Michael Jackson - Thriller - 1st single "The Girl Is Mine" ???

That's what I was going to come in here and write when I saw the thread title!

Pixie Lott - 'Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh)'
Boys & Girls or Turn It Up itself would have been better (the latter probably would have made a third number 1 had she not switched to a ballad).

The Saturdays - Forever is over (Wordshaker), I love the song but it was the wrong choice for lead single, didnt represent the album at all in terms of sound.

Christina Aguilera - Not Myself Tonight, that song was just a mess and I couldn't believe it was the lead single from Bionic. Because of that song I think it's partly the reason Bionic didn't do well.

Kylie '2 Hearts' sounded nothing like the other songs on X and to be honest just wasn't the song the public wanted/expected for her big comeback.

Surely the most ill-advised first single from a much anticipated album in recent times HAS to be Duffy's Well Well Well

Katy Perry, California Dreams, good commercially I guess but the weakest song on the album

I completely agree, but it was a 'fitting' first single that allowed her to set-up the theme of the album without having to go out of her comfort zone, and looking back, I don't think there would have been another option that would have set her on this path.

Yes that was a shocker, releasing a 'marmite' song that splits opinion as the first single is never a good move. See also Robbie Williams' Rudebox.

Beyonce - Run The World

I was just coming on here to post this! I love 2 Hearts but it was a new direction for Kylie. She should have launched wuth Wow, which would have been a number 1 hit.

Competely agree with this one. It sounds absolutely nothing like the rest of the album.

California Gurls

And that was just the lead in I think, like a good summer lead single, followed by Teenage Dream which tied in with the album release (a much stronger track, too!)... Although I do agree, if the album had only 1 single before it's release, I would NOT have gone with CG!

Errrm thinking back the last few years,

Ting Tings released that track cool DJ (which took the chords right outta mumma mia) before thats not my name.

Green Days Know your enemy, not a very good album compared to their old stuff but Eat Jesus nowhere and 21dt centuary break down were much better than this repetetive track..

MGMT's first album, the tracks seemed to get released in the opposite order to their commercial success, Time to pretend , Electric Feel then Kids, strange cos Kids was around since 2004 and is the one you will still hear constantly on TV shows yet got a half hearted release about a year after the album came out.

KT Tunstall - Still A Weirdo
Very strange choice for a lead single off her most recent album. It was far too subtle and underrated for the song to kick off her new era.

that is the second time i have noticed this era being posted in this context. the single got to #4 and the album reached #1 in the uk. the album was awarded double platinium status in the uk, europe and australia.

New In Town by Little Boots really puzzled me as a first single choice. It was a great track IMO but it split people, and I think Remedy would have been a much better choice.

Girls Aloud releasing Sexy? No No No from Tangled Up first was a really strange choice too - it was easily the weakest track from that album.