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

here in Wisconsin "Bang on the Drum" is by far his most popular song but for other reasons. I don't know if I've ever actually heard it on the radio. "I Saw the Light", on the other hand...

bang on the drum was all over tv in carnival cruise ads for at least a decade

I thought it was an afternoon drive time staple. The whistle blows, you punch the clock, you get in your Chevy and roar down the highway smackin the console to that funky beat ol Todd is throwin down.

I don't know if they've been mentioned already but Public Enemy biggest song on Spotify is "Harder Than You Think"... I don't even know that song !
And their biggest hit is "Give It Up" apparently.

A bit like Tricky - the only thing I ever heard on the radio was "Black Steel"

Still, it did lead to http://freakytrigger.co.uk/hate/2000/07/black-steel-in-the-hour-of-chaos/ which is probably the best thing, ever.

I guess The Grateful Dead are too obvious for something like this? "Friend of the Devil" and "Casey Jones" both have a lot more Spotify streams than "Touch of Grey" (their only top 40 hit).

Those two songs were already FM radio mainstays by the time Touch of Grey came out

Yeah, and they’re probably included in a lot of default Spotify playlists.

Certainly, the concept of a 'hit' is a lot more slippery back then - songs like "Under My Thumb" and "Stairway to Heaven" were massive hits, even though they never charted.

see nearly every Hendrix radio staple

Still, it did lead to http://freakytrigger.co.uk/hate/2000/07/black-steel-in-the-hour-of-chaos/

it's not addressed to Mr Thaws, The Other Day, 1995

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/hate/2000/07/black-steel-in-the-hour-of-chaos/

Roffle. This is hilarious and OTM. Fuck that song.

take it to imgur, buddy

yeah, gaga is one of those where songs from 2008 got bought on iTunes, not streamed on spotify. but bear in mind that spotify's ranking algorithm includes some recency/hotness special sauce, not just raw play count - if you dig in it looks like this:

Million Reasons 259m
Bad Romance 250m
Poker Face 249m
The Cure (??) 233m
Applause 187m
Telephone 182m
Just Dance 159m
Born This Way 130m
Do What U Want 117m
Paparazzi 101m

couple things: 1) "Shallow" from A Star is Born now has 130 million Spotify plays! 2) how do you get those raw counts? and where can I get the iTunes numbers? 3) if we factor in Youtube counts we get another picture and probably we should since Youtube is actually the #1 music streaming service?

Bad Romance 982m
Poker Face 554m
Alejandro 347m
Applause 321m
Judas 313m
Telephone 301m

in spotify, you hover the cursor over the little "cell phone reception bars" icon next to any track.

aah I see

but then you kind of have to know what you're looking for, there's no way to sort by most plays?

nope, not that i know of.

the more popular tracks have more bars

NRBQ's "Magnet" has 2 million spins, ten times as much as the next most popular NRBQ songs.

Motley Crue's Kickstart My Heart has 100 million plays, which is nearly twice as any as Dr. Feelgood and Girls, Girls, Girls. Both charted in the top 10, while Kickstart peaked at #27.

That’s weird. I’m going to guess it’s video game related.

i haven't checked the numbers, this is purely anecdotal/my perception, but it feels like "naive melody (this must be the place)" has become a signature talking heads song over the past ... 10 years? overtaking stuff like "psycho killer" or "burning down the house" as one of the big talking heads songs. i heard it at a major league baseball game a couple of weeks ago.

"home is where i want to be but i guess i'm already there"--a literal description of hitting in baseball.

It is their Number 2 song on Spotify, above Once in a Life and BDTH, but below Psycho Killer. wtf

it's a great song so maybe it's just been a slow burn

genuine lol at voodoo chili's comment

voodoo chili, also consider that "It's like butter" is a really succinct description of margarine.

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

TMBTP is also a fairly popular wedding song.

xxp i can't believe it

of course it's a popular wedding song, who can be unmoved by the romantic memory of david byrne dancing with a floor lamp

when i got into talking heads TMBTP was the one song, aside from once in a lifetime and road to nowhere, that i recognized from having heard it on the radio as a kid.

this is def one of the bigger shifts and weirder ones to someone like me who knew "burning down the house" from references in FoxTrot comics before i ever heard of the band. certainly knew that one and "take me to the river" and "and she was" and even "wild wild life" long before TMBTP or Psycho Killer.

I posted this 6 years ago in a Talking Heads "Speaking in Tongues" Poll thread: In the continuing Great-American-Songbook-ization of "This Must Be the Place," husband-and-wife cabaret stars John Pizzarelli & Jessica Molaskey's recent show opens with a duet/medley of "TMBTP" and the Beatles' "Two of Us."

of course it's a popular wedding song, who can be unmoved by the romantic memory of david byrne dancing with a floor lamp

It was the first dance for me and my wife Olive Oyl.

Well blow me down

From a UK perspective the three most recognisable Talking Heads songs (as in, recognisable to people who haven't heard of I Zimbra or whatever) are Once In A Lifetime, Psycho Killer and Road To Nowhere. Probably because they were either hits (PS & RTN) or the early breakthrough song (PK). This Must Be The Place etc kind of deeper cuts, relatively speaking.

It was on Shawn Colvin's covers album in 1994, and some versions out there resemble hers more than the Heads's.

Once In A Lifetime, Psycho Killer and Road To Nowhere

These + "Burning Down the House" were the ones I always thought of as their biggest songs.

I've been amazed at how big a radio/Muzak staple "And She Was" has become.

“Nothing But Flowers” felt inescapable at the time but really hasn’t entered the radio canon

the new yorker on this must be the place in 2012:

Thirty years old this year, the song has slowly but surely embedded itself in the American songbook. You can’t walk into a good bar between Williamsburg and Silver Lake without an even shot that it will come on the stereo in some iteration. Lately, it’s been covered by Arcade Fire, MGMT, and the jam band The String Cheese Incident, among others. There are books named for it. Hip brides march down the aisle to it. It’s quoted in mawkish editorials. And last year, “This Must Be the Place” was made into a movie.

"home is where i want to be but i guess i'm already there"--a literal description of hitting in baseball.

― mourning joe (voodoo chili), Friday, April 26, 2019 8:30 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

posts like this are why i love ilx

I remember being a Talking Heads fan and not being really aware of TMBTL being "a great song" and having it slowly introduce itself to me. Wasn't there a second theatrical release of Stop Making Sense around 2003 or something?

This thread is funny also, Trainspotting really was that soundtrack I guess!

My wife fell in love with TMBTP after hearing an Iron & Wine cover of it

Huh, the earliest cover of it, aside from Shawn Colvin in 1994, was Arcade Fire in 2005. I absolutely introduced that song to Win

I played it at a wedding two weeks ago.

Sean Hayes: https://youtu.be/2xiHWKdNZto

This version is notable for how committed the guitar player is to replicating all the keyboard bits exactly. I just wanna tell him "dude, relax, it's not a sacred relic."

"home is where i want to be but i guess i'm already there"--a literal description of hitting in baseball.

― mourning joe (voodoo chili), Friday, April 26, 2019 8:30 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

posts like this are why i love ilx

― american bradass (BradNelson), Saturday, April 27, 2019 9:19 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

<3

I didn’t know all this business about “This Must Be the Place”… interesting, it’s a pretty understated song to become a new “standard.”