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Posted by: Jade 14th April 2021, 08:46 PM

The highest peaking song in an act's discography may not always be a reflection of their signature song. Which examples can you think of?

Ones that stand out for me in the U.K. -

Basement Jaxx - 'Rendez-vu' is their highest peaking, with its #4 showing, but I'd consider the likes of 'Red Alert', 'Romeo' and 'Where's Your Head At?' to be their signature songs

The Cure - 'Lullaby' is their highest peaking song at #5, I adore it but other singles like 'Friday I'm In Love' and 'Lovesong' (#18 in the U.K. what?!) seem to be more enduring. The latter did make a huge impact in the U.S. in terms of peak at least.

Green Day - 'The Saints Are Coming' with U2 is their highest peaking song at #2! When I think of Green Day, the iconic 'American Idiot' era is what would immediately come to mind.

Posted by: coi 14th April 2021, 08:53 PM

The first one that came to my mind for some reason was Snow Patrol! Their highest peak was #4 with Signal Fire in 2007, but of course most of their hits, especially Run (#5) and Chasing Cars (#6), are a lot more remembered now!

Posted by: Jamie Barkley 14th April 2021, 08:59 PM

A-ha's #1 single being the (still brilliant) The Sun Always Shines on TV and not Take On Me is my big one for this.

Posted by: dan::G 14th April 2021, 08:59 PM

Taylor Swift is the biggest example of this now surely - #1 with Look What You Made Me Do, quite a few of hers had much better chart longevity (Love Story, I Knew You Were Trouble, Shake It Off, We Are Never Ever, Blank Space)

Posted by: John-James 14th April 2021, 09:00 PM

Isn't Alanis's highest charting single Thank U? An amazing song but definitely not her most remembered song

Posted by: Jamie Barkley 14th April 2021, 09:01 PM

2006 seems to have a running theme of this. Mary J. Blige also made it to #2 that year alongside U2 for her highest peaking single with their version of 'One'. Whereas her signature hit, Family Affair from 2001, could only muster #8. I'd also argue her previous release 'Be Without You' is more well remembered yet that could only make #32.

Posted by: Brett-Butler 14th April 2021, 09:04 PM

I'd argue that Suede's best known songs with the general public would be "Animal Nitrate" (#7) or "Beautiful Ones" (#8), but their biggest hits were "Stay Together" and "Trash" (both #3).

The Stone Roses' signature songs include "Waterfall" (#27), "She Bangs The Drums" (#34) or "I Wanna Be Adored" (#20), but their highest charting single was the #2 hit "Love Spreads".

The Kooks are best known for "Naive" (#5) and "She Moves In Her Own Way" (#7), although their highest charting single was "Always Where I Need To Be" (#3).

Posted by: WhoOdyssey 14th April 2021, 09:05 PM

Imagine Dragons' are Sucker For Pain (#11) and Radioactive (#12), but Believer (#42) has got to be their signature at song at this point!

Posted by: coi 14th April 2021, 09:08 PM

Believer as their signature hit over Radioactive??? Good tune but surely not! Radioactive was around for AGES (27 weeks in the top 40 and 107 in the top 100!) and deserved a much higher peak if anything.

Posted by: WhoOdyssey 14th April 2021, 09:10 PM

I don't know! I'm pretty confident it would be more recognised by the GP at this point with how much it's used in movies/TV shows.

(I'm afraid I don't even think I could sing the chorus of Radioactive!)

Posted by: Chez Wombat 14th April 2021, 09:11 PM

Literally was just thinking of Snow Patrol and A-ha and I've been beaten to it!

Some other names that come to mind (you could make an argument otherwise granted):

The Verve - I would guess most of the average public would assume Bittersweet Symphony is their highest charting over The Drugs Don't Work.

Blur - I don't really hear anything of Country House or Beetlebum these days, not anywhere near the extent of Girls and Boys, Coffee and TV or Song 2.

Florence & The Machine - Dog Days Are Over feels like her signature song, indeed all of her highest charting hits, even Spectrum, I don't tend to associate with her.

Manic Street Preachers - I would say Motorcycle Emptiness and A Design for Life are more well known and regarded these days than their two number 1s (If You Tolerate This... is close though).

Posted by: JulianT 14th April 2021, 09:12 PM

A couple more from the noughties:
The Killers getting their highest (#2) peak with When You Were Young. It’s a great song but hardly their most iconic.
The Kooks - Always Where I Need to Be making #3, higher than Naive and SMIHOW (edit - already mentioned).

Posted by: dan::G 14th April 2021, 09:12 PM

Radioactive is a much much better song but Whoddy does sadly have a case for Believer, it has a ridiculous sales total of 1.5m+ and is a staple of the Old Rules top 200.

Posted by: Dircadirca 14th April 2021, 09:17 PM

You can also look at the global Spotify charts at any point in the last few years and find some sort of comfort in the reliability that "Believer" is probably sitting at #90-#110, it's not moving.

Also as time goes by, Arctic Monkeys' #11 peak for "Do I Wanna Know?" (admittedly because of a midweek release) looks more and more egregious, and heck even 1 week download hype #74 hit "505" is more popular than most of their proper hits at this point.

J. Cole & Tame Impala's signature songs still haven't charted.

Posted by: awardinary 14th April 2021, 09:17 PM

Foo Fighters comes to mind, I’m not sure Best Of You is what they are most known for, would anyone else agree?

Posted by: dan::G 14th April 2021, 09:18 PM

Red Hot Chili Peppers have 2 #2 hits, but they aren't Californication, Can't Stop or Under The Bridge - but the less remembered By The Way and Dani California

White Stripes a #2 hit... Icky Thump, not Seven Nation Army which only made... #7

Posted by: Bré 14th April 2021, 09:18 PM

This sounds like it's probably more down to you just not following the charts when 'Radioactive' was around than anything else - I guess 'Believer' may have been bigger in the last couple of years but 'Radioactive' was definitely much bigger at its peak than 'Believer' has ever been.

'Sucker For Pain' being their highest charting song ahead of both of those does of course fit this thread description perfectly though.

Posted by: coi 14th April 2021, 09:18 PM

Radioactive has 1.8 million though, so it's still ahead in total for now at least, very impressed by how long Believer is staying around though!


That surprises me considering how EVERYWHERE it was in 2013. You're somehow making me feel old and I'm like one of the youngest people here

Posted by: awardinary 14th April 2021, 09:20 PM

By The Way is one of their most widely known songs, so I think that is more remembered than some others. But Californifation and Under The Bridge will always be well known, as will the #9 Give It Away from 1994.

Posted by: JosephStyles 14th April 2021, 09:22 PM

Billie Eilish is a recent example of this - I don't think anyone would say No Time to Die is her most well known hit despite the event of it being the Bond theme. bad guy is most definitely her biggest and that reached #2!

Posted by: SimpsonFan 14th April 2021, 09:23 PM

Fool’s Gold is also a very well known song for the Stone Roses

Posted by: dan::G 14th April 2021, 09:23 PM

going by Spotify it is in their top 3 although Everlong seems to be indisputably their signature song, with 458m streams PLUS 137m from an acoustic version. It had a chart run of... 18-38-62-OUT


it's not by any means forgotten with its 251m Spotify streams, though that only puts it at #8 in their artist chart. Dani California is 7th (Snow from the same album seems to have held up a lot better, and is in 4th, despite having peaked at #16)

Posted by: Jade 14th April 2021, 09:25 PM

Wow I breathed and this thread was on page 2 already loving the discussion - some great examples!

Prince just sprung to mind for me. 'The Most Beautiful Girl In The World' does not feel like his signature song at all! (yes, incorporating all of his monikers x)

Posted by: jimwatts 14th April 2021, 09:27 PM

Depeche Mode's three #4 hits (People Are People, Barrel Of A Gun, Precious) are good but not in the same league as their most iconic songs

Posted by: WhoOdyssey 14th April 2021, 09:28 PM

Panic! at the Disco's Nine in the Afternoon (#13) was their highest charting for quite some time - despite probably not being one of their most popular at all now! (It is a tune though)

Of course High Hopes (#12) just out peaked that in 2018, and probably feels bigger than I Write Sins at this point?

Posted by: awardinary 14th April 2021, 09:29 PM

Another case I’d like to make is for Mumford & Sons, who haven’t had the strongest chart history, but I think of The Cave as one of their signature songs, and it in fact peaked at #31 below other hits Little Lion Man (#24), Believe (#20) and the more recognisable I Will Wait (#12).

Posted by: Bjork 14th April 2021, 09:31 PM

REM too, Losing my Religion only peaked at #19, Man on the Moon at #18 etc
but their biggest hit is the less-good The Great beyond

Disagree on the Cure, I actually think Lullaby is their signature song.

Posted by: awardinary 14th April 2021, 09:32 PM

Ooh now that’s a good one, plus Everybody Hurts is more of a signature song of theirs I feel.

Posted by: Bjork 14th April 2021, 09:33 PM

but actually the most bizarre might be Lana del Rey
her highest charting song is Don't call me angel with Ariana and Miley (#2)
beating all her classics and better known songs like Born to Die, Video Games, Summertime Sadness etc

Posted by: WhoOdyssey 14th April 2021, 09:35 PM

Catfish and the Bottlemen's Longshot charted at #25, and while being definitely one of their biggest songs - 7 and Kathleen are probably bigger.

Posted by: gooddelta 14th April 2021, 09:36 PM

I guess a lot of acts often get a sort of ‘halo hit’ with either the single immediately following a mega smash or the lead single from a new album following a huge previous era, which sometimes throws up examples like this. Taylor is a good example, with LWYMMD following the massive 1989 album.

