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

A lot of prog acts belong obv. Their best known "song" usually too lomg for single relesse.

For instance, I am pretty sure ELP are better known for "Tarkus" than for "Fanfare Forthe Common Man".

Who can resist the unstoppable cultural juggernaut that is Nickel Creek?

The citizens of Lake Wobegon?

reddit tried to figure out this Pavement mystery a while back, but there are no real clues here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pavement/comments/6qkzgs/harness_your_hopes_is_currently_pavements_top/

i have to say, i do think this is a very strange thing and worth wondering about. can't imagine any way that "Harness" would *organically* be higher than "Cut Your Hair" or "Summer Babe" or "Range Life"

Damon K out of Galaxie 500 noticed this phenomenon in respect of his band, and has a theory on this (via Glenn McDonald of this parish):

https://internationalsadhits.tumblr.com/post/174724188743/the-previous-post-about-galaxie-500-streaming-song

That is interesting^

“Play Galaxie 500″ may really come to mean, “Play the song by Galaxie 500 that most resembles songs by others.”

It may well be Spotify-related. Your Alexa doesn't have its own music, it's linked to whatever streaming service you've chosen to link it to.

I thought it draws from Amazon Music (and prompts you to sign up for Premium to play certain things)?

You can choose it to draw from Amazon Music, but you're not obliged to. Mine only draws from Spotify.

My conspiracy theory is that it plays the song with the smallest publishing fees (to be rather honest I have no idea how any of this works, just that this is the typical 2010s "disrupt" tech biz-model).

the royalty rate is the same per play for every song

how weird is this
https://i.imgur.com/ur7EpGU.png

When I only knew Dan from the radio those were the songs I knew

interesting, surely Aja and Gaucho outsold CBaT many times

'Creep' is still BY FAR Radiohead's most played song. Maybe not surprising, but considering their popularity you'd thing there'd be some runners-up.

Not sure why 'Bike' from Incunabula and 'Altibzz' from Quaristice seem to far outlead other tracks by Autechre. Do people get two tracks into Incunabula and then give up? I don't remember Quaristice being a particularly popular album either.

OIC, it's a pleasant ambient tune, so it's probs been on tons of playlists

Bike is presumably on a load of twinkly curated playlists, same with Avril 14th.

Take out Dirty Work and put Peg at #5 and that’s a list of Dans top charting songs

I was a bit puzzled that the Prodigy’s most popular song was one I’d never heard of, but I guess Breathe was a hit outside the US

it was an airplay hit in the US - #18 on the alternative chart plus a lot of MTV play.

but massive in europe, yeah

I only heard Firestarter and SMBU

Breathe was the Prodigy track featured on the Big Shiny Tunes 2 compilation here in Canada, which was government mandated that every teenager at the time should own a copy of alongside Our Lady Peace's Clumsy.

Yeah, "Breathe" was very big here in Europe, tho I dunno if it was bigger than "No Good" from the previous album... Tho I guess that's where the rest of the world steps in, since AFAIK anything they made before "Firestarter" didn't have much of an impact outside Europe?

Breathe was a number one hit in the UK, but only reached #26 in France and #8 in Germany.

how weird is this

not weird at all?

When faithful covers take over an artist's top spotify spot due to familiarity, threatening their legacy songs:

Siouxsie & the Banshees have a curious ranking on Spotify currently.

The Passenger (#41 UK) 15M Spotify, Hong Kong Garden (#7) 13M, Spellbound (#27) 12M, Dear Prudence (#3) 8M, Cities in Dust (#21, US Dance #17) 11M, Cities in Dust LP version 7M, Happy House (#17) 6M, Kiss Them For Me (Only US top 40 hit at #23) 7M, no others above 4M. Their cover of Passenger was recently in I, Tonya... so I checked in with Iggy, and Lust for Life is no longer his top track, The Passenger is by a huge margin, 178M vs 69M. Amongst its numerous licensings listed in wikipedia I am amused to see "intro theme music for the CNN program Anderson Cooper 360" and "Music on hold for some phone services of Deutsche Bahn, the German national rail service".

