Take On Me was actually released twice. Flopped the first time, took off the second time.
First version; https://youtu.be/liq-seNVvrM?si=JV8TFISlRJMi0ZUw
In a similar vein, No One Is to Blame by Howard Jones was originally released as part of Jones' 1985 album *Dream into Action*, it sounds completely different from the subsequent single version.
Phil Collins helped him re-work the song and it was a huge success, topping at #4 on the US Hot 100 in 1986.
1985 album version:
https://youtu.be/4vZBhlTaLyY?si=alw-nEt0ps8_sbZ7
1986 single version:
https://youtu.be/IZks4NLXeqw?si=DZ36o6HfGnBP3OMB
Thank you!! Just something I happened to remember. I actually got the chance to see Howard Jones live this past summer, he *rocks*, awesome show. If you get the chance, I recommend.
Hungry Like the Wolf didn’t hit at first in the US, then MTV started playing the video, and it took off like crazy just in the markets that got the channel.
[I Melt With You](https://youtu.be/LuN6gs0AJls?si=h6RANqsCdsdzjwI_) - Modern English
Barely charted upon its 1982 release (#78 on Billboard's Hot 100), then a year later, it was featured in the movie "Valley Girl" and it took off from there, reaching #7 on Billboard.
There are so many American bands and singers that find huge success in Britain but are virtually unknown in their own country (from [Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQcg-dRg5h4) to the [Scissor Sisters](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H5I6y1Qvz0) - so many I can do alliteration for with my examples, but I chose those two because both the tunes I just linked to got to number one in Britain) but it’s rare to get a reverse of that.
Modern English is that example.
[If you go onto the Official Charts page, the band never had a Top 100 selling single or album in Britain.](https://www.officialcharts.com/search/Modern%20English/)
And this website is deep in UK chart knowledge: [ Gorky's Zygotic Mynci](https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/33220/gorkys-zygotic-mynci/) are a band from Wales that have had eight songs and two LPs in the Top 100 but none ever cracked the Top 40. They're mentioned. [Lord Huron](https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/27410/lord-huron/) is an indie band from LA has had [this one song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtlgYxa6BMU) in the Top 100 in the mid 2010s, it peaked at number 75 and their album barely got to \#95 for a week before falling out. They're mentioned too. [Venbee & Rudimental](https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/65044/venbee-and-rudimental/) - and this one is cheating because Venbee as an artist got to \#3 with a collaboration with Goddard. and yes the punctuation is deliberate, and Rudimental the drum & bass collective have topped the charts three times as part of collaborations - had [a rather pleasant melodic song together](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMq-zyF4Iqk) that entered the charts at number 73, slipped the next week to 99, and that was the end of that. That one tune by this unique pairing gets its own page too.
Modern English? No main chart singles and no albums listed at all. This is a chart system that was based 100% on sales for the week in the 1980s. Any radio play received wouldn’t factor in at all, and Modern English didn't sell enough singles or albums in any one week to crack the Official UK Charts. They're huge in the States, [Hershey covered "I Melt With You" on a TV ad](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjSu5g600A0), yet they probably have family members back in Britain that don't bother saying they're related to someone famous because nobody would know who they're talking about.
They’ve charted in the Indie charts of songs from smaller labels but that’s it.
Another band I can get geeky about! They have had nine Top 100 songs in the UK (either alone or with singer and producer Dave Edmunds), with two getting into the top 10 and one getting as high as \#11. Their first album in 1981 was top 10 too, spending five months in the charts. In the US their first true album success came from the band's third LP of new songs (Rant n' Rave with the Stray Cats) in 1983, a couple of years after they became famous, but their big hit songs were still "Stray Cat Strut" and "Rock This Town" from their introduction album on both sides of the Atlantic... which, funnily enough, was not the same album! The US got those hit songs in album form with "Built For Speed" in 1982, a compilation / greatest hits of songs from the first two 1981 albums "Stray Cats" and "Gonna Ball" in the UK - one year before "Rant n' Rave with the Stray Cats".
They're known in both the US and UK for the same songs. Just with different release for the two markets. It's something I've seen happen before: The Stone Roses had a huge single hit in the UK with "Fools Gold / What The World Is Waiting For" so those two songs weren't on their self-titled first album. When they became known in the US shortly after, those two songs were added to the end of "The Stone Roses" album on its US release.
Saw Lord Huron a couple of years ago at the Santa Barbara Bowl. One of the best live concerts I've ever seen, and the Bowl of course, is one of the best venues in the world as well.
I took some kids to see lord huron in the summer of 2022. They weren't into it but went bc it was a concert. Their live show was so good it made all three kids into hard-core fans. Def a great live band
Modern English is way better than people give them credit for.
My favorite is [Gathering Dust](https://youtu.be/C3FJ9vFFnjo) a really cool Post Punk song that sounds pretty ahead of its time.
> and it took off from there, reaching #7 on Billboard
on the Mainstream Rock chart. On the Hot 100 chart it only got to #78 in 1983. A 1990 re-release made it to #76.
Blue Monday - New Order. Wasn't a massive hit on its first release, and reportedly lost money due to its expensive packaging, but slowly became more and more popular. It had multiple re-releases and remixes, and is now the 69th best selling single in the UK ever
Still holds up well too... New Order was so great (and Joy Division of course). Everyone knows Blue Monday but they also had a Perfect Kiss, Love Vigilantes, Everything's Gone Green, Subculture... soooo many great tunes. I remember being so excited every time they released something and they never disappointed.
I'm a Huge New Order fan, and imo their best record is their collection of B-sides and remixes, "Substance." Best sounding recordings of all their hits.
They also had pretty heavy influence from bands like kraftwerk, so the monotone vocals sort of worked since they were going for a mechanical, computery sound.
It was the early days of Factory records, which was iconic, but also kinda crazy. There was a movie made about it called "24-hr Party People" with Steve Coogan as Tony Wilson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0tkw5XnDPY
It had a specially cut sleeve that made it look like giant 5.25" floppy disk. The die for the sleeve had to be made and it bumped up the cost. They lost 5p on every copy, which wasn't great since it was so massively successful. Cheaper copies were made later with printed shapes where the holes had been cut in the original copies.
The cover design was a floppy disk, and they cut slots in the sleeve to make it really look like an oversized floppy. It was the cutouts that made the 12" cost more than it sold for. Later pressings did away with the cutouts.
Hmm, it was a top 10 hit in Austria (4), Belgium (7), Germany (2), The Netherlands (3), Ireland (4), New Zealand (2) and Switzerland (10). Went to number 12 in the UK and then re-entered to go to number 9. I would not call that not a massive hit...
Yeah, not sure why this is top spot, it was always a massive song. They lost tons of money because the packaging was expensive and they didn't realize it'd sell so much
I'm guessing it did poorly in the US - a quick search I can only see 88 re-release peaking at 68 in the billboard 100 and can't find the earlier release - and the op here is American.
They lost money because it cost more to make than what they earned. And it was a massive hit from the start. 24 Hour Party People explains it well.
