suzanne," right?

Top 5 Peter Gabriel itunes:

In Your Eyes, Down To Earth, Solsbury Hill (2002 remaster), Solsbury Hill, Sledgehammer

Top 5 Leonard Coehn itunes:
Hallelujah, Everybody Knows, Suzanne, Everybody Knows, Hallelujah

suzanne was his signature song, no?

oh look chuck sez the same

and the title of this thread is confounding...if a track is their legacy song and their best seller period (i will assume that the iTunes best seller is generally the overall best seller) then doesn't that make said song their biggest hit by default? do you mean songs that were someone's biggest hits but didn't necessarily peak as high as others (like Wonderwall, as referenced above)? because that list would go on forever. or songs that were totally unknown at the time and later came out of nowhere (like Hallelujah)?

― lil waynes babymama (musically), Friday, March 27, 2009 2:11 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you're thinking too hard about this. it's really about songs that become more popular well after the initial single release, whether as a live staple, a cover by another aritst, or because of licensing for a commercial, movie, Guitar Hero, etc.

Also guessing Randy Newman's legacy song is not the #2 "Short People," but not really sure what it would be instead. (Strangely, "I Love L.A." didn't chart Hot 100; weird, its video seemed popular at the time. But I doubt that's his legacy song either. So..."Louisiana 1927," by now? "Mama Told Me Not To Come"? The theme from Toy Story? Who knows.)

according to wiki, "Dancing With Myself" by Billy Idol only reached 102 on the U.S. charts and FAILED to chart in the U.K.

― stank pony (M@tt He1ges0n), Friday, March 27, 2009 1:27 PM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark

something that doesn't get factored in here is that the video was played about every 10 minutes on MTV when it came out

Where Is My Mind? is the first thing I thought of - I've seen rooms full of young college kids who probably have no idea who the Pixies are freak out when this gets played, thank you Fight Club.

ooh good call, i was skeptical but it is in fact their top song on iTunes

I saw the Prodigy last night and was surprised to find out that the biggest reaction wasn't for "Breathe" or "Firestarter" or "Poison", but for "Smack My Bitch Up." I checked on iTunes and it's their biggest selling track! Sometime in the last 10 years it became their legacy track.

i am pretty sure that every single person in the world except for you was aware of this.

Actually, no. I guess it's different over there, but I'm pretty sure in Finland "Out of Space", "No Good", "Voodoo People", "Firestarter" and "Breathe" are even today more popular than "Smack My Bitch Up".

us American non-dance people only know the last 3 but it definitely seemed like the "Smack" was the least big of those

Randy Newman's legacy song...not really sure what it would be instead

Sail Away?

Pink Floyd. Biggest chart hit is Another Brick In The Wall.

Biggest iTunes song is Wish You Were Here, which is now probably their signature/legacy song. Either that or the #2 iTunes, Comfortably Numb.

I thought the answer was going to be Etta James "At Last". It seems to be her itunes hit as far as I can tell by using the google cache method detailed above.

It was only a #47 Billboard chart hit though, and I thought "I'd Rather Go Blind" or the Henry songs should be her legacy hits.

Turns out "At Last" was a Pop- 47, R&B - 2, and "I'd Rather Go Blind" was a B-side(Tell Mama) to a Pop - 23/R&B- 10 and didn't chart when it was an A-side. Historic Billboard charts are strange when it comes to race and everything else.

I'd never even heard of "At Last" until customers started asking for it as a Wedding Song in the late 90s. (must have been in a movie?) I had a big blind spot in my R&B knowledge, or their was a regional or cultural difference in oldies play.

Anyway. She had bigger hits.

it seems odd that the top Louvin Brothers song on iTunes (not counting mistagged tracks from their tribute album) is "Kneel at the Cross," which edges out obvious big hits/legacy songs like "I Don't Believe You've Met My Baby," "Knoxville Girl," and all of Satan Is Real. afaik "Kneel" was never issued as a single and has only appeared on the original LP, the Bear Family box sex, and an old Rounder compilation. What gives?

xp I never heard of "At Last" until last year! I always would have figured "Dance With Me Henry" was Etta James's most famous song, though Joel Whitburn doesn't list that one (maybe too early? also maybe not a pop crossover?) in his Hot 100 book. Looks like her biggest hit of the "rock era" was "Tell Mama," which went to #23 in 1967; only other Top 30s were "Pushover," #25 in 1963, and "Trust In Me," #30 in 1961. No idea if I've ever heard those, but I'm obviously no expert.

xp I never heard of "At Last" until last year!

I think this is one of the most shocking revelations I've ever read on ILM.

x-post Back when the album first came out, a friend copied "Surfer Rosa" for me but left "Where is My Mind?" off the cassette. For a few months there, I had no idea it existed, at least not until I got the CD and was, like, huh, why did he leave this one off?

What about Teenage Kicks? I have a feeling that didn't make the top 40 when it first came out.

"Only You" did marginally better than "Situation" on the US charts (67 vs. 73) and much better on the UK charts (2 vs. wasn't even released), but "Situation" seems much more like Yaz's legacy song.

But "Only You" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> "Situation"

wonder what Radiohead's biggest iTunes seller is

oh SHIT i hate people

oh my god so many people actually need to have their ears surgically removed right now-

um, l-jag it probably* has everything to do with the fact that it was marketed as a single, was a huge 90s radio hit in the alternaboom, and subsequently still gets incredible airplay on every rock station in the world. Not because the world did some awesome critical litmus test and chose it over awesome* songs like "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi"

*definitely
*not awesome

I can't think of any rap song this works for, except maybe "Juicy," which was a pretty big hit in its own right.

but dude......it's their worst song by like 57 parsecs, it's pure bedwetter-rock-inventing evil, thom yorke regrets it, it spawned Coldplay, summoned Snow Patrol, trained Athlete......it's probably in my top 10 most hated songs ever by anyone and i just want you to UNDERSTAND the sheer unrelenting hatred i bear for that song

i mean, karma police, creep, sit down stand up*, these would have all been fine, understandable choices, but for THAT SONG to have like 3x the nearest challenger is just fkn sickening imo and indicative of where a huge proportion of radiohead 'fans' are coming from, i.e. fake-macho-sensitive 'alt-rock' hell

anyway, if that's their legacy song, it's a legacy that they have thankfully disowned

*joeks bruuuv

Actually, I'm thinking this might apply to lots of hard (or hardish) rock acts who wound up having their biggest pop successes with way-past-their-prime power ballads that are hopefully now forgotten -- Aerosmith's biggest hit by far (and their only #1, for four weeks!) was "I Don't Want to Miss A Thing," right? "Paranoid" and "Ironman" didn't make the Top 40, and "Crazy Train" never even made the Top 100, but Ozzy's Lita Ford duet "Close My Eyes Forever" went Top 10. Plus Meat Loaf, Bryan Adams, Heart, people like that (maybe even a couple former hair metal bands) -- though maybe I'm deluding myself by thinking that nobody cares about all their chart-topping late-period mush anymore.

xpost

people who are embarrassingly protective about who listens to radiohead and how is outdated model, dude. you're supposed to be like that about animal collective now.

but "Don't Want To Miss A Thing" is Aerosmith's top-selling iTunes song, xhuxh!

Really?? Wow. That's so sad. (I haven't been checking the itunes charts, admittedly. Though I'm not sure whether I'd necessarily equate "biggest itunes seller" with "a band's legacy song," either. I have no problem at all with "Creep," though.)

(it isn't Creep)

xp It's their #1 Rhapsody stream, too! Here's their top 10 there:

I Don't Want To Miss A Thing (5:01)
Dream On (4:52)
Walk This Way (4:10)
Janie's Got A Gun (5:30)
Sweet Emotion (5:57)
Angel (5:07)
Cryin' (5:09)
Dude (Looks Like A Lady) (4:24)
Jaded (3:34)
Livin' On The Edge (6:21)

xp Okay, I see that you said that now, Stop Relegating. What, "Paranoid Android" then? I'm actually amazed "Creep" isn't Radiohead's biggest song. But it's not like I make any attempt to keep up with those guys.

Stop Relegating

Start Executing?

I love "Paranoid Android". Not that one either.

Maybe I'm doing something differently, but looking at iTunes right now I see "Creep" at number one, "15 Step"(!) at number two, and "High and Dry" at three.

I remember watching Radiohead play their legacy song "Creep" on MTV while young people sat by the pool. They were probably too busy to get into Kid A years later.

oh lol maybe I'm the one doing it wrong, but from my end it seems that High And Dry is fucking flavour of the millennium, followed a long way back by Karma Police and THEN Creep

and then High And Dry again

xp I never heard of "At Last" until last year!

I think this is one of the most shocking revelations I've ever read on ILM.

― legendary North American forest ape (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, March 27, 2009 4:27 PM (4 hours ago)

Seriously, mind blown.

Oh, here I was thinking your rant was about "Creep"!

(it made sense)

(not that I agree with it)

...I dont even know what "High and Dry" is actually. Is it a newer one?

/lex

i wish i had your unknowledge

ignorance really is bliss in this instance

high and dry is what fake plastic trees would be if it sucked

"High And Dry" is fine.. it's just not their best.. relax.

"Creep" is No. 1 in American iTunes

Stone Temple Pilots' "Creep" is their No. 3
TLC's is their No. 2
Mobb Deep's is their No. 81

Lust for Life

Where do Roxy Music fit in this equation? ("Love Is The Drug" their only U.S. Top 40 ever; "Dance Away" just missed; "More Than This" not even Top 100.)

