the most famous album track that is not a title track, was never a single, and is not known because of its use in a movie soundtrack, TV ad, etc.

xpost SWTH was a single (eventually) in UK.

but i'd say the best examples might be where the song is featured on a really celebrated or massive album, lending it notoriety by association.

maybe nirvana's 'drain you'

pink floyd's 'shine on you crazy diamond'?

(Though the cover version was a single for The Manhattan Transfer, does that count?)

Well, I've never heard either incarnation of 'Birdland', but then Weather Report never really made it in the UK.

Black Hole Sun was definitely a single in the UK - can't speak for the US though.

"Stairway to Heaven" OTM.

As for #2, hmm lemme think...

I think there is a single edit of Won't Get Fooled Again.

I know a few of my friends became more aware of WGFA after seeing Summer Of Sam.

And it's popularity has very little to do with Summer of Sam. That's like saying everybody knows Stairway To Heaven cause it was referenced in Wayne's World.

9 Who Won't Get Fooled Again Jul 1971

OK? End.

I think the only movie Zeppelin tracks are actually used it was Almost Famous.

Many rap fans from the 80s are in their 50 now, there's an NWA movie coming out...even non-rap fans quote it. Maybe not as far reaching as a Stairway but it was a fledgling scene that sprouted on its own.

The Stairway single is around $300

I wonder how they cut the song in two. it's quite a silly idea !

I'm sure there are some original songs to be found that were not released as singles and made famous by their cover versions.

NIN's Hurt has some tens of millions of Youtube views spread across a couple videos.

Or was that a single...?

Ah, I guess it kinda was.

OMG, I just skipped to the 4:01 mark in "Stairway", thinking it might be the start of the guitar fanfare section. It's right in the middle of the guitar strumming during a "makes me wonder" chorus".

Hurt was fairly huge when NiN released it though, Cash just gave it a second wind.

I used to hear it twice an hour when flipping between rock stations. Even recorded a terrible parody of it in high school

Xxxposts

regarding "Fuck tha Police" I think it might be a contender but only in the US then.
I doubt many people particularly know it elsewhere except if you're a late 30/early 40 who was really into hiphop as a teenager...
It's definitely nowhere near as ubiquitous as the big 70s tracks mentioned.

OMG, I just skipped to the 4:01 mark in "Stairway", thinking it might be the start of the guitar fanfare section. It's right in the middle of the guitar strumming during a "makes me wonder" chorus".

ahah. but didn't they cut at 4:04 ?

Ha, my comment still stands at 4:04.

hum. ok, 4:04 wouldn't change much. the beginning of the following verse being around 4:20...
makes me wonder !

I doubt the timings are acccurate.

It has, what, four sections?

maybe they changed the speed of the song to make it fit the sides !

if you're a late 30/early 40 who was really into hiphop as a teenager...

ime this is the vast majority of people this age and you didn't have to be "really into" hip hop at the time, the song and the group were notorious, at the center of a massive public media firestorm etc. and a few years later Dre would be one of the hugest/most famous/most important rap producers ever so um yeah people know this

and tbf NOTHING is as ubiquitous as the big 70s rock tracks mentioned because lol boomers/structure of the industry

ime this is the vast majority of people this age and you didn't have to be "really into" hip hop at the time, the song and the group were notorious, at the center of a massive public media firestorm etc. and a few years later Dre would be one of the hugest/most famous/most important rap producers ever so um yeah people know this

again, this is certainly true but only/mostly in the US.

and tbf NOTHING is as ubiquitous as the big 70s rock tracks mentioned because lol boomers/structure of the industry

that's why "Hallelujah" is a good contender as an 80s song.

I feel like "Fuck the Police", even back in the late 80s, was more heard about than heard. Since it didn't get radio of MTV play and there was no YouTube, you had to either buy it or be exposed to it by a friend, a party, a club, a boom box on the bus, or a passing car. but everyone knew that there was a song called "Fuck the Police"

again, this is certainly true but only/mostly in the US.

idk why you keep bringing this up, if we're emphasizing global popularity here the correct answer is probably some huge non-English pop song none of us know

of course not. on a global approach, it's certainly and english speaking song (as you said : boomers, industry, etc). but I really doubt "fuck tha police" is the best contender.

Surely the "when yr sliding into first" song wasn't a single?

O wait fuk it was in Parenthood nm

Yeah, if we're talking about tracks that are "most popular", I don't see why the definition of that has to be "most popular in the US", since a lot of us aren't from there. There are loads of tunes mentioned in this thread that were/are globally popular, like "Stairway", but Alex is correct that "Fuck the Police" isn't really one of them.