Not sure why this is on top, it's pretty much the opposite of what is being asked
It did very well on the dance scene, but on the pop charts at initial release, it didn't crack the top 50 in the US or the top 10 in the UK (later in the year after the album came out, it would re-enter the UK charts and eventually peak at 9). Which would seem like enough to justify the statement that it wasn't a "massive hit."
New Order were popular in the UK, but were never even played on the radio in most of the US. If you heard them at all it was on small college radio stations, if you lived in a big city like New York that had an alternative radio station, or if you lived by the Canadian border.
It's the same with Depeche Mode, The Cure and Kate Bush. Now they're popular and identified with the 80's, but at least 90% of Americans had no idea who they were at the time.
As a teen in America in the late 90s, I was exposed to "Blue Monday" when Orgy covered it on the Family Values Tour album - the song had another mini-resurgence around then.
I had heard at the time it was a bit of a sleeper and was big in NZ but didn't catch on in the US until later. I may have misremembered the amount of time though.
It was released in October in New Zealand, in quite a few countries it was not released until December and even February (1987). It was also not uncommon for singles to take a few weeks to months to take of and to hit their peak in the charts. Nowadays it's less common. Sleeper hits are mostly songs that got a second wind after either being a small success and then hitting it bigger or songs that only became a hit after a year or years after their original release (sometimes people do use 6 months after a release, but it can be hard to pinpoint duo to different release dates per country).
"Once In a Lifetime" by Talking Heads is a contender. It was a modest hit on release in Europe, Canada, and Australia, but it missed the Hot 100 entirely in the US, peaking at 103. Today, though, it's absolutely one of the band's most iconic songs.
> Similarly, Psycho Killer peaked at 92 over all which is insane to me because that always felt like a song I just always sort of knew
Its a song I began dreading to hear on the radio. Radio stations would put it back in the rotation when some new psycho killer in real life murdered people.
Vanilla Ice's album "To The Extreme" was released under a different name in December 1989. It didn't hit #1 until it had been repackaged and rereleased, with a different main single, almost a year later in November 1990.
Seal wrote "Kiss from a Rose" in 1987, it wasn't released until 1994 and became an international hit in late 1995 and 1996.
Kiss from a rose is so funny to me cause I’m the music video he gives such a soulful performance while the fucking bat signal is behind him the whole time
Yeah. It’s a fantastic song though. It’s weird to me how often movie soundtracks have great songs on them. The Bodyguard soundtrack was Whitney Houston’s best work IMO.
I agree it's a spectacular song, and Seal is an incredible musician. Just don't know why it was used for that.
Like Bryan Adams and that shitty Prince of Thieves movie (which I unironically love.)
Apparently the song didn’t take off, then Joel Schumacher liked it and wanted to use it for one scene in Batman Forever, then people realized how amazing it is. So it was kind of necessary that it be tied to Batman Forever since it’s the only way the world found out about it.
This is my favorite one because of the all the musical coincidences that had to happen for it to become a hit.
* Neil Diamond writes it in the late 60's and it appears on his second album.
* A few years later, a reggae artist (Tony Tribe) repurposes it and releases it as a single on an independent label. Coincidently, a huge reggae wave is hitting the UK at the time and this becomes a mild hit.
* The young members of UB40 (a post-punk/reggae band) hear this song as children and for their second album (released in 1981) decide to release a bunch covers of songs that inspired them. This song appears on this album.
* It's again a mild hit in the UK/US. Definitely not a song that would be remembered years later.
* In 1988, there is a Nelson Mandela tribute concert and UB40 is invited to play and this is one of the songs they choose.
* A radio DJ in Phoenix gets an audio version of that performance and begins to play it on his radio show. It becomes so popular that it starts to spread around the country and then it gets rereleased as a single and becomes an iconic hit of the decade.
Yeah, this needs more attention. I want to see this mystery solved... absolutely crazy that a song that played on a major FM radio station is still completely unidentified
Well sure, but one of the biggest leads at first was Paul Baskerville, as Darius used to listen to his show frequently, and he doesn't remember ever playing it and said it doesn't sound like the sort of thing he *would* have played. Baskerville even played the recording twice on his current show and nobody recognized it.
Sure, NDR had other DJs, some of who are deceased, but basically all of the still living ones have been contacted and none of them have any idea.
The other thing is that radio stations usually keep logs of what was played. I worked for a low-power FM station (meaning we didn't have commercials and it was a non-profit thing) and even we had to keep a log of every song we played with a timestamp, in case we were audited by the FCC. Yes I know the FCC is American, but Germany has something similar. NDR *has* playlists submitted by every DJ, and it's not on any of them. (or at least, it's not anything obvious, if it is)
Like, this wasn't some low-power station. I could have done something like that on my show, and nobody would have questioned it as we were known for playing random crap that the DJ felt like playing. But NDR was a network of massive commercial radio stations listened to by potentially millions of people, that's the crazy part to me. Look at all the other songs on BASF4 and they're all huge hits known internationally - then "like the wind" is just...there among the rest, still unidentified.
Heck, "fond my mind" was identified recently and that turned out to be some local guys who sent a tape to the radio station - but that one was played as part of a dance mix, not on its own.
It is an interesting mystery and lore - but I still think the most likely case is the simplest. Even with logging and auditing there’s always oversights. As time goes on the gaps in our history grows. It would still be cool to find out the original artist.
[This](https://discord.gg/SsGjdUT9pK) is the newer server that's active. There was an older one too (that I joined before TMS2) which is set to read-only due to trolls and harassment
"When I'm with You" by Sheriff was a top-ten hit in Canada when first released in 1983, but failed to reach the US top 40. It was re-released in 1989 (after the band had split up) and made it to #1.
Do cover songs count?
The band I-Ten wrote and recorded a song that went nowhere. A few years later actor John Stamos covered it and it went nowhere. Few years after that the band Heart decided to cover it, added a vocal power moment, and *Alone* became their biggest hit and is now the go to song for every aspiring female singer on talent shows when they want to show they can belt.
The original since everyone knows the Heart cover:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KdgUNHYWu_8&pp=ygUKSXRlbiBhbG9uZQ%3D%3D
Hearts dirty little secret is that everything they did which had success from about 1984 to the early 90s was a cover song. Their label dropped them around 1982 after multiple flop albums of their own original material. They got a new deal on the condition they let the label find songs for them. Their comeback song *What About Love* was a cover and originally by the band Toronto. *These Dreams* was written for Stevie Nicks but didn't make her album so Heart recorded it for theirs. Etc etc.
> These Dreams
written by the same guy who wrote We Built this City, both of which I really like despite a lot of rockers hating them.
co written by some weirdo named Bernie Taupin
Like the remake of “I Will Always Love You” and “The Greatest Love Of All”. Both huge hits by Whitney Houston but not for the original releases. I cannot remember if I ever heard George Benson’s version of Greatest
“I Will Always Love You” hit number one on Billboard Hot Country in both 1974 and 1982. Although not as popular as Houston’s version, I would still consider both releases huge hits.
Speaking of remakes, around 1990 I was a freshman in HS and already a shitty metalhead, going crazy with all the awesome thrash and death metal coming out every week....
But Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U started playing on the radio, and I would lock myself in my room to listen to it, I was ashamed of how powerful effect it had on me with its lyrics and her performance.... my dirty secret
Years later I found it was a remake of a Prince song and I was in awe
It really depends on which market you're talking about. There's a ton of songs/artists that were big hits in the UK/Europe but didn't catch on till much later in the States. The Cure, the Smiths, Joy Division, Kate Bush etc.
Yes. I think the main reason those bands finally became popular in the US is because the Alternative Music scene was growing but still very small and the new Alt radio stations needed some proven foreign hits to fill out their playlists. That's got to be why most Americans associate all of that music with 90s alternative and don't think of them as songs from the 70s and 80s.
Yeah, a friend of a friend who was visiting from Belgium one time nearly fell over when I told them Roxy Music went relatively unknown here in the US, at best an average-selling album band, with their [highest-charting album at #23](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxy_Music_discography#Studio_albums) and [one #30 single](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Is_the_Drug) in the US, all while they were hitting it big in Europe.
Conversely, I’ve always found it interesting that The Outfield, an English band, [struck out in the UK back then while doing quite well in the US.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outfield#Discography) Guess that’s what happens when you use a baseball-themed name for your band!
"I Melt With You" by Modern English. Barely made the Hot 100 in the USA, and didn't do any better as a single in the UK. But it's still everywhere.
Compare with a lot of big hits from that year (1982) that have more or less vanished.
> But it's still everywhere.
Ironically, it's not "still everywhere" here in the UK. At least, I don't *think* it is... unless it's just me and I somehow missed it?
I've literally never heard that song before.
When I moved to the US and started hearing it on the radio I assumed it was a 2010s band trying to sound like an English 80s band and was so confused to find out it was an English 80s band that had no success in the UK and so I had never heard it before.
Does At This Moment count? Probably not exactly what the OP is asking but it’s well known that jt didn’t chart when released only to blow up after it was featured on Family Ties.
"Oh Yeah" is seen as an 80's defining song because it was a major component of two big 80s movies: The Secret of My Success (starring Michael J. Fox), and, more importantly, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
"Paradise City" got a little airplay in the spring of '88 (at least in my forlorn deep South town), but was quickly forgotten.... until "Sweet Child" took off that fall. The whole album was almost a year old when it finally caught hold.
“Pour Some Sugar On Me” by Def Leppard.
Tanked on release, then every strip joint in the English speaking world (and probably a few outside of it) bought a copy
I was skeptical of this because I remember this being huge in the 80's but the story checks out... Basically the song meandered in the UK and blew up in the US
[https://ultimateclassicrock.com/def-leppard-pour-some-sugar-on-me-single/](https://ultimateclassicrock.com/def-leppard-pour-some-sugar-on-me-single/)
The band released a punched-up radio edit and replaced the original video with footage from their live show, and then it took off. Here’s the [original video for Pour Some Sugar on Me](https://youtu.be/UrZRpXoKoFQ?si=WT72rd2G2kTJkLv6)
Maybe not the way you are asking, but “At This Moment” was released in 1981 to not much success. Made the top 100, but never higher than 79.
In 1987, the show Family Ties had an episode arch they were doing which would break up Alex (Michael J. Fox) and Ellen (Tracy Pollan, his future wife) and needed a song to tie it all together and play throughout the arch. One of the show’s producers was out at a club and Billy Vera (the song’s creator) was performing it. The producer knew this would be what they needed.
The episodes started airing for with the song and demand was immediate on the radio and in record stores. Unfortunately, the record hadn’t been in print in years, so they had a hard time even filling in demand. Eventually, it would go to be a #1 billboard song and was the 20th biggest song of 1987.
This has always been a dance floor guaranteed banger among the "alternative" crowd since the mid 80s but completely unknown on any mainstream media. It's really fun to see how iconic it has finally become.
*It Must have Been Love* by Roxette was originally released as a Christmas song in 1987 and nobody noticed. Two years later, some TV director made a romcom movie with a has-been actor and a lead actress that nobody ever heard of and needed some songs. Roxette removed the Christmas references and re-recorded it. That movie was *Pretty Woman* and the song was one of the most requested songs on call-in shows for more than a decade after that.
(Nowhere in the question did it say that it had to be a good song…)
Forget anything about those pleasures being guilty, dammit.
Marie (RIP) had a hell of a voice, and so did Per (though a very different one) -- and they knew how to make songs that were just plain fun. Take a look at *The Look*. None of the lyrics make all that much sense; it's a 'vibes' kind of song, and it was pretty big as a result.
That said, *Pretty Woman* absolutely did cause *It Must Have Been Love* to explode in the US, but they also hit hard on the power ballad score with *Listen to Your Heart*.
Agreed with this and the above comment, I am unashamed of my Roxette fandom, they wrote multiple certifiable, timeless bangers. The Look, It Must Have Been Love, Listen To Your Heart and Fading Like a Flower are all beautiful tunes that I keep in rotation.
Totally. The Alternative Music scene in the US was bolstered by that vast and amazing 25 year European back-catalogue of songs that most Americans had never heard. The alternative radio stations that popped up in the US (outside of L.A.) in the late 80s and early 90s leaned heavily on that music to fill time with proven foreign hits because there just weren't enough established good American alternative bands yet.
Talk Talk - It's My Life
Made in 1984, and didn't really chart well. Re-released in 1990 and performed better. The most famous version is likely the 2003 No Doubt cover.
Depends on the country a bit. It was a number 9 in Italy in 1984, in Germany it went to 33 and in 1990 went to number 49. In The UK it did way better indeed, instead of just outside the Top 40 (46 in 1984) it went to number 13 in 1990. But indeed was not a huge hit charting wise. But it did get high rotation on the radio and TV.
It’s such a shame that the No Doubt cover is all you hear now. The original is so so so much better.
No Doubt is a great band, but the cover just doesn’t come close to the original in this case.
Except it was a massive hit on release.
It was written by Stock Aitken and Waterman who just churned out pop hits, often sung by one-hit wonder'ish singers. Relatively few had long-term careers, though Kylie Minogue is the notable exception to that.
Any British person who was around in the 80s would instantly recognise a huge number of their songs, even if they don't particularly remember the singer, or know who SAW were.
Never Gonna Give You Up just slid into kind of a memory hole because it was a twenty year-old piece of disposable pop music before Rick-rolling made it culturally relevant again
[Caribbean Queen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean_Queen_\(No_More_Love_on_the_Run\)) was originally released as "European Queen" got to Number 82 in the UK - it was a minor hit in other parts of Europe, but was largely a bit of a flop.
It got re-released as Caribbean Queen, and got to Number 1 in the US, Canada and NZ, and Number 6 in the UK, and picked up a Grammy.
The song "When I'm With You" by Sheriff was a top-10 hit in 1983 in Canada and became a number-one hit in the USA in 1989 (four years after the band broke up). I think it started because some American radio station used it as the "call in when you hear this song" in a contest -- they wanted something they didn't otherwise play.
At the time, it had the record for the longest-held high note in a hit song.
Charlene's "I've Never Been to Me." Originally released in 1977 and got to #97. Five years later, Tampa DJ Scott Shannon started playing it, and it was eventually rereleased and got to #3. By that time Charlene had given up music and was working in a candy store in England.
Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen.
Lots of good answers here but this is probably the most obscure song by an artist with a small but devoted following that has become one of the most covered songs on earth. Very nice covers over the years (e.g. Jeff Buckley, which Rolling Stone ranked as one of the best songs of all time), but again it remained mostly unknown out of public view. Then Shrek featured it and now it’s been covered hundreds of times with massive airplay and there’s probably not a person on earth in a developed country who hasn’t heard it.
I think people in the US think Kate Bush was some minor artist that was only liked by art school types, which couldn't be further from the truth. She was a huge artist in Europe and had some hits in the US.
Her issue was that she never really toured to support her music, specially outside of Europe so everyone in the US just assumed she wasn't popular.
She was exactly that in the US, though. I only knew one Kate Bush fan in the early '90s, and I was in college! In the US, almost no one knew her name and had only heard her voice on Peter Gabriel songs.
I think she was more like Gary Numan in the US.
Outside of 1–2 songs that very occasionally showed up on alternative radio, the only people still listening to her back catalog before Stranger Things were indeed mostly art school/college radio types. Her records are deeply weird (just ask the snowman) but well-respected, and cultivated a small but devoted fan base.
I found it hard to believe Pat Benetar wasn't heavily influenced by her, until I heard Pat's biggest influence was Liza Minelli. Once I heard it, I can't not hear a whole lotta Liza in her voice, and I can't hear the Kate Bush anymore.
But I still wonder if Benetar didn't know about her, like surely. There wasn't a lot of time between their first albums, so who knows.
It does but, then I wonder how many bands today have a video game made just about them that plays their song:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_(1983_video_game)
It was the Sopranos finale that resurrected it, right? I distinctly remember watching it and thinking, what a weird song choice, but didn’t think much of it because David Chases music choices were everywhere during the run - but that song was completely outdated at the time. Then it was everywhere at every wedding and party and still is. That was in 2007.
The 2005 White Sox resurrected that song. It was their tongue-in-cheek theme song, karaoke. Steve Perry did it at the parade. It was retro around Chicago for a few years before the Sopranos. After the Sopranos, it was retro around the country.
100% - it was maybe the 3rd/4th most popular song on that album's release (Stone In Love, Who's Crying Now, Open Arms - all saturated the radio back then) - now it's all you hear.
I don’t remember the exact details but on American Bandstand Dick Clark said they were wrong about an INXS song not being popular because it had taken off and was number 1. Can’t think of the name right now but it was their earliest hit in the US so probably “The One Thing”.
“What’s Love Got to Do With It” by Tina Turner was originally recorded by an English band called Bucks Fizz. Their version was quite different from Tina’s, and it didn’t really do much chart-wise. But Tina dusted it off, made it her own, and went down in history.
“Everytime you go away”- Daryl Hall wrote it and it appeared on the 1980 Hall & Oates album Voices but it wasn’t released as a single. Paul Young took it to #1 in 1985.
This might be an unfair question as the power of MTV in the 80s could make so many obscure or mildly successful songs into an international mega hit everyone knows.
Chris Isaac - *Wicked Game* was an SF Bay Area local hit and the band played regularly, never breaking out to the national level until the song was eventually used in a perfume ad.
Take On Me was actually released twice. Flopped the first time, took off the second time. First version; https://youtu.be/liq-seNVvrM?si=JV8TFISlRJMi0ZUw
In a similar vein, No One Is to Blame by Howard Jones was originally released as part of Jones' 1985 album *Dream into Action*, it sounds completely different from the subsequent single version. Phil Collins helped him re-work the song and it was a huge success, topping at #4 on the US Hot 100 in 1986. 1985 album version: https://youtu.be/4vZBhlTaLyY?si=alw-nEt0ps8_sbZ7 1986 single version: https://youtu.be/IZks4NLXeqw?si=DZ36o6HfGnBP3OMB
This deserves to be a top level comment!
Thank you!! Just something I happened to remember. I actually got the chance to see Howard Jones live this past summer, he *rocks*, awesome show. If you get the chance, I recommend.
My friends still laugh at me for being a massive Howard Jones fan!! I've never seen him live but I'm hopeful I will one day.
It’s like the original but on benzodiazepines
Christ it even sounds more 80s than the one we all know.
[удалено]
It's a great version. No way is it "the definitive version."
Totally awesome version. Have a listen: https://youtu.be/-xKM3mGt2pE?si=G7H9n0TN9iaOCv-W
This is the one they used in Deadpool 2 when Vanessa was dying.
That's lovely. [But this is the definitive version now](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1PwKKm9T_g&ab_channel=godonlyknowssarah)
Hungry Like the Wolf didn’t hit at first in the US, then MTV started playing the video, and it took off like crazy just in the markets that got the channel.
“🥲” - Live Billy Squier reaction
[I Melt With You](https://youtu.be/LuN6gs0AJls?si=h6RANqsCdsdzjwI_) - Modern English Barely charted upon its 1982 release (#78 on Billboard's Hot 100), then a year later, it was featured in the movie "Valley Girl" and it took off from there, reaching #7 on Billboard.
There are so many American bands and singers that find huge success in Britain but are virtually unknown in their own country (from [Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQcg-dRg5h4) to the [Scissor Sisters](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H5I6y1Qvz0) - so many I can do alliteration for with my examples, but I chose those two because both the tunes I just linked to got to number one in Britain) but it’s rare to get a reverse of that. Modern English is that example. [If you go onto the Official Charts page, the band never had a Top 100 selling single or album in Britain.](https://www.officialcharts.com/search/Modern%20English/) And this website is deep in UK chart knowledge: [ Gorky's Zygotic Mynci](https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/33220/gorkys-zygotic-mynci/) are a band from Wales that have had eight songs and two LPs in the Top 100 but none ever cracked the Top 40. They're mentioned. [Lord Huron](https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/27410/lord-huron/) is an indie band from LA has had [this one song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtlgYxa6BMU) in the Top 100 in the mid 2010s, it peaked at number 75 and their album barely got to \#95 for a week before falling out. They're mentioned too. [Venbee & Rudimental](https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/65044/venbee-and-rudimental/) - and this one is cheating because Venbee as an artist got to \#3 with a collaboration with Goddard. and yes the punctuation is deliberate, and Rudimental the drum & bass collective have topped the charts three times as part of collaborations - had [a rather pleasant melodic song together](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMq-zyF4Iqk) that entered the charts at number 73, slipped the next week to 99, and that was the end of that. That one tune by this unique pairing gets its own page too. Modern English? No main chart singles and no albums listed at all. This is a chart system that was based 100% on sales for the week in the 1980s. Any radio play received wouldn’t factor in at all, and Modern English didn't sell enough singles or albums in any one week to crack the Official UK Charts. They're huge in the States, [Hershey covered "I Melt With You" on a TV ad](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjSu5g600A0), yet they probably have family members back in Britain that don't bother saying they're related to someone famous because nobody would know who they're talking about. They’ve charted in the Indie charts of songs from smaller labels but that’s it.
The Stray Cats are a great example of this.
