Michael Collings I think his name was or something like that.

 

Also I'm SO happy both Say Something and Rise Up didn't see any huge impact from X Factor exposure, both dreadful songs.

Yeah, it was Michael Collings who was on Britain's Got Talent.

 

Certainly some hits are very surprising (maybe not accidental) but I think almost everything mentioned here became a hit for a specific reason. Some sort of significant promotion or support from somewhere (X Factor, TV sync, TikTok), or engineered virality (Sandi Thom, Gayle). And then all the other one hit wonders were backed by solid airplay/TV support and/or social media support.

 

I’ve seen Cat Burns live twice and she’s fantastic. I think Go was just one of those once a career songs that resonated on a wider scale lyrically (particularly with TikTok audiences). She has a decent fanbase that are getting her this run of low top 100 hits, but it’s not big enough for more unless another song really catches on with the public or she gets a good sync deal etc. I wouldn’t rule out another hit for her of a larger scale.

 

Whole Again feels like it was maybe an accidental hit twice. First time around it came out of nowhere to get to No.1 and then the label increased stocks, radio started to back it and it turned into a genuine huge hit, but would anybody really have batted an eyelid if it had gone 13-24-39-OUT? The label wouldn’t have restocked it and they’d have been dropped. The margins between success and failure (and the song turning into a classic) were wafer thin. To this day I don’t know how it got the momentum to debut at No.1 like that following a run of mid-table hits. Sure the song has a lot of mass appeal, but how did enough people even know about it on week one? I barely recall hearing it before release.

 

And then in 2021 it feels like they put the Southgate version out as a laugh, something I thought might go top 20 on iTunes at best, and suddenly it gained massive support and went huge on Spotify? Yet it hasn’t returned this year in any way when Southgate has led the team to another semi-final, or indeed in 2022?

Edited July 7, 2024Jul 7 by gooddelta

Michael Collings I think his name was or something like that.

 

Also I'm SO happy both Say Something and Rise Up didn't see any huge impact from X Factor exposure, both dreadful songs.

Say Something had already had its chart peak which is probably why.

 

I like Rise Up and I'd have liked it to catch on but it wasn't to be.

Whole Again feels like it was maybe an accidental hit twice. First time around it came out of nowhere to get to No.1 and then the label increased stocks, radio started to back it and it turned into a genuine huge hit, but would anybody really have batted an eyelid if it had gone 13-24-39-OUT? The label wouldn’t have restocked it and they’d have been dropped. The margins between success and failure (and the song turning into a classic) were wafer thin. To this day I don’t know how it got the momentum to debut at No.1 like that following a run of mid-table hits. Sure the song has a lot of mass appeal, but how did enough people even know about it on week one? I barely recall hearing it before release.

 

And then in 2021 it feels like they put the Southgate version out as a laugh, something I thought might go top 20 on iTunes at best, and suddenly it gained massive support and went huge on Spotify? Yet it hasn’t returned this year in any way when Southgate has led the team to another semi-final, or indeed in 2022?

 

The story of this song really interests me and I don't even rate it that much. :lol: I find it crazy how Whole Again of all songs was the song to save their career. :wacko:

This is a very minor one (I didn't realise until checking now that it never charted in the UK, just top 50 on the download chart which maybe was modestly close), but in 2016 Halsey did a triple j Like A Version cover of Justin Bieber's "Love Yourself" but with the ha ha twist they say the rude word that Justin's only implying ha ha. It would've aired on the radio in mid-January except...David Bowie died, and the station decided to switch out on the weekly segment and do a David Bowie cover. Halsey's segment would end up getting delayed a couple of weeks (they'd already recorded it and left the country but they sometimes air them on a delay). In this interim period, another cover of the song with the same premise by Yo Preston & Kelly Kiara goes viral briefly, before going viral a second time and becoming a top 20 hit in Australia and briefly top 20 on UK iTunes. I can't help but wonder if Halsey's version had already made it online before that first stint, even though it never got put on DSPs, there's a chance that the second version loses its novelty factor and never takes off. Mainly I just like to entertain that David Bowie dying is responsible for it being a hit.