Some others could include:

La Roux - Bulletproof (a big No.1 but In For The Kill is her signature song)

Nero - Promises (this really doesn’t feel like a No.1 or their biggest hit - Guilt and Me & You feel more memorable)

Savage Garden - To The Moon & Back (a wonderful song but it clearly rode off the coattails of the much bigger Truly Madly Deeply to get to their career peak of No.3)

Scouting For Girls - This Ain’t A Love Song (pretty much all of the singles from their debut are better remembered than this No.1, particularly their signature hit She’s So Lovely)

Posted by: Jade 14th April 2021, 09:41 PM

Really? 'Friday I'm In Love' would definitely come into my head first nowadays!

In fact 'Boys Don't Cry', 'Just Like Heaven', 'Close To Me' and 'Lovesong' are all outpacing it on Spotify too. I agree that 'Lullaby' is still within the realm of their most well-known but 'Friday I'm In Love' just seems to be referenced a lot more and is their streaming giant.

I guess Adele's '21' would've introduced 'Lovesong' to a new generation as well as she covered it on that colossal album

Posted by: Smint 14th April 2021, 09:43 PM

Tom Walker’s no7 ‘Leave a light on’ more well known than the no.3 ‘Just You and I’
Maroon 5 ‘Move like Jagger’ famously only made no.2 but ‘Payphone’ was a no.1
Simply Red’s ‘Fairground’ made no.1 but I would put ‘Stars’ (8) or ‘Holding back the years’ (2) as better known.

Posted by: Smint 14th April 2021, 09:45 PM

Guess understandable due to Ariana and Mileys star power tbh. Lana was gifted that no.2 tbh.

Posted by: WhoOdyssey 14th April 2021, 09:47 PM

I'd say that 5SOS' Youngblood (#4) is probably bigger than She Looks So Perfect (#1) at this point?

Certainly not a better tune though!

Posted by: J00prstar 14th April 2021, 09:48 PM

Fleetwood Mac's highest charting UK tracks are... Albatross (their only #1), Oh Well, and Man of the World - all from the 60s lineup.

They have 5 more top ten hits including Oh Diane and Tusk... notably not including Sara, Dreams, You Make Loving Fun, Rhiannon, The Chain, or Go Your Own Way!

Posted by: awardinary 14th April 2021, 09:52 PM

Sia’s highest peaking lead single is Cheap Thrills at #2 but I’d suggest people think of Chandelier as her signature single more which only peaked at #6.

Posted by: Smint 14th April 2021, 10:00 PM

People have talked about Foo Fighters but Grohl’s previous band Nirvana is a good case. The iconic ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’ peaked at 7 but ‘Heart Shaped Box’ peaked higher at no.5

I had to check where the download campaign of ‘Teen spirit’ peaked but that got to 11 in 2011

Posted by: My Random Music 14th April 2021, 10:07 PM

Don McLean had two number ones, but "American Pie" wasn't one of them. Always seems to catch out the contestant on Popmaster when the name either of Don McLean's number ones question comes up.

Posted by: Jade 14th April 2021, 10:08 PM

Just remembered that The 1975's highest peaking song is 'If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)' and I couldn't even hum that right now

'Chocolate' and 'The Sound' came into my head but didn't realise how big 'Somebody Else' was on streaming also, wow! Feels so much bigger than #55.

Posted by: coi 14th April 2021, 10:12 PM

Surprised Whoddy didn't mention that! Two Door Cinema Club would be another, their highest peak (and only top 40 hit!) is #33 with Changing of the Seasons but I'm pretty sure What You Know (which only got to #64) is their signature hit now, probably followed by Something Good Can Work (#56).

Posted by: paulgilb 14th April 2021, 10:15 PM

Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Philadelphia reached #2, but songs such as Born In The USA and Hungry Heart are definitely better known.

Weezer reached #9 in 2005 with Beverly Hills, but the #12-peaking Buddy Holly is better remembered.

Embrace had 2 top 3 hits in 2006 (Nature's Law only narrowly missing out on #1), but I would certainly say Gravity (which peaked at #7) is better remembered.

Morrissey reached #3 in 2004 with Irish Blood English Heart and in 2006 with You Have Killed Me, but tracks such as Suedehead and Everyday Is Like Sunday are more well known.

Primal Scream are best remembered for Loaded and Movin' On Up in the 1990s, but their only top 10 hit was 2006's Country Girl.

Posted by: Bré 14th April 2021, 10:15 PM

'Changing Of The Seasons' has always been one of my least favourite singles from TDCC, so many of their other songs deserve a top 40 peak over that. 'What You Know' seems to be the chosen song of Spotify playlists (with it going on to be one of the most consistently streamed songs of the entire year it came out let alone of their discog) but that's also honestly probably one of my less favourite singles from them as well, at least from their first couple of albums.

'Something Good Can Work' deserves

Posted by: Smint 14th April 2021, 10:20 PM

Couple more:

Erasure: highest peaking ‘Abbaesque’ (1) best known ‘A Little Respect’ (4)
Robbie Williams has 7 no.1s but best known for ‘Angels’ (4)

Posted by: WhoOdyssey 14th April 2021, 10:27 PM

I did think about it haha. Somebody Else is probably the only single of theirs I'm not fussed about at all! Never got the love for it particularly.

I think Too Shy would have felt bigger if they didn't go on a break right after the album came out, it never had an actual performance! Which was a shame given how much hype their was for it on their tour and its release

Posted by: Bré 14th April 2021, 10:27 PM

On the topic of indie bands I feel like Vampire Weekend might qualify for this as well - they had 2 top 40 hits with 'Oxford Comma' and 'Cousins' but I think the #55 peaking 'A-Punk' is probably more relevant now and arguably was even at the time it came out. Cba to check the Spotify numbers to confirm though xx

Posted by: awardinary 14th April 2021, 10:29 PM

Radiohead’s signature hit Creep (#7) is behind the likes of Paranoid Android, The Pyramid Song and There There which are all less remembered.

Posted by: Jade 14th April 2021, 10:32 PM

Cher, Chrissie Hynde And Neneh Cherry With Eric Clapton - Love Can Build A Bridge

^ this was Neneh and Eric's only UK #1! Rapidly fading from public consciousness with no streaming presence.

'Layla' seems to be Eric's most referenced song? that only reached #45 in live version + probably 'Buffalo Stance' or '7 Seconds' for Neneh

Posted by: Chez Wombat 14th April 2021, 10:39 PM

I would say Paranoid Android is still pretty highly regarded amongst their singles, it's listed in many best songs of all time lists, granted Creep would definitely be the one most of the public would identify easier.

Posted by: JulianT 14th April 2021, 10:46 PM

Looking back to the Ultimate Number 3s contest, as well as The Killers there’s the Chemical Brothers with Hey Boy Hey Girl and Galvanize vs their 2 #1s, and Outkast with Hey Ya vs their #2 Miss Jackson.

Posted by: WhoOdyssey 14th April 2021, 10:47 PM

It always seems weird to see Don Broco with a #39 single in 2013, it feels largely forgotten about amongst the fans + their most popular songs on Spotify now are all from their 2018 album (with 'Technology' being the highest)

Posted by: Bré 14th April 2021, 10:50 PM

I'd be pretty confident in stating that the overwhelming response if you asked anyone to name a Don Broco song would be 'who?'

(I only vaguely know who they are because I remember the pre-order for the 'You Wanna Know' EP performing randomly really well on iTunes for weeks before it was released, the #39 position was actually somewhat underwhelming after that iirc)

Posted by: Herbs 14th April 2021, 10:52 PM

Sarah Mclachlan - Silence made the top 5 and Adia made the top 20 but Angel is her best known song

Posted by: awardinary 14th April 2021, 10:52 PM

Actually that was my silent reply when I read that post, although I’m less educated than WhoOdyssey when it comes to names.

Posted by: Tafty 14th April 2021, 10:53 PM

LeAnn Rimes always pops into my head for some reason. 'How Do I Live' was her biggest hit at the time (I assume 'Can't Fight the Moonlight' has overtaken in the digital/streaming era?) it was her biggest seller despite "only" peaking at #7 and 'Can't Fight the Moonlight' being a big #1. But as I stated earlier, I'm not sure whether CFTM has overtaken or not, but I assume it'll be close.

Busted can also make a claim for this as both 'What I Go to School For' and 'Year 3000' peaked at #3 & #2 respectively whilst they had 4 #1's after!

'Anywhere' by Rita is another one. Although I imagine 'I Will Never Let You Down' is right behind it, but I think 'Anywhere' has largely become Rita's signature hit.

Posted by: WhoOdyssey 14th April 2021, 10:53 PM

Of course haha, making the top 40 all the more random tbh for 2013. They did play arenas on their last tour though!

Posted by: Rush 14th April 2021, 11:10 PM

For what it's worth these are both easily their most played songs on Spotify - in Nero's case even their 2nd most played song is 'Promises' too (the Skrillex remix). La Roux could be different in the UK alone though as 'Bulletproof' was a far bigger international hit.

