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

“Once in a Lifetime” feels like a song that was “ahead of its time,” if there ever was one.

The video got fairly heavy play back in the day. It was definitely a departure from their previous work.

There are many records from 1983 (and from the earlier ‘80s) that I can assure you were massive hits despite what Billboard says, bc I was a teen watching MTV and they were In heavy rotation, or even occasional rotation but we all knew them bc we would watch MTV or TBS’s ‘Night Tracks’ for hours at a time. “Cuts Like a Knife” is one such record. I know every split second of that video. I know every bead of David Byrne’s sweat from the “Once in a Lifetime” video. There are many records like that. US radio was lost at sea in those days, that’s why many classic tunes have low chart placings.

We watched "Teletunes," broadcast on UHF out of Broomfield, Colorado, late into the night. They were far more adventurous than MTV; I remember seeing videos like "Fish Heads" and "The Man in the Dark Sedan." They always signed off with "Goodbye to You" by Scandal; I can still picture Patty Smyth's pout.

‘Night Tracks’ was also better than MTV bc they played black music and dance music

xp to Josefa

exactly, and that is just looking at it from the US. I always like to broaden the focus when it comes to hits and charts.

really, how much of a ‘flop’ was “What I Like About You” when it reached #2 in Australia and was a top 10 hit in the Netherlands and (nearly) Belgium? it was a smash hit to Dutchies of my generation.

same thing with “Once In A Lifetime”. sure, it just missed the Hot 100 in 1981, but it was a bona fide hit in the UK, Ireland (top 20), Australia, NL and Canada (top 30).

well, of course, but the article's about their American chart success

…and probably several other (European) countries too (and possibly in other places as well)

xp to myself

‘Night Tracks’ was also better than MTV bc they played black music and dance music

― Josefa

otm, pretty sure the first time I heard Jeffrey Osbourne

The blackest Denver TV usually got was Prince.

I might be a little too young (wasn't listening to much radio in 81) but I very clearly remember seeing "Down and Out in Beverly Hills" in the theater and when "Once in a Lifetime" came on I was just like holy shit WHAT IS THAT? That movie is from 1986 so I must have already known "Burning Down the House," which WAS a legitimately huge hit in the US, but I don't think I even understood it was the same band.

well, of course, but the article's about their American chart success

DAOIBH used the live version of "Once in a Lifetime" iiirc -- and it still sounded otherworldly. 1985-1986 was the peak of the Heads' American ubiquity.

http://wp.production.patheos.com/blogs/sickpilgrim/files/2016/01/david-byrne-dance.gif

Damn it

http://wp.production.patheos.com/blogs/sickpilgrim/files/2016/01/david-byrne-dance.gif

And to tie this in to the Roxy Music thread, their singles from Avalon were played to death on MTV. That was before I realized they were the “Love Is the Drug” band. But “More than This” was a hit in any practical sense of the word among US teens. Billboard tells us that Avalon was a relatively disappointing non-top 40 album (although it’s now certified Platinum).

Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer.” Etta James’s “At Last.” The Romantics’ “What I Like About You.” Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes.” Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime.”

minus etta, these were all staples for me growing up. 81 baby, so huh dunno.

slate article is good and i'm here for it.

I didn’t realize “OIAL” actually predated MTV:

Yours Cool, Chris Molanphy: But in 1980, there was no way once in a lifetime was getting on the radio. Once in a lifetime bubbled under the hot 100. Spending just one week at number 103 in February 1981. Note that this was about six months before the launch of MTV, which might have helped it up the charts. Indeed, after MTV launched, Talking Heads were a much easier sell to record buyers and radio programmers. Their 1983 electro funk single Burning Down the House with an especially memorable music video, actually cracked the Billboard Top ten

Once In A Lifetime seems the exact opposite of what this thread is about (at least from a British perspective): not only was it a hit, but it was practically their only hit. The only other one I can remember that might have been bigger was Road To Nowhere.

"Burning Down the House" was a pretty big hit, at least in the U.S.

And to tie this in to the Roxy Music thread, their singles from Avalon were played to death on MTV. That was before I realized they were the “Love Is the Drug” band. But “More than This” was a hit in any practical sense of the word among US teens. Billboard tells us that Avalon was a relatively disappointing non-top 40 album (although it’s now certified Platinum).

― Josefa,

I can't check now but this is great, thanks. Billboard used to run MTV charts well into the early '90s and I keep forgetting to check summer '82 MTV charts for those Avalon singles. It would make that they earned at least medium rotation: Bryan Ferry's Boys + Girls, besides being a substantial UK hit, hit #65 and rode the chart for months three years later.

In the US, Talking Heads’ first top 40 hit was “Take Me To The River” (#26), which got regular airplay on “classic rock” stations at least through the mid-‘90s. Their only other US top 40 hits were “Burning Down The House” (#9), and “Wild Wild Life” (#25).

1985-1986 was the peak of the Heads' American ubiquity.

