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

"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.

Anyway, I suspect "Oh Yeah" by Yello is their biggest download seller, even though it wasn't their biggest hit.

Which of course is due to it being used in that movie.

i dunno how iTunes store works in your country, but here every artist page has their top songs listed. but what i've been doing is just googling "(artist name) top itunes sales" and going to the browser cache of the store page since i don't have iTunes on my work computer.

"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)

I'm pretty sure "Radio Nowhere" was also the iTunes Free Single of the Week when it was released, and that iTunes counts free downloads as sales. (Or at least as volume for measuring popularity.)

One problem is that, with lots of these artists (Neil Diamond, Skynyrd, Billy Idol, Springsteen, Petty, Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, Radiohead), it's a real stretch to say they "clearly" have just one legacy song. (So with them, the formulation only really works if their biggest hit has been totally lost in the dustbin of history. "Wild Wild Life" might actually come close to that, though. "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Creep" definitely don't. Chuck Berry's only #1 "My Ding-A-Ling" probably does.)

I tried to search "Yello", but the Itunes home page doesn't even allow me to click the band name, so I don't know how to see the artist page.

(xx-post)

fwiw, "Oh Yeah" (at #51) was the only Yello song ever to chart in the U.S. No idea about the rest of the world, where I assume they were bigger. ("Bostich" will always be their legacy song in my house.)

Likewise, Boney M's only U.S. hit was "Rivers of Babylon," but the rest of the planet would presumably disagree.

I think in Europe at least "The Race" and "Bostich" were bigger hits than "Oh Yeah", maybe some others too.

My bad, I thought Sucker MCs was Side A.

..just googling "(artist name) top itunes sales" and going to the browser cache of the store page since i don't have iTunes on my work computer.

Talking Heads top 5 appear to be: Once In A Lifetime, Burning Down The House, And She Was, Psycho Killer, Take Me To The River

I don't look at iTunes but I would assume Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah?

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.

i am pretty sure that every single person in the world except for you was aware of this.

and the title of this thread is confounding...if a track is their legacy song and their best seller period (i will assume that the iTunes best seller is generally the overall best seller) then doesn't that make said song their biggest hit by default? do you mean songs that were someone's biggest hits but didn't necessarily peak as high as others (like Wonderwall, as referenced above)? because that list would go on forever. or songs that were totally unknown at the time and later came out of nowhere (like Hallelujah)?

But what was Leonard Cohen's bigger hit?

He never had a real "hit" in the U.S., but I would assume "Suzanne," right?

Top 5 Peter Gabriel itunes:

In Your Eyes, Down To Earth, Solsbury Hill (2002 remaster), Solsbury Hill, Sledgehammer

Top 5 Leonard Coehn itunes:
Hallelujah, Everybody Knows, Suzanne, Everybody Knows, Hallelujah

suzanne was his signature song, no?

oh look chuck sez the same

and the title of this thread is confounding...if a track is their legacy song and their best seller period (i will assume that the iTunes best seller is generally the overall best seller) then doesn't that make said song their biggest hit by default? do you mean songs that were someone's biggest hits but didn't necessarily peak as high as others (like Wonderwall, as referenced above)? because that list would go on forever. or songs that were totally unknown at the time and later came out of nowhere (like Hallelujah)?

― lil waynes babymama (musically), Friday, March 27, 2009 2:11 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you're thinking too hard about this. it's really about songs that become more popular well after the initial single release, whether as a live staple, a cover by another aritst, or because of licensing for a commercial, movie, Guitar Hero, etc.

Also guessing Randy Newman's legacy song is not the #2 "Short People," but not really sure what it would be instead. (Strangely, "I Love L.A." didn't chart Hot 100; weird, its video seemed popular at the time. But I doubt that's his legacy song either. So..."Louisiana 1927," by now? "Mama Told Me Not To Come"? The theme from Toy Story? Who knows.)

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 (48 minutes ago) Bookmark

something that doesn't get factored in here is that the video was played about every 10 minutes on MTV when it came out

Where Is My Mind? is the first thing I thought of - I've seen rooms full of young college kids who probably have no idea who the Pixies are freak out when this gets played, thank you Fight Club.

ooh good call, i was skeptical but it is in fact their top song on iTunes

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.

i am pretty sure that every single person in the world except for you was aware of this.

Actually, no. I guess it's different over there, but I'm pretty sure in Finland "Out of Space", "No Good", "Voodoo People", "Firestarter" and "Breathe" are even today more popular than "Smack My Bitch Up".

us American non-dance people only know the last 3 but it definitely seemed like the "Smack" was the least big of those

Randy Newman's legacy song...not really sure what it would be instead

Sail Away?

Pink Floyd. Biggest chart hit is Another Brick In The Wall.

Biggest iTunes song is Wish You Were Here, which is now probably their signature/legacy song. Either that or the #2 iTunes, Comfortably Numb.