A few more:
- Eurythmics' #1 hit is not 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)', which has 11 times as many Spotify plays as any other songs of theirs
- Bryan Adams' biggest song nowadays is 'Summer Of '69' which peaked at #42
- The Cranberries had 2 #13 hits and 2 #14 hits; the #14s are their 2 most popular songs ('Zombie' and 'Linger') and the #13s are nowhere near ('Salvation' and 'Promises')
- Pearl Jam's only top 10 hit is 'Spin The Black Circle' (the lead single from their 3rd album), which isn't even in their top 20 biggest songs on Spotify
- I don't know if it would be different with just the UK, but Steps' biggest song on Spotify is '5, 6, 7, 8', their lowest peaking single from their original run (but ironically the opposite in Australia, where it was a #1 hit - I presume the difference is in part because the Australian charts weren't focused on first-week peaks so it was able to grow)
- 'Stay The Night' is Zedd's highest charter mostly just because it got a held-back release whereas 'Clarity', 'Break Free' and of course his 2016-onwards hits did not
- 'Sign Of The Times' is clearly not Harry Styles' biggest hit at this point
- Kodaline's biggest song on Spotify by far is 'All I Want', which peaked at #67 (later followed by 4 top 40 hits)
- The Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac's posthumous #1s
- J Hus' highest charter is the #5 hit 'Must Be', which spent far less time in the chart than the #9-peaking 'Did You See'
- Kelly Clarkson's #1 hit 'My Life Would Suck Without You' is definitely not as big as several other songs of hers, particularly 'Since U Been Gone' and 'Because Of You'
- Chris Rea has a #10 hit called 'The Road To Hell (Part 2)' which I have never heard of, while the best 'Driving Home For Christmas' has managed so far is #11

Fleetwood Mac take the cake for the best answer to this thread imo!

Posted by: gooddelta 14th April 2021, 11:20 PM

Interesting r.e. Nero! I may be wrong on that then.

But I’d stick by the La Roux one for the U.K., interesting Bulletproof was the bigger hit worldwide though.

Some great examples there. The Road To Hell is quite well known but nowhere near as much as Driving Home For Christmas at this point. I guess some other Xmas songs are good examples of this too, like Wizzard’s No.4 I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day, even though they also had two No.1s which are barely played now.

For Steps, I’ve always thought their U.K. signature hit is Tragedy, their only million seller and a sort of school disco classic. But I’d agree that 5,6,7,8 is up there too as maybe a joint signature hit, especially as it has more streams now.

Posted by: chartjack2 14th April 2021, 11:21 PM

“Which band had a UK #1 with Take On Me?” is a great pub quiz question

Posted by: Eric_Blob 14th April 2021, 11:25 PM

I saw Nero being discussed in the "favourite single of the 2010's" thread, but I think they're a funny case because 4 of their singles all sold a relatively similar amount (about 150,000) at least in the recent aftermath of their release, (I don't know what their sales are now). And their peaks were something like 15, 8, 1, 32 iirc.

That said, I think Promises probably is their most famous song now. It's the one that they decided to release in the US (which had a knock-on effect to the UK public, especially on the Internet), it has Calvin Harris and Skrillex remixes, and it has the #1 status.

Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 14th April 2021, 11:29 PM

Sister Sledge with 'Frankie' being their #1 when 'Lost In Music', 'He's The Greatest Dancer' and 'We Are Family' are all greatly more known. Maybe 'Thinking of You' too?

Shola Ama with the hugely well-known 'You Might Need Somebody' peaking a place lower than the follow-up 'You're the One I Love' (which I don't even know what that is)

We Are Scientists with 'After Hours', although that one was probably a typical example of a band like that leading their second album.

Posted by: HausofArgento 14th April 2021, 11:29 PM

On La Roux, I think there is very little separating Bulletproof and In For The Kill, but I'd argue the former is the more signature song for her now. It tends to be the go-to song when reminiscing about the debut era I've found.

Agreed. This is also an interesting one and I think it could have played differently had the controversy around plagiarism not played a part in things. The song is unavailable on streaming/download etc so I feel like a whole generation (and more) miss the song out when discovering Prince. I know it is one of my least played of his hits by a considerable difference! This has led to the song being an even greater 'misleading highest peaker'.

Edit: I meant former (so Bulletproof) with La Roux!

Posted by: Feel_The_Fever 14th April 2021, 11:30 PM

The Killers and Snow Patrol automatically came to my mind when i saw the thread, mr brightside and chasing cars are their biggest hits but both have higher charting singles,

Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 14th April 2021, 11:32 PM

Pendulum with 'Watercolour' is actually a REALLY good example.

What a complete non-entity of a track comparing with some of their bigger and better ones.

Posted by: Jade 14th April 2021, 11:32 PM

Blue - if you asked me to name one of their songs I’d say All Rise, One Love and Fly By before contemplating any of their #1s!

Posted by: coi 14th April 2021, 11:55 PM

Certainly a great example! Layla did do better than #45 though, it got to #7 in 1972 and then #4 on re-release in 1982 for Derek and the Dominos (which he formed).

Posted by: Bré 15th April 2021, 12:01 AM

J Hus' 'Must Be' just got the benefit of being the lead single from his highly anticipated second album - of course 'Did You See' is still easily his biggest hit but even from the same album (and being released a few months later) 'Play Play' also has a higher total on Spotify than 'Must Be', and 'Repeat' also isn't massively far off (I'd guess that it gets more streams per day than 'Must Be' these days but not sure about that).

'Did You See' was already no longer J Hus' highest charting song even before 'Must Be' though, as it was also beaten by 1 place by his feature on Dave's album track 'Disaster' - which, while still pretty big for being an album track, also certainly isn't a bigger hit than 'Did You See' overall.

Also belatedly checking the numbers for Vampire Weekend and indeed 'A-Punk' is their biggest song on Spotify by far with 261 million plays, none of their other songs are over 100 million. Looks like 'Oxford Comma' comes in as their 4th biggest song with 81 million but 'Cousins' is nowhere near even their top 10 having only 31 million (it's only the 5th most played song just from the 'Contra' album). I do love 'Cousins' but that seems about right, it's odd that that would be one of their only two songs to have a top 40 peak.

Posted by: Rush 15th April 2021, 12:17 AM

In the last 2 weeks:

660,390 - Play Play (feat. Burna Boy)
393,745 - Repeat (feat. Koffee)
345,469 - Must Be
222,686 - Big Conspiracy (feat. iceè tgm)

By comparison:

1,086,137 - Did You See
565,974 - Disaster (feat. J Hus)
510,426 - Samantha
315,078 - Bouff Daddy
224,130 - Spirit
185,280 - Fisherman (feat. MoStack & MIST)

-

I have to say one where I'm impressed their highest charting song actually is their signature song is Metallica; in both Australia and the US their highest charter is the 1996 lead single 'Until It Sleeps' - understandably by being the follow-up to their biggest album, but it's only their... 36th? most played song on Spotify - but in the UK both that and their most streamed song, 1991's 'Enter Sandman', peaked at #5.

Posted by: Dot Branning 15th April 2021, 12:20 AM

Already been mentioned but I think Prince really is the ultimate example here. None of his most iconic hits (1999, Purple Rain, When Doves Cry etc...) topped the UK chart but he had that forgettable (and in my personal opinion pretty dire) multi-week #1 in 1994.

Depeche Mode haven't been mentioned yet have they? 'Personal Jesus' made #13, 'Enjoy The Silence' made #6 and 'Just Can't Get Enough' #8. Yet their highest peak was #4 with both 'Barrel Of A Gun' in 1997 and 'Precious' in 2005. Both these singles declined dramatically in their second week so hardly very memorable hits even at the time.

Posted by: Dot Branning 15th April 2021, 12:25 AM

'No Diggity', which is easily Blackstreet's most widely remembered hit only peaked at #9 in 1996. Their biggest chart peak was 'Don't Leave Me' at #6 in 1997.

Posted by: Bré 15th April 2021, 01:15 AM

Is there a way to easily look up these kind of things or is this just specific to you keeping a database of these numbers?

Either way thanks for the figures - that's about the distribution that I would have guessed, 'Repeat' will take quite a while to eventually overtake 'Must Be' at that rate but yeah not surprised that it has higher residual streams and that 'Play Play' is significantly ahead.

I am a little bit more surprised that 'Disaster' is so close behind 'Play Play' although given that 'Samantha' is also doing so well that may just be reflecting Dave being a stronger catalogue streamer than J Hus in general.

Posted by: coi 15th April 2021, 01:30 AM

More bands but this applies to Editors and Hard-Fi too, both had their highest peak at #7 with the lead singles from the second album, Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors for Editors and Suburban Knights for Hard-Fi, but their signature hits are from their debut with Munich peaking at #10 for Editors and for Hard-Fi it would either be Hard To Beat (#9) or Living For The Weekend (#15).

Posted by: zenon 15th April 2021, 01:54 AM

Simple Minds' only ever number 1 was Belfast Child which seems to have been airbrushed out of their long and successful history.

Posted by: Tafty 15th April 2021, 01:59 AM

On La Roux, I assume 'Pitch Perfect' plays a large part in establishing that as the current biggest song by her.

Posted by: Jade 15th April 2021, 06:17 AM

Thanks for this, I knew something didn’t feel right about that, this is why

Posted by: jimwatts 15th April 2021, 07:40 AM

A few more Christmas songs: Brenda Lee had four Top 5 hits, but Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree (#6) was not one of them! Bobby Helms still has two hits at #20 and #22 which Jingle Bell Rock (#27 to date) has yet to overtake. In time, you could probably add more and more acts with huge hits in their day which are outdone annually in streams by their Christmas songs (Michael Buble and Leona even?)

Posted by: Herbs 15th April 2021, 07:41 AM

Frankie was number one the day I was born. I remember finding out and not knowing the song - but i knew the other ones mentioned above!

Posted by: Bjork 15th April 2021, 07:43 AM

^but just cos they have inflated stream numbers due to Xmas playlists, doesn't mean it's their signature song.
Most people pick the Xmas playlist and hit play and they hardly know what songs are playing...
sure Bleeding Love is Leona's signature song, no matter what the statistics say...

Posted by: vibe 15th April 2021, 07:50 AM

This stopped Crazy For You by Madonna hitting number 1!!

