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

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

Actually, I'm thinking this might apply to lots of hard (or hardish) rock acts who wound up having their biggest pop successes with way-past-their-prime power ballads that are hopefully now forgotten -- Aerosmith's biggest hit by far (and their only #1, for four weeks!) was "I Don't Want to Miss A Thing," right? "Paranoid" and "Ironman" didn't make the Top 40, and "Crazy Train" never even made the Top 100, but Ozzy's Lita Ford duet "Close My Eyes Forever" went Top 10. Plus Meat Loaf, Bryan Adams, Heart, people like that (maybe even a couple former hair metal bands) -- though maybe I'm deluding myself by thinking that nobody cares about all their chart-topping late-period mush anymore.

xpost

people who are embarrassingly protective about who listens to radiohead and how is outdated model, dude. you're supposed to be like that about animal collective now.

but "Don't Want To Miss A Thing" is Aerosmith's top-selling iTunes song, xhuxh!

Really?? Wow. That's so sad. (I haven't been checking the itunes charts, admittedly. Though I'm not sure whether I'd necessarily equate "biggest itunes seller" with "a band's legacy song," either. I have no problem at all with "Creep," though.)

(it isn't Creep)

xp It's their #1 Rhapsody stream, too! Here's their top 10 there:

I Don't Want To Miss A Thing (5:01)
Dream On (4:52)
Walk This Way (4:10)
Janie's Got A Gun (5:30)
Sweet Emotion (5:57)
Angel (5:07)
Cryin' (5:09)
Dude (Looks Like A Lady) (4:24)
Jaded (3:34)
Livin' On The Edge (6:21)

xp Okay, I see that you said that now, Stop Relegating. What, "Paranoid Android" then? I'm actually amazed "Creep" isn't Radiohead's biggest song. But it's not like I make any attempt to keep up with those guys.

Stop Relegating

Start Executing?

I love "Paranoid Android". Not that one either.

Maybe I'm doing something differently, but looking at iTunes right now I see "Creep" at number one, "15 Step"(!) at number two, and "High and Dry" at three.

I remember watching Radiohead play their legacy song "Creep" on MTV while young people sat by the pool. They were probably too busy to get into Kid A years later.

oh lol maybe I'm the one doing it wrong, but from my end it seems that High And Dry is fucking flavour of the millennium, followed a long way back by Karma Police and THEN Creep

and then High And Dry again

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.

― legendary North American forest ape (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, March 27, 2009 4:27 PM (4 hours ago)

Seriously, mind blown.

Oh, here I was thinking your rant was about "Creep"!

(it made sense)

(not that I agree with it)

...I dont even know what "High and Dry" is actually. Is it a newer one?

/lex

i wish i had your unknowledge

ignorance really is bliss in this instance

high and dry is what fake plastic trees would be if it sucked

"High And Dry" is fine.. it's just not their best.. relax.

"Creep" is No. 1 in American iTunes

Stone Temple Pilots' "Creep" is their No. 3
TLC's is their No. 2
Mobb Deep's is their No. 81