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.

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

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.

 

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.

Edited April 18, 20214 yr by gooddelta

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

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.

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)!

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)

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

 

 

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.

 

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.

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

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

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

 

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

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.

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.

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

I would add raise me up to that aswell.

So true about Westlife !!!

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.

 

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.

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

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 :dance: ^_^

 

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.

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.

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)

Edited April 21, 20214 yr by Sour Candy

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)

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

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

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

 

Same, it's the only one I like! :lol:

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)

 

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.

Edited April 21, 20214 yr by My Random Music