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

Actually, I'm thinking this might apply to lots of hard (or hardish) rock acts who wound up having their biggest pop successes with way-past-their-prime power ballads that are hopefully now forgotten -- Aerosmith's biggest hit by far (and their only #1, for four weeks!) was "I Don't Want to Miss A Thing," right? "Paranoid" and "Ironman" didn't make the Top 40, and "Crazy Train" never even made the Top 100, but Ozzy's Lita Ford duet "Close My Eyes Forever" went Top 10. Plus Meat Loaf, Bryan Adams, Heart, people like that (maybe even a couple former hair metal bands) -- though maybe I'm deluding myself by thinking that nobody cares about all their chart-topping late-period mush anymore.

xpost

people who are embarrassingly protective about who listens to radiohead and how is outdated model, dude. you're supposed to be like that about animal collective now.

but "Don't Want To Miss A Thing" is Aerosmith's top-selling iTunes song, xhuxh!

Really?? Wow. That's so sad. (I haven't been checking the itunes charts, admittedly. Though I'm not sure whether I'd necessarily equate "biggest itunes seller" with "a band's legacy song," either. I have no problem at all with "Creep," though.)

(it isn't Creep)

xp It's their #1 Rhapsody stream, too! Here's their top 10 there:

I Don't Want To Miss A Thing (5:01)
Dream On (4:52)
Walk This Way (4:10)
Janie's Got A Gun (5:30)
Sweet Emotion (5:57)
Angel (5:07)
Cryin' (5:09)
Dude (Looks Like A Lady) (4:24)
Jaded (3:34)
Livin' On The Edge (6:21)

xp Okay, I see that you said that now, Stop Relegating. What, "Paranoid Android" then? I'm actually amazed "Creep" isn't Radiohead's biggest song. But it's not like I make any attempt to keep up with those guys.

Stop Relegating

Start Executing?

I love "Paranoid Android". Not that one either.

Maybe I'm doing something differently, but looking at iTunes right now I see "Creep" at number one, "15 Step"(!) at number two, and "High and Dry" at three.

I remember watching Radiohead play their legacy song "Creep" on MTV while young people sat by the pool. They were probably too busy to get into Kid A years later.

oh lol maybe I'm the one doing it wrong, but from my end it seems that High And Dry is fucking flavour of the millennium, followed a long way back by Karma Police and THEN Creep

and then High And Dry again

xp I never heard of "At Last" until last year!

I think this is one of the most shocking revelations I've ever read on ILM.

― legendary North American forest ape (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, March 27, 2009 4:27 PM (4 hours ago)

Seriously, mind blown.

Oh, here I was thinking your rant was about "Creep"!

(it made sense)

(not that I agree with it)

...I dont even know what "High and Dry" is actually. Is it a newer one?

/lex

i wish i had your unknowledge

ignorance really is bliss in this instance

high and dry is what fake plastic trees would be if it sucked

"High And Dry" is fine.. it's just not their best.. relax.

"Creep" is No. 1 in American iTunes

Stone Temple Pilots' "Creep" is their No. 3
TLC's is their No. 2
Mobb Deep's is their No. 81

Lust for Life

Where do Roxy Music fit in this equation? ("Love Is The Drug" their only U.S. Top 40 ever; "Dance Away" just missed; "More Than This" not even Top 100.)

I think post-1980 Roxy Music have been all but forgotten in US+Canada, but people still remember "Love Is the Drug". So IOW, their biggest hit is also their legacy song.

but for THAT SONG to have like 3x the nearest challenger is just fkn sickening imo and indicative of where a huge proportion of radiohead 'fans' are coming from, i.e. fake-macho-sensitive 'alt-rock' hell

But this is the thing, Louis, that the people who are buying "Creep" are more than likely not Radiohead fans at all. And I don't mean that in the sense of "they're not TRUE fans!", I mean that that may be the only Radiohead song they've heard, and they're buying it because they suddenly got nostalgic for the alt-rock they used to listen to in high school and so they used the iTunes gift certificate they got for Christmas to buy that and "Today" and "No Rain" and "All Apologies."

xp I dunno about that -- Here are the top 20 streams on Roxy's rhapsody page. (I have no idea what several of those highest placed songs are, but then again I stopped paying attention to new stuff by them at some point.) (Somebody else can check itunes):

