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

New Order - Age of Consent

It didn’t chart because it wasn’t even a single but it’s currently a top 3 song for them both in itunes and spotify. Maybe movie licensing via Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette is the reason this one is so high?

Kind of prefigures the sound of millennial indie.

I just heard it yesterday, on the DirecTV / Music Choice “Classic Alternative” channel.

Used in 'Girls' too and a bunch of other tv shows/films i've never heard of. Skateland? Misfits? Cold Case? Pretty popular with soundtrack-ers anyroad

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0627563/

Whatever the reason I’m happy it has become one of their best known songs, it’s probably a top 10 song of the 80s for me, let alone my favorite New Order song.

when i first started to dig into the new order discography in the early 2000s, "age of consent" was easily one of the highest highlights. i thought it *must* have been a single, but nope. awesome that it's so recognized these days. well deserved.

Yeah, that's always been one of their best tracks.

It has been mentioned upthread but The Beatles - Here Comes the Sun stands as their most streamed song on spotify with 500M views (follow up is Come Together with 300M) and it was also a song that didn’t chart since it wasn’t released as a single. Surprised it has become their top song.

Also noticed this one recently:

Blonde Redhead - For the damaged cod

Has 58M streams on spotify towering highly above the rest of their songs. I was confused because I used to love them back in the 90s and I wasn’t aware this was their “hit” song. Turns out it got very popular recently by being used in a Rick & Morty finale episode.

How did that happen re "Here Comes the Sun"? I would not have guessed it to be in the top 3. (I would have guessed some combination of "Let It Be", "Yesterday", and "Hey Jude".)

Summer playlists

* listens, not views

"Here Comes The Sun" was always a huge radio song, and in addition to summer playlists, I bet it pops up a bunch on 'Positive Vibes', 'Acoustic Moods', and 'Sixties Fun' playlists too.

Also, since it's their top track, it's currently the lead track on the 'This Is: The Beatles' playlist.

Weird Al’s top 5 doesn’t include Eat It or Fat.

Re: « HCTS » it’s weird cos I wouldn’t count it in their top 10 most popular tracks (which would be something like : She loves you, I wanna hold your hand, Help!, AHDN, Yesterday, Penny Lane, Strawberry FF, All you need is love, Hey Jude, Let it be...).
It’s not even on their « 1 »compilation !

My sense is that "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" is more of a favourite of music snobs but not so much the general public, at least here. HCTS does get a lot of radio play; I just didn't think it was nearly as big as those others but it does sound less dated.

Weird Al’s top 5 doesn’t include Eat It or Fat.

Aside from Al also getting better since then, I'd guess his most-streamed tracks tend to be parodies of songs from the streaming era, plus maybe the Star Wars one.

Amish Paradise is his number one

A parody source with multi-generational appeal!

Here Comes the Sun is very popular among my kids' circle as a song to learn on guitar. Not sure what the chicken and egg are that lead to that song in particular.

"Here Comes the Sun" is not the most Beatles-y Beatles song. It's a bit of an anomaly. As a consequence - and this is key - non-Beatles fans also like it. So do at least some Beatles fans.

Here Comes the Sun is a nice song and it makes lots of people happy. It gets plays from people who don't really give a shit about John vs. Paul, Abbey Road vs. White Album, Pepper vs. Rubber Soul, which is the better "Revolution," etc. And it also gets plays from people who genuinely DO care about all those things, but like an occasional George palate cleanser between their John & Paul beefs.

This surely accounts for it:

In July 2016, "Here Comes the Sun" was played as the entrance music for Ivanka Trump at the Republican National Convention.

Blonde Redhead - For the damaged cod

Has 58M streams on spotify towering highly above the rest of their songs. I was confused because I used to love them back in the 90s and I wasn’t aware this was their “hit” song. Turns out it got very popular recently by being used in a Rick & Morty finale episode.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, August 16, 2020 2:34 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

It wasn't just that it was used by Rick & Morty, but that the usage spawned a meme:
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9kgyyz/rick-and-mortys-for-the-damaged-coda-scene-spawns-a-savage-new-meme

...which eventually led to the song's appearance in a MAGA video retweeted by Trump:

this is of course moronic but is that an unlicensed Blonde Redhead song on the outro? weird https://t.co/EfPiefJElF

— The Mountain Goats (@mountain_goats) February 9, 2020

“Fat” wasn’t a hit. “Eat It” (not a fat-shaming song) was — but I can understand why a Michael Jackson parody from 1984 wouldn’t be too much in demand now.

well, this has led me to find out that "Gangsta's Paradise" has more Spotify streams (486 million) than "Beat It" (442 million) which is kinda mindblowing

It's the better song tbf.

“Fat” wasn’t a hit.

True. I guess the video was just overplayed. "Amish Paradise" otoh only peaked at #53.

Al had bigger hits with "Eat It" "Smells Like Nirvana" and "White & Nerdy"

This surely accounts for it:

/In July 2016, "Here Comes the Sun" was played as the entrance music for Ivanka Trump at the Republican National Convention./

Great example for this thread! I also hope I never hear it or any other song by the Beatles ever again!

Take that over here: ITT: Tell The Beatles to Fuck Off

Fuel's 1998 alt radio breakout hit "Shimmer" has over 30 million more plays than their massive mainstream smash "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)" which crossed over to Top 40 radio and charted for over a year on the mainstream rock chart.

However, this can probably be attributed to "Shimmer" being placed in a bunch of very popular official Spotify and Sony run "90s Rock Hits", "90s Pop Rock", etc. playlists (which "Hemorrhage" doesn't make the cut for because it came out in late 2000)

that's a great example - and good thinking!

Love's top song is "Alone Again Or" (not a surprise), and their #2 is "Always See Your Face" (slightly surprising, but it has been in Movies & TV). However, if you combine the totals from the standard and deluxe versions, their almost as big as #2 #3 track is "Everybody's Gotta Live" from Reel To Real, which also houses #4 "Be Thankful For What You've Got".

it was used at the end of that taika waititi movie recently? or there’s a lot of optimo fans out there

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