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.

I didn't see the movie, but that makes sense. But what about "Be Thankful..."?

the original, non-remixed william devaughn version of the song isn’t on spotify and the love version is a fairly faithful cover

John Coltrane's top Spotify track by far is "In a Sentimental Mood" off the Coltrane and Ellington album.

It's the top Ellington track too, natch. It must kick off some big playlist. Songbook Chill.

"Ecstasy of Gold" by Morricone has double the plays of Good-bad-ugly title theme, an excellent result. Had no idea about the Metallica cover, that's pretty funny.

was pretty surprised to find that the most popular john martyn song on spotify was his cover of portishead's 'glory box'

Strangely the top track for the Jeff Healey Band is not their huge hit “Angel Eyes” but a cover of My Guitar Gently Weeps

Surely it has been said already but I was surpised to find out "Halo" is Beyonce's most popular song on Spotify.
"Crazy in Love" , "Irreplaceable" or "Single Ladies" must have been bigger hits.

i think we have discussed Beyonce, and mostly explained this in terms of the earlier hits predating streaming. "Halo" also gets very regular airplay to this day ime.

("single ladies" of course is from the same album, that's a little more surprising to me.)

Both of those were hits for Healy in Canada, along with several others, but I think "Angel Eyes" was the only one that made the general Billboard chart in the US?

"Angel Eyes" did peak higher than the cover but I think the latter lasted longer on radio?

My Guitar: Healey's version peaked at number 27 in Canada, number 85 in the UK and number 25 in New Zealand.

Angel Eyes made it to #5 on the Hot 100, #16 in Canada

Jeff Healey Band reached the Top 10 in Canada with the songs "I Think I Love You Too Much" and "How Long Can a Man Be Strong".

So even those two songs I've never heard were bigger than Gently Weeps in Canada

also, ahem:

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.

― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, November 17, 2016 8:59 AM bookmarkflaglink

Crazy in Love is at 509M now

In the UK Somebody Told Me and When You Were Young peaked higher than Mr. Brightside, which seems to basically be a national anthem at this point. Obviously, Mr. Brightside has that wild record of being in the Top 100 for 200 weeks or whatever, but I was surprised to see it wasn't their highest charting tune there.

Oh yeah, tbc, I wasn't saying the "While My Guitar" cover was Healey's highest-charting hit anywhere - he's a good example for the thread. Tbh, I think the deal is probably just that his playing has held up better than his songwriting for people?

eheh, I'm getting old !
Funny, prior to posting that today I was wondering if it was possible to search for a word WITHIN a thread... but I didn't think about searching my own posts !

i just load the whole thread and use Control-F, myself.

Good idea !

Let us not forget Jeff Healey's cameo in Road House.

I'm fascinated that the stray Metalica cover and new age chillout of The Mission soundtrack so drown out The Good, The Bad theme in Morricone's legacy. Hipster standards serve such a small audience in the grand scheme of things.

I'm no Replacements expert but I really thought "I'll Be You" was far and away their biggest song. Only video of theirs I've seen on TV, only Billboard Hot 100 appearance. It is their NINTH-most streamed song on Spotify. "Swingin' Party", a song I'd never heard of, is #1. Apparently, Lorde covered it?

The Lorde cover goosed that one, yes. FWIW, despite being 'the hit', "I'll Be You" kind of faded away over time. I've rarely heard it as an 'oldie/flashback' track on Alternative Radio, and seems like when you do hear Replacements out in the wild (satellite radio, muzak etc), more often than not it's something from one of the three prior albums.

i think it's even weirder that the second-most played song is "androgynous."

i love the song, but it's so atypical and not exactly a song that i think of when im thinking "i wanna listen to the replacements"

I feel like the subject matter and delivery of "Androgynous" might mean it's gotten a lot of listens from people who do not know or listen to the Replacements. I've never really delved into that band at all, but I know that song from a guy who sang it on an acoustic guitar as part of a school talent show.

Based on Youtube comments, it seems to have been adopted as a trans anthem by a number of people.xp

that makes sense. it's just strange that the top two songs from one of the most famously shambolic rock bands of all time are two of their least rockin'

yeah, their #s 3-5 (Alex Chilton, Can't Hardly Wait & Bastards of Young) are the ones I'd assume to be their "legacy" songs

wd guess "Androgynous" being performed/championed by Joan Jett and Miley Cyrus helped it

Towards the end of the song, you can hear Paul Westerberg sing the words "Jefferson's Cock". Occasionally, The Replacements would play gigs in Minneapolis under this name, with the band members wearing dresses.

Ezra Furman also covered it

Where are "Men Without Ties" and "Waitress in the Sky"?

Kiss: "I Was Made For Lovin' You" has over 100 million more spins on Spotify than "Rock'n'Roll All Night"

It deserves them.

their biggest hits--"Beth" (#7) and "Forever" (#8) not even in the top five on Spotify. What is that second one?

maybe IWMFLY ends up in Spotify disco playlists, while IWRNRAL doesn't make it on classic rock playlists? just spitballing though.

hello, hello, the world doesn’t begin and and with/in the US of A!

Chartwise, Kiss meant very little in most of the rest of the world before “I Was Made For Lovin’ You”. But that song was HUUUGE - because: disco. Number one here in the Netherlands (and possibly the biggest song of the year). So HUUUGE in fact that their only other top 10 hit here was follow-up single “Sure Know Something” (which didn’t even crack the top 40 in the US). The Dynasty album, their first album to chart here, went no 1 as well.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Was_Made_for_Lovin%27_You#Weekly_singles_charts

And then there’s “Crazy Crazy Nights”, another US non-hit, which in ‘87 became their only major hit in the UK. It’s now their #5 song when it comes to Spotify streams.

So yeah, gentle reminder: the world is so much bigger than the US.

"Forever" is a Power Ballad from around 1990 or so.

“I Was Made For Lovin’ You” was in Moulin Rouge

its cos the kids know Beth suuuuucks and Disco RUUUUULEZ

what can you do?

"God Gave Rock n' Roll To You" was a UK hit too, tied in with the 2nd Bill & Ted movie. So both of their big UK hits were written or co-written with outside writers, which might be telling us something (as was I Was Made For Lovin' You too, thinking about it).

some early Kiss songs may suffer from stream splitting between the studio versions and the Alive versions

i have to say after growing up as a big Bill & Ted fan and only ever knowing it as a Kiss song, to have The Zombies suddenly start playing God Gave Rock N Roll To You at All Tomorrow's Parties was one of the weirdest things i've experienced live. major tonal whiplash in my brain.

"Rock and Roll All Nite" is the only song of theirs I hear regularly on classic rock radio but yeah, seems like it wasn't their biggest hit anywhere. Going by Wikipedia, "Shout It Loud", a song I've never heard, went to #1 in Canada, apparently. "I Was Made for Loving You" = lol, though.

Breastcrawl OTM, "I Was Made for Loving You" is by far the best-known Kiss song in Finland too.

Yeah, if you asked people in the UK to name a Kiss song imagine most would plump for Crazy Crazy Nights xps