^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...

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.

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.

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.

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?

The latter :P

 

-

 

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?'

Edited April 15, 20214 yr by Rush

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.

 

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.

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.

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.

 

 

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.

 

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

Wide Open Space :wub:

 

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).

 

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.

I'd have thought Fly Away was his signature hit myself! :lol: 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 :o (although of course that one is still behind the other two everywhere else)

I'd have thought Fly Away was his signature hit myself! :lol: 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 :o (although of course that one is still behind the other two everywhere else)

Oh interesting :thinking: 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.

Oh interesting :thinking: 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.

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!

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

 

It really is :wub:

 

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!

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 *.*

Oh interesting :thinking: 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.

 

'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.

Edited April 15, 20214 yr by Tawdry Hepburn

- 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

 

:o

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

 

 

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