For the comments regarding Shola Ama Your The One I Love - that is such a tune and was huge on music channels at the time. Love that song.

Posted by: jimwatts 15th April 2021, 08:16 AM

Cheating a little here - obviously Bohemian Rhapsody which was #1 twice and Under Pressure were huge, and are well remembered and well streamed to this day, but if we only take the last 8 years of Freddie Mercury's life, Queen had one #1 - not Radio Gaga, I Want To Break Free, A Kind Of Magic, et al but... Innuendo

Posted by: dan::G 15th April 2021, 08:23 AM

I'm pretty sure the statistics are in favour of Bleeding Love, it has a much higher sales total than OMS and gets enough residual streaming per year that it'll never be overtaken.

Posted by: Dircadirca 15th April 2021, 09:45 AM

I feel like the lesson of this thread is that chart runs don't last nearly long enough to properly consolidate how something will endure. Especially as so many eras of UK charts run a persistent formula of big first week peaks and quick declines. Sometimes you can see a band's discography and note the occasional song that drops a bit slower (which tends to be more fondly remembered), but even those few months or just few weeks aren't enough. A lot of the time artists are just at their creative peak early, use that period to slowly and steadily build a fanbase, and then crash the charts with years of relative mediocrity that's not looked back upon fondly by comparison (eg Metallica '96-'03). And of course nowadays you're at a point where a song can theoretically make the End Of Year chart without even touching the weekly top 100, which can be interpreted as 'A song can do A LOT of numbers without appearing on the chart, there's an ever growing cavalcade of pop culture adjacent songs that are monstrously popular but doing nothing to officially re-write chart history. In that sense, the charts really are just a time capsule of the specific time frame they cover, and no more*

*or arguably less, as one could argue format availability, illegal downloading and any sort of exposure that doesn't directly impact the chart (eg someone hears a song they like in a movie, for every person who proceeds to add it to their playlists, there's plenty more who just enjoy hearing it in that moment and take no further action) means that all charts have a veil of uncertainty to their accuracy as a popularity barometer.

Posted by: HausofArgento 15th April 2021, 09:57 AM

Could Robyn be another name to pop up here? I know 'With Every Heartbeat' is a big single in her discography, but it feels like 'Dancing On My Own' is possibly her signature song now? The former went to #1, the latter peaked at #8.

Posted by: Rush 15th April 2021, 09:59 AM

The latter

-

I think the point about Leona Lewis was in the long run - because the Christmas canon is full of really old songs, so it would make sense if 30 years from now 'One More Sleep' was still getting played each year while 'Bleeding Love' was completely unknown to young people. Like the Brenda Lee (she even had a US #1 hit) and Wizzard examples mentioned.

A few more I've thought of:
- Natasha Bedingfield's 'Unwritten' peaked at #6 as the 3rd single from its album (following the #1 'These Words'), then went on to become a smash hit in the US over a year later, and is by far her most streamed song now, and a big '00s pop classic I think. The streaming stats are certainly international-biased, but the difference is so large that I would guess 'Unwritten' would be more popular in the UK now too?
- Bee Gees had 5 #1s, none of which are 'Stayin' Alive' or 'How Deep Is Your Love', though one of them is their distant 3rd most streamed song, 'Night Fever'
- Outside of features, Sean Paul's highest charters are the #2 hits 'We Be Burnin'' and 'She Doesn't Mind', but I think 'Get Busy' and 'Temperature' would be considered his biggest/more enduring hits
- Travis Scott's #2 hit 'HIGHEST IN THE ROOM' is pretty big but not to the extent of 'goosebumps' and 'SICKO MODE', and only charted higher because it followed the spread-out popularity of the latter (and former)
- As silly as it sounds when many of their #1s are big classics... The Beatles' most streamed song is the non-single 'Here Comes The Sun', their 2nd most streamed song is the b-side 'Come Together' which peaked at #4, and even their 3rd most streamed song 'Let It Be' only made #2. This has always been interesting to me because I don't think I'd even heard of 'Here Comes The Sun' before their music was put on Spotify and it showed up as their most popular one, but it did chart in 2010 when their music was put on iTunes so I don't think it's a Spotify-specific thing
- Ja Rule's #1 hit 'Wonderful' (which I think is one of the lowest selling #1s of all time?) had a very poor chart run and has only a fraction of the Spotify plays of 'Always On Time', 'Mesmerize' or the sometimes-credited feature 'What's Luv?'

Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 15th April 2021, 10:00 AM

I do kind of feel like 'Dancing On My Own' has become such a defining track of the last decade (particularly on the gay circuit) that you could be right, although WEH is still a huge track.

Posted by: Jade 15th April 2021, 10:14 AM

Lenny Kravitz - 'Fly Away' is his #1 but #4 peaking 'Are You Gonna Go My Way' feels like his signature song.

Interestingly the former does have more YouTube views on his channel although was uploaded years earlier. The latter has more streams and a very recognisable riff that I think has propelled it into more legendary status.

Posted by: Dot Branning 15th April 2021, 10:24 AM

Mansun's signature song would surely by 'Wide Open Space' which at #15 was out-peaked by several other singles, the highest being 'Legacy EP' which made #7. Although confusingly enough it would appear this included a remix version of Wide Open Space.

Posted by: ___∆___ 15th April 2021, 10:43 AM

Still one of my most listened to songs now - timeless classic.

Posted by: coi 15th April 2021, 11:12 AM

Wide Open Space

Another would be Skepta, his highest peak as lead artist is #14 which he achieved twice with Rescue Me and What Do You Mean (and #3 as a featured artist on Wiley's Can You Hear Me) but I think his most popular songs now would be Shutdown (#39), Greaze Mode (#18) and That's Not Me (#21).

I'd have thought Fly Away was his signature hit myself! Having looked at how the two are doing they're both pretty evenly matched as his two most popular. YouTube was particularly interesting to look at - despite being uploaded on the same day, Are You Gonna Go My Way even has less views than It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over (although of course that one is still behind the other two everywhere else)

Posted by: Jade 15th April 2021, 11:31 AM

Oh interesting it was the 29th best-selling #1 of 1999 in that respective EOY chart which is pretty low, whereas 'Are You Gonna Go My Way' had a more impressive EOY position for a #4 hit. Then as time has gone on I've personally felt a lot more exposed to it and saw that Spotify streams were higher, so made that assumption. YouTube does throw a spanner in the works though so maybe 'Fly Away' is more well-known than I thought.

Posted by: coi 15th April 2021, 11:39 AM

Having not been around for either of them at the time they were released, I've heard Fly Away more (and of course it's a tune, though the riff in Are You Gonna Go My Way is pretty famous too) - turns out it's not just YouTube being an exception either, Fly Away shows up as his top song on Apple Music too, it seems!

Posted by: Dot Branning 15th April 2021, 11:40 AM

It really is

Posted by: Jade 15th April 2021, 11:43 AM

Oh okay, maybe the whole ‘non-#1’ view of it that I had in my head was harsh then. Both tunes so I’m happy if they’re both popular *.*

Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 15th April 2021, 11:46 AM

'Fly Away' was featured in a car advert that was on the TV ubiquitously for years, so I think that's a big contributing factor in it being so well-known.

Posted by: Sour Candy 15th April 2021, 12:56 PM

Posted by: King Rollo 15th April 2021, 01:50 PM

Mr Blue Sky is now ELO's signature song. It only reached number 6 while Xanadu (1), Don't Bring Me Down (3) and Livin' Thing (4) all reached the top five.

Posted by: coi 15th April 2021, 02:19 PM

Surprised that Bon Jovi haven't been mentioned! Their highest charting single was Always which got to #2, and beats the peak of #4 for Livin' On A Prayer. Similarly, Guns N' Roses had #2 as their highest chart position with their cover of Knockin' On Heaven's Door and their biggest hit Sweet Child O' Mine peaked at #6.

More recently, Juice WRLD as well. Come & Go was his highest at #9 (and he was number one as featured artist on Godzilla) but of course his most popular song is still Lucid Dreams which peaked at #10.

Posted by: dan::G 15th April 2021, 02:26 PM

also, speaking of Who, Baba O'Riley (by some distance their most streamed hit) only peaked at #55 and that was in 2012 due to the Olympics, as it was never put out as a single originally.

The Olympics did at least correct Elbow's signature hit being out-peaked by 5 of their other songs by sending ODLT to #4.

---

Bending the thread definition again but it's worth noting that Eminem's 2nd most streamed song ever on Spotify (and possibly soon to be his first) and with over a billion streams is not one of his 45 Top 40 hits but instead Till I Collapse (a 2002 album track that only charted in 2009 at #73). Clearly one of his signature songs now even if I'd still call Lose Yourself (an actual #1) the definitive signature song of his.

Posted by: Jamie Barkley 15th April 2021, 02:29 PM

Kesha? Three number one's yet I doubt any can match the #4 peaking Tik Tok in terms of cultural impact and memorability.

Avril Lavigne also popped into my head; though I feel like Girlfriend and Complicated are about equally remembered, I actually think her most well remembered track overall is the #8 peaking Sk8er Boi?

Paramore as well. I would say Misery Business is way more well remembered than Ignorance or Still Into You, both if which peaked higher. Could also make similar arguments for Fall Out Boy who made it to #2 with This Ain't a Scene but have a bunch more lower peaking singles that are better remembered.

Posted by: dan::G 15th April 2021, 02:32 PM

nah Complicated is surely better remembered than Sk8er Boi, going off Spotify & YouTube.

