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

That's the only Pretenders song I know.

(that's misleading, too - - - if you go down to their albums and scroll over the stats, they have tons of stuff with more plays than "Holy Commotion" - which makes me wonder how that top five is actually generated...)

wtf is this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLpmj059JFA

I think she is literally crying over spilled milk in this video

so i'm asking Glenn in the Spotify thread because even if you expand to the top 10 up top, there are some heavy hitters that show up way out of order. "2000 Miles" with 6,220,016, "Middle of the Road" with 1,581,639. still not beating "I'll Stand By You" - though as far as the thread question goes, a little wiki perusal reveals that in the UK, it was one of their biggest hits, at #10 on the singles chart - one of only six top-tenners, though behind "brass in pocket" (#1) "I Go To Sleep" (#7) and "Talk of the Town" (#8). this does not count chrissie hynde's dreadful sonny & cher duet with UB40 which also got to #1 and has had 12 million plays on spotify....

anyway though in terms of radio airplay in the US at least, i don't think their legacy has been displaced just yet. it's "brass in pocket" and "back on the chain gang," with very occasional spins of "don't get me wrong."

Yeah, "Brass in Pocket" is easily their best-known song in North America, right? Never heard of "I'll Stand By You" either.

Re: Spotify, since it may come up again on this thread, Glenn clarifies: The "Popular" songs show raw play-counts in the UI, but are actually ranked based on an internal score that measures, roughly, "current" popularity...

"I'll Stand By You" was huge! Albeit though on Adult Contemporary radio, where it's a staple to this day (and it's also a huge Muzak supermarket jam). It occupies that weird space where there's a whole bunch of people who know it way better than the songs from many years earlier that built the band's reputation.

anyway though in terms of radio airplay in the US at least, i don't think their legacy has been displaced just yet. it's "brass in pocket" and "back on the chain gang," with very occasional spins of "don't get me wrong."

Classic rock stations will also very, very occasionally play "Mystery Achievement" when they need a bathroom break.

Another thing about "I'll Stand By You" is that it's such a generic type love song (see also: Shania's "Still The One") that it's 'our song' for many couples.

I feel like I've heard "I'll Stand By You" in the last 5 minutes of 200 tv episodes

Also covered by Shakira, Girls Aloud, Rod Stewart etc.

could "Brass Monkey" be one of these

no way

i wasn't basing my suggestion on any actual stats, just my impression based on what i hear on the classic hits station these days. here it's definitely "i'll stand by you" >>>>>> "brass in pocket" > "back on the chain gang"

heard "i'll stand by you" again today since my last post loooool

it is definitely the best-known pretenders song among pretenders non-fans. it's tv talent show fodder. deserved!

lol this song was on the same album as "night in my veins"

I know Pretenders is an old band that had some older popular tunes, but for people my age "I'll Stand By You" is the only hit they had (at least in Finland) while we were actively listening to music, so if you're not a fan, most likely that tune is the only one you know. And presumably the older middle-aged Pretenders fans don't use digital music services as much as people my age and younger, so it's not suprising the it's the most popular one there.

CCR - "Fortunate Son"

Yeah, here in Vietnam, I have friends that know "I'll Stand By You" that have never even heard of the Pretenders. I remember hearing it all the time when it came out growing up in the US, but my mom always had the AC stations playing. Not surprised that it would be their most popular song

'I'll Stand By You' is the Pretenders' 'One Way Or Another' - like a representation of a universe where the band had been a one hit wonder.

Still think 'Hymn To Her' is an amazing, underrated song though.

CCR - "Fortunate Son"

"Bad Moon Rising" is still more popular in Itunes, though not in Spotify.

but "Proud Mary" was the bigger hit?

I don't know how much they sold, but both "Bad Moon Rising" and "Proud Mary" made it to #2 on the Billboard chart... And I'd argue "Bad Moon" is still their signature tune, or at least the one most people know because of its usage in movies etc. These days "Proud Mary" is better known as the Tina & Ike Turner cover version.

Probably so

I don't think Stevie Wonder has been mentioned in this thread already.
Apparently his biggest selling/longest chart topping single is "I just Called to Say I Love You".
On Spotify, his top, by far, is "Superstition" (and "Happy birthday" on iTunes).

lol iTunes users

Yeah, "Brass in Pocket" is easily their best-known song in North America, right? Never heard of "I'll Stand By You" either.

I'm in the UK and I've never heard of it.

I listened to "I'll Stand By You". It doesn't sound familiar but it also sounds pretty generic so it's believable that I could have heard it a bunch on AC radio without thinking about it. The video was not what I needed to see this morning.

i don't think i knew it was by the pretenders though i've heard it many thousands of times.

this does not count chrissie hynde's dreadful sonny & cher duet with UB40 which also got to #1 and has had 12 million plays on spotify....

this though, ????

'I'll Stand By You' is easily one of the Pretenders' most recognisable songs - probably more than 'Brass In Pocket'. I don't know how I know it, it's just always been there in the ether.

wait... did it really come out in 1994? wow

so if you're not a fan, most likely that tune is the only one you know.

In America you're pretty likely to have heard "Brass in Pocket" even if you're not a Pretenders fan.

I'll Stand By You is the sort of greetings card song which tend to become immortal in the UK at least
probably got a few spins post-Diana

"I'll Stand By You" was used in the pilot episode of Dawson's Creek, probably cemeting it in the hearts of people of a certain age.

As has been pointed out, "I'll Stand By You" was big on "American Idol" and other shows like this. It's a beneficiary of massive A/C recurrent play.

co-written ty Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg, authors of "True Colors" and "Eternal Flame," which explains the sound. I hate the song, but Hynde redeems it, as usual, with her singing. "When you're mad GET MAD."

If you were listening to top forty radio in the '90s, you heard "I'll Stand By You."

Didn't Girls Aloud cover I'll Stand By You?

Really, the same people wrote "True Colors", "Eternal Flame" and "I'll Stand by You" ?
I'd never heard of them but they were something like the Stock Aitken & Waterman of big ballads !
(What happened to all of them, by the way ?)

On a Balearic beach counting money

Wow, they also wrote "Like a Virgin" (and "I Touch Myself") !

From wiki :

Kelly lost enthusiasm for songwriting in the mid-1990s, and went into semi-retirement in 1998. He remarried and had two more children with his second wife. As of 2011, he lives in Thousand Oaks, California near Sherwood Country Club where he enjoys playing golf regularly.

They wrote Heart's "Alone" as well. And "So Emotional" by WH.

Oh, interesting. Somehow I thought "Alone" was Diane Warren.

Aphex Twin and "Avril 14th".

recently billy steinberg also wrote excellent teenpop jams "too little too late" (jojo) and "give your heart a break" (demi lovato)

i have to say i really like "i'll stand by you". obv not for the reasons i like other pretenders songs, but just for what it is. i know for some people all one has to hear to decide one hates something is to know that it gets play on ac radio stations, but fuck that, really. (fun fact: "i'll stand by you" didn't reach the top 10 at ac radio during the time of its release, or even the top 20. same story for hot ac.)

this site linked earlier in the thread
http://poly-graph.co/timeless/

wow the 90s look completely dire when under the lens of what people listen to from them

I mean, to an extent the songs with the most plays are going to be the ones that aren't exemplary but have broadest appeal. Not too many people are going to point to any of these as a favorite song, they're just the ones that are going to get cycled through regardless of taste, right?