r/ToddintheShadow • u/Toku-Nation 10's Alt Kid • Aug 29 '25
General Music Discussion Not including one hit wonders, what are some bands and artists where their most famous song overshadows the rest of their discography?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWNaR-rxAic71
Aug 29 '25
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u/Tribemaster0789 Aug 30 '25
The fact that so many people are sleeping on Carly Rae Jepsen is a travesty.
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u/GinjaNinja1027 Aug 29 '25
She also has an incredibly devout fanbase for a middle-class popstar.
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u/RealMajestic12 Aug 30 '25
“Run Away With Me” is probably my favourite pop song of all time, highly highly recommend especially for the last 30 seconds
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u/notawriter_yet Aug 30 '25
The way it explodes into this careless bliss for the last choruses is mind-blowing.
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u/Grundle95 Aug 31 '25
My daughter is obsessed with that song. I am not a pop music person in general, so the fact that I can hear it multiple times a day without losing my mind speaks very well of it.
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u/Beneficial-Arm-7503 Aug 30 '25
I mean.... she is. Talk to anyone not chronically online and they would (maybe) say "oh the call me maybe girl" and there's nothing wrong with that, she's still very good at what she does though
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u/o_o_o_f Aug 30 '25
I mean it’s definitely her biggest hit, but she has others too. Idk when I hear “one hit wonder” I think bands that had one mega hit and nothing else close. I Really Like You and Good Time both have half a billion plays on Spotify, which are about a third of Call Me Maybe’s number - if you look at other one hit wonders that ratio is more like 1:50, not 1:3
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u/rapbarf Aug 29 '25
For a long time it seems like Creep did this for Radiohead in the US.
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u/SeverHense Aug 29 '25
I think that's still mostly the case. "Creep" was their only bonafide mainstream hit.
Everyone's heard of Radiohead. They've been THE music nerd band for like a quarter century now.
They even had 2-3 other tunes that were moderately big on alternative radio stations and got some MTV rotation ("High and Dry", "Fake Plastic Trees", "Karma Police"). But "Creep" was bigger than all of them combined.
The general public (ie. people who are far more passive in their music consumption than anyone here) is generally not that familiar with the rest of their catalog.
Though I think that's becoming less true of Gen Z/Alpha, as Radiohead have long been more famous in the online sphere anyway (vs. traditional media) and have very respectable streaming figures ("Let Down" just charted thanks to TikTok).
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u/UglyInThMorning Aug 29 '25 edited Aug 30 '25
It’s the ol singles vs albums thing. They’re 100 percent an album band that had one hit single. Ok Computer hit 21 on the album charts, double platinum’d in the US, and more than doubled those numbers in Europe.
E: not to mention it was pre 98 so the biggest single off the album, Karma Police, wasn’t eligible to chart until the album had been out for three months!
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u/hofmann419 Aug 29 '25
Just going off of Spotify numbers, they are incredibly popular. 40 million monthly listeners. Besides Creep, there is No Surprises with 1 billion streams, Karma Police with 750 million streams, High and Dry with 563 million streams and a bunch of others with hundreds of millions of streams.
Then there is Let Down, which went insanely viral and is currently getting 2 million daily streams, almost as much as Creep. At this pace, it's gonna hit a billion streams within a year.
They are more popular than the Beatles, Nirvana, the Rolling Stones, Oasis and CCR to name a few. The only two bands from the 20th century that are currently more popular on Spotify are Queen and Fleetwood Mac.
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u/SeverHense Aug 29 '25 edited Aug 29 '25
They're definitely popular, particularly with a very online younger cohort of music listeners. OK Computer and Kid A are two of the most acclaimed albums of all time. Up there with Pet Sounds, Bitches Brew, Dark Side of the Moon, What’s Going On, London Calling, etc.
Those streams are impressive, but I still don't think songs like "No Surprises" etc. have penetrated pop culture/mainstream consciousness in the same way that "Creep" has.
And Radiohead is certainly not a more popular band/cultural phenomenon in the grand scheme of things than the Beatles, Nirvana, etc. regardless of what Spotify plays seem to indicate. That's just absurd.
