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

I saw the Prodigy last night and was surprised to find out that the biggest reaction wasn't for "Breathe" or "Firestarter" or "Poison", but for "Smack My Bitch Up." I checked on iTunes and it's their biggest selling track! Sometime in the last 10 years it became their legacy track. How? Why? What other bands is this true?

so, yeah. Please cross-reference with iTunes for this.

1. Prodigy - "Smack My Bitch Up"

great thread idea, i definitely have sat around and figured this out w/ a few bands, will have to look some up when i get home tonight

would be interesting to cross-reference this with licensing

like maybe in the long run that impacts sales more than radio/video play

my guess is that there are a large number of people out there who did not know the band Prodigy but knew there was a song called "Smack My Bitch Up"

i always thought smack my bitch was the big prodigy song!!

it wouldn't have sold as well as nearly half their other 90s songs esp. the two #1s

notoriety was helped by banned video, no?

2. Elton John - "Tiny Dancer"
^^ someone can doublecheck this and refute it if necessary since i'm looking at a cached browser page of his top iTunes songs, but that's a very prominent example of a song that movie licensing turned into a much bigger part of the artist's legacy than it had been before

wouldn't be surprised if 'Wonderwall' was biggest-selling Oasis song online (was probably their biggest hit in the US if not in the UK tho)

Don't have iTunes right here, but just guessing on a few...

Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes (wasn't even a single from So)
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
Lou Reed - Perfect Day

Bohemian Rhapsody was always Queen's biggest hit surely

"Bohemian Rhapsody" benefitted from the 90s re-release and Wayne's World, but it was always one of their biggest hits, I gotta veto that. xpost

Perfect Day? It must still be "Walk on the Wild Side"

Journey's only two top 5 songs in the US were "Open Arms" and "Who's Crying Now."

"Don't Stop Believing," meanwhile, is the biggest-selling catalogue track in iTunes history.

no way was bohemian rhapsody a bigger hit than "another one bites the dust" or "crazy little thing called love"

What about "Son of a Preacher Man" by Dusty Springfield?

obv I don't know the UK chart stuff much, but was that actually her biggest hit?

ooh good call, put a 3 on that. xpost re journey

"Bohemian Rhapsody" held a sales record in the UK for almost a decade and was Queen's first US top 10. I would say songs that establish a band on that level count as one of their biggest hits whether there are higher charting songs or not.

Bohemian Rhapsody was always Queen's biggest hit surely

Not in the U.S., where No. 1 hits "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (!) and "Another One Bites The Dust" both charted higher. (So did "We Are The Champions," at first, but then "Rhapsody" came back in 1992 and hit No. 2 off of Wayne's World; it had only hit No. 9 on its original release.)

The Romantics' legacy song is almost certainly "What I Like About You" (big jock-rock hit, right?), though in their lifetime "Talking In Your Sleep" charted way higher (No. 3, compared to No. 49.)

what about "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond....again, i'm a lil ignorant of his history but wiki says "Song Sung Blue" was a bigger chart hit

yeah that's really interesting, i don't think i've ever even heard "Talking In Your Sleep" but I've heard "Like" a million times. xpost

this icon should be next to all these songs in the iTunes store: http://www.soulstrut.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/badassbuddy_com-slowburner.gif

I think I've heard those 2 about an equal # of times--but I guess "Like" is more of a party song.

what about "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond....again, i'm a lil ignorant of his history but wiki says "Song Sung Blue" was a bigger chart hit

Yeah, I think "Sweet Caroline" and "Cherry Cherry" are both more famous today than "Song Sung Blue" or "Cracklin' Rosie" -- but they were all in the top 5.

Freebird? That's certainly Skynyrd's legacy song, but probably not their biggest iTunes seller (Sweet Home Alabama?).

(Meant to add "Song Sung Blue" and "Cracklin' Rosie" were his only two solo #1s.)

oh wow here's the ultimate one:

according to wiki, "Dancing With Myself" by Billy Idol only reached 102 on the U.S. charts and FAILED to chart in the U.K.

usually a soundtrack or placement in a television show will raise a song out of the bands "hits" into a totally different demographic

Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes (wasn't even a single from So)

This was released as a single off of the "Say Anything" soundtrack and received massive amounts of radio play.

oh wow here's the ultimate one:

according to wiki, "Dancing With Myself" by Billy Idol only reached 102 on the U.S. charts and FAILED to chart in the U.K.