Posted by: WhoOdyssey 15th April 2021, 02:36 PM

I'm not sure! Watercolour is their second most streamed song on Spotify, and only 7m behind #1 (Witchcraft)

Posted by: Ultra's Version 15th April 2021, 02:43 PM

Avril would've been a perfect example of this if When You're Gone peaked 1 place higher (then again, it'd still be tied with Girlfriend)

I think arguments can be made for all of Complicated, Girlfriend and Sk8er Boi being her most iconic singles, I think I'd list them in the order I have in this sentence though

Most the ones I was thinking of have already been mentioned! Iggy Azalea could be a shout? Fancy is definitely bigger than Black Widow in terms of her lead artist hits. Maybe just because of the iconic video, but I'd also argue that it feels bigger than Problem too (though Problem has outstreamed it and did better in the year end, so I guess there's an argument either way there). Talking of Black Widow, maybe an argument for Rita Ora as well? I feel the Phoenix era singles were definitely bigger than her ORA era's #1's and I'd argue also bigger than I Will Never Let You Down

Alesha Dixon is another one, The Boy Does Nothing definitely feels bigger and more remembered than Breathe Slow

Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 15th April 2021, 03:12 PM

I hear 'Sk8er Boi' referenced a lot more in popular culture and even heard people say "the one who did Sk8er Boi?" when Avril gets mentioned, so I'd agree that it's more remembered than 'Complicated'.

Posted by: Esmerelda 15th April 2021, 04:15 PM

Enya- Orinoco Flow is her number 1, but I'd say Only Time and May It Be are probably more well known now.

Carrie Underwood- Her only top 100 appearances in the UK are Favourite Time of Year and I Know You Won't, which are definitely not her most well known songs or even close.

Posted by: zenon 15th April 2021, 05:32 PM

Possibly Caribbean Blue as well on the back of it opening and closing series 2 of Derry Girls.

Posted by: Bré 15th April 2021, 05:56 PM

'This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race' would still definitely be the first song to come to mind when thinking of Fall Out Boy hits for me I remember that song being hard to avoid at the time and that was well before I ever even made an attempt to pay attention to music.

The only others that I'd say even come close are 'Sugar, We're Goin' Down', 'Dance, Dance' and maybe 'Centuries' for more recent generations.

Posted by: Bré 15th April 2021, 06:04 PM

...and technically 'Just Stand Up!' (which is usually credited collectively to 'Artists Stand Up To Cancer' but actually credits all artists individually on download/streaming platforms) which is her only top 40 hit

Posted by: WhoOdyssey 15th April 2021, 06:09 PM

Interestingly, it's not near to being their most streamed song on Spotify!

1. Centuries (691,346,703)
2. Sugar, We're Goin Down (444,565,201)
3. My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up) (384,134,081)
4. Thnks fr th Mmrs (362,036,390)
5. Dance, Dance (281,044,344)
6. Immortals (266,881,238)
7. Uma Thurman (226,563,199)
8. The Phoenix (203,448,293)
9. Irresistable (192,484,444) *original + Demi Lovato remix combined*
10. I've Been Waiting (with Lil Peep & ILoveMakonnen) (168,023,311)
11. The Last Of The Real Ones (150,332,348)
12. Alone Together (144,428,085)
13. This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race (141,489,481)

(Martin Garrix's Summer Days is actually #3 because FOB have a tag for Patrick Stump)

Posted by: No Sleeep 15th April 2021, 06:12 PM

Deja Vu being one of Beyonce's #1 feels weird considering its one of her more forgotten hits (tragically as I love it!), but especially when Irreplaceable was so much bigger and only peaked at #4

Christina Aguilera is annoyingly an example of misleading low peaks around that mid-2000s time! Candyman and Hurt were massive here but didn't even make the top 10, but have 20+ weeks on the chart which I'd guess is more than a lot of #1s from 2006/07. It's annoying when I see people (who weren't around to witness it) trying to write them off as flops here.

On the other hand, Bionic has to be the best example of a misleading #1 album

Posted by: No Sleeep 15th April 2021, 06:17 PM

Also surprised to find out Sade's only UK top 10 hit is her debut single, Your Love is King (never heard of it)... Smooth Operator peaked at #19 and The Sweetest Taboo #31! They were both #5 in the US but Your Love is King only #54

Posted by: WhoOdyssey 15th April 2021, 06:24 PM

Machine Gun Kelly's highest charting song is Rap Devil at #15 which... felt forgotten the week after it came out

Since then My Ex's Best Friend has hung around for quite a while!

Posted by: Bré 15th April 2021, 06:27 PM

Maybe not the song itself but I think the whole Eminem beef is probably one of the more memorable parts of MGK's career ~

Posted by: WhoOdyssey 15th April 2021, 06:28 PM

His pop-punk success has been pretty memorable tbf, including his first US #1 album

Posted by: HausofArgento 15th April 2021, 06:32 PM

I feel like "misleading highest peaks" for ALBUMS would be a great thing to discuss too! Probably riddled with so many of the high peaking #1 albums of the streaming era, but I wonder if there are others that go beyond the past few years

New thread alert?

Posted by: jimwatts 15th April 2021, 06:35 PM

There will be hundreds of examples for albums! They're even more likely to chart high in the first week as a result of well-received earlier albums which sold more slowly.

Posted by: Juranamo 15th April 2021, 06:50 PM

I was going to say that Sugar, We're Going Down seems to be their most prominent song these days... Makes sense to see it (fairly comfortably) number 2 here - assuming that Centuries had a reasonably large number from around its release (bearing in mind Sugar didn't have steaming at release), Sugar is probably catching up.

With that in mind, I'd say Dance, Dance was more popular at the time - and I it performed similarly, despite being a post-album single (I think...). Sugar has definitely eclipsed it...

My favourite single by them is This Ain't A Scene, and I don't think it was a fluke #2 (I thought it had a strong shot at beating Grace Kelly's second week)... But I guess playlists only have room for one defining song per artist...

Posted by: WhoOdyssey 15th April 2021, 06:59 PM

I assume Centuries is still gaining more as it's #1 on the "popular" tab for them

Posted by: Dircadirca 15th April 2021, 07:02 PM

Playlists are an interesting thing. For instance you'd think Pavement's most popular song on Spotify would be one of their well-remembered cuts from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain like Cut Your Hair or Gold Soundz, but instead it's a previously obscure b-side called Harness Your Hopes, which was of no notability for decades but scratched a certain algorithmic itch, got in a lot of auto-play queues and snowballed completely out of control. You have to wonder how much the unexpected numbers of some artists' top hits are similar cases to this.

Posted by: WhoOdyssey 15th April 2021, 07:06 PM

Yeah there's a few metal bands which have random acoustic tracks as their top songs on Spotify (Sleeping With Sirens and A Day To Remember come to mind) because of those playlists

Posted by: dan::G 15th April 2021, 07:07 PM

I’ve never heard of them but that reminds me of the odd case of Aphex Twin, whose apparent most popular song is Avril 14th with 124m streams, outdoing his second best by a lot but ultimately only has that many streams cos, as a short piano instrumental, its on relaxing music playlists.

Posted by: Dircadirca 15th April 2021, 07:15 PM

Worth noting that the song was famously (also unscrupulously...) sampled by Kanye West on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy no less, but the Aphex Twin track actually has more streams than Kanye's!

Posted by: Bjork 15th April 2021, 07:32 PM

^Thats why it's totally inaccurate to look at Spotify plays inorder to decide what's the most popular song from an artist

Posted by: Bjork 15th April 2021, 07:33 PM

Oh that's actually a very good one. Sade became very quickly an album artist, so they never had a huge hit single after their first

Posted by: Dircadirca 15th April 2021, 07:40 PM

It depends though, at what point does the margin grow big enough that the reputation precedes itself? We can't really quantify streams in a non boolean way.

Posted by: Rush 15th April 2021, 09:45 PM

This is correct ftr; their plays this year so far:

43,006,226 - Centuries
31,111,435 - Sugar, We're Goin Down
26,819,462 - Thnks fr th Mmrs
25,955,889 - Summer Days (feat. Macklemore & Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy)
22,332,815 - Immortals (18,106,803 album version + 4,226,012 'Big Hero 6' version)
20,033,813 - Dance, Dance
18,946,172 - My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up)
11,522,621 - I've Been Waiting (w/ ILoveMakonnen & Fall Out Boy)
11,384,973 - The Phoenix
8,788,476 - This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race
8,278,573 - Uma Thurman
6,179,683 - The Last Of The Real Ones
5,793,912 - Irresistible (4,196,244 album version + 1,597,668 with Demi Lovato)
5,342,856 - I Don't Care
5,033,677 - Alone Together
3,652,177 - Just One Yesterday
3,053,783 - Beat It

Posted by: jimwatts 15th April 2021, 10:03 PM

3 other acts not yet mentioned who had one #1:
- Saturdays - whatever their signature song is, What About Us isn't it
- New Order - much as I enjoy World In Motion, it's hardly the essence of what they were about
- Vera Lynn - not sure I've ever heard My Son My Son, whereas We'll Meet Again reached #55 only last year and White Cliffs Of Dover never charted

Posted by: Bré 15th April 2021, 10:08 PM

I probably just have a bit of bias towards remembering my own childhood re: Fall Out Boy then, interesting x (pleasantly surprised that 'Thnks Fr Th Mmrs' is still up with their most popular songs as well and in fact even ahead of 'Dance, Dance').

Posted by: paulgilb 15th April 2021, 10:28 PM

The Troggs' only #1 was With A Girl Like You, but Wild Thing (#2) and Love Is All Around (#5) are both better known.

Katrina & The Waves are best known for Walking On Sunshine (#8), but reached #3 over a decade later with Love Shine A Light.

