Songs That Feel Bigger Than Their Chart Positions

RJN

RJN

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Mine are from a US perspective, but they all feel like they should have been top ten hits at the time

Mamma Mia - #32 - probably the ABBA song I hear most other than Dancing Queen


Under Pressure - #29


Mr. Blue Sky - #35 - definitely the most well known ELO song these days


Valerie - didn't chart, but I hear it pretty frequently
 
A lot of ABBA and Queen songs would apply here
 
Another UK hit, but I've weirdly heard Teenage Dirtbag more in public in the last year than ever before, and it didn't chart here
 
Loads of big songs never charted in the US due to stupid chart rules and record company manipulation. Unless I'm mistaken Don't Speak, Lovefool and Torn weren't conventional hits in the US.
 
Ag said:
Loads of big songs never charted in the US due to stupid chart rules and record company manipulation. Unless I'm mistaken Don't Speak, Lovefool and Torn weren't conventional hits in the US.
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Yeah there had to be a commercial single release for a song to chart on the Hot 100 until they eliminated that rule in late 1998. Record labels would release to airplay only (the examples you mentioned) to boost album sales and the songs would never chart on the Hot 100. I think "Torn" made it to #42 or something because the rule changed during the end of its run.

"Into the Groove" is one of Madonna's signature hits here but technically never charted because it wasn't given its own standalone release.
 
"Love at First Sight" US #23. This almost felt bigger to CGYOOMH to me in the States but missed the top 20.
 
Ag said:
Loads of big songs never charted in the US due to stupid chart rules and record company manipulation. Unless I'm mistaken Don't Speak, Lovefool and Torn weren't conventional hits in the US.
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Those are kind of different from the songs I posted, since the chart was wrong at the time, unlike something like Mamma Mia, which just got bigger with time
 
POP! said:
"Love at First Sight" US #23. This almost felt bigger to CGYOOMH to me in the States but missed the top 20.
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I love LAFS but it definitely was not bigger anywhere I know of - not because it wasn't a big single for her during the peak of her career, but because CGYOOMH was such a motherfucker of a smash hit that nothing could ever compare.
 
So this reached #55 in the UK and didn't really chart anywhere else.

However, it has 624m views on Spotify (!!) and 75m views on YouTube... a great example of how the charts don't fucking mean anything anymore.

Definitely one of the best songs of the 10s

 
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#29 in the UK (although it did get some credit in 1998 with Jarvis doing a thing with the All Seeing Eye and of course Ms. Spears):

 
GALA said:
Only #11. Very influential song - no Enrique, CHER Believe album or Alexia crossover and no one had even heard of Spain here until Gina broke the news on Live & Kicking.
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That’s true actually. Before this, the most authentic Spanish song ever to reach the UK charts was ‘El Vino Collapso’ by Black Lace.
 
"Kids in America" US #25

Surprises me she got a #1 with her relatively forgotten cover of YKMHO and this could only scrape the top 30.

 
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Little known fact but Franco actually didn’t get defeated, he abdicated knowing that Spain couldn’t handle both him and Ti Amo 20 years later
 
POP! said:
"Kids in America" US #25

Surprises me she got a #1 with her relatively forgotten cover of YKMHO and this could only scrape the top 30.

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Did you ever know the girl group No Secrets? I don’t think they were actually popular but I was obsessed with them as a kid and they covered Kids In America. It was the only version I knew then
 
I always see #30 for Kids and #41 You Came being massive successes.

I do wonder just what impact Kiss Them For Me at #23 Stateside was like:

 
GALA said:
I do wonder just what impact Kiss Them For Me at #23 Stateside was like:

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It was a decent hit, 6 weeks in the top 40 for a #23 song is reasonable. Checking the stats not sure how it managed to climb so high, as it peaked at #50 on airplay and #58 on sales, but that wasn't that unusal back then. I have the 7" vinyl on the wall in my flat :disco:
 
Alla said:
It was a decent hit, 6 weeks in the top 40 for a #23 song is reasonable. Checking the stats not sure how it managed to climb so high, as it peaked at #50 on airplay and #58 on sales, but that wasn't that unusal back then. I have the 7" vinyl on the wall in my flat :disco:
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I find the billboard charts from 1990-1992 (until soundscan) to be a bit iffy
 
RJN said:
I find the billboard charts from 1990-1992 (until soundscan) to be a bit iffy
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Yeah, it was all very obscure. They always say chart positions are based on a combination of sales and airplay only, but that's not exactly true. There was a 3rd factor, something they talked about very vaguely, a monitor chart or whatever, I still have some old magazines where they mention that, I remember reading when they explained the position in the top 40 of Annie Lennox's Why, that was incredibly low in both the airplay and sales chart and made no sense, so they said it was top 10 in that mysterious chart. :eyes:
 
Alla said:
It was a decent hit, 6 weeks in the top 40 for a #23 song is reasonable. Checking the stats not sure how it managed to climb so high, as it peaked at #50 on airplay and #58 on sales, but that wasn't that unusal back then. I have the 7" vinyl on the wall in my flat :disco:
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I wish I could remember the big charts encyclopedia book I used to have at around the year 1999/2000 and this is where i first heard of the mysterious "college radio" - maybe this was a thing to help pole-vault some songs into the Hot 100?
 
GALA said:
I wish I could remember the big charts encyclopedia book I used to have at around the year 1999/2000 and this is where i first heard of the mysterious "college radio" - maybe this was a thing to help pole-vault some songs into the Hot 100?
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Yeah I think it was a radio monitor, so college radio could very well be it. Which makes no sense when they already had the airplay chart, but it's true they didn't add airplay from any stations but top 40 ones. God knows, I'll have a look if I ever go through that pile of magazines.
 
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