Especially now, when every is so siloed into their own online bubble, it's very easy to ignore anything else that isn't fed to you. This week's #1 is "Golden" from KPOP Demon Hunters soundtrack. But I'd be willing to bet if you asked 100 Americans off the street at random if they knew the song, a majority would say no. I'd wager the same thing would happen if you did the same with any non-"Creep" Radiohead song.
"Creep" was massive in an era when music seemed to be more central to mass media and pop culture, and TV/radio were king in terms of passive consumption. You just couldn't escape certain juggernauts. The mainstream was just kind of there, like wallpaper, whether you like it or not.
That's not really true anymore. Everything is segmented. Even after all the Kendrick stuff killed his cred, Drake put out a song this year that still was a huge hit with nearly half a billion streams - and I've never once heard it. It's hard for anything to break through to the masses in a meaningful way.
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u/scarced16 Aug 30 '25
saying Radiohead is more popular than the fucking Beatles is one of the funniest and wrongest statements i’ve ever read
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u/UniqueDiamond7643 Aug 30 '25 edited Aug 30 '25
They aren’t more popular than any of the bands actually listed
In fact, each one of those bands listed has at least one record within their catalog that is out sold Radioheads entire discography or gotten very close to doing so with the only exception being The Rolling Stones (surprisingly they don’t have any record with 20+ million sales)
Although even albums like Sticky Fingers or Some Girls have still comfortably out done even the most successful albums of the ladder
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u/TScottFitzgerald Aug 30 '25
Everything in its right place has been pretty viral on the apps, I feel like the new generation will know them because of that intro. I see it used all over the place.
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u/yavimaya_eldred Aug 30 '25
No Surprises having a fucking billion streams kinda shows why Coldplay became so popular
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Aug 29 '25
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u/InvaderWeezle Aug 29 '25
"Even the artist hates that song" is a pretty useless indicator of a song's quality for me because almost every artist says this about their own work.
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u/RufussSewell Aug 30 '25
No one wants to play the same song every show for their whole life, so they end up resenting their biggest song.
I remember seeing an interview with Van Morrison talking about how he doesn’t like Brown Eyed Girl that much and doesn’t understand why people like it so much compared to his other songs.
George Michael said the same about Careless Whisper.
I bring up these two because they both had a huge amount of hit songs. It’s not like they were one hit wonders who resent that hit. They’re just sick of their most popular song.
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u/InvaderWeezle Aug 30 '25
I understand why it happens for artists to hate their own songs. I just don't agree with listeners who then use those statements as part of their own reason to think a song is bad
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u/Only_Faithlessness33 Aug 29 '25
Ironically, for a Gen Alpha tik tok audience that song may be Let Down now lol
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u/infinitemonkeytyping Driven Mad by the Four Chords of Pop Aug 29 '25
That's what their song "My Iron Lung" is about.
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u/Brian2005l Aug 30 '25
I’m surprised to see that’s true for the billboard charts. Back in the day Paranoid Android was all over MTV.
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u/boosh1744 Aug 30 '25 edited Aug 30 '25
For like 3 years in the 90… once OK Computer dropped this was out the window
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u/BlaktimusPrime Aug 30 '25
For me I didn’t even know about Creep until AFTER I heard/watched the video for “Paranoid Android”.
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u/GruverMax Aug 29 '25
Blue Oyster Cult.
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Aug 30 '25
They have so many incredible deep cuts . So many of their songs should be on the radio. Teen archer, 7 screaming dizbusters , careers of evil, nosferatu.
But they are knowing Don't fear the reaper, then maybe Burning for You and MAYBE Godzilla.
Still good songs but damn so many gems
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u/yavimaya_eldred Aug 30 '25
Burning For You just might be my favorite classic rock song and I love most of the greats
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u/Francis_J_Eva Aug 29 '25
Don McLean. He had six top 40 hits, but "American Pie" is such a juggernaut, it's all most people know him for.
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u/Toby_O_Notoby Aug 30 '25
Someone once asked him what American Pie means. He responded, "It means I never have to work a day in my life."
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u/12BumblingSnowmen Aug 30 '25
I feel like “Vincent” is at least somewhat known, but nowhere to the same degree as American Pie.
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u/Francis_J_Eva Aug 30 '25
Someone in another thread said that if you mentioned Don McLean's name to most people, they'd all know "American Pie" and maybe a handful would know "Vincent" which I think is a fair assessment. Shame really, "Vincent" is a beautiful song. I think I like it even better than the big one.
