Bands with lengthy and respected careers, but whose very first single is still their biggest hit

Can’t think of anyone who embodies this more than Radiohead, but I am sure there are other examples there. Open to suggestions

This was true of Kate Bush until very recently.

Good one!

The Kinks

nope, I'm sorry. Discogs has You Really Got Me as their first single, this is not true.

but..... Britney Spears

Yes Britney

were the Spice Girls respected enough for this thread?

xposts discogs does not sort into date order, only year.

So, it looks wrong. Kinks 1st = "Long Tall Sally"

Ha! Morio Agata!

initial sales is not an accurate metric, "Toxic" is a bigger hit than "...Baby One More Time"

Oh, on a technicality!

Pet Shop Boys

A-ha

I suppose the biggest one could be Mungo Jerry, they had hits for 4 years but does that count as lengthy? Probably not...

Boston

The Killers

Aimee Mann (via Til Tuesday)

Rick Astley, he's still recording isn't he?

Laurie Anderson, although her very first release was this but I'm not counting it
https://www.discogs.com/release/2314478-Laurie-Anderson-Its-Not-The-Bullet-That-Kills-You-Its-The-Hole

re Radiohead, they only do this on a technicality really? I guess there might be some disagreement but personally I think an EP is an (extended) single (and counted as one for the UK charts), so Creep is their second single, and was only a hit after it was reissued, by which time they'd also released Anyone Can Play Guitar

Oh, on a technicality!

Pet Shop Boys

No.

The Bar-Kays

Kesha. "Timber" might be bigger than "Tik Tok" but she wasn't the lead artist on it

Julie London

quite possibly... aerosmith!

This is tougher than it seems but The Sex Pistols: Anarchy in the UK probably counts.

Van Morrison?

In 2011, "Brown Eyed Girl" was honoured for having 10 million US radio air plays; it was one of only ten songs registered with BMI to have received that number of radio plays.[21] As of 2015, "Brown Eyed Girl" remains the most downloaded and most played song of the entire 1960s decade.[22]

Not really, it only reached no. 38 in the UK singles chart. God Save The Queen famously stalled at no. 2 and every other single up to 1979 (except for The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle) went top 10.

xp

soulja boy

If an artist's work with previous bands is to be included in their "career": Alex Chilton.

Not sure the Sex Pistols had a lengthy career where recordings are concerned.

At least in the US, Robyn would count here. "(Do You Know) What It Takes" was her first US single and, by Hot 100 stats (#7 peak, #29 year-end), was her biggest hit. Follow-up "Show Me Love" has nearly identical Hot 100 stats, too. But those are her only two Hot 100 hits in the US.

"Lucky Man" is still the song ELP is known for but its fair to say it's not really representative of the band's sound or what their fans really like about them. bonus points since it might actually be the first song Lake ever wrote period

this is a great question, can't really think of any examples other than the ones mentioned (Aerosmith a very good call)

Julie London also a good call

13th Floor Elevators do not have a "lengthy and respected discography" or they would qualify

Beck, if one discounts his pre-Geffen underground slabs

Link Wray

nice

don't think Aerosmith works -

Dream On

RIAA: 4× Platinum
BPI: Platinum

I Don't Want to Miss a Thing

RIAA: 5× Platinum
ARIA: 2× Platinum
BPI: 4× Platinum
BVMI: Platinum

lol dammit

Saint Etienne

Depending on how you want to define biggest hit: Spotify has "Dream On" at #1.

as god intended

the doors

steely dan

I suggested Pet Shop Boys as their first single was the Bobby O version of "West End Girls", but I guess they had bigger hits subsequently...

Status Quo vis-à-vis the USA

was surprised to learn that "Hello, I Love You" also went to #1, but Doors still a good call

Beck is a great one

Maybe Counting Crows as well

But the Doors' first single was "Break On Through (to the Other Side)," not a big hit

Oh and per the above on Radiohead, “prominent first single” might have been more accurate, not tiny single on an indie label nobody bought etc

xp oh you are correct

https://www.discogs.com/artist/252495-The-Kingsmen

steely dan

― corrs unplugged, Thursday, February 26, 2026 4:21 PM (forty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i think "ricki" was technically bigger than "do it again"

If we count prominent first single, I think Jackson 5 count. #1 on their first try and still their most popular song by far on Spotify

Oh and per the above on Radiohead, “prominent first single” might have been more accurate, not tiny single on an indie label nobody bought etc

but Radiohead's first single was released on Parlophone, the same label as Creep, at the time a subsidiary of EMI?