I think post-1980 Roxy Music have been all but forgotten in US+Canada, but people still remember "Love Is the Drug". So IOW, their biggest hit is also their legacy song.

but for THAT SONG to have like 3x the nearest challenger is just fkn sickening imo and indicative of where a huge proportion of radiohead 'fans' are coming from, i.e. fake-macho-sensitive 'alt-rock' hell

But this is the thing, Louis, that the people who are buying "Creep" are more than likely not Radiohead fans at all. And I don't mean that in the sense of "they're not TRUE fans!", I mean that that may be the only Radiohead song they've heard, and they're buying it because they suddenly got nostalgic for the alt-rock they used to listen to in high school and so they used the iTunes gift certificate they got for Christmas to buy that and "Today" and "No Rain" and "All Apologies."

xp I dunno about that -- Here are the top 20 streams on Roxy's rhapsody page. (I have no idea what several of those highest placed songs are, but then again I stopped paying attention to new stuff by them at some point.) (Somebody else can check itunes):

More Than This (4:30) Lyrics
Avalon (4:16) Lyrics
Love Is The Drug (4:11) Lyrics
India (1:44)
To Turn You On (4:16) Lyrics
Tara (1:43)
Take A Chance With Me (4:42) Lyrics
The Space Between (4:30) Lyrics
Virginia Plain (2:58) Lyrics
The Main Thing (3:54) Lyrics
While My Heart Is Still Beating (3:26) Lyrics
True To Life (4:25) Lyrics
Dance Away (3:46) Lyrics
Ladytron (4:26) Lyrics
Jealous Guy (4:57) Lyrics
Over You (3:27) Lyrics
Same Old Scene (3:58) Lyrics
If There Is Something (10:37) Lyrics
Re-make/Re-model (5:14) Lyrics
Is There Something (6:34)

More Than This (4:30) Lyrics
Avalon (4:16) Lyrics
Love Is The Drug (4:11) Lyrics

This is the exact order of their top 3 songs on iTunes as well. I think "More Than This" got a big boost from Lost in Translation.

Wes Anderson/Sofia Coppola movies do magic for the Stuff White People Like axis of iTunes downloads

LL Cool J:

1. Control Myself ft. Jennifer Lopez
2. Headsprung
3. Going Back To Cali
4. Doin' It
5. Mama Said Knock You Out.

But I guess his "legacy song" is up for debate

And "Control Myself" was probably one of his biggest hits

His "legacy song" is up for debate, but it's certainly not either of the top two

And "Control Myself" might be one of his highest-charting songs, but it seemed like a hit for about two weeks, where a bunch of his earlier hits were ubiquitous for months if not years.

it's pretty fucked up that "Control Myself" is 3 years old and still up there imo

i would think if anything "Luv U Better" would be the highest seller of his last few albums

I don't hate "Lose Control" or anything, it just seems bizarre.

xp: I probably hear "Headsprung" more than anything else from the past decade.

"Lose Control" "Control Myself" lol

wtvr, practically the same song

"Around the Way Girl" is his legacy song in my heart.

I mean that that may be the only Radiohead song they've heard, and they're buying it because they suddenly got nostalgic for the alt-rock they used to listen to in high school and so they used the iTunes gift certificate they got for Christmas to buy that and "Today" and "No Rain" and "All Apologies."

I feel sorry for them. Not in a superior "these songs suck" kinda way, but it sounds like the soundtrack to suburban kid turns 30, marriage/long term relationship breaks up, and loses job. I feel sorry for the life circumstances that in my mind has inspired this nostalgia.

I think post-1980 Roxy Music have been all but forgotten in US+Canada

wtf I hear "Dance Away" and "More Than This" a lot more often than "Do The Strand" and "Virginia Plain."

Jaymc I was talking about "High And Dry" which came top of popularity in Britain for some reason :-/

x-post Totally, I almost never hear pre-"Avalon" Roxy on the radio, and certainly plenty of "Jealous Guy."

Flaming Lips "Do You Realize?" is arguably their legacy song, though not a "hit" like "She Don't Use Jelly."

xp Ha, I misread.

like i say, i'd have no problem with 'creep' being top of r-head downloads, and that's how it seems to be in the usa...maybe i didn't go to the right page or something

"High and Dry" sounds like U2's "Stay (Faraway So Close)."

Same progression, I guess. But the chorus of the U2 song is more interesting (not to mention the verses).

wtf I hear "Dance Away" and "More Than This" a lot more often than "Do The Strand" and "Virginia Plain."

I wasn't referring to 70's Roxy Music in general -- I don't ever remember a time when 70's Roxy Music received much airplay with the *exception* of "Love is the Drug".

Anyway, xhuxk's list suggests that I was wrong about 80's RM, because "Avalon" songs at #1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 = loads of people still like that album.

I'd still argue that "Love Is the Drug" is their legacy song. You don't hear "The Main Thing" in pubs too often, for example.

Josie Cotton, "Johnny Are You Queer"

(undeniably her legacy song -- the only song she's really known for; #81 on VH1's '80s One-Hit-Wonders countdown -- but unlike "He Could Be The One" and "Jimmy Loves Maryann," it never hit the Hot 100.)

Dunno if Jeff Buckley really had "hits", but "Hallelujah" was never a single, from my knowledge.

John Lennon's "Imagine"

I'm not sure what Loudon Wainwright III's legacy song is (his top two on Rhapsody are "Daughter" and "Grey In L.A."), but I feel there's a good chance it's not "Dead Skunk" (which was his only hit -- went #16 in 1973).

George Thorogood, "Bad to The Bone" or "One Bourbon One Scotch One Beer," neither of which charted (whereas his only Top 100 single ever was a version of "Willie And The Hand Jive" which hit #63 in 1985.)

Yeah that is really weird. One would expect that constant MTV play would've propelled it at least into the Top 100 and that it's subsequent use in films and TV would've done even more for it. Maybe it was just ubiquitous on screens and no one who dug it felt compelled to buy the 7" (which did exist according to Wiki). Or maybe it was too early in MTV's existence for constant rotation to matter.

David Bowie. He's had 2 #1 singles in America, Fame and Let's Dance. In the UK, he's had 5: Space Oddity, Ashes to Ashes, Under Pressure, Let's Dance, & Dancing In The Street.

Heroes has sort of emerged as his legacy song. But it's highest chart position was 24 in the UK, and in the US it didn't chart at all.

xpost "its" not "it's"

I don't know about Bowie. The three Let's Dance singles still get plenty of airplay.

In America certainly XTC's "Dear God" is their most famous song, despite not charting at all.

"High and Dry" sounds like U2's "Stay (Faraway So Close)."

to me "high&dry" has always sounded like prince's "slow love"... I've never understood how anybody could not see that !

Not sure what Rachel Sweet's legacy track is (probably something from her debut, like "B.A.B.Y" or "Who Does Lisa Like" or "I Go To Pieces," or maybe "I've Got A Reason" from her second LP which was included on a Stiff comp a few years ago, or maybe "Hairspray" from the movie), but it's probably not "Everlasting Love," which was her only Top 40 hit (as a duet with Rex Smith in 1981.)

So what is the Pogues' legacy song? And what song, if any, by them got the most radio play in the U.S. when it was new? They never placed a song in the Billboard 100; never got an album higher than #88. Which must make them one of the most famous bands in retrospect ever to experience so little chart action when the albums actually came out (and definitely the band who must have the highest jukebox-play-to-chart-position ratio in U.S. history, at least if Irish bars count.)

Anyway, I'm thinking "Fairytale of New York" is probably their best known song, though Rhapsody is listing "Love Till the End" higher (and I can't even think of how that one goes.) Then "A Pair Of Brown Eyes," then "Streams Of Whiskey," then "The Body Of An American."

how famous are the pogues, really?

i mean that doesn't really surprise me tbh.

"Tuesday Morning" hit #11 on the US Modern Rock chart, so technically that's their biggest hit here -- but the chart debuted in 1988, so it's hard to say whether anything from before then would have charted higher. I think "Fairytale of New York" is without a doubt their best-known song, though. The Discography section of the Pogues' Wikipedia page, for instance, has subsections for Albums, Singles, and "Fairytale of New York."

xp I dunno, I feel like they're sort of household names, in certain households. Plus their songs sure seem to get onto show like Rescue Me and The Wire a lot. And I always hear them in bars, and I don't even go to bars very often these days. But maybe I overestimate their fame, who knows.

According to Wikipedia Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" did not chart at all in the US when initially released, though it was a big hit in Europe.

("Body of an American" is a TV effect, I would guess. But that's the thing about TV use, especially those two examples you give -- Pogues are used to signify "ethnically Irish blue-collar civil servant milieu," which isn't the kind of thing that makes viewers aware of the Pogues specifically. It does the opposite, really; it turns them into just background "Irish music.")

I lol'd when The Wire had cops revelling to The Pogues in cop bars. But maybe I'm just naive.

They seem to get played a lot in scenes where people are pouring out their whiskey after a Catholic buddy dies. So if anything, it turns them into a certain kind of Irish music. But I'd be surprised if a good number of viewers haven't figured out who does those songs, by now. I'd be curious about how well their songs do itunes-wise. Also bet they're not having trouble drawing people to these comeback shows now. (Don't have a good idea who exactly their American fans are, besides Irish expats. Bet it's not all aging '80s Modern Rock fans though.)