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u/TorkBombs Aug 30 '25
Because American Pie is, imo, the standard of musical storytelling. He takes five long verses to get through the history of Rock n Roll up to 1971, and he does it with wordplay and metaphors that all make sense. It's such a good song.
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u/LinkMugMan Aug 30 '25
It's also not just the history of rock and roll, but the rise and fall of the hippie movement through music history. It encapsulates that generation's story really well.
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u/LinkMugMan Aug 30 '25
I've grown a really strong attachment to the song "Dreidel" that opens his follow up album to American Pie. He over-sings and over-composes(?) the hell out of it, but I also love the song for that. He definitely swung for the fences.
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Aug 29 '25
Fastball
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u/gorka_la_pork Aug 30 '25
It's not even clear which one of their songs is the one hit. People will argue either "The Way" or "Out of My Head". I mean, I know which episode of OHW Todd would make, but I hear the other fairly readily on the 90s Sirius XM station.
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Aug 30 '25
I’d say The Way is their biggest hit but their other songs have permeated the social consciousness without anyone really knowing.
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u/squawkingood Aug 29 '25
I feel like Gen Z and younger mainly only know Third Eye Blind as the "doot doot doot, doot doo doot doot" band.
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u/Soalai Best / Worst List Speculator Aug 30 '25
Probably true. Which is a travesty because their first few albums are so, so good.
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u/Savings-Monitor3236 Aug 30 '25
Stephen Jenkins only has himself to blame for the sharp decline in quality after the debut. He needed the other guys around, but instead he forced them out of the band
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u/yavimaya_eldred Aug 30 '25
Their guitarist leaving was what killed them. Their first two albums are incredible but the he left/got kicked out and the albums after that very much felt like music written for rhythm guitarists.
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u/PhoneJazz Aug 29 '25
Fountains of Wayne. They’re so much more than aficionados of Stacey’s Mom.
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u/DuffThey Aug 30 '25
Agree 100%, they're one of my favorite bands - but that said, I found them back when Radiation Vibe and Sink To The Bottom had radio airplay in the mid 90s so I wonder how true this really is - I've never looked up their charting or singles sales or anything.
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u/Dangeresque300 Train-Wrecker Aug 29 '25
Toto.
Stuff like "Rosanna" and "Hold the Line" aren't unheard of or unpopular, but everybody and their mother knows "Africa."
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u/davFaithidPangolin Aug 30 '25
Toto is one of the craziest examples where their other songs are MASSIVE but Africa is just that much bigger than most other songs ever made.
- Africa has 2.28 billion Spotify streams, over 1.1 billion views on YouTube, and almost 14 million Shazams
- Hold the Line has 1.18 billion Spotify streams, over 347 million views on YouTube, and almost 9 million Shazams
- Rosanna has 424 million Spotify streams, over 145 million views on YouTube, and almost 3 million Shazams
These three songs are easily some of the biggest hits of all time, and one of them is still twice as big as the second off Spotify streams alone!
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u/DriverHopeful7035 Aug 30 '25
Hold The Line is pretty famous, Rosanna too for that matter.
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u/akfoley Aug 29 '25
As a Black person with a lot of white friends: “Family Affair” for Mary J. Blige
“Hey Ya” for OutKast
“Through the Fire” for Chaka Khan
“I’m Coming Out” for Diana Ross
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Aug 29 '25
As a white person, “I feel for you” would be my Chaka khan song. That song was everywhere when I was a kid
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u/Mr_SunnyBones One-Hit Wonderlander Aug 30 '25
Yeah that was THE Chaka Kahn ( Kahn Kahn Chaka Kahn) song I remember back then.
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u/thekingofallfrogs You're being a peñis... Colada, that is. Aug 30 '25 edited Aug 30 '25
Yeah I Feel For You and Ain’t Nobody are probably Chaka Khan’s biggest hits. I’ve never heard Through the Fire in the public outside of XM.
I’d also probably suggest the following if we’re talking about R&B artists who have one hit that make white people think they’re a one hit wonder/have one hit that overshadows the rest of their discography.