The Fall - Lost in Music has trended to the top spot over Totally Wired, although Wired still has a higher play count. I wonder what sort of playlist or algorithmic similarity their version of a Sister Sledge song is hitting? Maybe people are typing Lost in Music into the search bar and are playing it out of curiosity and liking it?

Elvis costello (non-attractions... amazing that Spotify still occasionally divides solo artists with artist-and-the-bands like this, cf Petty, Malkmus) - She (44M) over veronica (6M), alison (16M). As a huge Attractions fan I definitely have listened to this track before although I can't remember at all what it sounds like. I am also not sure if I have ever seen Notting Hill, the movie it was from, or the Charles Aznavour original, but if that is in english, I assume it's not my thing. Also, I need to check if the cover art for Costello's Look Now was added to that thread of horrible cover art - wow that's bad.

Pet Shop Boys - Always on my mind over West End Girls, which seems a little sad to me, although their sales figures might be equivocal. Always on my mind might be trending up, it is #6 on Elvis Presley's Spotify top 10 but has less than half the plays of tracks it is higher than, and it's also #3 on Willie's top ten, well ahead of On the Road again which has twice the plays.

Burrito Bros - Wild Horses over Hot Burrito #1 and Sin City surprises me but again, it shouldn't now that I am going to expect this pattern to sometimes hold. Wild Horses is still #2 for the Sundays but I won't be suprised if it overtakes Here's Where the Story Ends at some point.

A few other top spotify spots that caught my eye recently:

Psychedelic Furs - Is Love My Way now firmly ensconced as their legacy track over Pretty in Pink for its superior new waviness? I am pleased to note that the execrable 86 soundtrack version with more sax is not on Spotify, although that was their biggest hit technically.

Judybats - Pleased to see Native Son has 6 times the plays of their buzz binned Being Simple.

Sleater-Kinney - Modern Girl has double the play count of Dig Me Out.

Veruca Salt - Volcano Girls edges out Seether. I played it out of curiosity and forgot it cheekily cops the melody of Head like a Hole but is otherwise not what I'd call a worthy legacy song for them.

Reel Big Fish popular tracks on Spotify - 1) Take on Me, 2) Beer, 3) Sell Out.

I didn't know they had any other songs besides Sell Out. Sell Out is still #1 in overall listens though (29M vs 21M for Take on Me).

that's a funny one! apparently "Take On Me" was on the soundtrack to BASEketball, but I can't imagine that was a very wide pathway to trending in the 2010s....

Psychedelic Furs - Is Love My Way now firmly ensconced as their legacy track over Pretty in Pink for its superior new waviness? I am pleased to note that the execrable 86 soundtrack version with more sax is not on Spotify, although that was their biggest hit technically.

Call Me By Your Name helped.

'beer' has definitely always been 'that other reel big fish song.'

Superchunk’s most popular song is “Driveway to Driveway”

Slack Motherfucker not even in top five

"Driveway to Driveway" is the single off their best selling album so I'm not sure what's so hard to imagine there.

Checking some of these bands in Tidal (the streaming service I’m currently using) brings up more “expected” Top Tracks results, without the possibly–algorithm-driven Spotify weirdness discussed in this thread.

Lol I guess when people think of Superchunk they think Driveway to fucking Driveway

“Slack MFer” is their #1 on Tidal

Tom Waits' top song on Spotify is "I Hope I Don't Fall In Love With You", which has double the spins of runners-up "Martha", "Ol' 55", and "Hold On".

The Replacements' top song on Spotify is "Swingin' Party", but I also find it interesting that what is claimed to be their 10th biggest song* is "Portland", a Don't Tell A Soul outtake that debuted years later on a comp and is a bonus track on the deluxe DTAS.

