Idina Menzel - Let It Go possibly (I think Demi Lovato's version was intended to be the bigger hit).

Vogue - Madonna intended it to be a B-side originally until she was convinced otherwise!

One of her best singles so thankfully she was convinced.

What single was it going to be the b side of?

One of her best singles so thankfully she was convinced.

What single was it going to be the b side of?

 

Keep It Together

 

Can you imagine?!

JCB Song.

Surely we could cover a lot of individual examples here by just saying that any track that was never released officially as a 'single' per se (or only was after specific keen demand became apparent for the song following use in a popular TV or film vehicle etc) that went on to become a notable commercial/chart success qualifies as something which wasn't necessarily intended to be a 'hit', at least in its own right (so besides being a contributory factor to a parent album's popularity).

 

Since the advent of the download era in particular we've seen innumerable examples of album-only non-singles go on to attain often quite prominent chart profiles, as it became possible to cherry-pick any song from a digital bundle regardless of whether it was (or later would be) released as a stand-alone single, and particularly once digital sales of all tracks not just those marketed as physical singles were permitted to become fully-chart-eligible. Lots of album tracks charted for just a week or two after the release of a hotly-tipped or eagerly-awaited artist's latest long-player (obvious examples include Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Adele and Drake); sometimes every song on the album made its own impression (at least until chart rules were introduced to cap the number allowed to appear on the official published version of the Top 100 to just three). However, a few did sustain lengthy chart careers in tandem with the track that actually had been given the single release. I think Alan Jones used to refer to these as 'halo hits' in his MW commentaries. Some obviously were clear future singles-in-the-making, and were eventually given their release in that format, but only after they'd already racked up a pretty impressive chart presence and sales tally as just an album track (the most memorable example to my mind was Lady Gaga's 'Poker Face', which charted when the album was released but didn't receive a proper single issue for three months while its predecessor 'Just Dance' was still working through its peak chart career). There are many more however that were never intended to be singles, and indeed were never issued as such officially, even after a growing chart presence, making these simply album cuts (or possibly B-sides in a few cases) which just sold/streamed well in their own right presumably with no expectation on the part of either the artist or label that they would do.

 

Perhaps this just goes to demonstrate how formal releasing as a single has become less and less relevant to determining which songs become chart hits, or whether or not a certain track might end up doing very well. Promotion of a song - be that by the record label through the traditional media of radio and television, more recently via direct artist promos through their website or social media platform, the unexpected random usage of that title to soundtrack a very popular film or TV series, and/or adoption en masse by ordinary folk as a backing track for self-produced viral videos (TikTok etc) - has always been a notable factor in helping to determine whether it will become a commercial success. It's never been a dead-cert guarantee - there's been many flops despite great promos and media interest - but, even in the physical-only era, having your song on a film soundtrack, on an ad, as well as airing on radio and later TV, could really boost its chances in the charts, and often led to reissues of older songs as singles and them being bigger hits than they'd ever been. In the digital world, with access to so much more music including all catalogue acts as well as currently-active artists' product, inevitably these aspects, alongside being able to catch on and go viral either through deliberate attempts or by genuine accident, adds hugely to a song's potential fortunes. A number of tracks which have graced the 2020s charts were never singles originally or expected to be hits in their own right, but years later being picked up for a long-running and mass-binged TV series for example really did propel these hitherto-little-known recordings into major chart hit territory. And still they never actually became available, or were specifically promoted as, singles. Off the top of my head, Djo's 'End Of Beginning' I think fits these criteria.

Coming back to this and does Adele’s Make You Feel My Love qualify?

 

It did moderately well initially yet X Factor 2010 really made it into a huge enduring hit now and I’d say in the UK at least it’s amongst her most well known tracks with many people not realising it’s actually a cover.

 

X Factor back then was huge so it really made the song what it is now I’d say in the UK as without that exposure I don’t think it would be what it is now (and it brilliantly timed with 21s release right around the corner too which sent her into icon status).

Off the top of my head, Djo's 'End Of Beginning' I think fits these criteria.

Feel like I have to get it out there again, "End Of Beginning" was not a super obscure song prior to 2024. I remember hearing quite a bit of buzz about him when the singles & album came out in 2022. I even saved a couple back then (including "End Of Beginning"), and while I don't have the numbers on hand, I remember thinking at the time 'wow, this guy's got a lot of streams'. Note: I did not know he was in Stranger Things at the time.

 

Something interesting I think is that we're inclined to clown on labels for fumbling the bag but in general they often know way more than they let on. There was a phenom I noticed years ago on the Australian chart, where some songs from big album releases would just end up missing on that week's chart. This still happens as recently as this week, but what I remember thinking at the time is that the songs they left off were disproportionately the ones that would end up being big hits down the line. Stuff like The Kid LAROI's "WITHOUT YOU" and Pop Smoke's "What You Know Bout Love". Our charts have had a history of labels holding back chart debuts so they can enter higher up and look like more of a success (it sounds a lot better that "WITHOUT YOU" debuted in the top 10, rather than below the top 50, regardless of the context. Oh look, it's even the first sentence in the 'Chart Performance' section on Wikipedia). It also probably helps give whatever platforms they're promoting to an easier time spotting out 'the hit' when it's not crowded around a bunch of other songs from that album.

 

Point I'm making with this is that in these cases, though the shorthand is often to say 'wow, it went viral on TikTok, that's crazy', in reality I think it's often way more planned and anticipated than it seems. Whether that means astroturfing or just a really keen ear for these things, I can't say (probably case by case anyway), but I do suspect that a lot of hits aren't necessarily the flukes they're made to look like.

I was actually going to mention Pop Smoke. A bit morbid, but I'm guessing his run of (posthumous) top 10 hits wouldn't have happened if he hadn't died.

 

Also, these were only successes for a week, but DJ Can You Blow My - Whistle and Precision Tunes - Payphone :kink:

Dance Monkey perhaps. Song by a relatively obscure unknown busker from Australia with no big record label or push becoming the most streamed song by a woman ever- a record it still holds.

 

SNAP by Rosa Linn. Armenia's somewhat forgettable Eurovision entry that finished 20th becoming a worldwide hit months after the contest.

Edited September 9, 2024Sep 9 by Esmerelda