What are the most under-performing recent singles you can think of? The definition of under-performing being not doing very well in the charts given a decent amount of hype and/or airplay (as opposed to given that you really like the song!) and not being the 3rd/4th single from an album etc.

 

Recent examples I can think of are:

- Bastille 'Laura Palmer', it was the follow-up to one of the biggest hits of the year, they've got a lot of hype surrounding them at the moment, it's arguably a decent single choice AND it was A-listed for weeks on Radio 1, with there being a couple of weeks when it was actually the most played song on the station. Given all that, it couldn't even manage to go Top 40. Baffling!

- Professor Green feat. Miles Kane 'Are You Gettin' Enough?', OK it's arguably one of his weaker singles, but it's getting a decent amount of airplay, plus it's the lead single from a brand new album, and yet it looks to be flopping massively on release this week!

- Example 'Close Enemies', it probably wasn't getting as much airplay as his previous singles, but it was still the lead single from a new album and I would have expected it to do better than #37!

 

What other examples can you think of?

Edited July 24, 201312 yr by mango

Wonder by Naughty Boy to be honest. Every radio station in the country seemed to be playing it, and Emeli was really popular at the time. It still did well, but I thought it'd do better.

Imagine Dragons 'It's Time'

Rihanna 'Pour It Up'

Rihanna feat. David Guetta 'Right Now'

The Saturdays 'Gentleman'

Iggy Azalea 'Bounce'

Ke$ha 'C'mon'

Carly Rae Jepsen 'This Kiss'

Justin Timberlake 'Tunnel Vision'

Bridgit Mendler 'Hurricane'

Zedd feat. Foxes 'Clarity'

Kendrick Lamar 'Swimming Pools (Drank)'

Robbie Williams 'Different'

Imagine Dragons 'It's Time'

Rihanna 'Pour It Up'

Rihanna feat. David Guetta 'Right Now'

The Saturdays 'Gentleman'

Iggy Azalea 'Bounce'

Ke$ha 'C'mon'

Carly Rae Jepsen 'This Kiss'

Justin Timberlake 'Tunnel Vision'

Bridgit Mendler 'Hurricane'

Zedd feat. Foxes 'Clarity'

Kendrick Lamar 'Swimming Pools (Drank)'

Robbie Williams 'Different'

 

Definitely agree with Clarity from that list.

It's Time is probably gonna do fairly well over the next few weeks.

The two Rihanna songs were basically not very good compared to her usual stuff, although they were getting lots of airplay so I guess you could validly say they under-performed.

I don't think you can include Tunnel Vision in the list cos its airplay was only just starting to pick up and they then replaced it with the new single.

Ke$ha/CRJ/Bridgit Mendler - was anyone really expecting them to do that well, I don't they were getting that much airplay were they? Possibly Ke$ha.

I guess you could count Iggy, and yeah definitely Robbie Williams, that should easily have done better, especially with support from Capital! TBH I think it just got lost in the Christmas rush.

Edited July 24, 201312 yr by mango

Zedd feat. Foxes 'Clarity'

Kendrick Lamar 'Swimming Pools (Drank)'

 

These were both essentially debut singles from previously completely unknown artists and neither of them had particularly wide support (especially Kendrick, I'm pretty sure he didn't even have proper support from Radio 1 until his re-release). I agree with most of the rest of your list, though I still don't get why people expected 'Bounce' to be a big hit, but I wouldn't say either of these underperformed at all let alone 'massively'.

There was one week about three years ago in Autumn where it was geared up to be a really competitive week but nearly every single release underpeformed... I think it might've been when 'Take Control' by Roll Deep was released.

Paramore - Now

Misha B - Here's To Everything

 

Yeah agree with both of those actually, especially Paramore!

- Example 'Close Enemies', it probably wasn't getting as much airplay as his previous singles, but it was still the lead single from a new album and I would have expected it to do better than #37!

'Close Enemies' was actually the second single off of 'The Evolution of Man'. 'Say Nothing' (which peaked at No. 2, but only spent 5 weeks in the Top 75) was the lead single, and seeing how that flopped despite being a decent song I don't think 'Close Enemies' ever really had a chance.

 

Not entirely sure if it got lots of airplay in the UK or not, but wouldn't people agree that 'Dance Again' by Jennifer Lopez underperformed? I mean, it was big all over the world but flopped horribly in the UK.

I don't really agree with 'Clarity', fair enough it got a #29 peak but it had to climb up slowly and it's still sold quite a decent amount for its peak.

'Close Enemies' was actually the second single off of 'The Evolution of Man'. 'Say Nothing' (which peaked at No. 2, but only spent 5 weeks in the Top 75) was the lead single, and seeing how that flopped despite being a decent song I don't think 'Close Enemies' ever really had a chance.

Yeah it was the second single but my point was that it was released before the album (as far as I remember), so it should have performed better. I just remember being really shocked at its itunes/midweek positions!

DJ Fresh feat Dizzee Rascal - The Power

 

Both artists coming off the back of Number Ones. DJ Fresh's previous two were massive sellers and this was Dizzee's first release in a long time.

These were both essentially debut singles from previously completely unknown artists and neither of them had particularly wide support (especially Kendrick, I'm pretty sure he didn't even have proper support from Radio 1 until his re-release).

I would argue that Clarity and Swimming Pools did underperform. Both had big radio 1 support, Kendrick should have gone top 40 and Zedd top 10 but the hype for Clarity just suddenly went as soon as it peaked.

There were lots of dance songs released January-February 2005 that were tipped as number 1s but none of them went top 5. Some (Lovefreekz/Soul Central) went low top 10 while others (Narcotic Thrust/DT8 Project) barely scraped top 40.

Natalie Imbruglia's "Shiver" is one. It was #1 on the airplay chart for weeks before the single was released, and I was sure it would hit #1 on the singles chart, especially seeing how low sales were in 2005.

Girls Aloud - Something New: Great song and decent airplay for the comeback of the biggest girlband of the last decade or so, it entered at #2 but fell rapidly spending only a few weeks in the Top 75

 

Madonna - Gimme All Your Lovin: I know it wasn't a great song and airplay was weak to non existant, but I still did expect the comeback single from the Queen of Pop to at least go Top 20

There was one week about three years ago in Autumn where it was geared up to be a really competitive week but nearly every single release underpeformed... I think it might've been when 'Take Control' by Roll Deep was released.

 

Yup, that week loads of big artists underperformed while Alexis Jordan's 'Happiness' massively outperformed most expectations to make #3. The other underperformances were will.i.am/Nicki Minaj 'Check It Out' (#11), Ne-Yo 'One In A Million' (#20), Tinchy Stryder/Taio Cruz 'Second Chance' (#22 - does anyone even remember how this goes?) and Nadine 'Insatiable' (#26). Roll Deep entered at #29. There was also a new entry at #39 for Jamiroquai with 'White Knuckle Ride' after X Factor, I don't remember if that was also considered an underperformance at the time, Jamiroquai were a bit irrelevant by that point :P

I thought Happiness was a bit of an obvious hit tbh, seemed like it had LOADS of airplay at the time. Take Control landing at 29 was a bit of a shocker though, but it kinda makes sense - I've heard the song maybe five or more times before and I literally can't remember ANYTHING about it. Maybe if the song actually had a memorable/catchy hook it might've done better :lol:

 

Get Lucky! lol joking!

Geri Halliwell's 'Scream if You Wanna Go Faster' and Victoria Beckham's 'Not Such an Innocent Girl' both missing the top 5 completely in 2001.