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Songs that you thought were big hits but on fact never reached UK top 40?


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Old 06-08-2016, 20:56
huddsblue
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Start off with I Ran by A Flock Of Seagulls. This new wave classic only reached no. 43 in 1982:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iIpfWORQWhU
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Old 06-08-2016, 22:19
Hayden
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'Summer of 69' by Bryan Adams always gets a mention in these type of threads.
Played all the time on Heart FM and their like but never made the UK Top 40.
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Old 06-08-2016, 22:36
huddsblue
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That's a big one!

Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl never made it either.
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Old 06-08-2016, 23:03
StratusSphere
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Fleetwood Mac have a bunch. Rhiannon and You Make Loving Fun didn't make top 40, while Go Your Own Way and Sara only made #38 and #37 respectively.

Meanwhile those 'still well-known huge hits' Tusk and Oh Diane were top ten hits at the time.

Finally, their 'Rumours' album, 11x Platinum in the UK, didn't deliver a single top 20 single. What a different industry it was back then.
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Old 06-08-2016, 23:04
Ollie_h19
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Stairway to Heaven wasnt a hit until 2007, and even then it got to the lower end of the chart based on Downloads.
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Old 06-08-2016, 23:15
afcbfan
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Changes by David Bowie got to number 49 in the charts. And that followed his death; it never charted before that.
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Old 06-08-2016, 23:51
LaVieEnRose
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Finally, their 'Rumours' album, 11x Platinum in the UK, didn't deliver a single top 20 single. What a different industry it was back then.
That was because everybody had the album!

And a decade or so earlier it was different again, because then singles often weren't on the albums.
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Old 07-08-2016, 01:18
dodrade
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Stairway to Heaven wasnt a hit until 2007, and even then it got to the lower end of the chart based on Downloads.
Led Zeppelin didn't release singles.
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Old 07-08-2016, 14:28
EStaffs90
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Stop Me If You've Think You've Heard This One Before by the Smiths - I didn't know it never even got released (due to a line referencing the Hungerford massacre).
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Old 07-08-2016, 14:35
huddsblue
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Fleetwood Mac have a bunch. Rhiannon and You Make Loving Fun didn't make top 40, while Go Your Own Way and Sara only made #38 and #37 respectively.

Meanwhile those 'still well-known huge hits' Tusk and Oh Diane were top ten hits at the time.

Finally, their 'Rumours' album, 11x Platinum in the UK, didn't deliver a single top 20 single. What a different industry it was back then.
That's incredible. Maybe because everyone had the album tho?
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Old 07-08-2016, 14:40
huddsblue
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That was because everybody had the album!

And a decade or so earlier it was different again, because then singles often weren't on the albums.
The same happened with The Verve's Sonnet, a huge radio hit at the time but didn't get near the top 40.
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Old 07-08-2016, 15:03
Apollo Creed
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There are loads of famous Beatles songs that were never released. With A Little Help From My Friends, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds , When I'm 64.....
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Old 07-08-2016, 15:26
huddsblue
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There are loads of famous Beatles songs that were never released. With A Little Help From My Friends, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds , When I'm 64.....
There were too many to mention with the Beatles.

Yesterday and Eight Days A Week were no 1s in America but never released as singles here.
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Old 07-08-2016, 17:25
SonOfPurple
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Stop Me If You've Think You've Heard This One Before by the Smiths - I didn't know it never even got released (due to a line referencing the Hungerford massacre).
It did appear in the charts eventually - well, a version of it, mashed up with 'You Keep Me Hanging On', as Mark Ronson's "Stop Me." A Morrissey/Marr/Holland/Dozier/Holland writing credit - that'd only be beaten if someone unearths a Lennon/Jagger/McCartney/Richards collab...

The same happened with The Verve's Sonnet, a huge radio hit at the time but didn't get near the top 40.
Sonnet following on from "The Drugs Don't Work", which had the opposite problem - it got to number one, but nobody remembers that it did because it was in the week Princess Diana died and as such nobody gave an arse about the charts...
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Old 07-08-2016, 17:37
Ollie_h19
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Led Zeppelin didn't release singles.
I'm pretty sure Whole Lotta Love was a hit.

On that note, one of my favourite quotes about Led Zep was "they didn't appear on Top of the Pops....they did the theme tune". So cool.
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Old 07-08-2016, 17:47
Thorney
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I thought this was a top 40 hit and was surprised it wasn't

Rick Springfield - Jessies Girl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYkbTyHXwbs
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Old 07-08-2016, 18:31
huddsblue
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I'm pretty sure Whole Lotta Love was a hit.

On that note, one of my favourite quotes about Led Zep was "they didn't appear on Top of the Pops....they did the theme tune". So cool.
This cover/remixed version by CCS was a UK hit, but the original never charted.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c9GS3SofhdU
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Old 07-08-2016, 18:34
huddsblue
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I thought this was a top 40 hit and was surprised it wasn't

Rick Springfield - Jessies Girl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYkbTyHXwbs
A number 1 in America but a near miss here.
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Old 07-08-2016, 20:54
Billy Hicks
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One of the biggest that hasn't been mentioned yet, Sir Mix-A-Lot - Baby Got Back. Better known as the "I like big butts and I cannot lie" song!

Only made #56 in the UK, but a massive hit in the USA - a #1 and the second-biggest seller of 1992 - and used on tons of ads and films since.
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Old 07-08-2016, 23:36
Multimedia81
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The Velvettes' Needle in a Haystack.
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Old 08-08-2016, 08:07
JEFF62
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It did appear in the charts eventually - well, a version of it, mashed up with 'You Keep Me Hanging On', as Mark Ronson's "Stop Me." A Morrissey/Marr/Holland/Dozier/Holland writing credit - that'd only be beaten if someone unearths a Lennon/Jagger/McCartney/Richards collab...



Sonnet following on from "The Drugs Don't Work", which had the opposite problem - it got to number one, but nobody remembers that it did because it was in the week Princess Diana died and as such nobody gave an arse about the charts...
Funnily enough whenever I hear The Drugs Don't Work it reminds me of that utterly strange week. And it did match the sombre mood of the nation. Although it actually got to number one on the day after Dianas funeral. On the day she died and the week leading up to the funeral Men In Black was number one. So to me The Drugs Don't Work being number one in September 1997 is memorable because it followed that week.
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Old 08-08-2016, 19:25
EStaffs90
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This cover/remixed version by CCS was a UK hit, but the original never charted.
It did chart - it made No21 in 1997.
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Old 08-08-2016, 21:49
mal2pool
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Starbuck - Moonlight feels right 1976. Big hit in the US and big radio hit .
Harry Chapin - Cats in the cradle
Janis Ian - Fly too high
Godley & Creme - Englishman in new york
Kansas - Carry On Wayward son
Flash and the Pan - And the band played on
Donald Fagen - New Frontier
Don Henley - Dirty Laundry
Chris White - Spanish wine.....another radio hit
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Old 09-08-2016, 01:30
huddsblue
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It did chart - it made No21 in 1997.
But not the first time around. Nobody remembers it as a 1997 song lol.
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Old 09-08-2016, 01:32
huddsblue
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Eric Carmen - Hungry Eyes incredibly only reached no.82
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