I mean, don't the Dropkick Murphys supposedly have a dedicated following among cops, firemen, and Bruins fans in Boston? Or is that just a myth I've been gullible enough to believe? I'd think their audience must be only a fraction of the Pogues' audience, though.

pogues fans are people who bought their albums in college in the 80's. people in college in the 80's who bought pogues albums also bought albums by xtc, elvis costello, and the clash.

english majors. lots of english majors. and john cusack. and matt dillon. those are your pogues fans of past and present.

Iggy Pop, "Lust For Life" (vs. his biggest hits, "Real Wild Child" and "Candy").

Underworld - "Stand Up" vs. "Born Slippy: NUXX"

Blur - "Song 2" (in the US)

What are you talking about? "Born Slippy (NUXX)" reached the #2 spot in the UK single chart in 1996, and it was a big hit in many other countries too.

Okay, it wasn't a big hit in 1995 when it was originally released (though it wasn't totally obscure either, I remember hearing it on a techno comp in '95), but it took only a year for it to become Underworld's legacy song.

(x-post)

Sorry. I should've clarified that "Stand Up" was their biggest hit in the U.S. See for yourself.

everybody owned/heard Slippy/NUXX from sources other than actually purchasing an Underworld product

for example, I always heard it played by one of those plastic bucket drummers in Fanieul Hall

(I mean, that's one of those cases where, sales aside, I think it would have been entirely fair and uncontroversial at the time to say that Slippy was their U.S. "hit" -- there's no real shift in perception, right? I feel like we must have talked about this upthread, how often the stuff around an act's "hit" -- especially the stuff immediately following a hit -- will often sell more without being popularly regarded as the hit.)

Huh, I never knew that Lemon Interupt = Underworld. (I once owned a mid-90s "trip-hop" comp with a Lemon Interupt song on it.)

Head East, "Never Been Any Reason" (only their third highest-charting pop hit, weirdly, behind "Love Me Tonight" and "Since You Been Gone.")

I'm not sure it's their "legacy song," but Hall and Oates's "You Make My Dreams" is their best seller on iTunes.

As some dude noted on the H&O thread:

it's weird, i never heard that song a lot in the past or thought of it as one of their signature hits, but in the past two years it's picked up some kind of zeitgeist appearing in so much different stuff (that Days of Summer movie and the keyboard cat clip upthread, Step Brothers, episodes of Glee and The Office, etc.).

how are we gonna look back on eminem based on this criteria? or does "love the way you lie" qualify as his biggest hit ever now

I don't think you can really use it for artists who are currently active.

yeah, i was talking more about speculating for the future

i actually wrote a whole long thing about the "You Make My Dreams" revival on my blog shortly after that ilx post: http://narrowcast.blogspot.com/2010/04/you-make-my-dreams-and-retconning-of.html

Good post.

I didn't actually know about "You Make My Dreams" being #1 on iTunes until I took this quiz:
http://www.sporcle.com/games/thevelocirapper/mostpopularsong

im sure ethan linked a few of us to this right
http://www.facebook.com/pages/If-you-lovedknew-Eminem-before-not-afraid-or-love-the-way-you-lie/153893614638489

feelin mad old

re: thread OP, heard that song played @ neo in chicago (local goth club gr8080 took me to once) & it was a big floor-filler. s&m undertones probably give it a big cult following in addition to random ppl being all 'omg bitch' & 'omg ridic video'

Not in the U.S., where No. 1 hits "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (!) and "Another One Bites The Dust" both charted higher. (So did "We Are The Champions," at first, but then "Rhapsody" came back in 1992 and hit No. 2 off of Wayne's World; it had only hit No. 9 on its original release.)

"Bohemian Rhapsody" was surely a bit too complex for American radio i 1975 to be able to reach number one. It was easier in the UK, where airplay was never a factor. It is surely very much established as Queen's most well-known song, maybe besides "We Are The Champions"/"We Will Rock You", a double-b-side consisting of two songs which never hit #1 on either side of the Atlantic, but who have both gone on to become standards in sports stadiums all over the world.

Do Christmas songs count? Because I am pretty sure "Driving Home For Christmas" is pretty much established as Chris Rea's most well-known and popular song today.

"Bohemian Rhapsody" reached #2 in 1992 in part because it was by then considered a novelty song. It got played on radio formats that would never otherwise have touched it, solely because it was the silly centerpiece of a scene from a hugely popular movie.

fwiw, "Oh Yeah" (at #51) was the only Yello song ever to chart in the U.S. No idea about the rest of the world, where I assume they were bigger.

"The Race" was by far their biggest European hit. They were well-established before that point, but not really as a mainstream chart act. "Bostich" was the breakthrough hit, but really not much more than a minor hit in mainstream terms.

And I think the "Baby" album may have been their bestselling album, with some of the songs from that album still riding high among their best-known ones. "Drive/Driven" is still the one used to test stereo sets.

I am pretty sure "Driving Home For Christmas" is pretty much established as Chris Rea's most well-known and popular song

Not in the U.S., where the only Chris Rea song almost anybody has ever heard is "Fool If You Think It's Over" (and very few Americans could identify it, never mind who did it.)

In Europe he was pretty much established as an album act for a while. "The Road To Hell Part 2" was probably his biggest hit, but these days the festive one is the one that keeps him in the spotlight. Kind of funny is hasn't caught on in the US as the lyrical theme is obviously very American (Driving home for Christmas in the UK usually doesn't take ages)

Frank Black - I Heard Ramona Sing.... Los Angeles was his biggest hit, but upon Scott Pilgrim vs. The World's movie release the song exploded: much to the dismay of hundreds of high-schoolers, who found that once the initial guitar solo ends the rest of the song sort of becomes irrelevant.

Primal Scream - Can't Go Back.... Did this album really have a hit single? Kick-Ass boosted this song to exponential heights, whereas aforementioned high-schoolers - once checking out the rest of Screamadelica - found themselves woefully disappointed with the complete lack of songs that would sound good enough to post on their Facebooks in hopes of repping indie-cred.

My Bloody Valentine - Sometimes Once again, movie-soundtrack inclusion propels the song to never intended heights. While the scene in Lost In Translation in which Sometimes is cued is utterly, absolutely perfect.... it never received the treatment of a music video, as Soon and Only Shallow did. One could argue that Only Shallow is the more accessible.

"Staiway To Heaven" folks!

I mean, it was never a single, so technically no hit either.

Also, "Yesterday". Even though it topped the world in a lot of countries including the US (never a single in the UK), it was hardly the biggest hit by The Beatles. It has since been established as the most recorded song ever, but The Beatles' actual version has not been their most popular before.

Primal Scream - Can't Go Back.... Did this album really have a hit single? Kick-Ass boosted this song to exponential heights, whereas aforementioned high-schoolers - once checking out the rest of Screamadelica - found themselves woefully disappointed with the complete lack of songs that would sound good enough to post on their Facebooks in hopes of repping indie-cred.

Can't Go Back was on the album that came out 17 years after Screamadelica, which had several hit singles

What are you talking about? "Born Slippy (NUXX)" reached the #2 spot in the UK single chart in 1996, and it was a big hit in many other countries too.

Okay, it wasn't a big hit in 1995 when it was originally released (though it wasn't totally obscure either, I remember hearing it on a techno comp in '95), but it took only a year for it to become Underworld's legacy song.

(x-post)

It has often occured that a major song by a British act for some reason has not managed to really become a hit on American radio. Thus, not managing to perform very well in American hitlists in spite of a generally good reputation among fans and critics.
The latter reputation means more in terms of downloading, because radio DJs have less power over that.

Can't Go Back was on the album that came out 17 years after Screamadelica, which had several hit singles.

You are right. When BBC6 had that weeklong Primal Scream week, I remember them playing a live version of this and naturally assumed it was part of Screamadelica (which I don't own because I find it to be somewhat unlistenable).

Not exactly on-topic, but: Wang Chung's #1 on Spotify, with 3,883,144 plays, is "Dance Hall Days"... while "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" hasn't even got half as many plays. I still think the latter is their "signature song" but what's up with that?

I wonder if the GTA Vice City placement has anything to do with it...

"Stairway to Heaven" was never even released as a single back in the day, right? But nowadays it's not just the best-known tune by the band, but one of the most famous tunes of the 1970s.

Zep's a weird case in that they did not release singles in their home country, and nearly all of their "hits" are such in airplay terms only. My sense from accounts of 70s radio is that "Stairway" was unquestionably an enormous "hit" on AOR and would probably have been their "signature" song for many people even then.

Johnny Cash - Hurt

It may not be his biggest selling single but it's definitley one of his signature songs now.

Good one, which really points up different constituencies/listener groups over time. "Hurt" on Spotify has nearly 50 million plays vs. 20 for "Folsom Prison Blues" - which is fucking nuts, and unthinkable in a world where boomers and country fans generally use Spotify as much as the youth of today. Doesn't necessarily mean "Hurt" is actually better-known, but it suggests that in a few years, it probably will be, even as At Folsom Prison continues to be the one hyped in "1,000 best albums" lists.

Does "Making Plans for Nigel" or "Dear God" possibly fit the bill for XTC? Surely these were not the big hits, were they?

dear god is XTC's best known song in the US.

Eminem's "Till I Collapse" seems to be more popular on iTunes and Spotify than a lot of his hits from that time period, aside from "Lose Yourself".

Making Plans For Nigel was a big UK hit, and is the song that usually ends up on punk/new wave compilations.

According to Billboard Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" was not a chart hit in its original release (though Judy Collins' version was Judy's biggest hit) and nor did it chart in the re-recorded version off her 2000 album of the same name.

It's that re-recorded song that is her biggest hit on iTunes, though, and certainly the song is now her "legacy" song.