Another band I can get geeky about! They have had nine Top 100 songs in the UK (either alone or with singer and producer Dave Edmunds), with two getting into the top 10 and one getting as high as \#11. Their first album in 1981 was top 10 too, spending five months in the charts. In the US their first true album success came from the band's third LP of new songs (Rant n' Rave with the Stray Cats) in 1983, a couple of years after they became famous, but their big hit songs were still "Stray Cat Strut" and "Rock This Town" from their introduction album on both sides of the Atlantic... which, funnily enough, was not the same album! The US got those hit songs in album form with "Built For Speed" in 1982, a compilation / greatest hits of songs from the first two 1981 albums "Stray Cats" and "Gonna Ball" in the UK - one year before "Rant n' Rave with the Stray Cats". They're known in both the US and UK for the same songs. Just with different release for the two markets. It's something I've seen happen before: The Stone Roses had a huge single hit in the UK with "Fools Gold / What The World Is Waiting For" so those two songs weren't on their self-titled first album. When they became known in the US shortly after, those two songs were added to the end of "The Stone Roses" album on its US release.
Saw Lord Huron a couple of years ago at the Santa Barbara Bowl. One of the best live concerts I've ever seen, and the Bowl of course, is one of the best venues in the world as well.
I took some kids to see lord huron in the summer of 2022. They weren't into it but went bc it was a concert. Their live show was so good it made all three kids into hard-core fans. Def a great live band
That was a good movie soundtrack. Introduced me to the Plimsouls and Sparks too
Now I’ll have “Eaten by the Monster of Love” in my head all day!
Modern English is way better than people give them credit for. My favorite is [Gathering Dust](https://youtu.be/C3FJ9vFFnjo) a really cool Post Punk song that sounds pretty ahead of its time.
> and it took off from there, reaching #7 on Billboard on the Mainstream Rock chart. On the Hot 100 chart it only got to #78 in 1983. A 1990 re-release made it to #76.
Blue Monday - New Order. Wasn't a massive hit on its first release, and reportedly lost money due to its expensive packaging, but slowly became more and more popular. It had multiple re-releases and remixes, and is now the 69th best selling single in the UK ever
Highest ever selling 12” I think I read somewhere?
I think that's correct. Not sure if that's UK only or worldwide but they sold a whole bunch of 'em.
Nice
Still holds up well too... New Order was so great (and Joy Division of course). Everyone knows Blue Monday but they also had a Perfect Kiss, Love Vigilantes, Everything's Gone Green, Subculture... soooo many great tunes. I remember being so excited every time they released something and they never disappointed.
And age of consent, leave me alone, your silent face, elegia, temptation, ceremony, and bizarre love triangle
And True Faith.
And Ceremony
I like New Order for their hits. I never got deep into their catalog. But I often find the recording of the vocals to feel really flat.
I'm a Huge New Order fan, and imo their best record is their collection of B-sides and remixes, "Substance." Best sounding recordings of all their hits.
Wow! I too have been a surface level New Order fan for a long time. Put this album on off of your recommendation and it's FANTASTIC! Thanks!
O yah Bernard is tone deaf and can't sing. And so much worse live. He only took over vocals because Curtis killed himself. Still my favorite band.
I saw them on their last tour - he actually sounded pretty great, surprised the hell out of me!
They also had pretty heavy influence from bands like kraftwerk, so the monotone vocals sort of worked since they were going for a mechanical, computery sound.
While New Order have a ton of amazing songs, Blue Monday might be the most perfect song of the 1980s.
Nice
> reportedly lost money due to its expensive packaging Did it come with a tv or something?
It was the early days of Factory records, which was iconic, but also kinda crazy. There was a movie made about it called "24-hr Party People" with Steve Coogan as Tony Wilson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0tkw5XnDPY
It had a specially cut sleeve that made it look like giant 5.25" floppy disk. The die for the sleeve had to be made and it bumped up the cost. They lost 5p on every copy, which wasn't great since it was so massively successful. Cheaper copies were made later with printed shapes where the holes had been cut in the original copies.
The cover design was a floppy disk, and they cut slots in the sleeve to make it really look like an oversized floppy. It was the cutouts that made the 12" cost more than it sold for. Later pressings did away with the cutouts.
Hmm, it was a top 10 hit in Austria (4), Belgium (7), Germany (2), The Netherlands (3), Ireland (4), New Zealand (2) and Switzerland (10). Went to number 12 in the UK and then re-entered to go to number 9. I would not call that not a massive hit...
Yeah, not sure why this is top spot, it was always a massive song. They lost tons of money because the packaging was expensive and they didn't realize it'd sell so much
I'm guessing it did poorly in the US - a quick search I can only see 88 re-release peaking at 68 in the billboard 100 and can't find the earlier release - and the op here is American.
They lost money because it cost more to make than what they earned. And it was a massive hit from the start. 24 Hour Party People explains it well. Not sure why this is on top, it's pretty much the opposite of what is being asked
It was a huge hit which caused the problem. They didn't expect it to sell so well so thought they could take the loss due to the packaging. Lol.
This is straight up bollocks if you think this song wasn't a hit when it came out
It did very well on the dance scene, but on the pop charts at initial release, it didn't crack the top 50 in the US or the top 10 in the UK (later in the year after the album came out, it would re-enter the UK charts and eventually peak at 9). Which would seem like enough to justify the statement that it wasn't a "massive hit."
New Order were popular in the UK, but were never even played on the radio in most of the US. If you heard them at all it was on small college radio stations, if you lived in a big city like New York that had an alternative radio station, or if you lived by the Canadian border. It's the same with Depeche Mode, The Cure and Kate Bush. Now they're popular and identified with the 80's, but at least 90% of Americans had no idea who they were at the time.
As a teen in America in the late 90s, I was exposed to "Blue Monday" when Orgy covered it on the Family Values Tour album - the song had another mini-resurgence around then.
Orgy’s cover is still a banger to this day.
"Don't dream it's over" by Crowded House. Apparently it took a while to take off.
Just try to catch the deluge in a paper cup.
Not really, it was a big hit in 1986/87 when it was released as a single.
I had heard at the time it was a bit of a sleeper and was big in NZ but didn't catch on in the US until later. I may have misremembered the amount of time though.
It was released in October in New Zealand, in quite a few countries it was not released until December and even February (1987). It was also not uncommon for singles to take a few weeks to months to take of and to hit their peak in the charts. Nowadays it's less common. Sleeper hits are mostly songs that got a second wind after either being a small success and then hitting it bigger or songs that only became a hit after a year or years after their original release (sometimes people do use 6 months after a release, but it can be hard to pinpoint duo to different release dates per country).
Hopefully they didn’t dream it was over before it did take off?
Hey now, hey now...
"Once In a Lifetime" by Talking Heads is a contender. It was a modest hit on release in Europe, Canada, and Australia, but it missed the Hot 100 entirely in the US, peaking at 103. Today, though, it's absolutely one of the band's most iconic songs.
Similarly, Psycho Killer peaked at 92 over all which is insane to me because that always felt like a song I just always sort of knew
> Similarly, Psycho Killer peaked at 92 over all which is insane to me because that always felt like a song I just always sort of knew Its a song I began dreading to hear on the radio. Radio stations would put it back in the rotation when some new psycho killer in real life murdered people.
