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

"Staiway To Heaven" folks!

I mean, it was never a single, so technically no hit either.

Also, "Yesterday". Even though it topped the world in a lot of countries including the US (never a single in the UK), it was hardly the biggest hit by The Beatles. It has since been established as the most recorded song ever, but The Beatles' actual version has not been their most popular before.

Primal Scream - Can't Go Back.... Did this album really have a hit single? Kick-Ass boosted this song to exponential heights, whereas aforementioned high-schoolers - once checking out the rest of Screamadelica - found themselves woefully disappointed with the complete lack of songs that would sound good enough to post on their Facebooks in hopes of repping indie-cred.

Can't Go Back was on the album that came out 17 years after Screamadelica, which had several hit singles

What are you talking about? "Born Slippy (NUXX)" reached the #2 spot in the UK single chart in 1996, and it was a big hit in many other countries too.

Okay, it wasn't a big hit in 1995 when it was originally released (though it wasn't totally obscure either, I remember hearing it on a techno comp in '95), but it took only a year for it to become Underworld's legacy song.

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It has often occured that a major song by a British act for some reason has not managed to really become a hit on American radio. Thus, not managing to perform very well in American hitlists in spite of a generally good reputation among fans and critics.
The latter reputation means more in terms of downloading, because radio DJs have less power over that.

Can't Go Back was on the album that came out 17 years after Screamadelica, which had several hit singles.

You are right. When BBC6 had that weeklong Primal Scream week, I remember them playing a live version of this and naturally assumed it was part of Screamadelica (which I don't own because I find it to be somewhat unlistenable).

Not exactly on-topic, but: Wang Chung's #1 on Spotify, with 3,883,144 plays, is "Dance Hall Days"... while "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" hasn't even got half as many plays. I still think the latter is their "signature song" but what's up with that?

I wonder if the GTA Vice City placement has anything to do with it...

"Stairway to Heaven" was never even released as a single back in the day, right? But nowadays it's not just the best-known tune by the band, but one of the most famous tunes of the 1970s.

Zep's a weird case in that they did not release singles in their home country, and nearly all of their "hits" are such in airplay terms only. My sense from accounts of 70s radio is that "Stairway" was unquestionably an enormous "hit" on AOR and would probably have been their "signature" song for many people even then.

Johnny Cash - Hurt

It may not be his biggest selling single but it's definitley one of his signature songs now.

Good one, which really points up different constituencies/listener groups over time. "Hurt" on Spotify has nearly 50 million plays vs. 20 for "Folsom Prison Blues" - which is fucking nuts, and unthinkable in a world where boomers and country fans generally use Spotify as much as the youth of today. Doesn't necessarily mean "Hurt" is actually better-known, but it suggests that in a few years, it probably will be, even as At Folsom Prison continues to be the one hyped in "1,000 best albums" lists.

Does "Making Plans for Nigel" or "Dear God" possibly fit the bill for XTC? Surely these were not the big hits, were they?

dear god is XTC's best known song in the US.

Eminem's "Till I Collapse" seems to be more popular on iTunes and Spotify than a lot of his hits from that time period, aside from "Lose Yourself".

Making Plans For Nigel was a big UK hit, and is the song that usually ends up on punk/new wave compilations.

According to Billboard Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" was not a chart hit in its original release (though Judy Collins' version was Judy's biggest hit) and nor did it chart in the re-recorded version off her 2000 album of the same name.

It's that re-recorded song that is her biggest hit on iTunes, though, and certainly the song is now her "legacy" song.

I'm guessing that the former fact is certainly, and the latter fact at least partly, due to the use of the 2000 version in Love, Actually.

maybe right but i'd've guessed that Joni's legacy song in terms of performance is "Big Yellow Taxi"

On Spotify Both Sides Now comes behind Big Yellow Taxi, A Case of You and that Janet Jackson hit that sampled Big Yellow Taxi. But it's true it wouldn't even be in her top 10 without Love Actually.

On iTunes it goes:

1) Both Sides Now (2000)
2) Big Yellow Taxi
3) River
4) A Case Of You

then several more Blue songs then the original Both Sides Now at 9.

But I'm not sure it owes is position entirely to Love Actually - wikipedia says it's her most covered song by some distance.

The enduring rep of "A Case Of You" is perhaps even more remarkable given it was never even released as a single by anybody.

I feel like it was also a big part of an Olympics opening ceremony not too long ago

David Bowie - "Heroes"

ah it's already been mentioned.

Oh I see - Both Sides Now has been covered recently by Susan Boyle, Idina Menzel, Carly Rae Jepsen, Ronan Keating, Michael Ball and John Barrowman. I knew it was a folk standard in the 60s but I didn't realise it had become a showbiz one.