― stank pony (M@tt He1ges0n), Friday, March 27, 2009 1:27 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah but "Rebel Yell" and "White Wedding" are both bigger iTunes sellers

i mean this could very easily turn into "early hits that established a band's identity but didn't chart as high as later singles when they were more famous" list and get away from the original idea

yeah that's true

i was more just shocked that that hadn't even charted at the time, being how catchy it was and all

"Should I Stay or Should I Go?"

Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes (wasn't even a single from So)

...

This was released as a single off of the "Say Anything" soundtrack and received massive amounts of radio play.

"In Your Eyes" was released as a US single, peaking at #26 Billboard Hot 100 and #1 Billboard Mainstream Rock in 1986.

Say Anything gave "In Your Eyes" a second chart run in 1989, but it peaked at #41. No Top 40 for you!

...and became PG's first certified Gold single in 2005 lol

"Only You" did marginally better than "Situation" on the US charts (67 vs. 73) and much better on the UK charts (2 vs. wasn't even released), but "Situation" seems much more like Yaz's legacy song.

"Born to Run!" Peaked at #23.

(Well, technically it's outsold by "Radio Nowhere" on iTunes, but I think that was thanks to some "Magic" promotion)

yeah acts with recent singles kinda skew this, but i think it's safe to assume "Born To Run" ultimately sells more than "Radio Nowhere"

Oh oh oh!

"American Girl" was the second single off Tom Petty's debut album, after "Breakdown," but did not even chart.

Radiohead. Creep is their biggest hit, but probably not their "signature" song. NOt sure what is, though.

Bruce's biggest chart hit is Dancing In The Dark

"Creep" is Radiohead's legacy song to millions of non-Radiohead fans

I'm not sure what Bob Marley's legacy song is, but I have a feeling that "Roots, Rock, Reggae" (his only U.S. Hot 100 hit, peaking at # 51) isn't it. It might not even be in the Top 10.

(Well, Marley has lots of Legacy songs, obviously. Or at least an album full of them.)

Cheap Trick's only #1 is "The Flame." ("I Want You to Want Me" was #7, "Surrender" #62.)

What about remixes doing this with a song? Because Run DMC's It's Like That was just a b-side until it became like their biggest song (v. walk this way obv.)

Also presumably this must have happened by tunes that were sampled a bunch, although none come to mind immediately.

'Hallelujah' wins this thread, surely?

Run DMC's It's Like That was just a b-side

Not really. It was on side one of the 12-inch, and came before "Sucker MCs"; ditto with the instrumentals on side two:

http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=257372

How do I find out Itunes sales numbers? Is there some page for them?

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 tried to a search for a specific tune on the Itunes store, but when I click on the song name, I'm thrown back to the Apple store home page.

I feel like a lot of these ones are due to inclusions on Spotify playlists that don’t register on ILX consciousness

^^This. "Johnny and Mary" is on their "Synth Pop" primer list amongst others.

Thanks for the stats! In a way, since the top 2 really seem "right," I'd say the bigger story isn't that Johnny and Mary is so big relative to its historically non-existent presence on radio (tho the playlist thing makes a lot of sense). It's that Simply Irresistible seems just a little too low! Definitely the lesser of his iconic MTV hits, but I still hear it out here and there.

The "Johnny and Mary" video was also pretty big in the early early days of MTV, when success there didn't necessarily translate to cracking the Top 40.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_SAMrDnXOE

Also: a very early in her comeback Tina Turner covered it for a movie soundtrack in '82:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCziWbNYXn0

Maybe this isn't that surprising, but "Under The Bridge" is the only pre-Californication track in RHCP's Spotify Top 10. No "Give It Away", "Breaking The Girl", "Higher Ground", "Soul To Squeeze" etc.

Jeff Buckley's "Lover, You Should've Come Over" just debuted at #97 on the Hot 100: https://stereogum.com/2486730/jeff-buckley-lands-first-hot-100-hit-with-32-year-old-track/news

And I see that it's now surpassed "Hallelujah" in Spotify streams (431M to 429M).