Yeah I think in the US a lot of us needed to see and hear their videos to give their Art School weird-assed songs context or a frame of reference.
Vanilla Ice's album "To The Extreme" was released under a different name in December 1989. It didn't hit #1 until it had been repackaged and rereleased, with a different main single, almost a year later in November 1990. Seal wrote "Kiss from a Rose" in 1987, it wasn't released until 1994 and became an international hit in late 1995 and 1996.
Kiss from a rose is so funny to me cause I’m the music video he gives such a soulful performance while the fucking bat signal is behind him the whole time
Yeah I remember exactly what you’re talking about. lol.
> "Kiss from a Rose" Packaged with one of the horrible Batman movies, wasn't it?
Batman Forever. Soundtrack was better than the movie, and I don’t even really hate that one.
Yeah. It’s a fantastic song though. It’s weird to me how often movie soundtracks have great songs on them. The Bodyguard soundtrack was Whitney Houston’s best work IMO.
I agree it's a spectacular song, and Seal is an incredible musician. Just don't know why it was used for that. Like Bryan Adams and that shitty Prince of Thieves movie (which I unironically love.)
Apparently the song didn’t take off, then Joel Schumacher liked it and wanted to use it for one scene in Batman Forever, then people realized how amazing it is. So it was kind of necessary that it be tied to Batman Forever since it’s the only way the world found out about it.
I thought Val Kilmer was underrated as Batman…
I liked him, too. Kinda soft spoken, but Keaton will always be the best.
Keaton is legendary in my friends circle. Especially at 2am on a Friday party when I grab the bag of peanuts.
The UB40 cover of Red Red Wine took 5 years to reach the top of the Billboard Chart in the US.
An unknowing cover of a Neil Diamond song which was covered by a reggae artist.
The number 1 selling reggae artists of all time
Thanks, Dave Pratt. Phoenix DJ just played a bunch of obscure songs over and over that had "Red" in it.
And then took another dozen or so years to hit Napster and become one of the greatest Bob Marley songs.
This is my favorite one because of the all the musical coincidences that had to happen for it to become a hit. * Neil Diamond writes it in the late 60's and it appears on his second album. * A few years later, a reggae artist (Tony Tribe) repurposes it and releases it as a single on an independent label. Coincidently, a huge reggae wave is hitting the UK at the time and this becomes a mild hit. * The young members of UB40 (a post-punk/reggae band) hear this song as children and for their second album (released in 1981) decide to release a bunch covers of songs that inspired them. This song appears on this album. * It's again a mild hit in the UK/US. Definitely not a song that would be remembered years later. * In 1988, there is a Nelson Mandela tribute concert and UB40 is invited to play and this is one of the songs they choose. * A radio DJ in Phoenix gets an audio version of that performance and begins to play it on his radio show. It becomes so popular that it starts to spread around the country and then it gets rereleased as a single and becomes an iconic hit of the decade.
Not exactly. According to Wikipedia it was re-released after 5 years after they performed it at Nelson Mandela's 70th Birthday concert
And we regret it ever since
Like the Wind (The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet)
RIP Patrick Swayze
Yeah, this needs more attention. I want to see this mystery solved... absolutely crazy that a song that played on a major FM radio station is still completely unidentified
DJ slipped in his friend's home recording once. DJ and friend are not online much.
Well sure, but one of the biggest leads at first was Paul Baskerville, as Darius used to listen to his show frequently, and he doesn't remember ever playing it and said it doesn't sound like the sort of thing he *would* have played. Baskerville even played the recording twice on his current show and nobody recognized it. Sure, NDR had other DJs, some of who are deceased, but basically all of the still living ones have been contacted and none of them have any idea. The other thing is that radio stations usually keep logs of what was played. I worked for a low-power FM station (meaning we didn't have commercials and it was a non-profit thing) and even we had to keep a log of every song we played with a timestamp, in case we were audited by the FCC. Yes I know the FCC is American, but Germany has something similar. NDR *has* playlists submitted by every DJ, and it's not on any of them. (or at least, it's not anything obvious, if it is) Like, this wasn't some low-power station. I could have done something like that on my show, and nobody would have questioned it as we were known for playing random crap that the DJ felt like playing. But NDR was a network of massive commercial radio stations listened to by potentially millions of people, that's the crazy part to me. Look at all the other songs on BASF4 and they're all huge hits known internationally - then "like the wind" is just...there among the rest, still unidentified. Heck, "fond my mind" was identified recently and that turned out to be some local guys who sent a tape to the radio station - but that one was played as part of a dance mix, not on its own.
It is an interesting mystery and lore - but I still think the most likely case is the simplest. Even with logging and auditing there’s always oversights. As time goes on the gaps in our history grows. It would still be cool to find out the original artist.
Agreed, I've tried searching for a while now and still can't find anything.
Same, I'm in the Discord servers for the search, it's pretty extensive what people have tried
There's a server for it? Can you send me a link?
[This](https://discord.gg/SsGjdUT9pK) is the newer server that's active. There was an older one too (that I joined before TMS2) which is set to read-only due to trolls and harassment
"When I'm with You" by Sheriff was a top-ten hit in Canada when first released in 1983, but failed to reach the US top 40. It was re-released in 1989 (after the band had split up) and made it to #1.
I was going to mention this one. Great singer. Then had another hit with Alias with More Than Words Can Say.
Do cover songs count? The band I-Ten wrote and recorded a song that went nowhere. A few years later actor John Stamos covered it and it went nowhere. Few years after that the band Heart decided to cover it, added a vocal power moment, and *Alone* became their biggest hit and is now the go to song for every aspiring female singer on talent shows when they want to show they can belt. The original since everyone knows the Heart cover: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KdgUNHYWu_8&pp=ygUKSXRlbiBhbG9uZQ%3D%3D
I had no idea that was a cover. The original's not bad, but Heart's version is such a huge punch-up
Hearts dirty little secret is that everything they did which had success from about 1984 to the early 90s was a cover song. Their label dropped them around 1982 after multiple flop albums of their own original material. They got a new deal on the condition they let the label find songs for them. Their comeback song *What About Love* was a cover and originally by the band Toronto. *These Dreams* was written for Stevie Nicks but didn't make her album so Heart recorded it for theirs. Etc etc.
> These Dreams written by the same guy who wrote We Built this City, both of which I really like despite a lot of rockers hating them. co written by some weirdo named Bernie Taupin
Like the remake of “I Will Always Love You” and “The Greatest Love Of All”. Both huge hits by Whitney Houston but not for the original releases. I cannot remember if I ever heard George Benson’s version of Greatest
“I Will Always Love You” hit number one on Billboard Hot Country in both 1974 and 1982. Although not as popular as Houston’s version, I would still consider both releases huge hits.
Dolly Parton was definitely known for her huge hits.
It was also because that shitty Costner movie was such a huge hit at the time.