I'm guessing that the former fact is certainly, and the latter fact at least partly, due to the use of the 2000 version in Love, Actually.

maybe right but i'd've guessed that Joni's legacy song in terms of performance is "Big Yellow Taxi"

On Spotify Both Sides Now comes behind Big Yellow Taxi, A Case of You and that Janet Jackson hit that sampled Big Yellow Taxi. But it's true it wouldn't even be in her top 10 without Love Actually.

On iTunes it goes:

1) Both Sides Now (2000)
2) Big Yellow Taxi
3) River
4) A Case Of You

then several more Blue songs then the original Both Sides Now at 9.

But I'm not sure it owes is position entirely to Love Actually - wikipedia says it's her most covered song by some distance.

The enduring rep of "A Case Of You" is perhaps even more remarkable given it was never even released as a single by anybody.

I feel like it was also a big part of an Olympics opening ceremony not too long ago

David Bowie - "Heroes"

ah it's already been mentioned.

Oh I see - Both Sides Now has been covered recently by Susan Boyle, Idina Menzel, Carly Rae Jepsen, Ronan Keating, Michael Ball and John Barrowman. I knew it was a folk standard in the 60s but I didn't realise it had become a showbiz one.

River gets the Christmas song vote I guess.

Glen Campbell does an absolutely majestic version of Both Sides Now. It's actually my favorite song of his, perfect for his voice.

dear god is XTC's best known song in the US.

― akm, Tuesday, February 3, 2015 11:21 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't know about that. Even though it was a cover version by Crash Test Dummies, "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" was included on the soundtrack to Dumb & Dumber, so almost certainly more people have heard that one.

"I Can See For Miles" was the Who's biggest US hit (#9), but "Baba O'Riley" (not a single in the US) and "Who Are You" (#14 in Billboard) are their top iTunes songs.

Dear God beats Making Plans for Nigel on Spotify fwiw

Baba O Riley is another one that's had TV and film soundtrack help i guess; it's been used in The Newsroom, CSI, Summer Of Sam, One Tree Hill.. all sorts.
pretty amazing that Won't Get Fooled Again and Pinball Wizard are somehow less popular these days. i barely knew Baba.. growing up but you couldn't escape The Hits.

A bit like that Badfinger song "Baby Blue", yeah?

yeah, never heard it before The Departed aye.

I blame the decline of Pinball machines for Pinball Wizard's decline in popularity.

"Feeling Good" is Nina Simone's top song on itunes and most searched on youtube but didn't even merit inclusion on her 2-disc 2003 Anthology.

ok so McCartney's Top 3 on Spotify are Live And Let Die (live version!), Wonderful Christmastime and Maybe I'm Amazed.

re:McCartney, Christmas songs tend to feature prominently on some Spotify top lists. Sinatra's most popular song on Spotify is "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" by a wide margin, and "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" is his 3rd most popular.

Definitely not saying those are Sinatra's legacy songs, just amusing to note holiday songs becoming the most popular for a revered artist.

McCartney really is too big of an act to have one "legacy song," I think, even without considering that his tombstone will probably be engraved with his Beatles big ones first and foremost. And yeah, it's not surprising that a Christmas song and a movie theme pick up a lot of listens.

But "Maybe I'm Amazed" actually is a pretty big song for him, and in a way fits the spirit of the thread... not as huge as his other hits at the time, but clearly more of a "concert staple" and more oft-covered than, I would guess, bigger hits like "My Love," "Ebony & Ivory," "With A Little Luck," or "No More Lonely Nights." Maybe not "Silly Love Songs" or "Mull of Kintyre" though. Still, dude has dozens of hits, so it's tough to say that any one of them stands at the top, either expectedly or no.

"I Can See For Miles" was the Who's biggest US hit (#9), but "Baba O'Riley" (not a single in the US) and "Who Are You" (#14 in Billboard) are their top iTunes songs.

"I Can See For Miles" might start moving up the list--it's the theme for the new CSI: Cyber show.

I can't wait for CSI: Dogs.

Talking Heads. Their biggest charting US single is Wild Wild Life. Biggest in UK is Road To Nowhere. Their signature/legacy song is clearly Once In A Lifetime, which never even charted.

I feel like there's a thread somewhere where we talk about the fact that lots of people today think of Talking Heads as "that band who did This Must Be The Place."

There was a time in the 90s when I feel like I all I knew/heard by them was 'Burning Down the House,' but now that you mention it, I guess it's been a while since I heard it at all.

"Once in a Lifetime" is definitely the only song by them that I know.

feel like a Tuomas would dig I Zimbra

Came across a potential candidate for this thread today: Weezer's most popular song on Spotify by a wide margin is "Island in the Sun," the 9th highest charting single of their career.

It's almost twice as popular as "Say It Ain't So," their second most popular track ("Buddy Holly," which I would have pegged for #1, is third). It's their #1 iTunes song as well.

Not sure if it's their "legacy" song, but I was legitimately surprised that a song I pegged as "moderately well-liked" evidently towers over the rest of their catalogue in popularity.

re: Talking Heads - a lot of people know them as the 'Psycho Killer' band now for some reason.

Ha ha the green album does rule

was thinking about this with Mariah Carey recently - "All I Want for Christmas Is You".

Island in The Sun was #1 in France and huge in Europe (though not the UK), hence it getting tacked onto EU (and annoyingly, UK) copies of Maladroit, which they had the audacity to release less than a year after it was a hit

Interesting. The more I thought about it, Island in the Sun does seem to have had a longer cultural life than many of their other songs. I still feel like I hear it pretty regularly, and it doesn't have the "90s!" cultural associations their earlier hits do. It's got pleasant vibes, good for, like, grocery shopping, or background music for a tv scene or a commercial.

More like "Island in the Suck"

"Get Ready For This" was only 2 Unlimited's 11th biggest hit, coming from their only 3rd best selling album, but has clearly become their signature song.

No Limit is surely their signature song.

Not in sports arenas it isn't :)

I wouldn't call it their signature song, but I immediately though of 'Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)' when I saw this title. Wasn't even a single first time round, now comfortably their biggest selling song on iTunes.

It was so a single in the UK, mind. Got to number 11, it did..

At this point, are Quad City Dj's more known for "Space Jam" than "C'mon N Ride It (The Train)"?

"Good Riddance" was very very well-positioned to become a legacy song, by sounding kind of maudlin and, on first listen, evidently being somehow about looking back at something, with "another turning point" in the mix - - I mean the graduation/prom soundtracks just write themselves. It also got slapped on the Seinfeld finale, at the start of graduation season its first year in the wild, surely helped get it going in this regard. The recording also hints at some kind of stately timelessness with the strings and acoustic guitar and everything... in much better shape for "legacy" than anything else in their catalog, even just in terms of not "dating" quite as hard.

That said, I don't know how much anyone actually hears it out in the world after graduation's done and the downloads are sold, or how likely any given person is to name it if asked to name a Green Day song. Would guess their biggest recurrent airplay songs would be "When I Come Around," "Basket Case" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," but I could be way off. Obviously, that kind of analysis is subjective in a way not helpful to this thread...

At this point, are Quad City Dj's more known for "Space Jam" than "C'mon N Ride It (The Train)"?

I can conceive of how this might actually be true, but it's probably the most microgenerationally infuriating notion I've ever heard. If "The Train" has not been played enough for future generations to as aware of it as the love theme from Space Jam, then I believe we've failed as a planet and we've earned every consequence we face

to be as aware of it

i feel like i've seen multiple generations of ppl dancing to "the train" at weddings or w/e so i think it's still pretty well known

'The Train' is all anyone associates with the name 'Quad City DJs,' even if there is some subset of Space Jam fans who also know the name of the artist involved. Sorta like the sports arena case; I'm not convinced something can be a 'legacy' song if it's not even popularly associated with a particular artist. But even if that were allowed, ''Space Jam'' is no ''Rock and Roll Pt. 2,'' and I mean, ''The Train'' was a huge hit song and ''Space Jam'' was not.

Space jam may be the nostalgia choice for 20 somethings, but no way is it their legacy song

Oh good. I just usually have low expecations for future generations. And spending too much time on the internet can skewer things, escpecially due to having friends who only become aware of songs due to internet memes.

i know some younger guys in an indie band that cover "this must be the place" and i asked them if that was the go-to talking heads song for millennials and they didn't know anything about that. they just liked the song. it does seem rather attuned to contemporary tastes for reasons i can't pin down; their audience all seem to know the song or dig it regardless. i told them about how once upon a time that it would have ranked way behind "life during wartime" or "once in a lifetime" or even "girlfriend is better" as far as mass recognition was concerned if it even ranked at all and they didn't know about that either.

i didn't tell them i was doing research for a message board because they didn't need to know that.

i think it may be (indeed it was the first dance song at a friend's wedding just a few weeks ago) tho i also think the one it's overtaken could be psycho killer rather than those other ones?

.. And she was

And She Was & Stay Up Late both got tons of Airplay when they came out 30 years ago. Also, holy shit those songs are 30 years old.

i was just throwing random examples at them because i think even casual fans from the 70s or 80s would recognize a bunch of other talking heads songs before "this must be the place." even if most singles were not huge chart hits, the videos were still all over mtv and everyone knew the chop the arm motion or the big suit dance. even aor radio played talking heads cuts from way back. i just don't recall that particular song having any profile at the time the way it does now.

i remember reading how roxy music was one of ric ocasek's influences so when i started listening to them i picked "virginia plain" to like because i thought it was the most cars-ish song. maybe vampire weekend kids read about the talking heads comparisons and go digging and settle on "this must be the place" in the same manner? i dunno, just unsubstantiated speculation.

in Queen's Top 10 on Spotify = I Want It All! baffling surely? has it been covered by Foo Fighters or some shit?