From Stereogum article:

During his lifetime, Buckley was best known for his cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"

Is this actually true? “Hallelujah” becoming a behemoth happened after he died iirc. I don’t think I really knew the album while he was still alive, but I remember “Last Goodbye” being his most well-known, basically signature song, followed by “Lover, You Should…” Meanwhile “Hallelujah” while pretty undeniably mesmerizing and gorgeous, initially felt like more of a hidden gem, known mostly to people familiar with the whole album.

In any case, fascinating to see ol Jeff Buckley strapping in for another go around in this thread, since I think of “Hallelujah” as one of the keystone examples of a song rising from obscurity to ubiquity years after release

Maybe this isn't that surprising, but "Under The Bridge" is the only pre-Californication track in RHCP's Spotify Top 10. No "Give It Away", "Breaking The Girl", "Higher Ground", "Soul To Squeeze" etc.

― Lithium Just Madison (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, January 26, 2026 3:06 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

the kids are alright

what would people expect as the Cure's top songs based on what was actually happening at the time? I think of Boys Don't Cry & Just Like Heaven as their twin signature hits from their heyday

From a North American perspective, I would've thought "Friday" and "Lovesong" were the biggest with the general public. (Checking now and they are in 2nd and 5th place respectively).

At high school parties "Boys Don't Cry" was already enough of a standard that generic teen cover bands played it.

My generic freshman college band covered it too (along with "Love My Way," "Mad World," "Don't You Forget About Me," you get the picture). "Boys Don't Cry" was rereleased with a video in 1986, right? I remember hearing it at a high school dance my senior year, which kind of surprised me because the Cure hadn't really crossed over yet in the U.S.

Yeah "Boys Don't Cry" was very much a signature song of the Cure before they got big on the charts. Also, "Just Like Heaven" wasn't exactly a big hit at the time, was it? In America at least.

The hit that never charted finally getting its revenge.

"Just Like Heaven" was their first Top 40 on Billboard, peaking at 40. (x-post)

I see, JLH made it to #40 in the US, putting it behind "Lovesong" (#2) and "Friday I'm in Love" (#18.)

"Friday" being only #18 seems crazy. It was everywhere at the time.

I've been late to realizing what an absolute masterpiece JLH is

JLH is in that category of first hits then, where even if it wasn’t their biggest or most representative, it announced a band on the scene and thus became emblematic. I think of “Radio Free Europe“ and “Psycho Killer“ as two songs in this group from around the same time.

Here's a great weird JLH stat: because it peaked at #40 for a week when Casey Kasem was off for the December '87 holiday break, no one ever got to hear him counting it down. By the time AT40 returned to regular programming in January '88, Kasem announced that among the singles fallen off the top 30 was...."Just Like Heaven."

*fallen off the top 40

tipsy, your band covered "Mad World" in the mid '80s? That's cool considering how The Hurting didn't get much of a hearing until ...Big Chair exploded (though I assume it was a college hit in '83).

xpost "These guys are from England and who gives a shit!"

From a North American perspective, I would've thought "Friday" and "Lovesong" were the biggest with the general public. (Checking now and they are in 2nd and 5th place respectively).

Wish was the first cure album I experienced in real time as a radio listener and music fan, and I remember “Friday” being big but also feeling like it was a latter day effort by a band past its prime. That might’ve just been a me thing, though. Even so, there’s something about it that just feels less iconic than those other hits, the structure with the days of the week, the lyrics feel kind of trifling, I don’t know. I will call it out as having one of the best bridges of all time, however

What's odd is that I remember seeing the "Why Can't I Be You" video on MTV a ton more than JLH.

"Friday I'm in Love" peaked at #18, but it was on the charts for 20 weeks, longer than any of their other singles. It ended up on the Billboard Year-End 100 (at #71) cause it was just around forever

MTV and the popular charts always had a divide during this era. By 1987 the Cure joined Depeche Mode and New Order as a college crossover band that earned some pla.

What's odd is that I remember seeing the "Why Can't I Be You" video on MTV a ton more than JLH.

― Loggins & Messiah (President Keyes)

Well, "Why Can't I Be You" was the lead single and as such released nearly two months before the album, with possible attendant wahey big comeback narratives; for that time at least it makes sense it would be heavily rotated. "JLH" was just a third single, coming out when interested parties should know the song already, four months after the album, and after "Catch" (which I love even more than JLH and on some days is my favourite Cure song).