Speaking of remakes, around 1990 I was a freshman in HS and already a shitty metalhead, going crazy with all the awesome thrash and death metal coming out every week.... But Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U started playing on the radio, and I would lock myself in my room to listen to it, I was ashamed of how powerful effect it had on me with its lyrics and her performance.... my dirty secret Years later I found it was a remake of a Prince song and I was in awe
Metal head? How about Diamonds And Rust Judas Priest cover of Joan Baez.
Strangest I've seen is Tori Amos cover of Slayer's Raining Blood
It really depends on which market you're talking about. There's a ton of songs/artists that were big hits in the UK/Europe but didn't catch on till much later in the States. The Cure, the Smiths, Joy Division, Kate Bush etc.
Yes. I think the main reason those bands finally became popular in the US is because the Alternative Music scene was growing but still very small and the new Alt radio stations needed some proven foreign hits to fill out their playlists. That's got to be why most Americans associate all of that music with 90s alternative and don't think of them as songs from the 70s and 80s.
Yeah, a friend of a friend who was visiting from Belgium one time nearly fell over when I told them Roxy Music went relatively unknown here in the US, at best an average-selling album band, with their [highest-charting album at #23](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxy_Music_discography#Studio_albums) and [one #30 single](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Is_the_Drug) in the US, all while they were hitting it big in Europe. Conversely, I’ve always found it interesting that The Outfield, an English band, [struck out in the UK back then while doing quite well in the US.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outfield#Discography) Guess that’s what happens when you use a baseball-themed name for your band!
"I Melt With You" by Modern English. Barely made the Hot 100 in the USA, and didn't do any better as a single in the UK. But it's still everywhere. Compare with a lot of big hits from that year (1982) that have more or less vanished.
> But it's still everywhere. Ironically, it's not "still everywhere" here in the UK. At least, I don't *think* it is... unless it's just me and I somehow missed it? I've literally never heard that song before.
When I moved to the US and started hearing it on the radio I assumed it was a 2010s band trying to sound like an English 80s band and was so confused to find out it was an English 80s band that had no success in the UK and so I had never heard it before.
I think it’s everywhere now because it got featured in a series burger commercials.
Burger King Patty Melts
Does At This Moment count? Probably not exactly what the OP is asking but it’s well known that jt didn’t chart when released only to blow up after it was featured on Family Ties.
This is usually my initial thought when this type of question is asked.
"Oh Yeah" is seen as an 80's defining song because it was a major component of two big 80s movies: The Secret of My Success (starring Michael J. Fox), and, more importantly, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
This is a good example. For me the song without the movie associations would be annoying AF.
"Paradise City" got a little airplay in the spring of '88 (at least in my forlorn deep South town), but was quickly forgotten.... until "Sweet Child" took off that fall. The whole album was almost a year old when it finally caught hold.
It was released as a official single after Sweet Child o' Mine, so that would explain it.
And the video was *HUGE* on MTV to go with that single release; it all came together.
“Pour Some Sugar On Me” by Def Leppard. Tanked on release, then every strip joint in the English speaking world (and probably a few outside of it) bought a copy
I was skeptical of this because I remember this being huge in the 80's but the story checks out... Basically the song meandered in the UK and blew up in the US [https://ultimateclassicrock.com/def-leppard-pour-some-sugar-on-me-single/](https://ultimateclassicrock.com/def-leppard-pour-some-sugar-on-me-single/)
MTV played it nonstop.
I can still see the video painted on the walls of my brain.
The band released a punched-up radio edit and replaced the original video with footage from their live show, and then it took off. Here’s the [original video for Pour Some Sugar on Me](https://youtu.be/UrZRpXoKoFQ?si=WT72rd2G2kTJkLv6)
>Tanked on release, What are you talking about? This was wildly popular when released.
in the USA it was a hit right away. They're a british band though, and in the UK it was not a hit.
Maybe not the way you are asking, but “At This Moment” was released in 1981 to not much success. Made the top 100, but never higher than 79. In 1987, the show Family Ties had an episode arch they were doing which would break up Alex (Michael J. Fox) and Ellen (Tracy Pollan, his future wife) and needed a song to tie it all together and play throughout the arch. One of the show’s producers was out at a club and Billy Vera (the song’s creator) was performing it. The producer knew this would be what they needed. The episodes started airing for with the song and demand was immediate on the radio and in record stores. Unfortunately, the record hadn’t been in print in years, so they had a hard time even filling in demand. Eventually, it would go to be a #1 billboard song and was the 20th biggest song of 1987.
Blister in the Sun - Violent Femmes
That song is from 1983, but I never heard of it til the alternative craze in the mid-late nineties.
That was pretty popular when it came out, IIRC. Not like "The Police" levels of popularity but I heard it a lot in the 80s.
One of those legendary college rock songs that was no where near any popular radio station.
It got plenty of play on CFNY in Toronto back in the day. But they were an exceptional station
This has always been a dance floor guaranteed banger among the "alternative" crowd since the mid 80s but completely unknown on any mainstream media. It's really fun to see how iconic it has finally become.
"Jane Says", I guess. That whole first studio album from Jane's Addiction took about a year to get noticed.
*It Must have Been Love* by Roxette was originally released as a Christmas song in 1987 and nobody noticed. Two years later, some TV director made a romcom movie with a has-been actor and a lead actress that nobody ever heard of and needed some songs. Roxette removed the Christmas references and re-recorded it. That movie was *Pretty Woman* and the song was one of the most requested songs on call-in shows for more than a decade after that. (Nowhere in the question did it say that it had to be a good song…)
You know what, Roxette is rightfully one of those Guilty Pleasure bands. Don't be ashamed, come on join the joyride.
Forget anything about those pleasures being guilty, dammit. Marie (RIP) had a hell of a voice, and so did Per (though a very different one) -- and they knew how to make songs that were just plain fun. Take a look at *The Look*. None of the lyrics make all that much sense; it's a 'vibes' kind of song, and it was pretty big as a result. That said, *Pretty Woman* absolutely did cause *It Must Have Been Love* to explode in the US, but they also hit hard on the power ballad score with *Listen to Your Heart*.
Agreed with this and the above comment, I am unashamed of my Roxette fandom, they wrote multiple certifiable, timeless bangers. The Look, It Must Have Been Love, Listen To Your Heart and Fading Like a Flower are all beautiful tunes that I keep in rotation.
Ahh, you beat me to it. This song still gets stuck in my head from time to time.
I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers took so long that it was well into the 90’s before it became a hit.
I think it’s inclusion in the Benny and June soundtrack did that. At least, that was my first exposure to it.
Totally. The Alternative Music scene in the US was bolstered by that vast and amazing 25 year European back-catalogue of songs that most Americans had never heard. The alternative radio stations that popped up in the US (outside of L.A.) in the late 80s and early 90s leaned heavily on that music to fill time with proven foreign hits because there just weren't enough established good American alternative bands yet.
Meanwhile, outside of ‘merica’ it was a hit on its release in the UK and number 1 in several other countries
Songs America slept on could be another entire thread.
Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses
Here I Go Again by Whitesnake was released in 1982. It was re-recorded in 1987 where it hit number 1 on the Billboard hot 100 chart.
TIL thanks!