This is absolutely true. Stop Making Sense surfed the wave of “Burning,” which fed into anticipation for Little Creatures, later leading to heavy rotation for the “Wild Wild Life” video, and by late ‘86 Byrne was on the cover of Time.

Backstage, things began to fall apart.

Narrator.

Re: Boys + Girls, I remember hearing “Slave To Love” almost daily on the radio at the time; surprised it didn’t even crack the Hot 100. Also surprised that Ferry’s only US top 40 hit was “Kiss and Tell” — a decent song, but one I heard far less on the radio than his earlier singles, or the Avalon singles.

But also check 1983, because I wasn’t watching MTV till then. I saw it a bit in January ‘83 but didn’t see a ton of it till that summer (I remember a vivid vacation to Destin, FL at that time when it was available to watch in our time share apartment). MTV was pretty scrappy in those days, they would play videos from ‘80-‘83 all the time as if they were new.

they would play videos from ‘80-‘83 all the time as if they were new.

as it should be.

I am not exactly sure how Apple Music ranks "top songs," but the first four on the list are "Psycho Killer," "Burning Down the House," "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" and "Once in a Lifetime."

Once in a Lifetime and Road to Nowhere are the two highest placings in the UK charts, #14 and #6 respectively, quite different from the US charts, . I think we have to accept that the Heads are one of those artists with no clear answer to this question. It's very cool to me how Naive Melody has risen in recognition over time based on hard to determine factors, sort of like Immigrant Song or, to look at another cult artist with a few fluke hits, Warren Zevon's Carmelita, which seems to have found a new audience, although it doesn't yet threaten the preeminence of Werewolves yet.

I never truly appreciated "Naive Melody" until I saw "Stop Making Sense."

have probably mentioned this before but "naive melody" wasn't even on my radar until i heard speaking in tongues and there are two noteworthy things about that:
1.it wasn't until ~summer 2002
2.it was a first listen love and immediately my favorite thing by them

My favorite song in 1987 was "And She Was."

It's still in my top 10, whatever that says about me.

At some point, "And She Was" became a go-to for them on nostalgia radio.

Wait no 1986.

"Stay Up Late" still cracks me up.

The big Chicago FM rock station not only played “And She Was” regularly in 1985, but also this remix:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8P6UgB_xOQ

Kind of waiting for the algorithm to throw "Stay Up Late" at a conservative and they decide it's a grooming anthem.

I’m realizing that even though the release year of their first album is in its title, I had a warped internal sense of the band’s timeline, with everything “pushed up” a few years… I felt like they went into the early ’90s. But they were done by ’88!

(Well, "Sax and Violins" was ‘91)

Sometimes what we are talking about on this thread is not a new legacy song, but a biggest hit that is now (often justly) much less persistent, and one good example I noted recently was The Damned's followup to Grimly Fiendish, a cover version of something called Eloise, and not the William Bell song either. #3 in 1986 and the furthest I think they got from their original sound, although they had a history of 60s covers I generally had little use for. I had never heard it before or the 1968 original by someone improbably called Paul Ryan and the Majority, and I'll be just fine if I never hear it again.

Or am I crazy, was this song great and it's now unjustly forgotten? Btw, Phantasmagoria is a tolerable guilty pleasure, love the bass groove on Shadow of Love in particular...

Kind of waiting for the algorithm to throw "Stay Up Late" at a conservative and they decide it's a grooming anthem.

― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, September 17, 2022 3:04 PM

"songs that weren't a bands biggest hit, but have been algorithm'd to be accidental culture war songs"

xpost to mig: phantasmagoria has long been my favorite damned album. oh well.

And do you dig "Eloise" too?

‘Night Tracks’ was also better than MTV bc they played black music and dance music

― Josefa, Saturday, September 17, 2022 8:20 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I would love to know some examples of black and dance music that had videos and was ignored by MTV at the time. Can you remember any specific examples?

“In My House” by Mary Jane Girls
“Let the Music Play” by Shannon
“The Medicine Song” by Stephanie Mills

Here Comes the Sun was the Beatles song with the most streams the last time I looked, which is weird and cool.

xp

“Space Cowboy” by Jonzun Crew
“Last Night a DJ Saved My Life” by Indeep
“Rock Box” by Run-DMC

re: MTV’s explicitly racist programming in its early days, watch this segment by Sam Ford (starting around 4:48):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVGRuHIH6b8

"This isn't the Wizard of Oz, there are black people here" LOL

Bowie's 'This fuckin' guy over here' face during this whole thing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGiVzIr8Qg

We were listening to that Hit Parade episode in the car yesterday. My wife thought it felt like he was just listing songs that had some longevity after their initial release (and that therefore outperformed their chart position). Which is a mildly interesting topic but not exactly mind-blowing new information.

The chart performance of a retail single - or radio plays thereof - is a pretty narrow metric. Lots of songs are beloved in ways that won't register if chart position is your metric. This has pretty much always been the case, right?

Loads of rock music was intended to be consumed as part of an album, not as a single.