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

would love to hear someone take a crack at "conduit for sale!"

i have definitely been around a backyard firepit where someone was playing a guitar and everybody was singing along to "range life." went really well next to "you ain't goin' nowhere."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjNxmz6Ty0E

Why Is The Obscure B-Side “Harness Your Hopes” Pavement’s Top Song On Spotify? It’s Complicated

https://www.stereogum.com/2105993/pavement-harness-your-hopes-spotify/columns/sounding-board/

Also mentioned in this article:

But looking at a similar situation of his own, Damon Krukowski wasn’t so sure. The musician and writer was fascinated with the question of how “Strange” became his former band Galaxie 500’s top Spotify track — by a significant margin — even though it was not a single, was never particularly popular in the past, and wasn’t being picked up on any prominent playlists.

u might wanna scroll up

Oops! Thought it was an article that came out today and immediately thought of this thread.

It did come out today — WE’RE THAT FAST!!!

"Strange" always *seemed* like a relatively popular G500 track to me. I definitely heard it on radio as a wee bairn (I recorded it to C90, years before I found a retail copy), and one doesn't think "why *that* track though?" when it appears in Greenberg. The trajectory of the very b-side-sounding "Harness" is several orders of magnitude odder, IMHO.

Interesting to discover how the Autoplay function appears to work. I'd always assumed it was based on some sort of "other users who listened to this track also listen to these tracks" type algorithm but that article seems to suggest it's actually based on song structure analysis.

xp I had the same impression! Here's Stereogum in 2014 listing "Strange" at #9 in a list of the best Galaxie 500 songs (which holds Today and This Is Our Music in much higher esteem than the Spotify listeners appear to)

Is it weird that I continue to be fascinated by this thread but don't use any of these services?

An obvious and logical one but still funny/wtf is McCartney's top Spotify : by FAR "FourFiveSeconds" (+700 million ! followed by "Wonderful Christmas Time" at... only 176 million).

Seems Spotify streams aren't much of an arbiter of a song's actual popularity in many cases, although it'd be interesting to know whether some of the random picks mentioned here do actually become legacy songs because of exposure via algorithmic quirks.

By far Squeeze's top song on Spotify is "Tempted" and while it was arguably by default their biggest hit single in the US (#49) it was essentially a commercial flop not even hitting the top 40 in the UK. I'm not exactly sure how it bubbled up to become their legacy track.

"Tempted" was a fairly big MTV hit upon release, and has been in tons of commercials and movies. Also: Paul Carrack=GOLD.

Oddly enough, "Hourglass" was a way bigger US Pop hit (#15), as was something called "853-5937" (#32).

By far Squeeze's top song on Spotify is "Tempted" and while it was arguably by default their biggest hit single in the US (#49)

I just peeked at their singles sales and was surprised to learn that this is not a true statement!

While I remember "Tempted" being huge here in the states, 2 other singles charted higher (and I don't recall either of them by name):

"Hourglass" (#15 US Top 40, 1987)

"853-5937" (#32 US Top 40, 1988)

xp

Okay, I remember "Hourglass", sounds like a Was (Not Was) production.

"853-5937" does not *ring* a bell... (sorry)

"Hourglass" was helped along by it's video.

"853-5937" sounds like an undiscovered CVS Jam.

I remember seeing the videos for both of those Squeeze songs at the time, and in fact there was an article in the newspaper where someone with that phone number complained about all the crank calls they were receiving.

"tempted" has been the general public's go-to squeeze song pretty much from the day it was released! also, it is great.

"Tempted" is tbh the only Squeeze song I could even name offhand. You hear it all the time in North America ime, not sure if they have any others in regular rotation?

"Black Coffee In Bed" & "Pulling Muscles from Michelle"(sic) both got almost as much airplay as "Tempted" in my parts iirc

I first heard "Tempted" on the Reality Bites soundtrack.

"Pulling Mussels..." is a muzak staple/CVS Jam.

"Tempted" is tbh the only Squeeze song I could even name offhand. You hear it all the time in North America ime, not sure if they have any others in regular rotation?

― actually-very-convincing (Sund4r), Thursday, November 19, 2020 10:50 PM bookmarkflaglink

yeah Guitar magazine was raving about them as a power-pop band in one issue I read as a kid and I had only heard "Tempted" at the time and was very confused

also how many damn songs are phone numbers

Is this one as good as "867-5309"?

or "634-5789"?

"Pulling Muscles" is good - I like more than "Tempted" tbh - but I've never it before. Does this really get regular airplay? I was a regular CVS customer for a few years there.

I doubt there will ever be another hit song with a phone number for its title now that phone numbers are 10 digits.... (actually I recently learned there are still some parts of the US you can place local calls by dialing only the last 7 digits, though where I live you've needed to dial all ten digits since the late '90s. Don't know how it works in the UK now)

yeah the last time you could dial just 7 numbers where I lived was the early 90s I think. I remember the rollout, we were all aggravated at the 'extra work'. like most places I suspect it's cos they divided our city, which was formerly all 305 area code, to 305 and 407.

I wonder how many people nowadays even would recognize "Pennsylvania 6-5000" as a phone-number song...

I doubt there will ever be another hit song with a phone number for its title now that phone numbers are 10 digits

Also cell phones have made it unnecessary to memorize phone numbers.

Is this one as good as "867-5309"?

The answer was no btw.

Haha *Mussels

Can't believe I forgot all about "Hourglass." Seems like an act's highest charting hit without much of an afterlife.

tempted is by far the most famous squeeze song, the kind of song that americans know even if they don’t know the performer.

maybe “mussels” and “black coffee” approached the song in airplay (which I doubt) but i’ve never heard either in a commercial, while “tempted” shows up all over the place

Yeah but I'm wondering if in the UK "Cool for Cats" or "Up the Junction" are better known than "Tempted" - they were much bigger hits.

I only know Up The Junction, Cool For Cats (from an advert) and Hourglass (from NOW 10) - don't think I know Tempted, name doesn't ring any bells.

It's the song from the Gap ad

I've had a listen and it is familiar, not sure from where though (only Gap ad I remember had Mellow Yellow), would never have guessed that it was Squeeze.

Tempted somehow manages to be the best Squeeze song without sounding all that much like Squeeze

(but seriously, do people not all have 45s and Under lying around now? This used to be a basic in-every-dorm-room kinda record and it is ace beginning to end.)

Yeah but I'm wondering if in the UK "Cool for Cats" or "Up the Junction" are better known than "Tempted" - they were much bigger hits.

Almost certainly yes. Labelled with Love was their other big UK hit. Tempted didn't hit the top 40 but must have had enough radio airplay or I wouldn't remember it; 853-5937 didn't crack the top 90 and I can't say I'm surprised.

^ first line should be in italics!