Quotes from artists who express surprise or joy that they've had a hit with a supposedly (they think) uncommercial or trend-resistant song

I'm looking to compile a list of quotes like this, not for any particular reason, just because I feel this could list could potentially comprise quite surprising entrants? Esp as leans heavily on what the makers themselves think. At least, it's a list that'd look very different to lists of what we/others consider weird hit singles.

Some examples of what I mean (all are essentially UK-specific)

Norman Cook (1990) on Beats International - Dub Be Good to Me

"To have a number one you have to sell to grannies and ten-year-olds, I didn't think grannies would get into a record like that. It took six hours to make. I'm still shocked. It appealed to me, but I didn't think it would appeal to Simon Bates. It's got scratching noises on it and a bassline that doesn't follow the rest of the song. I suppose anything can happen now."

The Edge (1988) on U2 - Desire (lol this quote)

"Music's become too scientific, it’s lost that spunk and energy that it had in the '50s and '60s. When I listen to most modern records I hear a producer, I don’t hear musicians interacting. And that quality, that missing quality is something we were trying to get back into our own music. What I like about Desire is that if there's ever been a cool #1 to have in the UK, that's it because it’s totally not what people are listening to or what's in the charts at the moment. Instead it's going in exactly the opposite direction. It's a rock and roll record – in no way is it a pop song."[q]

Anthony Kiedis (2002) on Red Hot Chilis - By the Way (lol this quote also)
[q]"I thought that single was an uber-bombastic assault of non-commercialism. For it to be so well received over there [in the UK] was shocking to me, but thrilling at the same time. It's a good feeling when that island of yours embraces our band."

Nicky Wire has gone on about with If You Tolerate This.. the Manics got a song about the Spanish Civil War to No. 1 and kept off Steps but I can only find these (from 1999 and 2018) and there must be clearer examples out there

[Does Wire still consider the Manics a subversive band?] "I think we have been, it's hard to tell at the moment. We're always hyper-critical of ourselves. If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next was a number one single [in the UK] and it was about the Spanish Civil war. We're not so obvious in our subversion; it's more subtle."

"People are willing to join causes, but no one puts those feelings into their actual art. A song like our If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next, about the Spanish civil war, got to number one in six countries. It's impossible that that – or A Design for Life – could be a hit now."

Also the Manics, Nicky (2018) says this about The Masses Against the Classes

Q. Your 2000 stand-alone single The Masses Against The Classes was the first new No.1 of the new millennium, is that song the most unlikely No.1 ever?

"Yes. To have a No.1 record, which starts with a quote from Noam Chomsky and ends with a quote from Camus, with distorted drums and guitars blaring out, feels like something that could never happen again. That makes me sad because it's such an unlikely thing to get to No.1."

Thom Yorke (2001) on Paranoid Android and the OKC era

"I was most proud of the fact we were able to get things slipped through [into the mainstream]. One of the proudest moments for me was getting Paranoid Android on Radio 1. The reaction it got was just fucking wicked. Just amazing. You couldn't listen to it a lot on Radio 1. Each time I'd hear it, I'd keep thinking about people doing intricate jobs in factories - working on industrial lathes - getting injured from the shock of being exposed to it".

Plus, not really about it being a hit (which it was outside the US) but Mike Mills (1996) and Michael Stipe (2003) respectively on releasing E-Bow the Letter as a lead single

"..it's in reaction to the fact that we've never taken the easy way out. It's important for us to challenge ourselves and the audience. Audiences can respond well to things like that, like putting out 'Drive' from Automatic for the People. That was a very important decision for us, and the record company weren't real thrilled about it, but they trust us and they know we have reasons for what we do, and it usually works out. It didn't do Automatic much harm."

"We did have an ability to release the most unlikely songs just to push radio as far as we could push them, get more good music on the radio. And there was… for a while. “E-Bow The Letter” sounded the death knell for us being able to do that! But I think it represents some of my best writing."

I don't know the quote but Kung Fu Fighting is one

Laurie Anderson's "O Superman" reached number 2 in the UK charts in 1981:

"I did have a good time with that, because I realized how unreal it was and how utterly absurd. As an anthropologist I found it really fun, but not something I wanted to repeat or be repeatable. Just not my scene."

xp I've found these from Biddu

"It was Carl's idea to make a record about the kung fu craze. He wrote it and we put it down in the studio in about ten minutes. I worked out the guitar rhythms and put in the 'oohs' and 'ahs' afterwards as a bit of a joke. We'd no idea it would be such a smash. I took it over to Pye and they released it. To date it's sold 11,000,000 worldwide."

and

"Kung Fu Fighting was not meant to be a hit. Carl Douglas recorded something for an A-side of a single and every session was three hours long. We spent two hours on the first song and then took a break and I said: ‘Quick guys, we need to record the B-side in two takes.’ Kung Fu Fighting was the B-side so I went over the top on the ‘huhs’ and the ‘hahs’ and the chopping sounds. It was a B-side: who was going to listen? I played the A-side to the guy at Pye Records, Robin Blanchflower, and he said: ‘Can I listen to the rest of the reel?’ When he heard it, he said: ‘This should be the A-side.’ ... We thought it would sell about 20,000 – it sold 11million records around the world. It’s the one time I’ve listened to someone and it came off. If I’d been all big-headed and insisted on the original song being the A-side, I would still have been flipping hamburgers."

"The lyrics came from short stories I'd written about what London would be like in 30 years. These machines – "friends" – come to the door. They supply services of various kinds, but your neighbours never know what they really are since they look human. The one in the song is a prostitute, hence the inverted commas. It was released in May 1979 and sold a million copies. I had a No 1 single with a song about a robot prostitute and no one knew."