Tunes that became hits only long after they were first released - and why

These kind of cases are always interesting to me: why does a tune fail to become a hit initially, only for that to happen later on. Here are a few cases off the top of my head:

Dido: "Thank You"
Apparently this was originally released on the Sliding Doors soundtrack in 1998, but it didn't become a hit like that Aqua tune from the same soundtrack. Then the use of Dido's "Here with Me" in Roswell got people interested in her debut album, which also included "Thank You", which was released as a single in late 2000 and became a hit in Europe. Around the same time Eminem sampled the tune on "Stan", which made it a hit in the US too.

Robin S.: "Show Me Love"
This was originally a fairly standard pop house tune released in 1990, which failed to make any waves. Then the Swedish producer Stonebridge remixed the tune and 1992, keeping nothing from the original tune except the vocals, and adding a really memorably riff that used the "Organ2" preset sound on the Korg M1 synthesizer. (This is the tune that popularized that preset sound, but it's worth noting that the same Korg M1 sound had been used on other house tunes as well, such as the 1989 remix of Deskee's "Let There Be House" by CJ Mackintosh and Dave Dorrell.) This version then became a hit in 1993.

Baby D: "Let Me Be Your Fantasy"
This tune was originally released in 1992, but in that year it only reached #76 in the UK singles chart. It was reissued in late 1994, and became a Europe-wide hit by 1995. I don't really know why it was resurrected like that, but IIRC it was used on one of those channel idents on MTV Europe in 1994, which might explain it.

"Stonebridge remixed the tune in 1992"

always comin with the country examples, but i can think of a couple songs that were released with little success and then re-released after the artist had achieved success with subsequent singles.

both of these hit #1 on the country charts after being re-released:
"on the other hand" by randy travis (charted in '85, re-released in '86); and
"voices" by chris young (charted in '08, re-released in '10).

(imo "on the other hand" is a classic, and "voices" is whatever.)

The answer to most songs like this these days were "the song showed up in a car commercial"

This is an interesting case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_I%27m_with_You . According to Wiki (which seems close to what I remember), it went top 10 in Canada in 1983 but peaked at #61 in the US. Six years later, it went #1 in the US (and had a second wave of radio saturation in Canada), apparently, just through the efforts of some radio program directors.

Chris Isaac's "Wicked Game" (the Herb Ritts video made it a hit)

The Trashmen: "Surfin' Bird"
Released Jan 1964
Dec 2010 chart position: 3

That's interesting, what caused the resurrection?

People really started to love trash again.

Family Guy? Though that episode was in 2008, so I'm not sure why there was such a peak in 2010.

The novelty song "Shaving Cream," written by Benny Bell and sung by Paul Wynn, was released on a party record label in 1946. After being played a lot on the Dr. Demento radio show the song was re-released on Vanguard Records and became a Top 40 hit in 1975.

It was another "X-Factor" protest, after the previous year's success with Rage/Machine

exposé's "point of no return" was originally released as a single in 1985 and topped billboard's club chart but didn't cross over at all, failing to dent the hot 100. a re-recorded version -- the group's entire lineup had been replaced, but the arrangement and production were only modestly altered -- went to #5 on the hot 100 in 1987 after the group's new lineup scored its first pop hit, "come go with me" (also #5 on the hot 100).

UB40 - Red Red Wine

wikipedia--In 1988, the song was re-released as a single in the U.S., this time including the toast from Astro as he performed it at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Concert a few months prior to its release. The single climbed to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. In September 2014 the Official Charts Company announced that sales in the UK had reached 1 million

Candle in the Wind

That "Cha Cha Slide" song was re-released in the UK ten years after its original release and became a huge hit. No idea why.

Don't Stop Believin' was happily unknown in the UK till 2009/10 when the x-factor ruined everything and it went top ten.

Brad Paisley's "Waitin' On a Woman" was on his 2005 album but was not released as a single until 2008 after his next album had been out for a year.

I thought it was Glee's fault, xpost

Oh yeah they started it maybe, x factor carried on with it.

Sarah McLachlan: "I Will Remember You"...modest hit single from Brothers McMullen soundtrack in '95...radio stations seize upon it (and a newly issued live version) post-Columbine shootings...becomes hit.

Come on, the "Don't Stop Believin'" comeback started with The Sopranos.

yeah don't stop believin featured in the finale of the sopranos, also in an episode of family guy in the early 2000s too irc?