Nirvana? Teen Spirit wasn't technically their first single but for the purposes of this thread it might as well have been

though I guess they didn't exactly have a lengthy career

Beck is a great one

Except that Loser was his third single

"Sultans of Swing" seems to have outsold all of Dire Straits' subsequent singles.

Nirvana? Teen Spirit wasn't technically their first single but for the purposes of this thread it might as well have been

The thread isn’t titled “bands who had released five singles in three years and then their sixth single was their biggest hit and then they stopped existing two and a half years later”

although it’s true that the OP specifically argues against actually following the premise of the thread so I guess the point should be to only give answers that are incorrect

was kinda thinking the Moody Blues might fit the bill if you discounted the Denny Laine stuff (as I think most people do), but looking it up I found out that Heyward and Pinder actually wrote two singles before "Nights in White Satin". more importantly I discovered that "Go Now" was their only #1 single, so I guess they count after all :)

haha

this thread is gonna break sic's brain <3

Soft Cell
The Knack

Bucks Fizz

tommy james & the shondells (whose career becomes reasonably lengthy if you include solo tommy)

lesley gore

Procol Harum

I have to think single means song in this context cuz it's weird to think of Radiohead's first as "Prove Yourself" even if it's the first track on a UK singles chart #101 and got played on the radio once or twice? Apparently. Always thought of "Drill" as an EP in the mini album sense, with Creep as their first single (available in EP and single formats)

First single as in first specific song with any market push. Even if it's out of a band's trunk.

Radiohead is an odd one, "Creep" catno is R6078, whereas the Drill ep is R6312 which would suggest that Creep came out earlier (Parlophone not being Factory in its numbering schema)

Obviously, release dates show different.

Pretty sure Careless Whisper is still George Michael's biggest solo single if we're not including Wham.

Kim Wilde might count. I think Kids In America is still her biggest selling single despite her cover of You Keep Me Hanging On also getting to number two. It's certainly her most well known song.

In the UK, Sade would certainly count. Amazingly, Your Love Is King is their only top ten hit.

"Your Love Is King" BPI: Silver
"Smooth Operator" BPI: Platinum

Fair enough. I was just going on the chart positions really. Your Love Is King got to number six and spent three weeks in the top ten, Smooth Operator only made 19.

don't think Aerosmith works -

Dream On

RIAA: 4× Platinum
BPI: Platinum

I Don't Want to Miss a Thing

RIAA: 5× Platinum
ARIA: 2× Platinum
BPI: 4× Platinum
BVMI: Platinum

literally never heard the latter (and i worked in a record store when it came out)

sounds like you did miss a thing

Soft Cell

come ON

Rickie Lee Jones

Joe Jackson - Is She Really Going Out with Him?

Debatably his biggest hit and only charted on a reissue after several other singles didn't chart, but technically it was his first single.

The Band

Pharoahe Monch (solo)

Re The Band

"Rag Mama Rag" was their biggest hit in the UK, their third single here..

you kinda have to include the band to get to “lengthy and respected career” though, or he’s just a guy who released two albums eight years apart

(by thread standards)

xp re Monch

She took a hiatus between her seventh and eighth albums, The Red Shoes (1993) and Aerial (2005).

“a fourth album (Love Deluxe) in 1992. The band went on hiatus in 1996 after the birth of Sade's child.
The band reunited in 1999 and the following year, released Lovers Rock, their first album in eight years. Lovers Rock was a departure from the band's earlier jazz-inspired sounds. In 2010, the band released Soldier of Love, their sixth studio album“

Idk man it seems like a bunch of names mentioned here have big gaps between albums

Red Shoes wasn’t her first though!

you’re counting both Ms Adu and Ms Bush’s Organised Konfusionses

Ok ok

(my point was also that since OP classes records on EMI as “an indie label nobody bought” then Monch ONLY has the two LPs)

RLJ possibly the only immaculate call here

Cyndi Lauper (disregarding the band she was in before)

Re: Joe Jackson

Surely "Stepping Out" was his biggest hit

It's Different For Girls was his highest charting hit in the UK.

Arctic Monkeys on a technicality?

First two singles are their only #1s but I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor spent much longer in the top ten and top forty than follow up When The Sun Goes Down

xpost "Steppin' Out" was his biggest US hit (and his Spotify #1)

For "biggest hit" are we looking for highest chart place or best-selling?