How about Billy Joel, Scenes From An Italian Restaurant

This guy has tracked Spotify play counts for every song that charted on the Hot 100 through 2005:
http://poly-graph.co/timeless/

"Don't Stop Believin'" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" both in the top 20, natch.

Top Fleetwood Mac song (and 2nd most-played song of the 70s, after "Bohemian Rhapsody") is "Go Your Own Way" ... which I'm not sure I would have predicted.

yeah that was a huge hit and is the one most likely to appear in crit lists but i would've guessed something different, maybe 'landslide' or 'rhiannon' or 'dreams' which kinda suprised me when it won the ilm poll a little while back.

I saw that "timeless" article a couple days ago and was kinda disappointed by the method - it's a neat concept but for example wouldn't it have made sense to figure out when the songs got added to Spotify, and do the stats based on how many plays it's had versus months it's had when it was possible for it to get played? Also surprising that AFAICT they seem to be suggesting that every song that charted on the Hot 100 1990-1999 is on Spotify, which I guess certainly could be true though I'd be a little surprised if it were.

The funniest thing though is this bit - "Some of my friends were deeply disturbed by what's been lost in time (e.g., Pearl Jam)." Er... except that Pearl Jam's biggest songs on Spotify would totally show up on this table, they just never charted on the Hot 100. "Alive," at 32.2 million spins, would be among the top four little circle icons if it qualified for inclusion. "Even Flow" is at 27m and "Jeremy" at 21m - that one should absolutely show up on this chart since it made #79 on Billboard (years after the song's actual peak in popularity). Their biggest Hot 100 performers are Spotify duds, but nobody would have ever confused those for their biggest songs anyway - "I Got Id" #7, 684,000 plays; "Last Kiss," #2, 10 million plays.

Somewhere in here might be an interesting project, like sorting out how much songs have changed in popularity, but some of it's self-fulfilling prophecy stuff; radio sorta stopped playing some songs for whatever reason, so people don't know them, so people don't choose to click them on streaming apps.

"Yellow Ledbetter," which b-sided the charting "Jeremy," also should be here - over 14 million plays on Spotify.

311-Amber

http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/these-are-the-most-streamed-beatles-songs-so-far?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

Fabs Top 5 after 24 hours on Spotify

1. Let It Be
2. Here Comes The Sun
3. Hey Jude
4. Twist and Shout
5. Come Together

Yeah I have noticed that. Quite surprising (I would have expected "she loves you", "yesterday", "help"...).
Also not much love for John's songs these days !

Oh fuck I just copied & pasted different results in the Spotify thread FUCK oh well

Sam Cooke for the win, maybe? "A Change is Gonna Come" is his signature song and and the most streamed on Spotify, yet more than twenty of his songs charted higher!

people don't know much about history

Andrew Gold - Spooky Scary Skeletons

this thread title is v.unwieldy, mods should re-title it "Burning down the charts"

I guess "legacy" song works but it suggests more permanence & less renewal than we actually see ~in the streaming era~

btw Dr C's lecture upthread re: Pearl Jam chart placements was great. I love when ppl get called out on messageboards, forever <3

haha aww, thanks. forgot about that. so stupid!!!

it occurred to me yesterday that for the pretenders this is probably "i'll stand by you". (and it's a deserving song! sorry haters aka fans of the pretenders' actual music.)

anything after the death of James Honeyman-Scott is not canon imo

never even heard of that Pretenders song, no way is that their biggest hit

or best known song or whatever

all i ever hear on the radio (in the US) are "Back on the Chain Gang" and "Brass In Pocket." oddly, though, their spotify results break down as:

1 I'll Stand By You - 16,924,456
2 Don't Get Me Wrong - 9,015,625
3 Brass in Pocket - 9,980,157
4 Back on the Chain Gang - 4,611,021
5 Holy Commotion - 44,212

so, wow, weeeeird. maybe it's a US/UK thing? or a "when they were added to spotify" thing?

That's the only Pretenders song I know.

(that's misleading, too - - - if you go down to their albums and scroll over the stats, they have tons of stuff with more plays than "Holy Commotion" - which makes me wonder how that top five is actually generated...)

wtf is this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLpmj059JFA

I think she is literally crying over spilled milk in this video

so i'm asking Glenn in the Spotify thread because even if you expand to the top 10 up top, there are some heavy hitters that show up way out of order. "2000 Miles" with 6,220,016, "Middle of the Road" with 1,581,639. still not beating "I'll Stand By You" - though as far as the thread question goes, a little wiki perusal reveals that in the UK, it was one of their biggest hits, at #10 on the singles chart - one of only six top-tenners, though behind "brass in pocket" (#1) "I Go To Sleep" (#7) and "Talk of the Town" (#8). this does not count chrissie hynde's dreadful sonny & cher duet with UB40 which also got to #1 and has had 12 million plays on spotify....

anyway though in terms of radio airplay in the US at least, i don't think their legacy has been displaced just yet. it's "brass in pocket" and "back on the chain gang," with very occasional spins of "don't get me wrong."

Yeah, "Brass in Pocket" is easily their best-known song in North America, right? Never heard of "I'll Stand By You" either.

Re: Spotify, since it may come up again on this thread, Glenn clarifies: The "Popular" songs show raw play-counts in the UI, but are actually ranked based on an internal score that measures, roughly, "current" popularity...

"I'll Stand By You" was huge! Albeit though on Adult Contemporary radio, where it's a staple to this day (and it's also a huge Muzak supermarket jam). It occupies that weird space where there's a whole bunch of people who know it way better than the songs from many years earlier that built the band's reputation.

anyway though in terms of radio airplay in the US at least, i don't think their legacy has been displaced just yet. it's "brass in pocket" and "back on the chain gang," with very occasional spins of "don't get me wrong."

Classic rock stations will also very, very occasionally play "Mystery Achievement" when they need a bathroom break.

Another thing about "I'll Stand By You" is that it's such a generic type love song (see also: Shania's "Still The One") that it's 'our song' for many couples.

I feel like I've heard "I'll Stand By You" in the last 5 minutes of 200 tv episodes

Also covered by Shakira, Girls Aloud, Rod Stewart etc.

could "Brass Monkey" be one of these

no way

i wasn't basing my suggestion on any actual stats, just my impression based on what i hear on the classic hits station these days. here it's definitely "i'll stand by you" >>>>>> "brass in pocket" > "back on the chain gang"

heard "i'll stand by you" again today since my last post loooool

it is definitely the best-known pretenders song among pretenders non-fans. it's tv talent show fodder. deserved!

lol this song was on the same album as "night in my veins"

I know Pretenders is an old band that had some older popular tunes, but for people my age "I'll Stand By You" is the only hit they had (at least in Finland) while we were actively listening to music, so if you're not a fan, most likely that tune is the only one you know. And presumably the older middle-aged Pretenders fans don't use digital music services as much as people my age and younger, so it's not suprising the it's the most popular one there.

CCR - "Fortunate Son"

Yeah, here in Vietnam, I have friends that know "I'll Stand By You" that have never even heard of the Pretenders. I remember hearing it all the time when it came out growing up in the US, but my mom always had the AC stations playing. Not surprised that it would be their most popular song

'I'll Stand By You' is the Pretenders' 'One Way Or Another' - like a representation of a universe where the band had been a one hit wonder.

Still think 'Hymn To Her' is an amazing, underrated song though.

CCR - "Fortunate Son"

"Bad Moon Rising" is still more popular in Itunes, though not in Spotify.

but "Proud Mary" was the bigger hit?

I don't know how much they sold, but both "Bad Moon Rising" and "Proud Mary" made it to #2 on the Billboard chart... And I'd argue "Bad Moon" is still their signature tune, or at least the one most people know because of its usage in movies etc. These days "Proud Mary" is better known as the Tina & Ike Turner cover version.

Probably so

I don't think Stevie Wonder has been mentioned in this thread already.
Apparently his biggest selling/longest chart topping single is "I just Called to Say I Love You".
On Spotify, his top, by far, is "Superstition" (and "Happy birthday" on iTunes).

lol iTunes users

Yeah, "Brass in Pocket" is easily their best-known song in North America, right? Never heard of "I'll Stand By You" either.

I'm in the UK and I've never heard of it.

I listened to "I'll Stand By You". It doesn't sound familiar but it also sounds pretty generic so it's believable that I could have heard it a bunch on AC radio without thinking about it. The video was not what I needed to see this morning.

i don't think i knew it was by the pretenders though i've heard it many thousands of times.

this does not count chrissie hynde's dreadful sonny & cher duet with UB40 which also got to #1 and has had 12 million plays on spotify....

this though, ????

'I'll Stand By You' is easily one of the Pretenders' most recognisable songs - probably more than 'Brass In Pocket'. I don't know how I know it, it's just always been there in the ether.

wait... did it really come out in 1994? wow

so if you're not a fan, most likely that tune is the only one you know.

In America you're pretty likely to have heard "Brass in Pocket" even if you're not a Pretenders fan.

I'll Stand By You is the sort of greetings card song which tend to become immortal in the UK at least
probably got a few spins post-Diana

"I'll Stand By You" was used in the pilot episode of Dawson's Creek, probably cemeting it in the hearts of people of a certain age.