Redbone's only UK hit was The Witch Queen Of New Orleans (#2 in 1971), but they may be better known now for Come And Get Your Love (upon which Cyndi Lauper's re-recording of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was partly based), which was their biggest US hit.

Posted by: JosephStyles 15th April 2021, 10:56 PM

What About Us is their biggest seller and their current #1 most popular on Spotify! In terms of total streams, it's second to Higher (40m to 42m), though What About Us has a solo version with another 3m while the Higher solo + Flo Rida versions seem to be combined into that one 42m figure. Nothing else is even close - Ego with 18m is next.

Posted by: jimwatts 15th April 2021, 11:15 PM

^ that surprises me... OK I'll swap them for Andy Williams - several songs have a stronger claim to being his signature song than Butterfly, his only #1

Posted by: My Random Music 15th April 2021, 11:15 PM

By looking at Spotify streams/YouTube views etc you're just replacing one misleading thing (the chart position) with another. There have been numerous times I've listened to a song on YouTube and read in the comments that people are there because it was in a film, on an advert, someone sang it on X Factor etc.

But I would also say that being a bands signature tune can be a reason not to listen to it on Spotify/YouTube etc. For example I've listened to Queen on YouTube many times but I've never played "Bohemian Rhapsody" because I've heard it so many times in my life.

Posted by: JosephStyles 16th April 2021, 12:04 AM

A somewhat topical example as Another Love is on track to re-enter the top 100 this week, but Tom Odell is an example here. Real Love is his highest peaker at #7, fuelled by the John Lewis advert, but Another Love is definitely his signature hit and is over 1m chart sales! Nothing else is more than silver-certified (Real Love, Grow Old With Me and Magnetised).

There's also The Vamps, who had five top 10 hits in 2013-14 and all have been outsold by the #24 hit All Night...!

Posted by: Jay❄ 16th April 2021, 12:23 AM

I would argue this for Janet Jackson... she has two #2s and four #3s, but her #4 peaking single Together Again is her best selling single - it's her most physically purchased song, most downloaded and most streamed. I would say it's regarded by many as being her signature song? (Side note: YouTube is a complete mess when it comes to Janet; Together Again isn't officially uploaded, or if it is it's not accessible in the UK!)

I guess it's fair to say that When You're Gone by Melanie C (with Bryan Adams), a #3 hit, is more widely remembered by the public than her two #1 hits.

Posted by: Dircadirca 16th April 2021, 06:15 AM

Does music discovery by those means not count or something??

Posted by: My Random Music 16th April 2021, 08:18 AM

The subject is signature songs which in theory shouldn't need discovering because they're already well known. Maybe there's something in it for the more modern artists, but take The Beatles for example, you can't measure the popularity of their songs by listens on Spotify. They weren't even on Spotify for a long time, but there's a big chunk of people listening to The Beatles in physical format and we'll never know what songs they're listening to the most.

Posted by: JulianT 16th April 2021, 08:24 AM

For Gorillaz I think their #1, Dare, is their 3rd best remembered behind Clint Eastwood (#4) and Feel Good Inc (#2). All 3 have pretty high global Spotify numbers for noughties hits, but Feel Good Inc > Clint Eastwood > Dare. The other two were much bigger sellers than Dare in the first place anyway.

Posted by: Rush 16th April 2021, 08:43 AM

According to Kworb https://kworb.net/youtube/video/7SXKHiPQPhk.html it's only available in Canada and Japan

Posted by: vibe 16th April 2021, 08:57 AM

Your Love Is King is an amazing song and is definitely well remembered:)

Posted by: Dircadirca 16th April 2021, 12:03 PM

No one is born knowing a song though. Everyone hears the songs they know through somewhere, and it's no more or less valid if it's on the radio, a stereo, on a playlist, in a movie, in a TikTok or on their friend's aux. I agree that Spotify isn't comprehensive, but once you start pooling together all the quantifiable stream sources, eventually it'll begin to make up the lion's share of a song's lifetime listener base, so it's often just a bit of extrapolating an identified trend.

Posted by: Jade 16th April 2021, 01:15 PM

Jamelia - 'Thank You' reached #2 but 'Superstar', a #3, feels like her definitive hit

Posted by: Rush 16th April 2021, 02:52 PM

I thought it was a bit weird that Ciara's 'Goodies' was a #1 while '1, 2 Step' peaked at #3, and just looked it up and '1, 2 Step' actually sold more at #3; 'Goodies' was just in the dead patch of January 2005 between 3 Elvis reissue #1s. '1, 2 Step' ranked higher in the EOY as well as having triple the Spotify plays.

From the same period, Ashanti hit #2 behind an Elvis reissue with 'Only U' (her highest charter outside of the Ja Rule #1 I already mentioned for him), with a very mediocre chart run to follow - it still hasn't reached silver, whereas 'Foolish' is gold (and 'What's Luv?' and 'Always On Time' are platinum).

Right Said Fred's 'I'm Too Sexy' was blocked at #2 for many weeks behind 'Everything I Do (I Do It For You)', then they hit #1 with another song the following year.

Aaliyah had a posthumous #1 (with very low sales in January) with 'More Than A Woman', which I assume is not as well known as 'Try Again' (which reached #5).

Chris Brown has 2 #1s: 'Turn Up The Music', and 'Freaky Friday' as a feature. 'Turn Up The Music' spent less time in the top 75 than 16 out of 17 of his other top 10 hits.

Posted by: fiesta 16th April 2021, 03:02 PM

Janet Jackson highest peak number two with That's The Way Love Is, but Together
Again only peaked at 4.

Posted by: Bré 16th April 2021, 03:16 PM

The first time I heard 'Deeply Dippy' by Right Said Fred I think I literally facepalmed. Such a weird non-entity of a song, the fact that that was their #1 over 'I'm Too Sexy' is forever bizarre.

(not that 'I'm Too Sexy' is exactly an artistic masterpiece itself but still x)

Posted by: Jamie Barkley 16th April 2021, 09:33 PM

J-Lo is another one who springs to mind. Whilst On The Floor was an obviously massive hit, pretty well remembered and has sold nearly three times as many copies as her next biggest single, I'd still bet money on the #3 peaking 'Jenny From The Block' as being the first song the average person in the street would think of if you asked them to name a Jennifer Lopez song.

Maroon 5's Payphone is their only #1 and pretty well remembered - but surely pales in comparison to Moves Like Jagger in terms of sales and memorability? I'd say that She Will Be Loved is probably better remembered as well.

And Linkin Park. What I've Done is their highest charted single and certainly remembered but can't touch the impact of their lower peaking singles In The End and Numb.

Posted by: jimwatts 16th April 2021, 09:50 PM

The Strokes had two Top 10 singles, but I don't think either 12:51 (#7) or Juicebox (#5) are as well remembered as their other Top 20 hits Last Nite, Hard To Explain or even Reptilia.

Posted by: Dot Branning 16th April 2021, 09:54 PM

I'd add This Love to that list as well.

Posted by: soundseekerz 17th April 2021, 06:31 AM

I would of thought people would of chosen JLo's signature No.1 song Love don't cost a thing. I personally think 'Waiting for tonight' should be her signature song

Posted by: vibe 17th April 2021, 07:29 AM

When people think J.Lo they def dont think ‘Jenny From The Block’.

Posted by: Rush 17th April 2021, 08:22 AM

Interestingly, neither of these are anywhere near her most played songs on Spotify:

398,526,923 - On The Floor (feat. Pitbull) (283,041,383 radio edit/single version + 115,485,540 album version)
340,030,766 - Ain't Your Mama
181,510,214 - Jenny from the Block (feat. Jadakiss & Styles P.) - Track Masters Remix (that's the regular album version, it just calls itself a remix)
168,553,591 - Let's Get Loud
168,534,240 - Try Me (Jason Derulo feat. Jennifer Lopez and Matoma)
140,117,481 - We Are One (Ole Ola) [The Official 2014 FIFA World Cup Song] (Pitbull feat. Jennifer Lopez & Claudia Leitte)
136,138,823 - Adrenalina (Wisin feat. Jennifer Lopez & Ricky Martin)
134,974,637 - Booty (89,422,931 feat. Iggy Azalea + 45,551,706 feat. Pitbull)
130,931,869 - Dance Again (feat. Pitbull)
106,088,648 - Get Right
98,980,957 - El Anillo (a 2018 Spanish single)
98,416,601 - I'm Real (feat. Ja Rule) - Murder Remix
95,998,805 - El Ultimo Adiós - Varios Artistas Version (a 9/11 charity song involving a ton of artists, of which J.Lo is one)
91,920,440 - Ni Tú Ni Yo (feat. Gente de Zona) (a very good 2017 Spanish single)
89,450,570 - If You Had My Love
88,340,869 - El Mismo Sol (Álvaro Soler feat. Jennifer Lopez)
74,438,417 - Love Don't Cost a Thing
73,913,782 - Dinero (feat. DJ Khaled & Cardi B) (a 2018 Spanish single)
73,284,667 - Waiting for Tonight
69,286,320 - Back It Up (Prince Royce feat. Jennifer Lopez & Pitbull) - Spanish Version
64,038,704 - Amor, Amor, Amor (feat. Wisin) (a 2017 Spanish single)
59,483,065 - All I Have (feat. LL Cool J)
55,228,515 - I'm Into You (feat. Lil Wayne)

(From 2021 alone, 'On The Floor' has had 41m plays combined, compared to 15m for 'Let's Get Loud', 13m for 'Jenny From The Block', 12m for 'Ain't Your Mama' and <8m for the rest.)

I think 'On The Floor' is her statistical biggest hit, but it would seem reasonable for 'Jenny From The Block' to be the song most associated with her, given it's a song about herself.

