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.

Seriously, was "Harness Your Hopes" used in a movie? It sounds decent on first listen but how did a B-side from the Terror Twilight era become so popular?

That is weird. I tried searching for answers, but just found a Reddit thread asking the same question (and requests for gtr tabs, etc.)

I'm not even sure I remember what this sounds like!

it's probably on some like 'erudite indie for studying' playlist or something

last.fm is a better arbiter of track popularity imho:

https://www.last.fm/music/Pavement/+tracks?date_preset=ALL

"Athena" was the Who's last top 40 hit in the US (#28, 1982), but "Eminence Front" (#68, 1982) is far more streamed/downloaded/well-known.

spotify also ended easy last.fm scrobbling within the client, so i imagine that there is a gulf between the stats on each

I know nothing about Pavement, but a word of caution about Last.fm play counts: because as a site it’s dwindled so much in popularity (far less users), those counts are heavily skewed in favour of older material and current real-world popularity is poorly reflected (though with Spotify numbers it’s the other way around to some extent).

xp

any Apple Music subscribers in the house? what do Pavement's top tracks on that service look like?

Pavement on Apple Music:

Cut Your Hair
Goldsoundz
Spit on a Stranger
Range Life
Shady Lane

Thanks, no real surprises there (other than maybe “Spit”; I didn’t know it was that popular).

Spit has added recognition due to the Nickel Creek cover.

"I want Candy" ny Bow Wow Wow.

The only thing close to a single hit that Jeff Buckley ever had in his lifetime was "Last Goodbye".

That Cohen cover was never even a single, although it was a huge digital downloads hit ages later.

No one loves anything from Slanted & Enchanted?:(

« Grace » was a hit single, wasn’t it ?
That’s the first thing I heard from him anyway.

I think I Want Candy was BWWs only hit in America

"Go Wild in the Country" beat "I Want Candy" by two places in the UK chart but otherwise IWC was by far their biggest hit internationally.

No one loves anything from /Slanted & Enchanted/?:(

A lot of prog acts belong obv. Their best known "song" usually too lomg for single relesse.

For instance, I am pretty sure ELP are better known for "Tarkus" than for "Fanfare Forthe Common Man".

Who can resist the unstoppable cultural juggernaut that is Nickel Creek?

The citizens of Lake Wobegon?

reddit tried to figure out this Pavement mystery a while back, but there are no real clues here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pavement/comments/6qkzgs/harness_your_hopes_is_currently_pavements_top/

i have to say, i do think this is a very strange thing and worth wondering about. can't imagine any way that "Harness" would *organically* be higher than "Cut Your Hair" or "Summer Babe" or "Range Life"

Damon K out of Galaxie 500 noticed this phenomenon in respect of his band, and has a theory on this (via Glenn McDonald of this parish):

https://internationalsadhits.tumblr.com/post/174724188743/the-previous-post-about-galaxie-500-streaming-song

That is interesting^

“Play Galaxie 500″ may really come to mean, “Play the song by Galaxie 500 that most resembles songs by others.”

It may well be Spotify-related. Your Alexa doesn't have its own music, it's linked to whatever streaming service you've chosen to link it to.

I thought it draws from Amazon Music (and prompts you to sign up for Premium to play certain things)?

You can choose it to draw from Amazon Music, but you're not obliged to. Mine only draws from Spotify.

My conspiracy theory is that it plays the song with the smallest publishing fees (to be rather honest I have no idea how any of this works, just that this is the typical 2010s "disrupt" tech biz-model).

the royalty rate is the same per play for every song

how weird is this
https://i.imgur.com/ur7EpGU.png

When I only knew Dan from the radio those were the songs I knew

interesting, surely Aja and Gaucho outsold CBaT many times

'Creep' is still BY FAR Radiohead's most played song. Maybe not surprising, but considering their popularity you'd thing there'd be some runners-up.

Not sure why 'Bike' from Incunabula and 'Altibzz' from Quaristice seem to far outlead other tracks by Autechre. Do people get two tracks into Incunabula and then give up? I don't remember Quaristice being a particularly popular album either.

OIC, it's a pleasant ambient tune, so it's probs been on tons of playlists

Bike is presumably on a load of twinkly curated playlists, same with Avril 14th.