As has been pointed out, "I'll Stand By You" was big on "American Idol" and other shows like this. It's a beneficiary of massive A/C recurrent play.

co-written ty Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg, authors of "True Colors" and "Eternal Flame," which explains the sound. I hate the song, but Hynde redeems it, as usual, with her singing. "When you're mad GET MAD."

If you were listening to top forty radio in the '90s, you heard "I'll Stand By You."

Didn't Girls Aloud cover I'll Stand By You?

Really, the same people wrote "True Colors", "Eternal Flame" and "I'll Stand by You" ?
I'd never heard of them but they were something like the Stock Aitken & Waterman of big ballads !
(What happened to all of them, by the way ?)

On a Balearic beach counting money

Wow, they also wrote "Like a Virgin" (and "I Touch Myself") !

From wiki :

Kelly lost enthusiasm for songwriting in the mid-1990s, and went into semi-retirement in 1998. He remarried and had two more children with his second wife. As of 2011, he lives in Thousand Oaks, California near Sherwood Country Club where he enjoys playing golf regularly.

They wrote Heart's "Alone" as well. And "So Emotional" by WH.

Oh, interesting. Somehow I thought "Alone" was Diane Warren.

Aphex Twin and "Avril 14th".

recently billy steinberg also wrote excellent teenpop jams "too little too late" (jojo) and "give your heart a break" (demi lovato)

i have to say i really like "i'll stand by you". obv not for the reasons i like other pretenders songs, but just for what it is. i know for some people all one has to hear to decide one hates something is to know that it gets play on ac radio stations, but fuck that, really. (fun fact: "i'll stand by you" didn't reach the top 10 at ac radio during the time of its release, or even the top 20. same story for hot ac.)

this site linked earlier in the thread
http://poly-graph.co/timeless/

wow the 90s look completely dire when under the lens of what people listen to from them

I mean, to an extent the songs with the most plays are going to be the ones that aren't exemplary but have broadest appeal. Not too many people are going to point to any of these as a favorite song, they're just the ones that are going to get cycled through regardless of taste, right?

For example, in 1961, Bobby Lewis’s Tossin’ and Turnin’ spent 7 weeks at #1. For all intents and purposes, Bobby Lewis was the Beyonce of 1961. Yet, have you heard of it? Do you know who Bobby Lewis is?

Meanwhile, Etta James’ debut album dropped the same year, with At Last peaking on Billboard at #68.

Music historians will regard Bobby Lewis as a pioneer in rock and roll and R&B, yet whatever led to Tossin’ and Turnin’s popularity in 1961 has faded over time. His music, for countless reasons, didn’t persevere in the same way as Etta James’.

One hypothesis: Tossin’ and Turnin’s success had more to do than just the song...perhaps Bobby Lewis was a huge personality. Great looks. Amazing dancer. When we examine pop hits, popularity is so much more than song quality.

But future generations don’t remember Bobby Lewis’s dancing and good looks. Spotify only catalogues his music. And unfortunately, that quality didn’t endure in the same way as At Last. (And of course, we have not even considered the role of covers, samples, and movie soundtracks, etc. – a future project to undertake).

And for this reason, it will be weird to hear future generations reverently listen to groups such as Nickelback – the kids only know their music, not what they culturally stood for in 2015.

god this writing is just TERRIBLE, i wish this person would just stick to making cute data graphics and leave out the poor, circular attempts at analysis

omg later in the article he surmises that the longevity of onerepublic's "counting stars" on streaming services might be because it spread thru 'word of mouth' from 'indie music circles' to the general public lol

ppl who don't know the basics of how radio crossover works, esp on the adult-contemporary side of things (where as a general rule it's VERY slow and steady) should just... not bother with the hand-wavy explanations

wow that discussion of bobby lewis is reeeeeeally cringe-inducing. feel like basically any ilm poster chosen at random and asked "why is bobby lewis less well-known than etta james in 2016" could come up with something more educational and insightful with at most five to eight seconds to think about it.

anyway i'm getting off topic.

"still d.r.e."! that's an interesting revelation from the data-not-writing presented in that feature

tbh even at the time it felt much bigger than its pitiful hot 100 peak (#93) shows. the billboard chart from the time shows it was vinyl-only at the time it was charting, so i guess that partly explains why it peaked so low, but then again 1999 was kinda the start of the era when songs could chart (sometimes v highly) without even being physically released at all.

omg i keep going back to that article. the idea that the culture associations and baggage are shed from songs as time passes is so RONG and stupid lol. and it shows up in a paragraph talking about "at last"!!

ok really i'm done now

I'm surprised to learn that Island in the Sun is Weezer's highest ranked song on Spotify.

Yeah, that is pretty weird. per wikipedia it's also Weezer's most licensed song.

Came across a potential candidate for this thread today: Weezer's most popular song on Spotify by a wide margin is "Island in the Sun," the 9th highest charting single of their career.

It's almost twice as popular as "Say It Ain't So," their second most popular track ("Buddy Holly," which I would have pegged for #1, is third). It's their #1 iTunes song as well.

Not sure if it's their "legacy" song, but I was legitimately surprised that a song I pegged as "moderately well-liked" evidently towers over the rest of their catalogue in popularity.

― intheblanks, 12. toukokuuta 2015 3:51

Ctrl+f is your friend.

not sure if there's a separate thread for most played on Spotify, but a song I don't even remember from Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill has 1.4 million plays compared to just over 1 million for "Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping" (expected pick).

Despite not being as commercially successful as its predecessor singles, "The Kids Aren't Alright" remains the most-listened to Offspring song amongst Last.FM[5] and Spotify (where it also is the most popular song of the 90s)[citation needed] users, and still receives some radio play.

I've never heard of this song... Are they really claiming that it's the most popular song of the 90s in Spotify? Not just the most popular among the songs Offpsring released in the 90s?

In 2014 at least, their most popular 90s song was "Pretty Fly", as you'd expect.

I remember that song, it's a lot better than "Pretty Fly" but I'm still surprised it has 105,138,511 views on Youtube

never heard of it either

it's a bit the opposite to this thread, sorry, but I just noticed that "crazy in love" is far from being Beyonce's song with the most plays on spotify (far behind "7/11", "Drunk in Love", "Halo", all above 220M while "Crazy in Love" is only at 144M).
surprising.

Songs that were released and become hits in the Spotify era probably have a leg up on catalog songs

yeah, that's what I thought too but still surprised it's so far behind since it's (arguably) her legacy song.

I'd put her a lot closer to the Madonna category where one single legacy song just doesn't apply. So Crazy In Love would be her Material Girl or Like a Virgin - early-to-mid-career, huge hit, strongly associated with her, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that Like A Prayer or Papa Don't Preach or Vogue or even Ray of Light were more popular on Spotify.

"like a prayer" far ahead (36M) with "material girl" 2nd (21M) ("like a virgin" very far behind with 16M).
Nah, like President Keyes said, it's clearly the difference between hits since spotify started/earlier hits.

Still D.R.E. has 300 million views on youtube

it is a perfect song, but surely G Thang was the bigger hit?

it came out at the exact time the first millennials were finishing high school and entering college

oh, I don't know if it's been said already but the Smiths have a good one : "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out"
by far their most popular on Spotify (60 millions with "This Charming Man" second with 47 millions)... and it was not their biggest hit since it wasn't even a single (while the band was in activity) !

wtf when and how did this happen

It always seemed like There is a Light was THE the Smiths song, even if How Soon is Now got played on 120 Minutes a lot.

For me it's "Ask," it always was "Ask," it always will be "Ask"

Honestly, of the ones in the top 5 on Spotify, "Bigmouth" at #5 is the only one I truly think of as in the conversation for legacy song

Ooh La La

http://i.imgur.com/UjC1ssa.png

"The Weight"? Peaked at 63 vs. 25 for "Up on Cripple Creek," but five times the Spotify plays.

Aretha Franklin's 1969 soul music arrangement peaked in the U.S. at #19

but yeah that's a good example

oh and

Jackie DeShannon's 1968 pop music arrangement, debuting on the Hot 100 one week before The Band's, peaked at #55 in the U.S

"The Weight" is one of those songs that was an instant standard. Practically every interpretive singer who wasn't in the Sinatra school took a crack at it between '68 & '73-ish.

see also: covers that folk/rock/soul song-interpreters of the '60s and '70s would have on their records

Seeing that Faces 'Ooh La La' up above - surely there must be many Faces 'Stay With Me's attributed to Rod splitting the vote?

Seems preposterous to suggest Big Yellow Taxi is Joni Mitchell's legacy song, nonetheless it's her top streamer

Why preposterous? That song is much more likely to be known by the average person than any of her others.

"Help Me" was a bigger hit at the time, but agreed that at the least the "choooo bop bop" was probably what the average radio listener would conjure up if asked to do a Joni Mitchell impression.

Yeah help me has the chart placing but I'm guessing taxi has had more sales (it was rereleased) and certainly had far more radio play.

"Big Yellow Taxi" was in my Grade 7 English textbook!

I'd have guessed Both Sides Now would be her legacy song.

Big Yellow Taxi was the first song of hers i remember from my youth, so dang catchy. there have been a number of crappy modern covers so makes sense that would be her big song rn.

"Help Me" was a bigger hit at the time, but agreed that at the least the "choooo bop bop" was probably what the average radio listener would conjure up if asked to do a Joni Mitchell impression.

I've never heard of "Help Me" tbh.

I would say "Both Sides Now".

! "Help Me" is wonderful. Essential LA-sound early 70s pop imo.

totally, it's a perfect song

Why preposterous?

well, maybe not preposterous then but BYT is kinda one of her children's song songs imo, it's a decent song but not very representative

'Big Yellow Taxi' is the first song that I think of whenever someone brings up Joni Mitchell, so I'm not surprised to hear that it's her most streamed song. I hate it, though.