Posted by: rio309 17th April 2021, 09:38 AM

Coming to this a long way into proceedings so apologies if repeating but the first artist that came to mind when I saw this is Bloc Party -

The Prayer #4
So Here We Are #5

Both ahead of Flux and Banquet

The earlier mention of White Stripes is a really good shout too.

Posted by: Scene 17th April 2021, 10:06 AM

With Girls Aloud, the likes of Love Machine (#2) and Something Kinda Ooooh (#3) (maybe even Biology and Call The Shots) feel far more remembered and celebrated than Walk This Way and I'll Stand By You. I don't even know of The Promise is that remembered these days.

Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl (#8) is surely far more remembered than The Sweet Escape (#2).

Posted by: Jamie Barkley 17th April 2021, 10:33 AM

Girls Aloud would definitely be strong contenders for a "act worst represented by their number ones" thread.

Posted by: Viper* 17th April 2021, 11:04 AM

Hmm, I wouldn’t think that personally.

Bulletproof is still on the radio to this day and the streams for bulletproof are 175mill vs 58mill.

Posted by: jimwatts 17th April 2021, 11:11 AM

The Small Faces are probably best known for Itchycoo Park (#3) and Lazy Sunday (#2), rather than their only #1, All Or Nothing

Posted by: Liam.k. 17th April 2021, 11:17 AM

'Hollaback Girl' is her signature hit but not "far more remembered", I think 'The Sweet Escape' is very much her second most remembered.



I wouldn't say so, given 2/4 of their #1s very much represent them.

Posted by: Chez Wombat 17th April 2021, 12:22 PM

I have agreed with most of your posts in this thread, but I would dispute these. More Than a Woman & Goodies still feel like one of their staple songs, the former maybe more so in the UK.

Posted by: Cremey 17th April 2021, 12:38 PM

Yeah I’d say More Than a Woman is Aaliyah’s signature song too, definitely in the UK at least!

Posted by: Colm 17th April 2021, 12:40 PM

REM.

Ask anyone off the street to name REM's biggest hit in the UK. It won't be The Great Beyond (3), E-bow the Letter(4), Leaving New York (5), Imitation of Life (6) or Day Sleeper (6). Those last 2 matched Shiny Happy People's Peak.

Posted by: Rush 17th April 2021, 01:08 PM

Ah, interesting to know then! It's harder to tell when she doesn't have proper streaming data to look at, and when that's a song that charted higher in the UK than anywhere else.

Posted by: Sour Candy 18th April 2021, 07:09 AM

So, has this thread mentioned all artists and songs already

I mean, REALLY discussing #3 peaks vs. #5 peaks??

Posted by: Cosmic Cody 18th April 2021, 07:34 AM

Wait... where did “Forever” and “Run It!” peak? I mean surely those are his most known songs?

Posted by: gooddelta 18th April 2021, 07:54 AM

Yes looks like I’m wrong with this one, as somebody else picked up on it too. I hadn’t realised Bulletproof had become that much bigger over time and on a global scale, to me In For The Kill feels so iconic.

Funnily enough I actually prefer Bulletproof, so I’m glad that it is seen as her signature song!

————

On Aaliyah I’d argue that Try Again is at least level pegging with More Than A Woman, it was huuuuge at the time, on the radio especially, and I still hear it a lot now, personally moreso than More Than A Woman. It felt like Timbaland’s big breakthrough too, the song was ahead of its time by a good six or seven years.

Posted by: Bjork 18th April 2021, 10:34 AM

but in some cases like La Roux I think both are equally their signature songs, just depends on who you ask/how you measure its popularity

Posted by: JosephStyles 18th April 2021, 11:07 AM

I think Sound of the Underground and The Promise are very much their two signature hits and speaking from the GP's perspective, I'd say I'll Stand By You is probably quite well remembered too (certainly as far as their covers go)!

Posted by: fchd 18th April 2021, 12:10 PM

I don't think The Killers have been mentioned on this thread yet, but they've had three records peak higher than "Mr Brightside", only one of which ("Human") is anywhere near as remembered (in my opinion anyway)

Posted by: fiesta 18th April 2021, 12:12 PM

Most misleading artist with chart peaks goes to Westlife, 14 number ones and nobody remembers any of them

Posted by: My Random Music 19th April 2021, 09:23 PM

OK you will get people on Spotify or equivalent to listen to a signature song for the first time. Is a signature song the same as most popular or most listened to song though? They can obviously be the same song, but if for example it turned out that something like "Headlong" was the most listened to Queen song I'm still going to think "Bohemian Rhapsody" is their signature song.

Posted by: Mack. 19th April 2021, 10:17 PM

Forever- #4, 'Run It!' #2.

Posted by: Testosterone 19th April 2021, 10:26 PM

Flying Without Wings and Uptown Girl are pretty well remembered, but yes overall their #1’s are mostly forgotten.

Posted by: Dircadirca 19th April 2021, 10:52 PM

Well I mean, streaming is just one component of a song's whole package. Unless you're actively participating in and following it, they're just arbitrary numbers. On the other hand, I see streaming numbers as a course correction for hits of the past, especially those from eras where their popularity wasn't properly represented for one reason or another. In the case of "Bohemian Rhapsody", that's a song that has sold A LOT of units and made billions of impressions prior to streaming. Realistically it would take a VERY big margin ahead of it on streams for me to consider another Queen song to be more popular. The main point though is that streaming is (at least for now) indefinitely growing, so it's further shaping its own canon that should become a new gospel for popular canon. At the very least it makes sense for bands like Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd, whose chart histories aren't really much use in telling us what's popular, but you could take a Family Feud-style guess at what should be their biggest hits, until streaming gave us more data to work with.

Australian band Cold Chisel had a bunch of hits here in the '80s, often top 10s, but for as long as I've known them, it's been near impossible to dispute that their most popular song is "Khe Sanh", their first single which only barely made the top 50 in its time. Now primarily through streams, it's very clear that this is the case, and it's probably their highest seller overall now. Streaming arguably just becomes a really useful barometer because basically everyone does it. A million people buying a single back in the day is no doubt impressive, but it's still less than 2% of the population. Streams are obviously built on repeated listens, but it's undeniable that sooooo many more people are becoming a part of this survey that it fills out some of the imperfections of the chart system of old, that it only serves a very isolated fraction of music fans that actually pay for their products. It's not perfect obviously, but it brings us a lot closer to a complete picture than charts of old can ever do.

Unless we're just getting to the semantics of what it actually means to be a signature song, which might just be more weasel words akin to me saying 'Bruno Mars is more popular than Lauv'. It's a statement very few would disagree with even if I've not laid down the parameters for what 'popular' actually means. So like if a song is an artist's most heard/sought for song across all means and formats, shouldn't it be their signature song? It's just a question of how we tally up all those different means and formats to decide that.

Posted by: Feel_The_Fever 20th April 2021, 02:40 AM

I would add raise me up to that aswell.

Posted by: vibe 20th April 2021, 05:15 AM

So true about Westlife !!!

Posted by: My Random Music 20th April 2021, 08:43 PM

My view is that many artists are known by many people for just one song and that is their signature song. If you only know one song by an artist then that means you probably have no interest in them and will therefore never listen to them. In some cases a signature song is one that's hated by the fans because it's one for the masses rather than the purists such as "More Than Words" by Extreme or "Wind Of Change" by the Scorpions.

Posted by: chartjack2 20th April 2021, 08:59 PM

Not a Westlife fan at all, but I have a real guilty pleasure about World of Our Own!

Posted by: Smint 20th April 2021, 10:20 PM

With J Lo I really think "On the Floor" is her signature and biggest charthit. Its massive summer/club anthem and played loads still. Especially on music TV.

Posted by: Sour Candy 21st April 2021, 08:09 AM

Scorpions is not really a good example I think, as they have four songs over 100 million streams on Spotify. WoC is obviously the biggest, but Rock You Like a Hurricane, Still Loving You and Send Me an Angel are very well remembered.

It's like saying that people only know Europe for The Final Countdown when in fact Carrie has remarkable streaming presence too (and is their biggest chart hit in the US)

Posted by: Dircadirca 21st April 2021, 08:45 AM

I've actually seen Scorpions called a one-hit wonder for Rock You Like A Hurricane. Very much a 'depends who you ask'

Posted by: Herbs 21st April 2021, 08:51 AM

Has anyone said Aretha Franklin yet?

The George Michael duet was her only number one - but Respect and Think are more widely known songs of hers

Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 21st April 2021, 09:02 AM

Same, it's the only one I like!

Posted by: My Random Music 21st April 2021, 11:10 PM

It is true to say an artists signature song can differ from country to country. I honestly don't think those other Scorpions songs are that well known in the UK, I suspect they're much better known in America.

If you're a fan of an artist or even genre of music it's easy to lose sight of the fact some songs aren't that well known to the mainstream public even if they're hugely popular within a circle of people. I've been guilty of that myself.

It's clear from this thread we all have different opinions on what a signature song should be, that's just mine.

Posted by: 1^∞ 22nd April 2021, 04:57 AM

Porter Robinson's "Language" debuted at #9, but his most streamed song by far is Shelter w/ Madeon, and on Spotify, he has 6 songs that have more streams than Language

Posted by: adrianreavill83 22nd April 2021, 10:08 AM

I know one - Laura Branigan reached number 5 with Self Control but Gloria was the better known, peaking at No.6 in Jan/Feb 1983 (just before I was born)

Posted by: Bré 22nd April 2021, 11:20 AM

I choose to believe this is just Spotify users having bad taste.