Take out Dirty Work and put Peg at #5 and that’s a list of Dans top charting songs

I was a bit puzzled that the Prodigy’s most popular song was one I’d never heard of, but I guess Breathe was a hit outside the US

it was an airplay hit in the US - #18 on the alternative chart plus a lot of MTV play.

but massive in europe, yeah

I only heard Firestarter and SMBU

Breathe was the Prodigy track featured on the Big Shiny Tunes 2 compilation here in Canada, which was government mandated that every teenager at the time should own a copy of alongside Our Lady Peace's Clumsy.

Yeah, "Breathe" was very big here in Europe, tho I dunno if it was bigger than "No Good" from the previous album... Tho I guess that's where the rest of the world steps in, since AFAIK anything they made before "Firestarter" didn't have much of an impact outside Europe?

Breathe was a number one hit in the UK, but only reached #26 in France and #8 in Germany.

how weird is this

not weird at all?

When faithful covers take over an artist's top spotify spot due to familiarity, threatening their legacy songs:

Siouxsie & the Banshees have a curious ranking on Spotify currently.

The Passenger (#41 UK) 15M Spotify, Hong Kong Garden (#7) 13M, Spellbound (#27) 12M, Dear Prudence (#3) 8M, Cities in Dust (#21, US Dance #17) 11M, Cities in Dust LP version 7M, Happy House (#17) 6M, Kiss Them For Me (Only US top 40 hit at #23) 7M, no others above 4M. Their cover of Passenger was recently in I, Tonya... so I checked in with Iggy, and Lust for Life is no longer his top track, The Passenger is by a huge margin, 178M vs 69M. Amongst its numerous licensings listed in wikipedia I am amused to see "intro theme music for the CNN program Anderson Cooper 360" and "Music on hold for some phone services of Deutsche Bahn, the German national rail service".

The Fall - Lost in Music has trended to the top spot over Totally Wired, although Wired still has a higher play count. I wonder what sort of playlist or algorithmic similarity their version of a Sister Sledge song is hitting? Maybe people are typing Lost in Music into the search bar and are playing it out of curiosity and liking it?

Elvis costello (non-attractions... amazing that Spotify still occasionally divides solo artists with artist-and-the-bands like this, cf Petty, Malkmus) - She (44M) over veronica (6M), alison (16M). As a huge Attractions fan I definitely have listened to this track before although I can't remember at all what it sounds like. I am also not sure if I have ever seen Notting Hill, the movie it was from, or the Charles Aznavour original, but if that is in english, I assume it's not my thing. Also, I need to check if the cover art for Costello's Look Now was added to that thread of horrible cover art - wow that's bad.

Pet Shop Boys - Always on my mind over West End Girls, which seems a little sad to me, although their sales figures might be equivocal. Always on my mind might be trending up, it is #6 on Elvis Presley's Spotify top 10 but has less than half the plays of tracks it is higher than, and it's also #3 on Willie's top ten, well ahead of On the Road again which has twice the plays.

Burrito Bros - Wild Horses over Hot Burrito #1 and Sin City surprises me but again, it shouldn't now that I am going to expect this pattern to sometimes hold. Wild Horses is still #2 for the Sundays but I won't be suprised if it overtakes Here's Where the Story Ends at some point.

A few other top spotify spots that caught my eye recently:

Psychedelic Furs - Is Love My Way now firmly ensconced as their legacy track over Pretty in Pink for its superior new waviness? I am pleased to note that the execrable 86 soundtrack version with more sax is not on Spotify, although that was their biggest hit technically.

Judybats - Pleased to see Native Son has 6 times the plays of their buzz binned Being Simple.

Sleater-Kinney - Modern Girl has double the play count of Dig Me Out.

Veruca Salt - Volcano Girls edges out Seether. I played it out of curiosity and forgot it cheekily cops the melody of Head like a Hole but is otherwise not what I'd call a worthy legacy song for them.

Reel Big Fish popular tracks on Spotify - 1) Take on Me, 2) Beer, 3) Sell Out.

I didn't know they had any other songs besides Sell Out. Sell Out is still #1 in overall listens though (29M vs 21M for Take on Me).

that's a funny one! apparently "Take On Me" was on the soundtrack to BASEketball, but I can't imagine that was a very wide pathway to trending in the 2010s....

Psychedelic Furs - Is Love My Way now firmly ensconced as their legacy track over Pretty in Pink for its superior new waviness? I am pleased to note that the execrable 86 soundtrack version with more sax is not on Spotify, although that was their biggest hit technically.

Call Me By Your Name helped.

'beer' has definitely always been 'that other reel big fish song.'