Ms Adu
Ms Bush

…and then
Ms. Badu makes the list

For "biggest hit" are we looking for highest chart place or best-selling?

we can’t even decide on a common understanding of “single”
or “first”

At least we have objective measures like "respected."

i think a couple songs on a.m. have surpassed "dancefloor" by now. "i wanna be yours" somehow has 3.6 billion (with a b) spotify streams

James McMurtry certainly has had a lengthy and respected career, but only released one single (according to Wikipedia.)

yeah Steppin Out is clearly the song he's known for, in my experience people know the song "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" but don't know it's Joe Jackson

I suppose in America he came across as a sophisti-pop artist, since we missed the angry young man era.

Makes sense when "Steppin Out" had a video and "Is She Really Going Out with Him" did not.

Oh, I got one for you. Ozzy Osbourne, with "Crazy Train"

Yeah Rickie Lee Jones is an excellent call

Bobbie Gentry I guess might not meet the longevity requirement. Only four years of making albums, but didn't quit show biz for another decade or so. Still an amazing example of starting strong (#1 Grammy-winning song).

Arctic Monkeys first single was "Fake tales of San Francisco"

I guess some boffin will have to dispute it cos she has two other contenders but Christina with Genie In A Bottle?

Laurie Anderson: "O Superman" a UK number one, she's still putting out interesting records at increasing intervals.

Pearl Jam?

Laurie Anderson: "O Superman" a UK number one, she's still putting out interesting records at increasing intervals.

considering the actual shape of her career as an artist, it’s hard to not count her single from four years before as a single though

Pearl Jam?

in what way

Huh? “Bullet” was part of an art piece, not distributed for sale to the public, right?

Martha & The Muffins

O Superman only got to number 2

Echo Beach was preceded by Insect Love (1978)

part of an art piece

yeah but releasing O Superman to the public is an art piece too :)

xp Ah you're right. Also discogs lists two versions of Insect Love (incl one on Dindisc) released before Echo Beach. I humbly relinquish my MatM fanboy credentials.

I was going to suggest Bauhaus. But they only lasted for five years, and "Bela Lugosi's Dead" didn't chart. Their most popular single was a cover of "Ziggy Stardust" from much later in their career. So no, Bauhaus is not the answer to this particular question.

Enya isn't a band, and "Orinoco Flow" wasn't her first single. Future Sound of London's "Papua New Guinea" was technically their third single, and it was out-charted by "We Have Explosive". Boston's "More Than a Feeling", their debut single, surprisingly wasn't their highest-charting hit.

Pink Floyd's odd status as a singles band that became an album band that had a freak #1 means that although "Arnold Layne" was a hit, it was nowhere near as hitty as "Another Brick in the Wall II". They are the only musicians I know.

Purely in terms of US chart positions numbers Mike Oldfield's 45rpm version of "Tubular Bells" was both his first single and literally his only charting single in the US, but he went on to have other hits elsewhere in the world, and technically it wasn't even made by him, it was edited together by the record label.

Arguably Tracy Chapman. “Give Me One Reason” charted higher but “Fast Car” has 3 times as many Spotify streams.

I'm guessing "Bela Lugosi's Dead" sold more than any other Bauhaus single.

"Fast Car" is obviously TC's biggest hit, chart placing aside.

Absolutely re: Bauhaus. Never stopped selling.

There was a question going around some time ago on here: Biggest selling single never to have charted. Kinda stumped people, that one.

Bauhaus is a great call

Barrett Strong undoubtedly had a long and respected career at Motown, both as a performer and songwriter, but as a performer his biggest hit was "Money" from 1959

I'm not sure if you could count Girls Aloud as their original run only lasted seven years, but Sound Of The Underground is their biggest selling single of all their 21 top ten hits. They did have two reunions though so maybe they could be included here.

Van Morrison?

this is a great call imo

Oh and thinking of reality music show winners, Will Young's debut single Evergreen is (sadly) still his biggest single by a mile.

I wasn't sure about nominating Van Morrison as he had produced significant work before going solo -- to this day he finishes shows with "Gloria" (and doesn't even play BEG).

George Michael is a similar case.

Ozzy too.

“The Sound of Silence” was a monster (and S&G’s first single) but gets edged out just a bit by “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”

America, though ymmv with respectability.

Ozzy too

ozzy also had objectively bigger hits later, in his power ballad years.

"Fast Car" is obviously TC's biggest hit, chart placing aside.

this is as otm as otm gets

Ozzy's only American is the top ten Lita Ford collab "Close My Eyes Forever."

The Clean with Tally Ho?

cardi b so far

Lorde appears to be one of these

America, though ymmv with respectability.