('Shelter' is probably his 2nd best song tbf but it's a very, very, very distant 2nd)

Posted by: dan::G 22nd April 2021, 11:30 AM

if Language came out in a time where Spotify was more popular, it would probably have at least double the streaming count it has now, that was a huge song in EDM culture at the time. although Shelter probably is the more remembered of his songs now at least amongst Porter’s fan base.

Radio 1 spammed the hell out of Langahge though so that may still be the more remembered of his in this country.

Posted by: zenon 16th December 2021, 08:01 PM

I'm sure Wake Me Up Before You Go Go was Wham's most famous song for many years after it topped the charts, but Last Christmas is more well known these days especially in the streaming era despite only reaching number 2 originally.

Posted by: Jord 16th December 2021, 09:18 PM

Taylor Swift come to my mind first for this thread so not surprised to see others say her.

So many other hits of hers deserved #1 and she finally got a #1 with a meh song (but with a fantastic video)

With Amy Winehouse, I’d say Rehab and Back to Black feel more deserving of being her highest peaker unsure what people would say is her signature though as Valerie is a bit of a staple and many people from the GP will think it’s her own song as well.

I’d say Rita Ora kinda qualifies for this she’s had 4 #1 singles but I think Your Song and inpaticular Anywhere all feel much bigger than all her chart toppers (apologies if this has already been mentioned).

Posted by: ~1^∞ 23rd April 2023, 07:44 PM

Maybe the search function is off but I'm surprised none of us mentioned Duke Dumont who had 2 #1 Hits and 5 top 40 Hits, but none of them are his most streamed song Ocean Drive which peaked at #42, I Got U might be bigger locally but worldwide Ocean Drive is bigger

Posted by: BananasInPyjamas 23rd April 2023, 07:47 PM

Ocean Drive definitely qualifies as a song that feels a lot bigger than it's chart peak. But I think both of his #1s are well remembered from his discography as well.

Posted by: Y'all Starlight 23rd April 2023, 08:07 PM

I mean you could say that 'Teenagers' by My Chemical Romance is bigger than 'Welcome To The Black Parade' due to the spotify streams but i still firmly believe that the latter is better know.

Posted by: spiceboy 23rd April 2023, 08:22 PM

I'd say Love machine is their signature hit now tbh, probs more so than either SOTU and TP.

Posted by: Eric_Blob 23rd April 2023, 09:41 PM

Yeah I think in this country his most famous song is I Got U (unfortunately, the song's OK but he has sooooo much better ones).

Ocean Drive's success seemed so random, because it was kind of a "flop" single at first here, but then I go on Youtube a couple of years later to listen to the song and it has hundreds of millions of views and I couldn't wrap my head around it.

According to Wikipedia it was a year-end #1 in Poland and year-end top 10 in Ukraine and Hungary, also a smash hit in Russia, Serbia, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Belarus, etc. I don't know how this happened exactly. I guess maybe there's some record label subsidiary for Central and Eastern Europe which decided to push the song hard and it did really well. So I assume that's why it's got massive streams, and the places where it was a massive hit, it's probably his highest charting song.

Here it's probably more well-known now than The Giver and Real Life (and maybe Won't Look Back), but I think his most famous ones in the UK are the #1s tbh.

Posted by: Jessie Where 23rd April 2023, 10:00 PM

Sadly yes, it's been hijacked by the locals and overused in sofa adverts.

Posted by: zenon 7th August 2023, 05:57 PM

I'm sure Sometimes used to be their best known song for many years.

Posted by: Anita Dump 7th August 2023, 08:34 PM

Nope. People remember Underground, Promise, Stand By You, and Long Hot Summer.

Posted by: Jessie Where 7th August 2023, 08:40 PM

Hmmm, I'm gonna go with no. 'Love Machine' is (unfortunately) the one I hear the most these days.

Posted by: chartjack2 7th August 2023, 10:11 PM

Yeah, definitely Love Machine

Posted by: JosephStyles 7th August 2023, 10:13 PM

I said it last time but I definitely maintain that Sound of the Underground is seen as their signature song! Going by what I've heard more casual music listeners talk about.

Posted by: JackTheeStallion 7th August 2023, 10:20 PM

If Dance The Night gets #2 or #1, I feel like that will definetly end up feeling like a misleading peak

Posted by: Brer 7th August 2023, 10:22 PM

Likewise as much as I love 'What Was I Made For?' and want it to go to #1, I think it'd end up being weird to look back on her first 2 #1s both being film soundtrack songs while nothing got there from her first 2 albums (3 including 'dont smile at me').

Posted by: facts. 7th August 2023, 11:45 PM

I think Billie already qualifies whether WWIMF makes it to the top or not. No Time To Die is lovely but it's in no way one of her signature hits.

Even going deeper, I would say the title track feels like the biggest thing from the Happier Than Ever but is outpeaked by Therefore I Am which already feels pretty forgotten.

Posted by: Bjork 8th August 2023, 06:11 AM

her biggest and signature song is Bad Guy

Posted by: Brer 8th August 2023, 12:20 PM

Although her actual most streamed song is 'lovely'.

Posted by: Bjork 8th August 2023, 12:24 PM

let's not only look at number of streams to acknowledge popularity when it can be extremely biased due to playlists, if you really think Lovely is more popular than Bad Guy... I'm actually not even sure which one is Lovely or how it goes...

Posted by: Rough_edges 8th August 2023, 04:28 PM

Lol lovely IS 100% well known and is definitely one of her biggest. Sometimes I think you live under a bubble wrap

Posted by: -SCOTT- 8th August 2023, 05:18 PM

I’ve definitely never even heard of Lovely. Bad Guy on the other hand was unavoidable

Posted by: Dircadirca 8th August 2023, 06:05 PM

See I want to just say, how are we judging what counts as valid popularity. Oh that song doesn't count because it was on Spotify playlists, but this one does because it was on the radio, or a TikTok meme? Or do we just quote the great Dennis Denuto and say it's just the vibe of the thing? But then I realised of course I basically said all of this in the thread years ago.

Posted by: Danana 8th August 2023, 06:11 PM

Bad Guy was certainly the bigger UK hit at least, if not the bigger worldwide hit.

it is probably more known amongst the general British public.

Posted by: Brer 8th August 2023, 06:36 PM

But even in the UK, 'lovely' is currently in the Spotify top 200 while 'bad guy' isn't, so there's a good chance it is slowly closing the gap. I'm not saying 'bad guy' isn't the bigger hit overall right now but it really wouldn't surprise me if 'lovely' ends up being the better remembered song in the long run. It's probably the kind of song that could eventually have a moment that gives it a more representative peak position much like Tyler, The Creator's 'See You Again'.

Posted by: Rough_edges 9th August 2023, 04:16 PM

I think the days when a song used to have to have a high chart postion and presence in the charts for it to be deemed a hit are way over. Lovely is definitely a long term more popular choice.

Posted by: Charis 4th September 2023, 10:26 PM

Yeah nobody remembers, but 4 of them are already mentioned in comments below…. And all this without adding the amazing Mandy

Posted by: My Random Music 5th September 2023, 09:31 PM

I would say all artists with a sizeable number of number ones have some questionable ones. I even include The Beatles in that, whilst all their number ones are pretty well known it would be silly to think "The Ballad of John and Yoko" (number 1) is better known than "Let It Be" (number 2).

Posted by: ThePensmith 6th September 2023, 04:10 AM

Good topic this 👍🏻

I'd say Blue and Busted are prime contenders for this thread.

With the former, it's generally likely to be "All Rise", "Fly By II" or "One Love" you hear on the radio these days, rather than any of their actual number ones.

Same with Busted, "Year 3000" is their signature song and it's none of their four number ones.

Posted by: dandy* 6th September 2023, 01:06 PM

Van Morrison - Whenever God Shines His Light made #20 yet Brown Eyed Girl nowhere to be seen until it made #60 in 2013.


Also - I think that Do I Wanna Know has probably now overtaken Dancefloor for the Arctic Monkeys’ best known song

Posted by: Maestro 6th September 2023, 01:20 PM

I’d argue that Dancefloor isn’t even top 5 anymore, partly down to TikTok:

I’d have
1) Do I Wanna Know?
2) 505
3) I Wanna Be Yours
4) Fluorescent Adolescent
5) Why’d You Only Call Me When You're High?

Posted by: JulianT 6th September 2023, 01:52 PM

Mardy Bum should arguably be in the mix too - that seems to be a live favourite.

Posted by: Juranamo 6th September 2023, 06:46 PM

If anything, I'd say that Do I Wanna Know just has misleadingly low peak!

Dancefloor still *feels* like a number 1. I just think enough of their songs have stood the test of time enough for a non-chart follower to feasibly believe they had a few #1s!

Posted by: Maestro 6th September 2023, 06:49 PM

Yes, I didn’t mean anything against Dancefloor, they just have so many bangers which have stood the test of time

Posted by: Sour Candy 6th September 2023, 07:07 PM

Fly By II is nowhere near their most popular songs on Spotify - the top 3 are All Rise, Sorry... and Best in Me.

Posted by: JosephStyles 6th September 2023, 07:12 PM

Prominent playlisting probably helping the second and third songs there, you definitely hear One Love and Fly By II more on the radio. I strongly believe the general public would know those two and All Rise above any other Blue song (and as someone who's not really a huge Blue fan and only knows their songs from the radio, I'm speaking from experience)

Posted by: Jessie Where 6th September 2023, 07:16 PM

I've never even heard of that last one, let alone heard it 🤷

Posted by: Sour Candy 6th September 2023, 07:18 PM

Seems that it wasn't an UK single at all!

Posted by: Charis 28th September 2023, 12:50 PM

most misleading comment.