*"Answering Machine" isn't on the current list, but it has more spins.

"i hope that i don't fall in love with you" was the walk down the aisle song at a wedding i went to last year, so i guess that's its life right now

Lorde covered Swingin' Party, which might have something to do with it

that's a funny one! apparently "Take On Me" was on the soundtrack to BASEketball, but I can't imagine that was a very wide pathway to trending in the 2010s....

― Doctor Casino,Wednesday, April 8, 2020 6:26 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

they actually appear in the movie playing the song. your second point still stands obviously

While not quite their 'biggest hit', the 2nd most popular Thompson Twins song on Apple Music (after "Hold Me Now") and 4th most popular on Spotify (after "Hold Me Now", "Doctor! Doctor!", and "King For a Day") is from the prior album BEFORE their big mainstream breakout. Is their #30 US, #1 US Dance hit "Lies"? Or how about the #45 US, #9 UK hit "Love Is On Your Side"?

Nope. It was an album cut, not a single at all. It's a song called "If You Were Here" which appeared in the 2001 film "Not Another Teen Movie" (though didn't actually make it onto the official soundtrack).

move on up by Curtis Mayfield never charted in the US on original release - it did in the UK - but the song and its extended version are the top 2 Curtis Mayfield tracks on Spotify

Now I am curious about the path of Mr. Waits through popular culture. In maybe 1991 or 92 people in my circle adored "Tom Traubert's Blues" My roommate had a copy of Swordfishtrombones. I think I had Small Change (but I don't know where it is right now).

In 1993 some people in my circle liked Shawn Colvin's cover of "Heart of Saturday Night" and it led them to the album of the same name but did not, apparently, inspire everlasting Waits love. Rod Stewart covered "Downtown Train," uninspiringly. He was in some late 80s/mid-90s movies.

I have no idea what his signature song is supposed to be so I have no idea how to feel about what is outranking it in plays.

Fairly sure it was "Jockey Full of Bourbon" back in the 80s because of the Jim Jarmusch connection. Then "Downtown Train" took over, or did Rod cover another of his songs and that was it?

Nope. It was an album cut, not a single at all. It's a song called "If You Were Here" which appeared in the 2001 film "Not Another Teen Movie" (though didn't actually make it onto the official soundtrack).

The song is used quite prominently in (and got its fame from) the movie Sixteen Candles, which I'd guess Not Another Movie Movie is parodying

I have no idea what his signature song is supposed to be so I have no idea how to feel about what is outranking it in plays.

I would have figured it would have been "Ol' 55" or "Way Down In The Hole" (because The Wire) or "Jersey Girl" or one of the Island ballads like "Time" or "Downtown Train" (which is in his Top 5 on the site).

"I Hope I Don't Fall In Love With You" is interesting because I don't think it's been in a big movie or TV show; there hasn't been a notable cover aside from the 10,000 Maniacs version, and it only pops up on one of the three available Waits Asylum comps.

where does Goin' Out West rank in Waits' long tail?

That'd be another one...and how could I forget "CHOCOLATE JESUS"!?!

Thank you for confirming that it is a muddled picture. Talking about "biggest hit" or "legacy song" is tough with cult artists, as it probably should be. Here's how I think about signature songs / legacy songs / biggest hits:

When the Rolling Stones played the Superbowl halftime show I don't think they considered NOT playing "Satisfaction."

Pretty sure if Rick Astley were to play the Superbowl halftime show wouldn't play his edgy new crunk album in its entirety, or a freeform jazz odyssey, and - oops - not get around to playing "Never Gonna Give You Up."

Colin Hay doesn't always play "Down Under" last, but I'm given to understand that he pretty much always plays it. If he played the Superbowl halftime show it would be there.

So if e.g. Tom Waits were to play the Superbowl halftime show (a ridiculous premise, I know, but bear with me) he would close with...

?