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

used as theme music by multiple baseball teams

This probably explains a lot. I was trying to figure it out from imdb, but I didn't think its appearances in supernatural or freaks & geeks were enough to push it over the edge. And while usually Grand Theft Auto is a good enough reason to explain the popularity of a song, this was from an expansion pack and I was skeptical of it having that much influence.

I don't even remember "Renegade" in Freaks and Geeks. "Lady" (the song Nick sang to Lindsay) and "Come Sail Away" (at the dance) were surely more prominent. But the sports team theme music placements make sense.xp

I would also have thought that South Park had pushed "Come Sail Away" to the top--not to mention the dance scenes in F&G and Virgin Suicides

Not surprised at all at "Renegade", listening to classic rock radio in the 90s I definitely remember hearing it a lot more than any other Styx song. Not hard to imagine why, its the song of theirs that sounds the most like other classic rock radio staples of the time.

Wow, this is a surprising one for me. As a guy who listened to a LOT of Styx in the 80s (and classic rock generally) and owned all these LPs, I had to listen to "Renegade" to remember which one it was. There are probably 10 songs I would have put above it (most of which are in Spotify's top 10 tbf)

I also don't know "Boat on the River" but according to Wikipedia it was a big hit in Germany???

This is old news to veterans of In Which Doctor Casino Listens to Classic Rock Classics for the First Time , but I grew up pretty much knowing Styx for "Come Sail Away," "Blue Collar Man," and "Mr. Roboto." "Renegade," when we got to it, definitely sounded familiar, but I ended up chalking that up to its strong whiff of "Trampled Under Foot." It's certainly possible it was played on one of Atlanta's two classic rock stations (Z93 and 96 Rock) and it just didn't make an impression on me, but I also think it might be one of those that got squeezed out by a slightly more "southern rock"-heavy playlist mix.

Which points to some personal blindspots for streaming popularity surprises! For example, with Lynyrd Skynyrd, I feel like I heard "What's Your Name," "Gimme Back My Bullets," "Gimme Three Steps" and "Simple Man" all about equally often --- of course with "Sweet Home Alabama" way up top. I would have expected them to rank pretty similarly in streams, but Spotify's numbers (in millions of streams) suggest that other people maybe grew up with different helpings of these songs:

622: Sweet Home Alabama
260: Free Bird
207: Simple Man
_86: Gimme Three Steps
_60: Tuesday's Gone
_10: What's Your Name
__9: Gimme Back My Bullets

Like, nothing as strikingly out of whack as to fit this thread's premise, but it still feels weird to me. Is "Gimme Three Steps" really eight times more popular than the (very similar) "What's Your Name"? I never would have guessed!

I think "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Free Bird" are the only ones I hear regularly in Canada. (Just checked the playlist of the local station: they played "Sweet Home" early this morning; also "Renegade".) It was interesting to hear all these other Skynyrd songs in regular rotation in the US. I would have thought "That Smell" would be higher, though?

Yup! "That Smell" is at 22 million - I didn't include everything in the list above.

I love What's Your Name and don't like Gimme Three Steps at all, but anecdotally can say that I hear the latter more often.

again drawing on my memories of 90s upstate ny classic rock radio "Gimme Three Steps" & "Sweet Home" were the ones I heard the most in normal rotation. "Freebird" was one where they played it rarely enough to make it feel special, like at midnight or something.

Not super surprising but Heart’s “Barracuda” which peaked at #11 is their top Spotify song, ahead of their two #1s and five other top ten singles

When I lived in a squat full of crust punk types, everyone agreed that "Barracuda" was a badass song, but thought I was a 'pussy' for liking the rest of Heart's oeuvre.

Even Crazy on You? Wtf

Something about the riff in "Barracuda" appeals to people who love Agoraphobic Nosebleed, what can I say.

Omg it has over 2.5x as many plays as "Crazy on You".

A little surprising to see "Alone" with over 2x as many plays as "Crazy on You" but I guess there's been an intense 80s revival.

yeah i was about to say, their 80s/90s comeback-era stuff does better on there than i'd expect! in terms of radio play i think of that period as equivalent to Van Hagar, where their wiki discography shows all these top 20 songs that i couldn't hum for a million dollars. but apparently they still survive!

Dirty Projectors -- I would really assume that 'Stillness is the Move' would still be their big hit, along with maybe some songs from the last couple years that hit the algorithms. But on Spotify, that's got 6 milli plays, while 'Swing Lo Magellan' from 2012 has 11 million, their highest by a lot.

Was it on a movie soundtrack or something, or did it just fit nicely with Spotify mood algos?

speaking of 80s comebacks, at least Cheap Trick's two big 70s hits beat out "The Flame"

"Stairway" is unsurprisingly the most-played Zeppelin song but I was a little surprised to see "Immigrant Song" at #2, ahead of "Whole Lotta Love".

"Kashmir" is #7, behind "Good Times Bad Times" and "Ramble On".

xp I think it was in a Thor movie or something.

I mean, this is all just because songs end up in movies/tv shows right?

There are many examples on the thread that can't be explained that way.

xpost Yeah, that's surely why "Paint It Black" has 128 million more streams than "Satisfaction"

e.g. "Renegade" xp

Immigrant Song is p much A-tier LZ I thought?

Shudder to Think’s #1 track (by far) is a Jeff Buckley recording of a Nathan Larson song (apparently performed with STT backing him) that appears on the Legacy Edition of Grace... kind of feels like a database error there.