Kraftwerk - The Model, wasn't that a hit several years after the Man Machine? Not sure why...

xp Right I forgot about that, the Family Guy episode preceded the Sopranos finale by a couple years, but I feel like the Sopranos put it over the top

and it was on Scrubs* as well

*i don't watch Scrubs, it was just on once.

although yeah, i'm sure it was Glee that got it playing every day on Heart radio every day in the UK

The Model was the b-side of Computer Love

Charlene, "I've Never Been to Me" - in 1982 a #3 US / #1 UK hit, but had only made it to #97 US when Motown first released it in 1977.

In the interim a DJ in Tampa, Florida named Scott Shannon had pushed the forgotten track into becoming a local hit and then used his connections with Motown to convince the label to re-sign Charlene and reissue the song as a single.

*i don't watch Scrubs, it was just on once.

It was featured really prominently iirc! The episode was called "My Journey"; Turk and J. D. sing the first few lines and the last bit of the episode was set to the song. That was 03, four years before the Sopranos finale apparently! It was still meant to be kind of funny that J. D. was such a big Journey fan.

I thought "The Model" only became a hit because there wasn't really a such thing as technopop in 1978?

xp i first heard it in the movie 'monster'

No, it was because it was a b side. Of a hit single, but it wasn't a big hit.

the song was eventually included on the B-side of the "Computer Love" single released in July 1981, which reached no. 36 in the UK charts. When radio DJs started playing the B-side, EMI re-issued the single in December 1981—apparently against the band's wishes—with "The Model" as the A-side. It reached no. 1 in February 1982

Whitesnake's Here I Go Again grazed the lower reaches of the UK Top 40 when it was originally released in 1982.

It was then re-recorded five years later and became a Top 10 hit in the UK and #1 in the US. No idea why other than Whitesnake were a much bigger band by then.

One funny/sad thing about the re-recorded version, apparently Whitesnake changed the line "like a hobo I was born to walk alone" of the original version into "like a drifter...", because they were afraid people would heard it as "like a homo I was born to walk alone".

Really? I don't remember any differences..

Maybe that was the original lyric, fwiw I think the 'drifter' line scans better.

Original sounds quite a bit different

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

goo goo dolls "iris" was obv massive in the us upon release but only reached #50 in the uk. in 2013 it charted at #3 b/c of an x-factor audition.

Wow I'd never heard that original version before, a lot more subdued overall than the hit re-recording

Xp

I'm reading all of these posts in the voice of Casey Kasem.

The Tommy James & The Shondells version of "Hanky Panky" only became a hit over 2 years after release, after the band had already broken up due to their lack of success.

"When I'm With You" by Sheriff has a similar story, released in 1983 but didn't become a hit until 1989.

There is no actual reason either one caught on years after release, just a single DJ started playing them.

Whoops, "When I'm With You" was already mentioned above.

"At This Moment" by Billy Vera & The Beaters only was a hit 5 years after release, when it was in an episode of "Family Ties"

sonique - "it feels so good"

it was first released in the uk in late 1998 and reached #24.

import copies of the single found their way into the hands of club djs and radio programmers in the tampa area in early 1999. it became a local club hit and before long started getting played on the top 40 station, wflz -- first as part of mixshow programming, then as part of regular rotation as it quickly became the station's most requested song. meanwhile, sonique still did not have a record deal in the us -- stan priest, the guy at wflz who started playing it on his mixshows, helped her get in touch with a label that would release the single over there, and eventually republic/universal decided to put their muscle behind it. as the label machinery began kicking into gear for the song's nationwide american release (plus the release of sonique's album), it had already amassed regular play at stations elsewhere in florida + in texas and new york. it debuted on the hot 100 in january 2000 and peaked at #8 in april.

in may it got re-released in the uk w/ a new music video and everything. it went straight in at #1 and stayed there for an additional two weeks.

A subgenre of this is drastically different cover versions becoming smashes, a'la Buckley's "Hallelujah," or Gary Jules' version of "Mad World" becoming a Christmas Number One.

The Proclaimers - I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)
Originally released in 1988, but didn't become a big hit in North America till 1993 when it was used in the opening credits of Benny & Joon.

I think it was in I Married an Axe Murderer in 93 too

Oh, that had "There she goes" by the Boo Radleys too.