(xpost)

Australia station Triple J played it for six months in 1989, a fact I have definitely known for years and did not at all look up on Wikipedia

Tbh, I'm sceptical that the vast majority of Americans in their late 30s/early 40s were really into hip-hop as teenagers. I'd submit that Bon Jovi's "Never Say Goodbye" might be as or more famous than "Fuck tha Police" as 80s songs go but apparently, it was a single in the UK.

does fame require that the populace needs to be able to recite the song from memory, or just that it has entered into their consciousness at some point?

cos I don't know that we should hold the fact that the general public not being able to quote "me and Lorenzo rollin in a Benzo" specifically means it isn't 'famous'.

I see people sharing Fuck Tha Police memes that are clearly NWA inspired that probably aren't fans.

idk. maybe someone needs to do a surveymonkey

I'm sceptical that the vast majority of Americans in their late 30s/early 40s were really into hip-hop as teenagers.

why the skepticism

I think saying "really into" is overstating anyway (as noted) - hip hop was pop music and parents hated it. Even people who weren't "really into" hip hop knew about NWA

wiki sez: "Straight Outta Compton" reached double platinum sales status, becoming the first album to reach platinum status with no airplay support and without any major tours

and beyond that there was the national notoriety from the FBI letter, MTV shenanigans etc.

and again we're not talking about "most popular" here, we're talking about "most popular with a whole bunch of caveats". and Fuck Tha Police meets all those caveats ("Stairway" was featured in a concert film fwiw, dunno why no one's mentioned that - does that not count as a soundtrack?)

I think Stairway was pretty huge before the Song Remains the Same came out in '76

Happy birthday sing has to really be the right answer here

*song

Also interesting to separate these into songs anyone can learn on a guitar (""Hallelujah", "Wagon Wheel", "When Yr Sliding Into First") vs. songs that can only be listened to.

Happy birthday song

what album was this on

Also interesting to separate these into songs anyone can learn on a guitar

"I could play "Stairway To Heaven" when I was 12. Jimmy Page didn't actually write it until he was 22. I think that says quite a lot."

what album was this on

― Οὖτις, Friday, March 20, 2015 5:12 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://www.amazon.com/Singable-Collection-Anniversary-Special-Edition/dp/B0000003IO

heh

and again we're not talking about "most popular" here, we're talking about "most popular with a whole bunch of caveats". and Fuck Tha Police meets all those caveats

I don't remember "popular in the US only" being one of the caveats mentioned here?

People outside of the US have never heard of NWA or "Fuck the Police"? It seems like a pretty universal concept

it re-entered the UK album charts in 2003 at number 35 though. granted I'm sure most of those were latecomers to it and not people who were around in 1988 but idk, "popular in the US only" seems misleading.

xpost

The question here was not whether people have heard of a band or song, it was about the popularity of a specific tune.

http://www.pushstuff.co.uk/mmalbums/nwa080789.html

well some of us are arguing that "popular" = "well-known" and some of you seem to be arguing that "popular" = "can sing from memory" so there's probably some disconnect there

xxpost I mean everybody in the world knows Stairway but if I went up to the average person that said "oh of course, I know what that is", do I think they could even name a lyric or hum a riff? fuck no. yeah, a hell of a lot more people will be able to do so than they would with "Straight OUtta Compton", because it had a much further reach, but I'd wager the proportion of people who know the song well to the overall population that claims to know the song but barely remember how it goes is going to be weaker than you think.

I guess it all depends at what the initial poster wanted. If the thread is mere supposed to pedanticly adhere to the caveats set forth in the post and nothing more, then yes, Stairway wins because it wasn't a single officially(and sund4r did point out the OP mentioned "Money" which muddies the waters as to the original intent).

But the scope of "SOC"'s ascension is more impressive to me given that it didn't have radio stations, movies, television, or anything other than organic word of mouth driving its popularity and yet managed to imprint itself upon popular culture and led to a facelift of pop-rap, which up until that time was largely clean and innocent.

Whereas "Stairway" came from a band with an already established worldwide fanbase, and was essentially a single in the way it was released to radio, the main difference being you as a consumer couldn't buy it as such in a store as it was a 'promo'. It wasn't FM deejays experimenting with their long-form format and picking up on an album track and making it a hit, the label made a really concerted effort to make it popular and drive album sales up as a result, by sending those 7"s to every major FM station they could find. So it's a somewhat bland answer.

"Stairway" was featured in a concert film fwiw, dunno why no one's mentioned that - does that not count as a soundtrack?

The caveat there is "not known because of its use in a soundtrack". I'm pretty sure that's the case here. The Filipino single release may well disqualify it though.

yeah Stairway was fairly big long before Song Remains. Technically it had garnered some interests from fans before its release because they played it in a series of concerts pre-Zoso, too.

Re: the Filipino singles release, I know it was stated upthread that it seems silly to disqualify based on something being released in a single in small countries but if we're taking a "Framer's" reading of the Constitution OP, they did state "was never a single", implying at any point in time, not just prior to its ascendance/popularity.

Im of the Living OP school

fair enough sund4r

xp