(YT Music does the same thing, but they credit it as STT feat. Buckley, and tag the track as appearing on a movie soundtrack... so I dunno)

"Immigrant Song" is both one of their most popular radio songs, and also was prominently used (twice!) in Thor: Ragnarok, effectively becoming Thor's fight song.

This exercise is of course different with artists who have as many radio-playlist songs as Zep, but it does strike me that some of them are a little lower than you'd think - e.g. "Houses of the Holy" way down at 18.9m, "Misty Mountain Hop" at 22m, "Hey Hey What Can I Do" at 26.7... "Tangerine" beating all those at 32m. "When the Levee Breaks" at 63m feels more consistent to me. But still, the only one that actually stands out to me in their Spotify top ten is "Going to California" at #9 with 98m, substantially ahead of "D'yer Mak'er" at 76m. Mind you, if this means "D'yer Mak'er" is finally dying out, I'd be the first to celebrate.

"going to california" was used prominently in a major tv show, but i can't remember which one

i think that show, unfortunately, was entourage

I love “The Immigrant Song.” It reminds me of immigrants.

they get the job done

A little surprising to see "Alone" with over 2x as many plays as "Crazy on You" but I guess there's been an intense 80s revival.

― magnet of the elk park (Sund4r), Monday, August 10, 2020 12:08 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

i'm surprised "magic man" doesn't seem to be nearly as popular as my experience / exposure would suggest. it's #7 on spotify, behind two #1 hits that i've definitely never heard. i get "crazy on you" and "barracuda" tho, i just thought "magic man" was their huge all-time hit and guaranteed legacy song but what do i know

I like "Immigrant Song" but it wasn't a bigger chart hit than "Whole Lotta Love" in the US or most places (except Canada, apparently), the latter of which was usually a centrepiece of the live show and I thought got more airplay. (Our station played it today.)

Pure chart position just doesn’t seem relevant when it comes to band like Zep.

(Similarly, the Dead had three Top 10 hits, none of which are in their Spotify top 5.)

Yeah I think even in my antediluvian childhood we were aware of the concept of an "album band"

Just listened to half of Renegade for the first time

I know Come Sail Away from South Park, and the phrase Domo Arigato, Mr Roboto from ppl saying it on Usenet

Chart position was not the only factor I mentioned.

In 2004, the song was ranked number 75 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and in March 2005, Q magazine placed "Whole Lotta Love" at number three in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. It was placed 11 on a similar list by Rolling Stone. In 2009 it was named the third greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1.[1] In 2014, listeners to BBC Radio 2 voted "Whole Lotta Love" as containing the greatest guitar riff of all time.[5]...

The song has been widely covered by many artists. It was famous in the United Kingdom for having been the theme music for the long-running television programme Top of the Pops for much of its history.[65] The first version used was based on a recording by the Collective Consciousness Society (or C.C.S.), a band led by blues guitarist Alexis Korner. The C.C.S. version reached No. 13 on the UK singles chart in autumn 1970. The song returned as the theme in 1998, this time using a reworked version of the original Led Zeppelin guitar riff.[66]

A cover of the song by the American band King Curtis and the Kingpins reached No. 64 on US pop chart and No. 43 on the R&B chart in 1971.[67] His performance of the song at the Fillmore West was released on the 1971 live album Live at Fillmore West.[68]

Tina Turner covered the song for her 1975 album Acid Queen. Released on United Artists Records, her version reached No. 61 on the Billboard R&B chart and No. 45 on the Record World R&B chart.[69][70]

A cover of the song by British band Goldbug, including a sample of "Asteroid" (the Pearl & Dean advertising music)[71] reached No. 3 in the UK singles chart in 1996.[72]

A rewritten version of the song featured in the "London 2012" presentation during the closing ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing on 24 August 2008, with Jimmy Page on guitar and Leona Lewis providing the vocals. Both Lewis and the organisers requested that some of the lyrics be changed, notably "I'm gonna give you every inch of my love". Lewis felt that the line made little sense coming from a female singer.[73]

I also don't know "Boat on the River" but according to Wikipedia it was a big hit in Germany???

xp That’s all cool, but I don’t see how it necessarily trumps the Thor movie placement or whatever else.

Subjectively, “Immigrant Song” feels like a more “core” Zep song to me (these days) than “WLL” — but I don’t have any other data to back up why. If someone has a Mediabase subscription or whatever, we could look up which song gets more airplay.

Obviously, it doesn't. I just don't think "Immigrant Song" was Led Zeppelin's #2 biggest hit, signature song, whatever, for most of my lifetime, which is what the thread is about. I doubt even they would have said so.

Like, WLL was their go-to encore track live p much from the time it was released. I think they dropped "Immigrant Song" from their live show after a few years.

I hear you, though I don’t think they’ve played a show in a while (LOL).

I think we’re acknowledging the same thing, it just doesn’t seem like a mystery in this case; like “Harness Your Hopes” as the most-streamed Pavement song (for example).

my very unscientific data:
102.9 MGK and 92.1 have played Immigrant Song today, but not WLL
Q104.3 has played Immigrant Song 2 times, but not WLL

Yeah, movie placement explained it. xp

I was pretty sure "Cat Scratch Fever" would be Ted Nugent's biggest song. But no, "Stranglehold" beats it by 65 million streams.