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    Acts whose biggest hit now wasn't their biggest hit then

    What is there besides "Don't Stop Believin'"? Or is there anything as clear-cut?

    #2
    Bob Seger's Like a Rock

    This happens when songs get featured in movies, television or adverts.

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      #3
      The Beatles. Modern Beatles-listening appears to mostly be about their last three albums (source - a graph I saw about the streaming popularity of Beatles records). Obviously these were big hits then as well, but bigger than their earlier work?

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        #4
        Albums, yes, because many more people were buying albums generally in 1969 than in 1963

        With regard to singles their 1963-64 output has still sold more than anything later

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List...United_Kingdom

        However I'd agree that in the downloads Era the most popular tracks are Let It Be, Hey Jude, Here Comes The Sun. That will continue because they are more hummable I guess, but not necessarily better songs.

        On the OP generally, This Charming Man made #8 on reissue in 1992, higher than any single. The Smiths released when active. However, the 1992 chart run was only 5 weeks whereas the 1983 original run was 18 weeks.

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          #5
          Should I Stay Or Should I Go was less of a hit than London Calling on original release but obviously overtook it when the re-release made #1.

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            #6
            Don't Stop Me Now by Queen: a modest #9 hit on release in 1979, but arguably the most played of their songs nowadays. This presumably will be because of a stage show or TV commercial.

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              #7
              Originally posted by Bruno
              I was song-hopping on Youtube last night and came across "Counting Stars." How many hits do you think? 1 billion 880 million for a video uploaded 4 years ago. Which song has the most?
              The answer was on the BBC website the other day - it's that See You Again one from whichever of the 37 Fast and the Furious films it was on the soundtrack for. Getting close to 3 billion, that one.

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                #8
                Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                Don't Stop Me Now by Queen: a modest #9 hit on release in 1979, but arguably the most played of their songs nowadays. This presumably will be because of a stage show or TV commercial.
                I don't think you can put it down to any one thing – sure, it almost certainly featured in the We Will Rock You stage show, but not more notably than any of their other well-known hits. It was used in a memorable Cadbury commercial ('sentient' airport service vehicles racing each other down the runways at night), but I don't think that sparked things off specifically, either. I certainly remember it gaining traction as an end-of-night, swaying-with-your-mates as the lights came up kind of song in the club/bar sort of place I used to go to semi-regularly around 12-15 years ago, which surprised me at the time as it was always a well-known Queen song but not to the same sort of omnipresent degree as the ones Bruno cites, for example:
                Originally posted by Bruno
                B.R., We Are the Champions (because sports), or We Will Rock You (because sports).
                Bicycle Race? Oh, right, Bohemian Rhapsody.
                It's always felt to me since that Don't Stop Me Now is simply a great singalong tune, which people en masse perhaps just took a few decades to cotton onto – if anything its modern-day popularity has simply rectified the somewhat middling chart placing it originally received.

                Will be interesting to see, per Bruno's comment, how much variance there is between the two sides of the Atlantic for example as this thread progresses. I've never heard of the Bob Seger song ursus cites, for instance: here in the UK you'll hear We've Got Tonite, Hollywood Nights and, er, that's about it, and has been ever since I first discovered them in the mid-'90s.

                Speaking of songs that have enjoyed a second life at least partially via commercials, the Bellamy Brothers' two UK hits were Let Your Love Flow (no.7, 1976) and If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me (no.3, 1979). The latter was not only their bigger hit, but apart from anything else had a certain fame for chart nerds like me as (if I recall rightly) one of the longest unbracketed hit song titles ever. The former however has had a hugely higher profile in recent years and is a stone-cold radio classic, not least thanks to a rather joyful advert – I forget what for, mind – a few years back that featured people whooshing around towns, in and out of houses etc. on giant waterslides, which it re-charted on the back of.

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                  #9
                  My Sweet Lord was George Harrison's biggest hit. It could just be me, but the B-side, What is Life, probably gets more airtime nowadays. As it should, that opening riff is an absolute belter and then the Spector wall of sound kicks in.

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                    #10
                    Song 2 for Blur would be a good shout. In fact, anything that is picked up for a few second snippit in Basketball and Hockey works for this.

                    Pretty sure this wasn't Khil's biggest hit.

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by Bruno View Post
                      What is there besides "Don't Stop Believin'"? Or is there anything as clear-cut?
                      Journey were a band that never troubled the UK charts, although they were fairly successful in the US. What was their previous biggest hit?

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                        #12
                        Open Arms was their biggest hit (#2) and Who's Crying Now made #4. Don't Stop Believin' scraped into the Billboard Top Ten at #9. In Canada it made #2, which says a lot about the taste of Canadian music fans.

                        Blitzkrieg Bop must be the most popular Ramones song, yet it never even nudged the top 100 anywhere. Their remake of Baby I Love You made the top ten in the UK but that's about it.

                        Similarly I'd have expected Lust for Life to be Iggy Pop's biggest hit, but it's well in the shadow of Real Wild Child.
                        Last edited by Amor de Cosmos; 24-07-2017, 16:43.