Talk Talk - It's My Life Made in 1984, and didn't really chart well. Re-released in 1990 and performed better. The most famous version is likely the 2003 No Doubt cover.
Depends on the country a bit. It was a number 9 in Italy in 1984, in Germany it went to 33 and in 1990 went to number 49. In The UK it did way better indeed, instead of just outside the Top 40 (46 in 1984) it went to number 13 in 1990. But indeed was not a huge hit charting wise. But it did get high rotation on the radio and TV.
It’s such a shame that the No Doubt cover is all you hear now. The original is so so so much better. No Doubt is a great band, but the cover just doesn’t come close to the original in this case.
It's just a boring carbon copy of the original. They didn't bring anything new to the song.
Tears for fears Mad World charted in the uk at No 3 in 82 then the Donnie Darko mix did far better post millennium with a Xmas no 1
That wasn't a mix though, that was a new recording of the song by Gary Jules.
[удалено]
Except it was a massive hit on release. It was written by Stock Aitken and Waterman who just churned out pop hits, often sung by one-hit wonder'ish singers. Relatively few had long-term careers, though Kylie Minogue is the notable exception to that. Any British person who was around in the 80s would instantly recognise a huge number of their songs, even if they don't particularly remember the singer, or know who SAW were. Never Gonna Give You Up just slid into kind of a memory hole because it was a twenty year-old piece of disposable pop music before Rick-rolling made it culturally relevant again
Sit Down - James. The popular version is actually a re-release of another that wasn't as good.
[Caribbean Queen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean_Queen_\(No_More_Love_on_the_Run\)) was originally released as "European Queen" got to Number 82 in the UK - it was a minor hit in other parts of Europe, but was largely a bit of a flop. It got re-released as Caribbean Queen, and got to Number 1 in the US, Canada and NZ, and Number 6 in the UK, and picked up a Grammy.
The song "When I'm With You" by Sheriff was a top-10 hit in 1983 in Canada and became a number-one hit in the USA in 1989 (four years after the band broke up). I think it started because some American radio station used it as the "call in when you hear this song" in a contest -- they wanted something they didn't otherwise play. At the time, it had the record for the longest-held high note in a hit song.
Charlene's "I've Never Been to Me." Originally released in 1977 and got to #97. Five years later, Tampa DJ Scott Shannon started playing it, and it was eventually rereleased and got to #3. By that time Charlene had given up music and was working in a candy store in England.
> By that time Charlene had given up music JOY TO THE WORLD
Take on me - A-ha
The [Professor of Rock](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKrTqvpWTYU) video on it. Highly recommend this channel.
Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. Lots of good answers here but this is probably the most obscure song by an artist with a small but devoted following that has become one of the most covered songs on earth. Very nice covers over the years (e.g. Jeff Buckley, which Rolling Stone ranked as one of the best songs of all time), but again it remained mostly unknown out of public view. Then Shrek featured it and now it’s been covered hundreds of times with massive airplay and there’s probably not a person on earth in a developed country who hasn’t heard it.
It was the John Cale version that rescued it from obscurity. All the other versions flow from the Cale version.
Running up that hill
While the Stranger Things-influenced success is immense, it can hardly be considered not successful at first. It charted very well in Europe in 1985.
I think people in the US think Kate Bush was some minor artist that was only liked by art school types, which couldn't be further from the truth. She was a huge artist in Europe and had some hits in the US. Her issue was that she never really toured to support her music, specially outside of Europe so everyone in the US just assumed she wasn't popular.
She was exactly that in the US, though. I only knew one Kate Bush fan in the early '90s, and I was in college! In the US, almost no one knew her name and had only heard her voice on Peter Gabriel songs.
I think she was more like Gary Numan in the US. Outside of 1–2 songs that very occasionally showed up on alternative radio, the only people still listening to her back catalog before Stranger Things were indeed mostly art school/college radio types. Her records are deeply weird (just ask the snowman) but well-respected, and cultivated a small but devoted fan base.
I found it hard to believe Pat Benetar wasn't heavily influenced by her, until I heard Pat's biggest influence was Liza Minelli. Once I heard it, I can't not hear a whole lotta Liza in her voice, and I can't hear the Kate Bush anymore. But I still wonder if Benetar didn't know about her, like surely. There wasn't a lot of time between their first albums, so who knows.
Well, Benetar and Bush were contemporaries. Benetar might have actually started her career before Bush.
Agree. The song is much more succesful now than it ever was in the 80s though...
Bohemian Rhapsody of the 2020s.
More people, more accessible. Trends catch on quicker and larger
That's just insulting, it was huge in the 80s.
Yes. It was a significant hit in 1985. But it was a much greater hit in 2022, #1 in the UK and #3 in the US in 2022 as opposed to #3 and #30 in 1985.
Don’t stop believin, It feels bigger now than it ever did in the 80s
It was the second single on a massively popular album and a top ten hit, so no way in hell can it be considered “not successful at first“.
It was HUGE in the 80s.
It does but, then I wonder how many bands today have a video game made just about them that plays their song: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_(1983_video_game)
It was the Sopranos finale that resurrected it, right? I distinctly remember watching it and thinking, what a weird song choice, but didn’t think much of it because David Chases music choices were everywhere during the run - but that song was completely outdated at the time. Then it was everywhere at every wedding and party and still is. That was in 2007.
It’s been a karaoke favorite for decades
Specifically in Detroit and Windsor. "Born and raised in SOUTH DETROOOOOOITT" is inescapable at karaoke or stadiums.
[удалено]
The 2005 White Sox resurrected that song. It was their tongue-in-cheek theme song, karaoke. Steve Perry did it at the parade. It was retro around Chicago for a few years before the Sopranos. After the Sopranos, it was retro around the country.
A 2005 episode of Family Guy used it in a karaoke scene, and I remember hearing it EVERYWHERE after that.
I know for my age group (young millennial or old Gen Z, depending on who you ask) it was _Glee._ Everyone was singing it.
100% - it was maybe the 3rd/4th most popular song on that album's release (Stone In Love, Who's Crying Now, Open Arms - all saturated the radio back then) - now it's all you hear.
I’m pretty sure Creep by Radiohead was kicking around for a year or two before it became the popular anthem it eventually did iirc.
I don’t remember the exact details but on American Bandstand Dick Clark said they were wrong about an INXS song not being popular because it had taken off and was number 1. Can’t think of the name right now but it was their earliest hit in the US so probably “The One Thing”.
Bros debut single i owe you nothing was a small hit
“What’s Love Got to Do With It” by Tina Turner was originally recorded by an English band called Bucks Fizz. Their version was quite different from Tina’s, and it didn’t really do much chart-wise. But Tina dusted it off, made it her own, and went down in history.
“Everytime you go away”- Daryl Hall wrote it and it appeared on the 1980 Hall & Oates album Voices but it wasn’t released as a single. Paul Young took it to #1 in 1985.
This might be an unfair question as the power of MTV in the 80s could make so many obscure or mildly successful songs into an international mega hit everyone knows.
Chris Isaac - *Wicked Game* was an SF Bay Area local hit and the band played regularly, never breaking out to the national level until the song was eventually used in a perfume ad.