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.

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.

 

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)

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! :lol:

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,

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.

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!

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 :o + probably 'Buffalo Stance' or '7 Seconds' for Neneh

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).

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.

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).

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.

Edited April 15, 20214 yr by Rush

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.

Edited April 15, 20214 yr by Dot Branning

'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.

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)

 

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.

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).

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

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

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).

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

- 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

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.

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?)

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.

 

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!

^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...

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!

 

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.

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