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                          #13
                          Re: Don't Stop Believing. I was deliberately leaving the taste question open. I have Petra Haden's acapella version because, like most of her stuff, it's gently tongue in cheek. Which suits the way the song has evolved over time I think.

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                            #14
                            The San Francisco Giants fanbase in even numbered years is also a major consumer force

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                              #15
                              Originally posted by Bruno
                              Not quite sure what you mean. If you're saying that a lot of people view the song ironically as some kind of guilty pleasure, or ironically because it's as popular as it is, I agree. But for it to be not only popular but to outsell every other single from the second half of the 20th century, suggests #1 that a lot of people like it in earnest, and #2 that a lot of young people like it in earnest. .
                              Oh I'm sure a lot of people genuinely like both the song and performance.

                              It's not quite irony, it's more that I think the song's good, but Journey are a more than a bit cringeworthy. Which has to do with my age when it was released and other contextual stuff. Petra Haden's version validates it for me by reducing the bombast to zero, foregrounding the lyrics, and adding a touch of humour in the chorus and harmonies.

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                                #16
                                You would really hate the version they play at Giants' games, as it turns all of those aspects up to 12

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                                  #17
                                  I'm sure. Sports stadia rock never does subtle.

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                                    #18
                                    I think it's a re-release that the band did for one of the World Series runs.

                                    They did it live at least once.

                                    As someone who spent his early 20s in early 80s San Francisco, I will always have a soft spot for them, but it has virtually nothing to do with the music itself, but rather the memories it evokes,
                                    Last edited by ursus arctos; 24-07-2017, 20:43.

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                                      #19
                                      Originally posted by Bruno
                                      Bombast, hmm. I mean so much of rock and roll...
                                      Sure, and I'm the first to admit that love a bit of it mesself. But there's Spector bombast — for example — and then there's loud for the sake of being loud. Which is OK a lot of the time too, but not when it drains the song of any subtlety it might possess.

                                      As someone wrote, Steve Perry's voice was built for arena rock. I can believe that's true but, for the same reason, I also believe it has it's emotional limitations.
                                      Last edited by Amor de Cosmos; 24-07-2017, 20:57.

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                                        #20
                                        Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                                        On the OP generally, This Charming Man made #8 on reissue in 1992, higher than any single. The Smiths released when active. However, the 1992 chart run was only 5 weeks whereas the 1983 original run was 18 weeks.
                                        I'm fairly confident in saying, in the US, the best-known Smiths song is How Soon Is Now?, which wasn't one of their better-selling UK singles. Probably because it was used as a theme for a TV show whose name escapes me.

                                        Elton John's Are You Ready for Love? didn't even make the top 40 on its release; after its appearance on the Sky football advert, I expect it probably went into his live set. Ditto Elvis Presley's A Little Less Conversation.

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                                          #21
                                          How Soon Is Now had already been issued as the B-side of William It Was Really Nothing (the 12-inch also includes Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want, thereby making it a legitimate contender for best three-song release ever). It was released in its own right after topping Peel's Festive 50 (I think). This, plus its length, probably explains its relatively low UK chart position - as far as I know (and I was a big fan back then) it's always been regarded by most fans as one of their finest moments.

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                                            #22
                                            Originally posted by Stumpy Pepys View Post
                                            I'm fairly confident in saying, in the US, the best-known Smiths song is How Soon Is Now?, which wasn't one of their better-selling UK singles. Probably because it was used as a theme for a TV show whose name escapes me.
                                            Like This Charming Man, as mentioned by Satchmo above, How Soon Is Now? was reissued in the UK in 1992 and had its highest peak then. Following TCM reaching no.8, HSIN? reached no.16 a month later, beating its original no.24 peak from 1985. There was also a third reissue that year, There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, which made no.25 after having never been a hit single before.

                                            Stumpy, I think the TV show you're thinking of would be Charmed, the 'three sisters being witches in modern-day San Francisco' thing with Alyssa Milano and co. The theme was a cover version, though, not the Smiths' original.

                                            Elton John's Are You Ready for Love? didn't even make the top 40 on its release; after its appearance on the Sky football advert, I expect it probably went into his live set. Ditto Elvis Presley's A Little Less Conversation.
                                            I don't think the latter went into Elvis' live set after its chart-topping exploits in 2002, mind...

                                            Are You Ready For Love, although you probably couldn't fairly call it Elton's "biggest hit now", is a great tune and deserved far better than to miss the Top 40 altogether in 1979 – so topping the charts in 2003 certainly made up for that.

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                                              #23
                                              How Soon Is Now was also on Hatful of Hollow so the single was the 3rd format on which it appeared. It is obvious in hindsight it should have been released as the A-side back in 84 instead of William.

                                              It also had a lousy video imposed by Sire IIRC.

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                                                #24
                                                Leo Sayer's another: Thunder in My Heart didn't even make the Top 20 on initial release (1977) but went to number one on reissue (remix) in 2006, prompting reality TV appearances.

                                                Journey were horrendous - it seems pretty obvious that (in the UK at least) they've only gained traction for the one song now because of Glee.

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                                                  #25
                                                  I'd genuinely never heard anything by Journey before Glee. I think I assumed they were 70s proggers.

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