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

On desktop you can see the top ten-- Physical is #6

"xanadu" is weird yes, but i'm not shocked that a bunch of songs from a popular and enduring movie musical are more popular than "physical," which sucks

https://datastudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/74cda77c-f120-40f7-932f-5cdca9d2120a/page/VrXI

I do know September by Earth Wind & Fire but am mystified why it should be the one track by a Black act in the 70s.

Wedding playlists?

the way "september" seems to tower above basically any r&b song of its era (or nearby eras even) in the minds of white people these days is bizarre and i don't get it either. i have a friend who is my age but seemed to engage w/ very little pop music in general thru most of his life but seemed to gradually get into it (mostly rock) thru, like, guitar hero soundtracks and such (+ todd in the shadows videos for more recent stuff - lol). he adores "september" but i'm not sure if he's familiar w/ like any other r&b hits of any decade besides a few by prince. idk if he even knows other ewf hits!!

If you look at EWFs imdb entry, it is used sporadically in soundtracks until 2010 after which every year September is used multiple times. Some of these shows I don't recognize, but notably it's been used in two episodes of Family Guy, which probably ironed it into the brains of a certain segment of the population. Then in 2016 it was the closing song in the movie Trolls (performed by Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick).

This is the kind of banal explanation I was hoping for.

certainly demi adejuyigbe's work the past few years has bumped september quite a bit for a certain sort of crowd

Taylor Swift covered it as well iirc?

Tbh, I first heard it when we did the 70s poll some 15 years ago and it made an immediate impression.

huh, i feel like it's had this standout status at least since the 90s. it's one of those songs i feel like i've known since I started listening to the radio, certainly for years before i even knew what it was called. like it was already getting played in settings (yes including weddings) that had no space for anything else of its time/genre.

In my childhood I probably heard "Celebration" five times for every time I heard "September."

Now it's the other way round.

God, Celebration used to be everywhere. It took a long time before my sole association with that song wasn't car dealership year-end model clearance events.

For me it evokes a now-demolished Busch Stadium between innings of a Cardinals game, but yes, it was inescapable from 1980-1985 at least

"September" was sung on American Idol a number of times in the 00s

In my childhood I probably heard "Celebration" five times for every time I heard "September."

Ditto, and I wouldn't mind never hearing Celebration again. So good on the youngs for choosing September instead.

God, Celebration used to be everywhere. It took a long time before my sole association with that song wasn't car dealership year-end model clearance events.

Funny story from the "September" wikipedia page:

Using a chord progression written by Earth, Wind & Fire guitarist Al McKay, vocalist Maurice White and songwriter Allee Willis wrote the song over one month. Willis was initially bothered by the gibberish "ba-dee-ya" lyric White used through the song, and begged him to rewrite it: "I just said, 'What the fuck does 'ba-dee-ya' mean?' And he essentially said, 'Who the fuck cares?' I learned my greatest lesson ever in songwriting from him, which was never let the lyric get in the way of the groove."

I actually heard 'celebration' on the radio this weekend and it felt weird that it wasn't part of a commercial and just played through in its entirety

Oh, Kool & the Gang's "Celebration"? I knew that (in its entirety, from MuchMusic) when I was 12. I didn't hear "September" until I was in grad school.

I literally cannot hear "September" without thinking of ILM and Pomplamoose.

If you're tired of Kool and the Gang's "Celebration" you're tired of life.

I sing a variation of "Celebration" nearly every day— sometimes it's to the dogs, and I also often will be in the shower and suddenly bust out with "CELEBRATE MY BALLS COME ON"

^--- not tired of life

Earth, Wind & Fire's "September" seems the epitome of this.

― zama roma ding dong (Eric H.), Friday, April 26, 2019 11:39 AM (two years ago)

Just seen that Eric called it but it took the rest of us two years to catch up.

I wonder how many streams come from actual end-users and how much stems from office/cafe/restaurant playlists

Thing is, "September" was actually EWF's biggest UK hit. (#3, tied with "Let's Groove", but the former stayed longer on the chart). I'd always assumed that was the case everywhere, but in the US there were five bigger hits, so there you go.

Surely it's the cover by Sisqo and Vitamin C for the totally forgotten teen movie "Get Over It" that has propelled "September" to its current heights

It was also adapted by fans of the England national football team at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia: "Woah, England are in Russia / Woah, drinking all the vodka / Woah, England’s going all the way".

When I saw the first part of that sentence was about footie, thought it would be about “Seven Nation Army.”

thinking about 'celebration' made me realize that the version I hear in my head is this one, from a commercial I probably saw a couple of times 35 years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYljOcM0zgU

they’ve been playing “celebration” after Oakland A’s wins since the song came out, I believe.

(home wins)

I was going to write that I actually also sing "Celebration" in reference to food...all the time.

This morning, I had a bite of leftover sponge cake for breakfast, and unbidden, sang to myself, "ahweeeah, eating lots of sponge cake, ahweeeah, tasty tasty sponge cake" etc.

Ba dee yah!

Elton John was already mentioned upthread but now it's "Rocket Man" that is his biggest song on Spotify while there are around a dozen songs of his that were bigger hits.

This may have been mentioned before but La Grange is ZZ Top’s most streamed song. It was a much smaller hit than their big 80s singles—peaked at 41 in the US.

a how how how HOW did this happen

Idk if La Grange was a hit but it’s been ZZ Top’s icon song for decades now. It’s one of those songs with high odds you’ll learn first if trying to play guitar.

"Decades" is overstatement, surely? Fwiw, "Sharp Dressed Man" is first on this list, although I'm not sure if Apple Music lists are in order of streams/sales?: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/zz-top/215917/see-all?section=top-songs

UCR do say "La Grange" is "without a doubt" their most popular song of all time. Interesting: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/top-zz-top-songs/

I would have guessed "Sharp Dressed Man", "Legs", and "Tush" before that one, although I'm not complaining.

Not very acquainted with ZZ Top’s discography but yeah La Grange might be #41 in the US maisntream rock charts but the six #1s they have there are all songs I’ve never heard before: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZZ_Top_discography

As someone not overtly familiar with them my guess for their 5 most popular songs, independent from actual chart position would be: La Grange, Tush, Cheap Sunglasses, Sharp Dressed Man and Legs

this is a good time for everyone to vote in the zz top poll

La Grange was 41 regular US chart (not sure they had a mainstream rock chart back then) but they had also two ten hits on the US top 40.

Legs and Sleeping Bag. Tush made it to #20.

This is pretty much what this thread is about btw

I can at least bet those 5 are more well known than those five #1 singles.

I’ve found that chart positions don’t really work as a measure of popularity in some genres… in this case “classic rock”. We could make a test to prove the theory… let’s see I’ll google classic rock right now… I’ll pick mmm Journey, Bon Jovi and AC/DC… be right back with the results for their most popular songs according to the us mainstream rock charts.

just checked and john lee hooker’s too played song on spotify is “boom boom,” that’s how deep this goes!!

(“boogie chillen” is his fourth-most streamed)

For a certain generation I’d wager that Legs and Sharp Dressed Man are the iconic ZZ Top songs. I didn’t know they had any older hits back yhen

*top played, obv