― Who's going to stop 200 balloons? Nobody! (President Keyes), Saturday, February 28, 2026 10:47 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

it's true the Declaration of Independence is still our highest-charting hit, on the other hand blue jeans have gone on to be our "legacy song" and biggest iTunes seller

Pizza is big too but that’s a cover so it don’t count

Pearl Jam?

in what way

Not a chart hit.

Spotify suggests that "Even Flow" is their most popular song ("Alive" being #2).

That one’s a bit weird. I hear Alive and Jeremy on the radio pretty often but almost never hear Evenflow.

Last Kiss also technically their highest chart peak. I think they're more typical of a big longstanding rock band where there really isn't one single obvious "biggest hit." I think we've also explored this in songs that weren't a bands biggest hit, but have gone on to be their legacy song and biggest iTunes seller.

Those songs from Ten were huge MTV hits, which didn’t always translate to the charts.

this thread is the most fun and most confusing we’ve had since arguing about how to count the beat in roll
out

Was wondering about Carol King. I think her first single as an artist was It’s Too Late which was the highest charting single from Tapestry. I see any singles from her first album, Writer

…don’t see …

It seems that she released earlier singles, among which:

Also in 1970, Carole King herself recorded "Up on the Roof" for her solo recording debut Writer, from which it was issued as a single.

“even flow” is a big song on tiktok

The Breeders - no singles from Pod, Safari is an EP so “Cannonball” is their first and biggest.

nice one. we should poll the ones here that qualify, lol

I keep thinking there must be some first wave punk band that qualifies here but there really isn't

“I’m Stranded” is the Saints biggest song on streaming, but it didn’t make the UK or US charts.

The 80s incarnation had some modest hits which charted higher than the early stuff.

Carole King started releasing singles in the late '50s. Her first charting (top 100) single was "It Might as Well Rain Until September" from 1962

Counting Crows are mentioned in passing upthread but I’d like to highlight them, I think they definitely qualify. Mr. Jones seems to definitively be their first single, and its only competitor s as their biggest hit is their dire Big Yellow Taxi cover, but I refuse to believe that’s bigger than Mr. Jones

i remember when "hanginaround" was inescapable but yeah mr. jones is bigger

luther vandross?

if we're going strictly by the billboard hot 100, he would unquestionably go on to have bigger hits than "never too much." but if we're going by the billboard r&b chart, which is where both luther and his audience lived, he basically peaked at the very start with that amazing, chart-topping first single from his first album. (also, this means not counting the handful of singles his first group, "luther," released in the 1970s before he broke up the group and signed his solo deal. which i believe is the correct thing to do!)

"Never Too Much" is his biggest hit for sure.

fact wrecking cuz

No one will remember that his biggest Hot 100 hit was....the "Endless Love" cover with Mariah Carey.

fact wrecking cuz

:)

No one will remember that his biggest Hot 100 hit was....the "Endless Love" cover with Mariah Carey.

otm

(or, as with, say, aerosmith, they'll remember but they won't care)

The Undertones

Phil Collins

true story i didn't hear "in the air tonight" until that youtube reaction video

however "another day in paradise" is burned into my brain since childhood

not saying this is in any way an objective disqualifier

lol that's amazing. the guy who lived in the singles dorm room next to me used to blast ITAT every day, multiple times, at top volume circa spring of 1985

ADIP definitely had the higher chart placing in the US, but ITAT has totally outsold it... ADIP was Gold, ITAT is 3 x Platinum

You gotta factor streaming. "Another Day in Paradise" went 500,000 gold cert with cassingles and CD singles. "In the Air Tonight" got to 3X platinum on downloads (legit) and streams (a little less legit for "actual" sales).

ITAT also has Pop Culture cachet: the Miami Vice premiere; The Hangover; the whole urban legend about its inspiration...

In the US "I Missed Again" was his first single

yup

And charted equally as high (#19). Curiously, both singles also peaked at #19 on the Cashbox chart.

Tinashe

Wasn’t there a big commercial with an ape playing ITAT?

The Undertones

a five-year recording career

also Teenage Kicks was an EP

The Zombies / Argent

also Teenage Kicks was an EP

not really extended bcz both sides are 45r EPs are established as counting for the purposes of the thread, even more so if they’re titled for the track imo

it was me who originally said EPs should count! but it doesn't seem like that's the consensus

The Breeders' Safari was dismissed as an EP even though Safari is the title track

it seems like the rule for this thread is:

- if the first single is an EP and wasn't a hit then it doesn't count
- if the first single is an EP and was a hit then it does count