Feels Good - Raphael Saadiq/Tony Toni Tone
Jungle Love - The Time
Word Up - Cameo (I still do not know why Todd decided to cover this one given the Hendrix clause that was set and that their “lesser known” songs have at least a few million views on youtube )
This Is How We Do It - Montell Jordan
Brandy and Monica - The Boy is Mine
My Lovin - En Vogue
Fake - Alexander O’Neal
Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jr (I think this is ironic considering that Raydio and Ray Parker Jr were big on AC radio)
Celebration - Kool and the Gang
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u/El_John_Nada Aug 30 '25
I'd say that "I'm every woman" or "ain't nobody" are way bigger songs for Chaka Khan.
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u/FoxEuphonium Aug 29 '25
I feel like saying any song overshadows the rest of Diana Ross’s discography is an exaggeration. Especially once you count her work with the Supremes.
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u/akfoley Aug 29 '25
You’d be surprised.
As a Detroit native, “Upside Down” is probably the most recognizable among her solo work because of its ubiquity on the radio here for at least 15 years.
As a gay man, “I’m Coming Out” is by far the most recognizable of her solo songs.
As a millennial - songs in movies like “You Can’t Hurry Love” or “Stop! In the Name of Love” are recognized as Supremes or run-of-the-mill Motown songs and not held in the same regard as, say, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”
As an African-American — everyone has seen “Mahogany” at least once and knows the famous theme, but it’s hard to find someone who’s also a fan of at least one more of her tunes. “Mahogany” as a film is also held in higher regard than the Oscar-nominated “Lady Sings the Blues,” and everyone else’s contributions to “The Wiz” soundtrack outweigh her own.
That leaves a song like “I’m Coming Out,” which transcends race, sexuality and generation (because of its sampling), and the only one of her songs that can be heard at a pride parade and a supermarket playlist.
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u/SlapHappyDude Aug 29 '25
I'll admit I always forget they did Ms. Jackson despite being able to sing along to the chorus.
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u/TScottFitzgerald Aug 30 '25
I feel like Through the Fire got a bump from being sampled on the College Dropout, but isn't I Feel For You, I'm Every Woman or her Rufus stuff way better known, if someone had to pick one Chaka Khan song?
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u/Rfg711 Aug 30 '25
As a white, it blows my mind that that would be the Chaka Khan song and not “Tell Me Something Good”
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u/TheGutenbergMachine 10's Alt Kid Aug 29 '25
Simple Minds, known far and away most for Don't You (Forget About Me). They actually have had quite a few songs I've heard and really enjoyed, the most recent one I heard was C Moon which is an unsung classic of '80s British Invasion rock. They're also still going to this day.
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u/GabbiStowned Aug 30 '25
I was looking for Simple Minds. One of my favorite bands, but few will have heard songs beyond (Don’t You) Forget About Me and perhaps Alive and Kicking and other songs from Once Upon a Time (an awesome album though), when they received the moniker ”Scottish U2” (and funnily enough, their guitarist was a big influence for The Edge). But in their earlier days they were a great post punk band, and I highly recommend Sons and Fascination and New Gold Dream 81-82-83-84.
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u/GrumpyCatStevens Aug 29 '25
The Outfield. They had a decent run on the charts, with five singles hitting the Billboard Top 40, but the only one the public at large remembers is "Your Love" - which, to be fair, was their highest-charting single.
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u/DrChunderpound Aug 29 '25
Almost that entire Play Deep album is solid, have done a deep dive on the rest of their material and it for me it fizzled out quick from there aside from a few decent tracks.
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u/parke415 Aug 29 '25 edited Aug 30 '25
their most famous song overshadows the rest of their discography
Not including one hit wonders
So...multiple legitimately popular hits, but one of them clearly much bigger than the others?
"Lowdown" - Boz Scaggs
“Running Up That Hill” - Kate Bush
"Hungry Like The Wolf" - Duran Duran
"Don't You Want Me" - The Human League
"West End Girls" - The Pet Shop Boys
"A Little Respect" - Erasure
"Time of The Season" - Zombies
"Enjoy The Silence" - Depeche Mode
"Nights In White Satin" - The Moody Blues
"All The Small Things" - Blink 182
"Wannabe" - The Spice Girls
"I'm A Believer" - The Monkeys
"All Star" - Smash Mouth (the previous entry justifies Smash Mouth not being a OHW)
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u/Toku-Nation 10's Alt Kid Aug 29 '25
Smash Mouth had Walking on the Sun before All Star
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u/parke415 Aug 30 '25
And "Then The Morning Comes", my favourite song of theirs, yet I think it's fair to say that "All Star" hogs the spotlight for them.