I wouldn't say I hate it but the songs on fx Hejira and Hissing are on an entirely different plane

It put me off checking out her other material for the longest time.

have to say though, first 100 times I heard the refrain was on the Janet Jackson song where it works perfectly imo, Q-Tip on point

damn I would've thought "A Case of You" or "Woodstock"

Judy Collins' version of "Both Sides Now" is the one that reached the Top Ten in the US

...and "Woodstock" has two competing hit covers w/CSNY and Matthews Southern Comfort.

Everyone's covered "Both Sides Now".

Letters To Cleo: "I Want You To Want Me" (a Cheap Trick cover from 10 Things I Hate About You) way outpaces "Here And Now" on Spotify (5 mil spins vs. 1 mil)

...and their other 10 Things cover (Nick Lowe's "Cruel To Be Kind") is almost at 2 million.

such a good movie

while Heroes is probably Bowie's legacy song (and a good one!) if you count collabs Under Pressure is by far his best streamer with 200 million streams! (Heroes "only" at 90 million)

surprised at both of those - would have said that if he has a single "legacy song" (which isn't really ever going to fit perfectly for an artist with that many hits) it'd be SpaceOddity or Ziggy Stardust.

Space Oddity over Ziggy, tho. But "'Heroes'" and schmaltzy covers of it have become ubiquitous in movies, tv, and advertising especially after his death. Under Pressure benefits from being a collaboration with another one of the biggest pop acts in history.

on a similar tip, Iggy Pop: The Passenger has 88 million plays and Lust For Life has 29 million plays on Spotify. I guess his biggest hit was real wild child? still would not have figured The Passenger would have such a massive play count

again, ubiquitous syncs

more ubiquitous than lust for life, though?

i guess the numbers don't lie

very close second

i think more people take the lust for life drumbeat for syncs and that maybe splits the numbers

a weird streaming age story: so i was listening to some Eno earlier today and I was astonished at the ridiculously high play totals for some of his tracks...not his 70s solo tracks, not his collaborations with David Byrne, but his ambient stuff. "An Ending (Ascent)" has over 57 million streams! Why? A few of his ambient tracks made their way onto Spotify's "Sleep" playlist, which has well over 2 million subscribers.

people just listen to that playlist on repeat for hours every night! it's probably earning some experimental composers some decent money.

Ha, that's great.

2 million users falling asleep to it is an uncapped bandwidth provider’s nightmare.

I'm not sure how these Spotify rankings work exactly, but I see that Johnny's Cash's version of "Hurt" has double the plays of any of his other songs (188 million to "I Walk the Line"'s 92 million and "Ring of Fire"'s 94 million) but is only ranked as his second most popular track, hopefully because some Spotify bot is going "Nah, man."

I think there's some recency element in the algorithm

yeah i think glenn broke that down at some point, there's a special sauce, maybe also taking into account how much it's been searched for, how many playlists it's in, etc.

I was shocked recently to see that "Mary Jane's Last Dance" is edging out "American Girl" for most played Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers song on Spotify. Both have half the plays of "Free Fallin'" but its credited to solo Petty. Just had no idea it was that popular.

Yeah, I wouldn’t have guessed that one would be even in his top 5 songs...

that makes sense to me, that was the massive single from the Greatest Hits album, which sold 12 million copies and was maybe the first Petty album that for my generation was somewhat aimed in our direction. I was 18 when it came out and the previous albums several albums he'd released were all imo a bit more "adult" (Southern Accents, Full Moon Fever, Into the Great Wide Open, Traveling Wilburys.) I liked them but MJLD was a song definitely with an eye on younger listeners, if only for the video. which was huge.

"An Ending (Ascent)" has over 57 million streams! Why?

I think this was in Trainspotting? pretty sure there was a film placement that kickstarted its popularity

yeah it's used in lots of TV shows/movies, including Traffic, which I think is what you're thinking of, but that still struck me as a crazy high number.

xpost (re: Petty)
Interesting -- I see it came out in fall '93, and that was definitely a moment when the song/video would have fallen thru the cracks for me (my first year of college).

Yeah I can see that in retrospect. That 93 GH package was actually my intro to Petty (was 15 or so) but that song never clicked that much for me then, so I guess I never picked up on how popular it was.

"Deep Blue Day" is the Trainspotting selection. It's from Apollo, which for about 20 years has been my favorite ambient Eno – perfect for 9:30 p.m. weeknight writing.

kind of pointless to parse this for still-active huge artists, but kendrick lamar's top track on Spotify, by a long shot, is "HUMBLE." with almost 900K plays. "King Kunta" which I think of as his signature song, is way down at 250K. clearly i'm not really in touch with his hitmaking! but also clearly, it'll be years before he could properly have a "this thread" kind of song.

it got way more airplay iirc

https://www.billboard.com/music/kendrick-lamar/chart-history/hot-r-and-b-hip-hop-airplay

wow, yeah, pretty clear, thanks! i must have just been out of the loop last summer...

Ha I recently heard some younguns talking about the day Humble dropped as like the most momentous musical day of their lives, like now we know what it was like when you guys first heard Teen Spirit

I think the ilm reaction was like hmm this is okay

Queen has come up before but the recent ascent of "Don't Stop Me Now" seems a conspicuous example. Almost: beaten only by "Bohemian Rhapsody" over at Spotify nowadays, but I virtually never heard it anywhere for the first couple of decades of its existence.

("This Must Be The Place" is the other one, but I see y'all discussed that in the past.)

"Don't Stop Me Now" is a good one. I work pub quizzes and that song came up in an audio round (i.d. a song and artist from a 15-20 second clip) one time recently--I was genuinely surprised how many people nailed both, particularly in the company of newer and/or more obvious tracks in the round that they didn't.

Was it in a movie or commercial?

Yeah, I think its resurgence can be traced back to 2004 when it was used in the most memorable scene of Shaun of the Dead.

I had never heard "A Million Reasons" before checking Lady Gaga's Spotify profile, but it seems it's her... most streamed song?

unfortunately it's an overwrought, schmaltzy ballad - a missed opportunity

I wonder how much that has to do with the song having only been released after Spotify became one of the primary ways people hear new music, as opposed to e.g. the diamond-certified "Poker Face". (I've never knowingly heard it before either.)

yeah, that was my first thought too

Ugh, one that just occurred to me as a very real likelihood: Todd Rundgren - 'Bang the Drum All Day'

At 2.7M + 1.6M (for two different versions that appear in his 10 most streamed songs), Spotify thankfully has its play count well below "I Saw the Light" (10.8M) and "Hello It's Me" (5.7M + 4.7M for two different versions), although that's still higher than it should be.

ITunes store also seems to rank it #3.

yeah, gaga is one of those where songs from 2008 got bought on iTunes, not streamed on spotify. but bear in mind that spotify's ranking algorithm includes some recency/hotness special sauce, not just raw play count - if you dig in it looks like this:

Million Reasons 259m
Bad Romance 250m
Poker Face 249m
The Cure (??) 233m
Applause 187m
Telephone 182m
Just Dance 159m
Born This Way 130m
Do What U Want 117m
Paparazzi 101m

that still suggests some kind of VERY intense marketing on that last album that nonetheless completely escaped me. has she stayed huge in some region of the world whose pop charts don't align with the US's? but also comports perfectly with her peak stardom being pre-Spotify. her legacy songs, and the ones anybody would sing if you prompted them to produce a lady gaga numberb are all from 2008-2011.

"bang the drum" not being rundgren's really surprises me. it's the only thing by him you will ever hear on the radio at least in the US. my gut says it's a case of "song wasn't added to spotify until recently" but maybe "i saw the light" was on a soundtrack or something?

"bang the drum" not being rundgren's really surprises me. it's the only thing by him you will ever hear on the radio at least in the US.

I still hear "Hello, It's Me" and "I Saw The Light" frequently on the oldies station.

Yeah, I don't really trust Spotify play counts either, which is a reason I also checked iTunes for Rundgren.

I know I heard "Hello It's Me" a lot growing up without seeking it out but idk about recent oldies/AC formats. It's also been in a bunch of shows and movies.

how representative is iTunes though? I know a handful of people who purchased files there, personally always found it a bit of a joke... maybe bigger in the states

and yes, there must have been some kind of massive promotion for the latest gaga album that completely escaped me

(I actually didn't know that song was called "I Saw The Light" until now.)

iTunes was reported as accounting for 63% of the online music market and 29% of all music retail in 2012: https://www.cepro.com/article/itunes_dominates_download_market_streaming_audio_grows/

65-70% of the declining download market in 2016: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/dec/26/spotify-music-download-apple-itunes-streaming-vinyl

wow

I gotta say, it's amazing to me that people will pay for Lady Gaga mp3s

"A Million Reasons" is terrific, GTF out!

here in Wisconsin "Bang on the Drum" is by far his most popular song but for other reasons. I don't know if I've ever actually heard it on the radio. "I Saw the Light", on the other hand...

bang on the drum was all over tv in carnival cruise ads for at least a decade

I thought it was an afternoon drive time staple. The whistle blows, you punch the clock, you get in your Chevy and roar down the highway smackin the console to that funky beat ol Todd is throwin down.

I don't know if they've been mentioned already but Public Enemy biggest song on Spotify is "Harder Than You Think"... I don't even know that song !
And their biggest hit is "Give It Up" apparently.