River gets the Christmas song vote I guess.

Glen Campbell does an absolutely majestic version of Both Sides Now. It's actually my favorite song of his, perfect for his voice.

dear god is XTC's best known song in the US.

― akm, Tuesday, February 3, 2015 11:21 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't know about that. Even though it was a cover version by Crash Test Dummies, "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" was included on the soundtrack to Dumb & Dumber, so almost certainly more people have heard that one.

"I Can See For Miles" was the Who's biggest US hit (#9), but "Baba O'Riley" (not a single in the US) and "Who Are You" (#14 in Billboard) are their top iTunes songs.

Dear God beats Making Plans for Nigel on Spotify fwiw

Baba O Riley is another one that's had TV and film soundtrack help i guess; it's been used in The Newsroom, CSI, Summer Of Sam, One Tree Hill.. all sorts.
pretty amazing that Won't Get Fooled Again and Pinball Wizard are somehow less popular these days. i barely knew Baba.. growing up but you couldn't escape The Hits.

A bit like that Badfinger song "Baby Blue", yeah?

yeah, never heard it before The Departed aye.

I blame the decline of Pinball machines for Pinball Wizard's decline in popularity.

"Feeling Good" is Nina Simone's top song on itunes and most searched on youtube but didn't even merit inclusion on her 2-disc 2003 Anthology.

ok so McCartney's Top 3 on Spotify are Live And Let Die (live version!), Wonderful Christmastime and Maybe I'm Amazed.

re:McCartney, Christmas songs tend to feature prominently on some Spotify top lists. Sinatra's most popular song on Spotify is "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" by a wide margin, and "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" is his 3rd most popular.

Definitely not saying those are Sinatra's legacy songs, just amusing to note holiday songs becoming the most popular for a revered artist.

McCartney really is too big of an act to have one "legacy song," I think, even without considering that his tombstone will probably be engraved with his Beatles big ones first and foremost. And yeah, it's not surprising that a Christmas song and a movie theme pick up a lot of listens.

But "Maybe I'm Amazed" actually is a pretty big song for him, and in a way fits the spirit of the thread... not as huge as his other hits at the time, but clearly more of a "concert staple" and more oft-covered than, I would guess, bigger hits like "My Love," "Ebony & Ivory," "With A Little Luck," or "No More Lonely Nights." Maybe not "Silly Love Songs" or "Mull of Kintyre" though. Still, dude has dozens of hits, so it's tough to say that any one of them stands at the top, either expectedly or no.

"I Can See For Miles" was the Who's biggest US hit (#9), but "Baba O'Riley" (not a single in the US) and "Who Are You" (#14 in Billboard) are their top iTunes songs.

"I Can See For Miles" might start moving up the list--it's the theme for the new CSI: Cyber show.

I can't wait for CSI: Dogs.

Talking Heads. Their biggest charting US single is Wild Wild Life. Biggest in UK is Road To Nowhere. Their signature/legacy song is clearly Once In A Lifetime, which never even charted.

I feel like there's a thread somewhere where we talk about the fact that lots of people today think of Talking Heads as "that band who did This Must Be The Place."

There was a time in the 90s when I feel like I all I knew/heard by them was 'Burning Down the House,' but now that you mention it, I guess it's been a while since I heard it at all.

"Once in a Lifetime" is definitely the only song by them that I know.

feel like a Tuomas would dig I Zimbra

Came across a potential candidate for this thread today: Weezer's most popular song on Spotify by a wide margin is "Island in the Sun," the 9th highest charting single of their career.

It's almost twice as popular as "Say It Ain't So," their second most popular track ("Buddy Holly," which I would have pegged for #1, is third). It's their #1 iTunes song as well.

Not sure if it's their "legacy" song, but I was legitimately surprised that a song I pegged as "moderately well-liked" evidently towers over the rest of their catalogue in popularity.

re: Talking Heads - a lot of people know them as the 'Psycho Killer' band now for some reason.

Ha ha the green album does rule

was thinking about this with Mariah Carey recently - "All I Want for Christmas Is You".

Island in The Sun was #1 in France and huge in Europe (though not the UK), hence it getting tacked onto EU (and annoyingly, UK) copies of Maladroit, which they had the audacity to release less than a year after it was a hit

Interesting. The more I thought about it, Island in the Sun does seem to have had a longer cultural life than many of their other songs. I still feel like I hear it pretty regularly, and it doesn't have the "90s!" cultural associations their earlier hits do. It's got pleasant vibes, good for, like, grocery shopping, or background music for a tv scene or a commercial.

More like "Island in the Suck"

"Get Ready For This" was only 2 Unlimited's 11th biggest hit, coming from their only 3rd best selling album, but has clearly become their signature song.

No Limit is surely their signature song.