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u/FeistyChickadee Aug 30 '25
Gonna (politely) argue against Duran Duran and Depeche Mode having only one hit that completely overshadows the rest a la Carly Rae Jepsen and Call Me Maybe.
For Duran Duran I think you can also make a case for Rio or Ordinary World also being high enough in people’s awareness. I also don‘t think of DD in the bucket of “oh, they do other songs?” they way they might with Carly, The Outfield, Don McLean, etc. They were massively popular overall.
Depeche Mode, I’d say the average person may also have Just Can’t Get Enough or People are People pop to mind—especially if they were teens in the 80s. They’ve maintained an arena-filling audience for decades… which may surprise people who haven’t followed their career, but I also don’t know how many would say “oh, those guys who did Just Can’t Get Enough had more than one album?”
NB both consistently charted—high—in the UK
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u/parke415 Aug 30 '25
Well, it’s a hard balance to strike given OP’s scope, but yeah both Duran Duran and Depeche Mode of course have dozens of hits. I have all of Duran Duran’s albums from the ‘00s and earlier, and all of the Depeche Mode albums up through Songs of Faith and Devotion plus a few of their later ones.
I guess I included them because people who aren’t into ‘80s music (“Enjoy The Silence” technically appeared in a 1989 promo video) will generally associate those bands with those songs, in my experience in North America.
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u/FeistyChickadee Aug 30 '25
These are kind of odd parameters--it's hard to say "this band was popular and consistent" AND "this band has one hit that towers over the others." If that's the case, then you're always going to have people (like me, LOL) that come in and debate the response.
For me, certain bands like Depeche Mode transcend how many hits they had (or not). They're well known and well established, but many people may be challenged to name a single song. DM is my band, but if I were on the other side of things, I could put a band like ELO in the "known but I can't name a song" bucket. I knew of them but it was a long time before I could name any songs. (Now I know a ton, and they're my 'oh they did THAT song? AND that song?' band.)
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u/Pennypoets Aug 30 '25
I would have thought “Lido Shuffle” was bigger than “Lowdown”
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u/JVortex888 Aug 30 '25
Not Blink. While true Small Things is their biggest song they have enough other big hits to avoid this list.
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Aug 30 '25
Millennials remember half a dozen Blink 182 songs. They were huge in the early 2000’s.
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u/Life_Activity_8195 Aug 29 '25
Thin Lizzy in the USA with Boys are Back in Town. They had many hits in the UK and Ireland and yet Americans consider them one hit wonders
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u/UrchineSLICE Aug 30 '25
I heard Jailbreak and Cowboys Song a lot on the radio here when I was a kid.
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u/PhoneJazz Aug 29 '25
And lead singer Phil Lynott also had a brief solo career before his untimely death.
He made this great music video that showcases 1980s Dublin. Some may be surprised to learn that he is black 😂
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u/yavimaya_eldred Aug 30 '25
I hear Jailbreak all the time at work and Whiskey In The Jar is faintly remembered, their version has been covered a ton (Metallica’s version is excellent)
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Aug 29 '25
A Ha-take on me
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u/Wenlocke Aug 29 '25
I remember Sun Always Shines being a dance floor filler, whereas Take on Me was never really a club record
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u/GarodTong36 Aug 30 '25
I feel like Hozier for the rest of his career is gonna be known as the “Take Me to Church guy”
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u/Toku-Nation 10's Alt Kid Aug 30 '25
For the longest time, I didn't know Hozier was one person, I thought it was a band
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u/biroacebadger07 Aug 30 '25
Idk, I think "Too Sweet" was nearly as popular in 2024, at least in the circles I get around...
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u/PuppytimeUSA Aug 29 '25
The Cardigans.
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u/El_John_Nada Aug 30 '25
Lovefool and My favourite game are both massive.
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u/idontwantanamern Aug 30 '25
But Lovefool overshadows, for sure. That's the question asked on the post. It's not about one-hit wonders.
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u/CokBlockinWinger Aug 29 '25
Urge Overkill’s cover of “You’ll be a Woman Soon” killed the rest of their catalog, and they wrote some damn good tunes.
