Why preposterous? That song is much more likely to be known by the average person than any of her others.
― Kim Kimberly, Sunday, 12 November 2017 16:18 (six years ago) link
"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.
― Doctor Casino, Sunday, 12 November 2017 16:30 (six years ago) link
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.
― Kim Kimberly, Sunday, 12 November 2017 16:34 (six years ago) link
"Big Yellow Taxi" was in my Grade 7 English textbook!
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Sunday, 12 November 2017 16:35 (six years ago) link
I'd have guessed Both Sides Now would be her legacy song.
― kornrulez6969, Sunday, 12 November 2017 16:50 (six years ago) link
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.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 12 November 2017 17:20 (six years ago) link
I've never heard of "Help Me" tbh.
― Terry Micawber (Tom D.), Sunday, 12 November 2017 19:00 (six years ago) link
I would say "Both Sides Now".
! "Help Me" is wonderful. Essential LA-sound early 70s pop imo.
― Doctor Casino, Sunday, 12 November 2017 19:03 (six years ago) link
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
― niels, Sunday, 12 November 2017 21:37 (six years ago) link
'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.
― Gholdfish Killah (Turrican), Sunday, 12 November 2017 21:44 (six years ago) link
I wouldn't say I hate it but the songs on fx Hejira and Hissing are on an entirely different plane
― niels, Sunday, 12 November 2017 21:51 (six years ago) link
It put me off checking out her other material for the longest time.
― Gholdfish Killah (Turrican), Sunday, 12 November 2017 21:59 (six years ago) link
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
― niels, Sunday, 12 November 2017 22:26 (six years ago) link
damn I would've thought "A Case of You" or "Woodstock"
― flappy bird, Sunday, 12 November 2017 22:31 (six years ago) link
Judy Collins' version of "Both Sides Now" is the one that reached the Top Ten in the US
― Brad C., Sunday, 12 November 2017 23:08 (six years ago) link
...and "Woodstock" has two competing hit covers w/CSNY and Matthews Southern Comfort.
― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 12 November 2017 23:43 (six years ago) link
Everyone's covered "Both Sides Now".
― Terry Micawber (Tom D.), Sunday, 12 November 2017 23:46 (six years ago) link
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)
― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 16 November 2017 03:01 (six years ago) link
...and their other 10 Things cover (Nick Lowe's "Cruel To Be Kind") is almost at 2 million.
― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 16 November 2017 03:03 (six years ago) link
such a good movie
― niels, Thursday, 16 November 2017 07:09 (six years ago) link
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)
― niels, Tuesday, 9 January 2018 18:51 (six years ago) link
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.
― Newb Sybok (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 9 January 2018 19:26 (six years ago) link
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.
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 9 January 2018 19:29 (six years ago) link
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
― porg and bess (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 9 January 2018 19:31 (six years ago) link
again, ubiquitous syncs
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 9 January 2018 19:37 (six years ago) link
more ubiquitous than lust for life, though?
― porg and bess (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 9 January 2018 19:40 (six years ago) link
i guess the numbers don't lie
very close second
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 9 January 2018 19:41 (six years ago) link
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.
― MooVaughn.org (voodoo chili), Monday, 26 March 2018 02:15 (six years ago) link
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.
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Monday, 26 March 2018 02:55 (six years ago) link
2 million users falling asleep to it is an uncapped bandwidth provider’s nightmare.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Monday, 26 March 2018 03:51 (six years ago) link
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."
― President Keyes, Monday, 26 March 2018 12:57 (six years ago) link
I think there's some recency element in the algorithm
― MooVaughn.org (voodoo chili), Monday, 26 March 2018 13:00 (six years ago) link
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.
― lol dis stance dunk (Doctor Casino), Monday, 26 March 2018 13:19 (six years ago) link
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.
― sofatruck, Monday, 26 March 2018 16:00 (six years ago) link
Yeah, I wouldn’t have guessed that one would be even in his top 5 songs...
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Monday, 26 March 2018 16:20 (six years ago) link
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.
― omar little, Monday, 26 March 2018 16:31 (six years ago) link
"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
― sleeve, Monday, 26 March 2018 16:31 (six years ago) link
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.
― MooVaughn.org (voodoo chili), Monday, 26 March 2018 16:41 (six years ago) link
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).
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Monday, 26 March 2018 16:42 (six years ago) link
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.
― sofatruck, Monday, 26 March 2018 17:13 (six years ago) link
"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.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 26 March 2018 17:17 (six years ago) link
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.
― got the scuba tube blowin' like a snork (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, 29 August 2018 16:40 (five years ago) link
it got way more airplay iirc
― aloha darkness my old friend (katherine), Wednesday, 29 August 2018 17:18 (five years ago) link
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...
― got the scuba tube blowin' like a snork (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, 29 August 2018 17:33 (five years ago) link
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
― President Keyes, Thursday, 30 August 2018 00:35 (five years ago) link