More Than This (4:30) Lyrics
Avalon (4:16) Lyrics
Love Is The Drug (4:11) Lyrics
India (1:44)
To Turn You On (4:16) Lyrics
Tara (1:43)
Take A Chance With Me (4:42) Lyrics
The Space Between (4:30) Lyrics
Virginia Plain (2:58) Lyrics
The Main Thing (3:54) Lyrics
While My Heart Is Still Beating (3:26) Lyrics
True To Life (4:25) Lyrics
Dance Away (3:46) Lyrics
Ladytron (4:26) Lyrics
Jealous Guy (4:57) Lyrics
Over You (3:27) Lyrics
Same Old Scene (3:58) Lyrics
If There Is Something (10:37) Lyrics
Re-make/Re-model (5:14) Lyrics
Is There Something (6:34)

More Than This (4:30) Lyrics
Avalon (4:16) Lyrics
Love Is The Drug (4:11) Lyrics

This is the exact order of their top 3 songs on iTunes as well. I think "More Than This" got a big boost from Lost in Translation.

Wes Anderson/Sofia Coppola movies do magic for the Stuff White People Like axis of iTunes downloads

LL Cool J:

1. Control Myself ft. Jennifer Lopez
2. Headsprung
3. Going Back To Cali
4. Doin' It
5. Mama Said Knock You Out.

But I guess his "legacy song" is up for debate

And "Control Myself" was probably one of his biggest hits

His "legacy song" is up for debate, but it's certainly not either of the top two

And "Control Myself" might be one of his highest-charting songs, but it seemed like a hit for about two weeks, where a bunch of his earlier hits were ubiquitous for months if not years.

it's pretty fucked up that "Control Myself" is 3 years old and still up there imo

i would think if anything "Luv U Better" would be the highest seller of his last few albums

I don't hate "Lose Control" or anything, it just seems bizarre.

xp: I probably hear "Headsprung" more than anything else from the past decade.

"Lose Control" "Control Myself" lol

wtvr, practically the same song

"Around the Way Girl" is his legacy song in my heart.

I mean that that may be the only Radiohead song they've heard, and they're buying it because they suddenly got nostalgic for the alt-rock they used to listen to in high school and so they used the iTunes gift certificate they got for Christmas to buy that and "Today" and "No Rain" and "All Apologies."

I feel sorry for them. Not in a superior "these songs suck" kinda way, but it sounds like the soundtrack to suburban kid turns 30, marriage/long term relationship breaks up, and loses job. I feel sorry for the life circumstances that in my mind has inspired this nostalgia.

I think post-1980 Roxy Music have been all but forgotten in US+Canada

wtf I hear "Dance Away" and "More Than This" a lot more often than "Do The Strand" and "Virginia Plain."

Jaymc I was talking about "High And Dry" which came top of popularity in Britain for some reason :-/

x-post Totally, I almost never hear pre-"Avalon" Roxy on the radio, and certainly plenty of "Jealous Guy."

Flaming Lips "Do You Realize?" is arguably their legacy song, though not a "hit" like "She Don't Use Jelly."

xp Ha, I misread.

like i say, i'd have no problem with 'creep' being top of r-head downloads, and that's how it seems to be in the usa...maybe i didn't go to the right page or something

"High and Dry" sounds like U2's "Stay (Faraway So Close)."

Same progression, I guess. But the chorus of the U2 song is more interesting (not to mention the verses).

wtf I hear "Dance Away" and "More Than This" a lot more often than "Do The Strand" and "Virginia Plain."

I wasn't referring to 70's Roxy Music in general -- I don't ever remember a time when 70's Roxy Music received much airplay with the *exception* of "Love is the Drug".

Anyway, xhuxk's list suggests that I was wrong about 80's RM, because "Avalon" songs at #1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 = loads of people still like that album.

I'd still argue that "Love Is the Drug" is their legacy song. You don't hear "The Main Thing" in pubs too often, for example.

Josie Cotton, "Johnny Are You Queer"

(undeniably her legacy song -- the only song she's really known for; #81 on VH1's '80s One-Hit-Wonders countdown -- but unlike "He Could Be The One" and "Jimmy Loves Maryann," it never hit the Hot 100.)

Dunno if Jeff Buckley really had "hits", but "Hallelujah" was never a single, from my knowledge.