I seem to remember the release of WCIBY being kind of a Thing, but that when it actually dropped, it was received with... not hostility, not disdain, but maybe a bit of reserve? So it may just have been prominent before the album's release, and less so after it, due to label and/or band misjudging which tune was the Obvious Hit?

(Also I have a feeling Dino Jr cover may have raised posterity's view of its prominence at the time a bit?)

(in last parenthesis, "it" is "Just Like Heaven", obv.)

this made me get out ten imaginary years again and the contemporary single review (uncredited-nme?) hilariously compares "why can't i be you?" to dexys.

Um kinda fair? Especially if comparison is somewhat dismissive.

dexys comparison is on point

here's what they say in ten imaginary years:
https://i.imgur.com/WQ9ntFY.jpeg

and below that on the same page, there is a rare still photo of short-haired telecaster-playing rs from in orange.

"you like dexys right?"
"[ED. NOTE] No." lol

WICBY is in my little pantheon of 80s songs having a Motowny backbeat but not at all being an 60s pastiche. But come to think of it there is something really Rowlandy about the singing too.

I recall Robert saying the video's choreography was meant to be a shit rip of Five Star in particular, which is not a context I feel even crossed the Atlantic let alone the decades.

WCIBY*

because of this derail, i will post one more tangential thing and then i promise i'll stop talking about the cure:
if you have a 45 7" copy of "come on eileen" with a large center hole, put it on your turntable slightly off center, pitch down as far as you can (or just play at 33⅓ if you can't), and that will give you an idea of what dexys playing pornography might have sounded like.

please don't ask how i discovered this.

I should note that "Why Can't I Be You" reached #54 in the States, an impressive peak considering how "Inbetween Days" scraped the 90s a year and a half earlier.

At high school parties "Boys Don't Cry" was already enough of a standard that generic teen cover bands played it.

Some of this may also be that it was easier for 4 kids starting out to make a decent hash of this then say... Plainsong or Close To Me (not that we didn't try).

Well, I'm talking 1989 and 1990!

The "Sssss!"s in the review there seems to indicate phonetical transcription of the reaction of a guest reviewer? Might it be Shane McGowan by any chance, known for that kind of laugh?

if you have a 45 7" copy of "come on eileen" with a large center hole, put it on your turntable slightly off center, pitch down as far as you can (or just play at 33⅓ if you can't), and that will give you an idea of what dexys playing pornography might have sounded like.

That is beautiful. An old 33-to-45 counterpart I remember, was play Rain Dogs (maybe it was primarily "Rain Dogs") at 45 and hear Edith Piaf had she been allowed to live a few more decades.

The Smiths’ number 1 streaming song is There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, a UK hit on its reissue in 1992, it went to number 25. There were fourteen higher chart placings in the years previous for various singles. Today it hit 1B plays on Spotify.

Where I'm from (Québec), "Inbetween Days", "Close To Me", and "Boys Don't Cry 86" were even bigger hits than WCIBY and JLH. I think the US caught on The Cure an album later (aside from college radios).

^ That's my sense for AUS too. Looking up the numbers, "Lovecats" and "Let's Go to Bed" had even primed them for such levels, chart-wise, already. (And those were definitely radio fixtures when I was basically an infant.)

Growing up on KROQ, they actually played "Primary" a bit. "Lovecats" exploded then "The Walk" and "Let's Go To Bed" was even bigger than those two combined. They didn't play anything from The Top but then all singles including "A Man Inside My Mouth" from the '85 era. That title of the song confused people.

"Boys Don't Cry" was not played until the '86 release but they played the original then and afterwards.

The Smiths one doesn't really surprise me as TIALTNGO often tops Best Smiths' songs articles etc and even won our poll iirc

Might it be Shane McGowan by any chance, known for that kind of laugh?

Yes, exactly! Smash Hits invited him in as a guest reviewer in one issue, which I can actually remember reading at the time.

The real surprising Smiths Spotify ranking is "Back To The Old House" is now their #4 after "There Is A...", "This Charming Man", and "Heaven Knows...".

That was a Tik Too thing

*Tik Tok too