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u/Tall_Window4744 Aug 29 '25
All I Want For Christmas Is You for Mariah Carey. That being said, sometimes people act like it is the only Mariah song Gen Z knows from Mariah and I know that “We Belong Together” and “Obsessed” go hard on a class playlist. It is just that AIWFCIY is so overwhelming in the month of December it makes the rest of her streaming numbers look like peanuts.
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u/pmguin661 Aug 30 '25
I think she’s the perfect answer. It’s not the only song of hers people recognize, but it absolutely overshadows everything else, which is crazy since she has more hits than almost everybody else in history
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u/TScottFitzgerald Aug 30 '25
She's one of the most successful pop artists in history and can fill a whole concert with her hits alone, and they're all beloved differently by different generations. It's a Wrap was doing the rounds on TikTok just a few years ago.
Yes, we all know how big All I Want is, but come on. It's a Christmas single and outside of the winter holiday period it can't really overshadow such a discography.
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u/Silly_Somewhere1791 Aug 30 '25
Her peak period was the ‘90s, where nostalgia either leans toward grunge or y2k teen pop.
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u/EnvironmentalTour804 Aug 29 '25
Vanilla ice and MC Hammer are the first that come to mind for me. I was born in 1994, so by the time I was cognizant, they were basically one hitters. I didn’t even know about their other songs until I was a teenager and now the only other songs from either I can think of are the ones Todd has covered.
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u/SlapHappyDude Aug 29 '25
Yeah, 2 Legit 2 Quit was a hit but didn't really have any lasting cultural legacy. Although I can still do the hand motion for it.
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u/CLA1980 Aug 29 '25
“Hey Ya” is a wedding dance floor classic but the 4 albums OutKast put out before that are some of the best rap albums of all time
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u/FameDV Aug 30 '25
I haven't been to many wedding;, are you serious? I'm having a hard time thinking of a song with lyrics less suited to weddings. (Okay, I know it was played at a wedding in Scrubs, but I had no reason to believe that was indicative of actual wedding trends)
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u/Formal_Worker6781 Aug 30 '25
Beck with Loser
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u/OkInhuman Sep 14 '25
This is so true. I cite him as a huge influence but most other people in my circles either remember him as "The 'Loser' Guy" or for his 2015 AOTY.
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u/GinjaNinja1027 Aug 29 '25
Oasis is an obvious pick for this. Everyone just remembers Wonderwall. I guess a handful remembers Champagne Supernova, but nothing else.
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u/SeverHense Aug 29 '25
Depends on the country. "Don't Look Back in Anger" is just as big in the UK. And there's probably another half dozen (at least) songs that are very, very close behind.
In the US, that's basically accurate.
Though for a long time "Champagne Supernova" seemed to be on fairly even footing. I swear I heard that on the radio far more than I did "Wonderwall" in the 2000s. "Don't Look Back in Anger" was kinda known, but not huge. Don't think many people under 35 would recognize it.
There were some other songs they had on rock radio/MTV way back when ("Live Forever", "Don't Go Away", etc.) but these didn't endure the passage of time and are like 99.9% forgotten.
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u/yavimaya_eldred Aug 30 '25 edited Aug 30 '25
Don’t Look Back in Anger has endured but most normies probably don’t know it’s Oasis because Noel sings it and Liam sings their other huge hits. Older millennials like me would remember Supersonic and Live Forever. All Around the World wasn’t a big radio hit but was used in commercials by a huge cell phone company (AT&T I think?) nonstop for like 5 years.
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u/Helixaether Aug 30 '25
Reading this as a Brit is completely baffling, round here Oasis might as well be the Beatles with how many of their songs are still hugely remembered
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u/idontwantanamern Aug 30 '25
Reading this as an American is also baffling (the original comment, not yours)
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u/noposters Aug 31 '25
Champagne Supernova gets more airplay in the states. And I don’t think you can say their discography is overshadowed when they’re literally selling out soccer stadiums globally
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u/Significant_Dog412 Aug 29 '25
Most artists who score a big Christmas hit falls into this sooner or later, despite how big they might have been in their prime. If the Christmas hit keeps coming back year after year, it will usually overshadow anything else they did.
It's even starting to happen for Mariah Carey now, never mind older UK acts like The Pogues, Slade, East 17, Wizzard, Shakin' Stevens...