A bit like Tricky - the only thing I ever heard on the radio was "Black Steel"

Still, it did lead to http://freakytrigger.co.uk/hate/2000/07/black-steel-in-the-hour-of-chaos/ which is probably the best thing, ever.

I guess The Grateful Dead are too obvious for something like this? "Friend of the Devil" and "Casey Jones" both have a lot more Spotify streams than "Touch of Grey" (their only top 40 hit).

Those two songs were already FM radio mainstays by the time Touch of Grey came out

Yeah, and they’re probably included in a lot of default Spotify playlists.

Certainly, the concept of a 'hit' is a lot more slippery back then - songs like "Under My Thumb" and "Stairway to Heaven" were massive hits, even though they never charted.

see nearly every Hendrix radio staple

Still, it did lead to http://freakytrigger.co.uk/hate/2000/07/black-steel-in-the-hour-of-chaos/

it's not addressed to Mr Thaws, The Other Day, 1995

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/hate/2000/07/black-steel-in-the-hour-of-chaos/

Roffle. This is hilarious and OTM. Fuck that song.

take it to imgur, buddy

yeah, gaga is one of those where songs from 2008 got bought on iTunes, not streamed on spotify. but bear in mind that spotify's ranking algorithm includes some recency/hotness special sauce, not just raw play count - if you dig in it looks like this:

Million Reasons 259m
Bad Romance 250m
Poker Face 249m
The Cure (??) 233m
Applause 187m
Telephone 182m
Just Dance 159m
Born This Way 130m
Do What U Want 117m
Paparazzi 101m

couple things: 1) "Shallow" from A Star is Born now has 130 million Spotify plays! 2) how do you get those raw counts? and where can I get the iTunes numbers? 3) if we factor in Youtube counts we get another picture and probably we should since Youtube is actually the #1 music streaming service?

Bad Romance 982m
Poker Face 554m
Alejandro 347m
Applause 321m
Judas 313m
Telephone 301m

in spotify, you hover the cursor over the little "cell phone reception bars" icon next to any track.

aah I see

but then you kind of have to know what you're looking for, there's no way to sort by most plays?

nope, not that i know of.

the more popular tracks have more bars

NRBQ's "Magnet" has 2 million spins, ten times as much as the next most popular NRBQ songs.

Motley Crue's Kickstart My Heart has 100 million plays, which is nearly twice as any as Dr. Feelgood and Girls, Girls, Girls. Both charted in the top 10, while Kickstart peaked at #27.

That’s weird. I’m going to guess it’s video game related.

i haven't checked the numbers, this is purely anecdotal/my perception, but it feels like "naive melody (this must be the place)" has become a signature talking heads song over the past ... 10 years? overtaking stuff like "psycho killer" or "burning down the house" as one of the big talking heads songs. i heard it at a major league baseball game a couple of weeks ago.

"home is where i want to be but i guess i'm already there"--a literal description of hitting in baseball.

It is their Number 2 song on Spotify, above Once in a Life and BDTH, but below Psycho Killer. wtf

it's a great song so maybe it's just been a slow burn

genuine lol at voodoo chili's comment

voodoo chili, also consider that "It's like butter" is a really succinct description of margarine.

Earth, Wind & Fire's "September" seems the epitome of this.

TMBTP is also a fairly popular wedding song.

xxp i can't believe it

of course it's a popular wedding song, who can be unmoved by the romantic memory of david byrne dancing with a floor lamp

when i got into talking heads TMBTP was the one song, aside from once in a lifetime and road to nowhere, that i recognized from having heard it on the radio as a kid.

this is def one of the bigger shifts and weirder ones to someone like me who knew "burning down the house" from references in FoxTrot comics before i ever heard of the band. certainly knew that one and "take me to the river" and "and she was" and even "wild wild life" long before TMBTP or Psycho Killer.

I posted this 6 years ago in a Talking Heads "Speaking in Tongues" Poll thread: In the continuing Great-American-Songbook-ization of "This Must Be the Place," husband-and-wife cabaret stars John Pizzarelli & Jessica Molaskey's recent show opens with a duet/medley of "TMBTP" and the Beatles' "Two of Us."

of course it's a popular wedding song, who can be unmoved by the romantic memory of david byrne dancing with a floor lamp

It was the first dance for me and my wife Olive Oyl.

Well blow me down

From a UK perspective the three most recognisable Talking Heads songs (as in, recognisable to people who haven't heard of I Zimbra or whatever) are Once In A Lifetime, Psycho Killer and Road To Nowhere. Probably because they were either hits (PS & RTN) or the early breakthrough song (PK). This Must Be The Place etc kind of deeper cuts, relatively speaking.

It was on Shawn Colvin's covers album in 1994, and some versions out there resemble hers more than the Heads's.

Once In A Lifetime, Psycho Killer and Road To Nowhere

These + "Burning Down the House" were the ones I always thought of as their biggest songs.

I've been amazed at how big a radio/Muzak staple "And She Was" has become.

“Nothing But Flowers” felt inescapable at the time but really hasn’t entered the radio canon

the new yorker on this must be the place in 2012:

Thirty years old this year, the song has slowly but surely embedded itself in the American songbook. You can’t walk into a good bar between Williamsburg and Silver Lake without an even shot that it will come on the stereo in some iteration. Lately, it’s been covered by Arcade Fire, MGMT, and the jam band The String Cheese Incident, among others. There are books named for it. Hip brides march down the aisle to it. It’s quoted in mawkish editorials. And last year, “This Must Be the Place” was made into a movie.

"home is where i want to be but i guess i'm already there"--a literal description of hitting in baseball.

― mourning joe (voodoo chili), Friday, April 26, 2019 8:30 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

posts like this are why i love ilx

I remember being a Talking Heads fan and not being really aware of TMBTL being "a great song" and having it slowly introduce itself to me. Wasn't there a second theatrical release of Stop Making Sense around 2003 or something?

This thread is funny also, Trainspotting really was that soundtrack I guess!

My wife fell in love with TMBTP after hearing an Iron & Wine cover of it

Huh, the earliest cover of it, aside from Shawn Colvin in 1994, was Arcade Fire in 2005. I absolutely introduced that song to Win

I played it at a wedding two weeks ago.

Sean Hayes: https://youtu.be/2xiHWKdNZto

This version is notable for how committed the guitar player is to replicating all the keyboard bits exactly. I just wanna tell him "dude, relax, it's not a sacred relic."

"home is where i want to be but i guess i'm already there"--a literal description of hitting in baseball.

― mourning joe (voodoo chili), Friday, April 26, 2019 8:30 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

posts like this are why i love ilx

― american bradass (BradNelson), Saturday, April 27, 2019 9:19 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

<3

I didn’t know all this business about “This Must Be the Place”… interesting, it’s a pretty understated song to become a new “standard.”

It's a nice love song if you cherry-pick the words that support your thesis and ignore the words that don't. The same can be said of the Mueller report tbf.

"Sing into my mouth" has always meant a lot to me

the song has like 7 hooks, I'm amazed it wasn't recognized as one of their greatest achievements until relatively recently

I think the vocals don’t start until like a 1:00 in, which is another unusual feature for a popular song.

More songfacts: same three chords the whole way through, despite the varied vocal melody. There was some wacky instrument-switching (Tina on guitar and David on keys etc.)...

each instrument/voice is introduced incrementally, as in "Just Like Heaven," which occupies the same space in the culture as TMBTP

Wow... feel like fgti/Arcade Fire had a lot to do with the resurgence of that song... and making Talking Heads into an Important Band for the young '00s indie set as well

um

I Know, Right?

There was some wacky instrument-switching (Tina on guitar and David on keys etc.)...

I may be misremembering, but isn't the playing of unfamiliar instruments part of the reason for calling it "Naive Melody"?

ok, mid 00s. jeez.

The SMS/live version of TMBTP with Jerry on minimoog key-bass & Alex Weir on guitar absolutely destroys the LP version.

/startrekman

Most-played Sonic Youth songs on Spotify, in order:
Teen Age Riot, Superstar, Kool Thing, Incinerate (!). Highest modern rock chart placements, in order: 100%, Kool Thing, Bull in the Heather, Teenage Riot, Superstar

Was "Incinerate" in a movie or something? I do really like it but I had no idea it was this popular. Is this "Superstar" thing about Juno? "Teen Age Riot" was in one of those Rock Band video games, right?

Don’t know about a game, but I do feel like “Teen Age Riot” has become their signature song over time.

(Or to put it another way — the first three hits you listed feel very “of their time,” but not timeless...)

Teen age Riot was the first of thir time and timless song i heard

Tbc, I wasn't extremely surprised about "Teen Age Riot"; I just thought it was a good example for the thread. I was surprised about "Incinerate" and to a slightly lesser extent about the Carpenters cover.

I would have assume top three 100% Bull in the heather Superstar

The popularity of the Carpenters cover is definitely due to Juno

I'll grant that reaching #26 on the alternative/modern rock chart in 1994 probably meant more in terms of popularity/exposure than reaching #20 in the same chart in 1989.

Just checked up on Beck, and--no surprise--"Loser" is far and away his biggest Spotify song (141 mil spins). HOWEVER, his next biggest songs are: "Dreams" (almost 46 mil); "Morning" (31 mil); "Wow" (30 mil); and "Up All Night" (26 mil). "Where It's At" lags behind w/14 mil*, "Devil's Haircut" at 12, and "Debra" at almost 12.

*Apparently the Odelay track totals are combined from the reg and deluxe editions.

And just because, I looked up Jeff Beck, whose top track is "Cause We've Ended As Lovers", which I wouldn't have thought would be that big.