I thought the answer was going to be Etta James "At Last". It seems to be her itunes hit as far as I can tell by using the google cache method detailed above.

It was only a #47 Billboard chart hit though, and I thought "I'd Rather Go Blind" or the Henry songs should be her legacy hits.

Turns out "At Last" was a Pop- 47, R&B - 2, and "I'd Rather Go Blind" was a B-side(Tell Mama) to a Pop - 23/R&B- 10 and didn't chart when it was an A-side. Historic Billboard charts are strange when it comes to race and everything else.

I'd never even heard of "At Last" until customers started asking for it as a Wedding Song in the late 90s. (must have been in a movie?) I had a big blind spot in my R&B knowledge, or their was a regional or cultural difference in oldies play.

Anyway. She had bigger hits.

it seems odd that the top Louvin Brothers song on iTunes (not counting mistagged tracks from their tribute album) is "Kneel at the Cross," which edges out obvious big hits/legacy songs like "I Don't Believe You've Met My Baby," "Knoxville Girl," and all of Satan Is Real. afaik "Kneel" was never issued as a single and has only appeared on the original LP, the Bear Family box sex, and an old Rounder compilation. What gives?

xp I never heard of "At Last" until last year! I always would have figured "Dance With Me Henry" was Etta James's most famous song, though Joel Whitburn doesn't list that one (maybe too early? also maybe not a pop crossover?) in his Hot 100 book. Looks like her biggest hit of the "rock era" was "Tell Mama," which went to #23 in 1967; only other Top 30s were "Pushover," #25 in 1963, and "Trust In Me," #30 in 1961. No idea if I've ever heard those, but I'm obviously no expert.

xp I never heard of "At Last" until last year!

I think this is one of the most shocking revelations I've ever read on ILM.

x-post Back when the album first came out, a friend copied "Surfer Rosa" for me but left "Where is My Mind?" off the cassette. For a few months there, I had no idea it existed, at least not until I got the CD and was, like, huh, why did he leave this one off?

What about Teenage Kicks? I have a feeling that didn't make the top 40 when it first came out.

"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.

But "Only You" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> "Situation"

wonder what Radiohead's biggest iTunes seller is

oh SHIT i hate people

oh my god so many people actually need to have their ears surgically removed right now-

um, l-jag it probably* has everything to do with the fact that it was marketed as a single, was a huge 90s radio hit in the alternaboom, and subsequently still gets incredible airplay on every rock station in the world. Not because the world did some awesome critical litmus test and chose it over awesome* songs like "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi"

*definitely
*not awesome

I can't think of any rap song this works for, except maybe "Juicy," which was a pretty big hit in its own right.

but dude......it's their worst song by like 57 parsecs, it's pure bedwetter-rock-inventing evil, thom yorke regrets it, it spawned Coldplay, summoned Snow Patrol, trained Athlete......it's probably in my top 10 most hated songs ever by anyone and i just want you to UNDERSTAND the sheer unrelenting hatred i bear for that song

i mean, karma police, creep, sit down stand up*, these would have all been fine, understandable choices, but for THAT SONG to have like 3x the nearest challenger is just fkn sickening imo and indicative of where a huge proportion of radiohead 'fans' are coming from, i.e. fake-macho-sensitive 'alt-rock' hell

anyway, if that's their legacy song, it's a legacy that they have thankfully disowned

*joeks bruuuv

They Might Be Giants' Istanbul is their most-streamed song on Spotify, 93.7m to Birdhouse's 39.5m. Afaict heavy licensing to TV and film is behind its popularity?

That one isn't too surprising to me. I think a lot of people know that song who might not otherwise be familiar with TMBG, especially since it is a cover. It feels like a standard, whereas "Birdhouse" feels rooted in early '90s college rock.

I heard a pop radio station play "Sure Thing" twice within an hour a couple months ago

Without checking any charts I would have guessed Istanbul is TMBG’s best known song. I remember MTV playing that video heavily in the early 90s.

"Hit The Road Jack" is the top Spotify track for Ray Charles, with over 100 million more spins than "I Got A Woman", which in itself shouldn't be surprising...other than that the former's only been available on the service since the late summer of 2021.

From the CVS thread:

Same place, today got "Heading For The Light" and whatever that Jim Croce song is about him walking to Georgia.

― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, February 3, 2024 4:29 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

"Walking Back To Georgia", surprisingly.

― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, February 3, 2024 4:30 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

His third biggest Spotify track for some reason.

― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, February 3, 2024 4:31 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

wow. maybe on some Georgia playlists or something.

― not the one who's tryin' to dub your anime (Doctor Casino), Saturday, February 3, 2024 7:40 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

That one wasn’t even a single.

More streams than “Operator”!

Huh, wow - that's not the way it feels at all.

when did “althea” become one of the most popular grateful dead songs? it’s not on a major album or any of the greatest hits, not one of the 50 most played according to jerrybase. yet it has 20 million more streams on spotify than “sugar magnolia.” what gives? is it a john mayer thing?