Surely the ultimate one is Precision Tunes - Payphone, literally was only a hit because the original wasn't out yet! Similar case for Can You Blow My (*___*)

Rik Mayall's 'Noble England' comes to mind - Rik was hardly known as a musician (and the song obviously didn't chart at all on its original release) so if he'd died at any other time than right at the start of a major international football tournament it would definitely not have produced a charting single. Even if it had just been a month or so before I doubt the tournament starting would have triggered the song charting as his death would have been long out of the news cycle by that point. (And even with the timing it had, it probably wouldn't have charted at all if England hadn't qualified for that World Cup!)

Someone mentioned Adele's chart fluke above when she was at the pinnacle of he career. I don't think you can apply flukes to massive contemporary artists as their gigantic fanbase will consume anything past or present belonging to them. I do agree the song being ubiquitous on X Factor added to it's popularity.

 

Flukes to me are majorly unexpected chart successes from artists who who had no previous hits or were not intended to be chart successes. Showing my age but I'd have called Nick Berry's Every Loser Wins a fluke as it appeared on Eastenders or the song used for Jason and Kylie's wedding on Neighbours. Robson and Jerome were flukes with their first hit but then milked it with every other single they released thereafter.

Whole Again feels like it was maybe an accidental hit twice. First time around it came out of nowhere to get to No.1 and then the label increased stocks, radio started to back it and it turned into a genuine huge hit, but would anybody really have batted an eyelid if it had gone 13-24-39-OUT? The label wouldn’t have restocked it and they’d have been dropped. The margins between success and failure (and the song turning into a classic) were wafer thin. To this day I don’t know how it got the momentum to debut at No.1 like that following a run of mid-table hits. Sure the song has a lot of mass appeal, but how did enough people even know about it on week one? I barely recall hearing it before release.

 

Yes, I remember at the time I was genuinely expecting it to go in around #15 and when I saw it debut at #1 I was like 😳 wtf?!

 

Surely the ultimate one is Precision Tunes - Payphone, literally was only a hit because the original wasn't out yet! Similar case for Can You Blow My (*___*)

 

This is a great one - it literally was an illegal release, you can't even find this version anymore. In a similar vein, in 2013, "Alonzo Holt featuring James Arthur" charted at 97 with Wrecking Ball - it was just James' cover of the song from YouTube, but uploaded by someone illegally.

 

I agree with the person who said Rik Mayall earlier, too. The song would never have charted if Rik hadn't sadly passed so close to a major tournament. Another some that was impacted by real world events was "Boris Johnson is a Sausage Roll" - the song was definitely helped massively by Boris effectively cancelling Christmas in such embarrassing fashion that year!

Yes, I remember at the time I was genuinely expecting it to go in around #15 and when I saw it debut at #1 I was like 😳 wtf?!

 

I vividly remember looking at the mids after school and thinking 'eh, what's that all about?' as I'd been certain U2 would debut at No.1 that week. I actually thought it was an OCC error or a glitch as it made no sense whatsoever. There were no signs at all, I even remember Woolies chart had it down at about 20 on the first week, which was always a good indicator of interest/pre-orders/advance hype etc.

The first example that comes to mind is Charlene Soraia’s Wherever You Will Go cover. Was absolutely huge off the back of a twinings tea ad, so not exactly a company with a history of making memorable ads and hit songs out of them. It is also a very basic cover of the original, which is probably why you don’t really here it now.

The first example that comes to mind is Charlene Soraia’s Wherever You Will Go cover. Was absolutely huge off the back of a twinings tea ad, so not exactly a company with a history of making memorable ads and hit songs out of them. It is also a very basic cover of the original, which is probably why you don’t really here it now.

Charted in the top 10, but her album only just made it into the top 100.

Cannonball randomly giving Damien Rice his only top 10 UK single after it re-charted following an X factor audition. It was then of course used as the winners single

I’d also potentially suggest You Ruin Me by the Veronica’s (amazing song in my opinion)

 

Gave them an unexpected second top 10 hit and then rapidly dropped out of the charts

'Jealousy' from Will Young back in 2011, was a Top 5 hit.

Heart absolutely hammered You Ruin Me for ages, and it was just about back in the held back releases era, so I guess there was enough momentum from the airplay to nudge it into the top 10. It deserved to be a lot bigger, a stunning ballad.

Edited July 10, 2024Jul 10 by gooddelta

Karmin - Brokenhearted seemed to come out of nowhere at the time. Debuted and stayed at it's peak of #6 for two weeks due to it blowing up mid-way through the first week iirc.

All those dance one hit wonders from 2015 (Tchami, David Zowie, Mike Mago) were very fluky.