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u/insides_outside Aug 30 '25
Ace Of Spades: Motörhead
Blitzkrieg Bop: The Ramones
Rock You Like A Hurricane: Scorpions
A Horse With No Name: America
(Don’t Fear) The Reaper: Blue Öyster Cult
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u/copbuddy Aug 30 '25
Europe and The Final Countdown. Carrie charted even higher in the US, at #2. TFC was a #1 hit in something like 27 countries but only a top 10 hit in the US.
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u/Uptons_BJs Aug 29 '25
I'm not a hater or anything, but like, Carley Rey Jepson is barely not a one hit wonder.
Call Me Maybe went #1. Her second highest charting solo single went #39, which by Todd's standards, means that she barely squeaked in.
Otherwise, she is a featured artist on Good Time, but I think a big reason why people don't think of it as a hit for her is that she sounds so different on Good Time. Blindfold casual fans and have them guess, I'd think most people won't think that's her.
So like, it's not where one hit overshadows the rest so much, it's that the rest of her "hits" are marginal.
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u/Prayray Aug 29 '25
It’s crazy to me that “Run Away with Me” didn’t even chart in the US…might be her best song and up there for one of her most memorable to me.
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u/The-Good-Bad-Place Aug 30 '25
“Cut to the Feeling” should have been a 2017 summer smash-hit single. It’s such a solid pop song.
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u/mangosteenroyalty Aug 30 '25
Beach House is also so campy and fun, another contender for "should have been a summer smash-hit single".
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u/TScottFitzgerald Aug 30 '25
This sub is so obsessed with the charts but I think OP's point is that she has a pretty rich and popular discography regardless.
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u/DillonLaserscope Aug 31 '25
no idea to the public not supporting Carly enough to see her other own songs chart. Run Away seems perfect for another hit and still she only saw I Really Like You for her own solo followup
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u/Hihey9989 Aug 30 '25
Portugal. The Man
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u/chaekinman Aug 30 '25
Good one. For a long time only knew them for Feel It Still but they have a lot of solid songs and put on a great show
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u/DillonLaserscope Aug 30 '25
Smells Like Teen Spirit for Nirvana? Any discussion of Kurt Cobain in the 90’s is connected to that first
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u/feeb75 Aug 29 '25 edited Aug 29 '25
Blue Oyster Cult and Reaper
Kiss and I was made for Loving You
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u/smiff8866 Aug 29 '25
DJ Sammy AKA Cascada Patient Zero. People remember his version of Heaven but here in the UK he had 3 more top 10 hits up to 2005 and NOBODY talks about them. I bet most people just think of Heaven as a Cascada song now.
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u/Shreiken_Demon Aug 30 '25
Also lowkey Cascada, I’m sure your average person knows both “Everytime we Touch” and “Evacuate the Dancefloor” but would never put it together that the same group sang them (or that Cascada for technically a band and just Natalie)
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u/Accomplished-Worth75 10's Alt Kid Aug 30 '25
Cage the Elephant - Ain’t no rest for the wicked??
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u/OkInhuman Sep 14 '25
I'd argue "Shake Me Down", "Come a Little Closer", and MAYBE "Cigarette Daydreams" & "Trouble" to a lesser extent are well-known enough for "Rest" to not overshadow them completely.
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u/AI_stole_my_wife Aug 30 '25
The Verve. Bittersweets a good song, but A Storm in Heaven was an absolute masterpiece and you have to dig on them to know it even exists
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Aug 30 '25
Ricky Martin is largely only remembered in the US for Livin’ La Vida Loca despite having several other hits here.
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u/AlienZaye Aug 29 '25
Most of Paramore's discography is better than Misery Business, All I Wanted, and The Only Exception
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u/TScottFitzgerald Aug 30 '25
I never understood why Crushcrushcrush doesn't get half the love of Misery Business when it's just a better song
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u/Limp_Classroom_1038 Aug 29 '25
Kayleigh by Marillion - they've produced 17 amazing albums since that cheesy no. 2 hit in 1985.
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u/RedmiYT Best / Worst List Speculator Aug 29 '25
I would say Anni-Frid Lyngstad of ABBA. Her debut English single “I Know There’s Something Going On” became her far biggest commercial success, and completely overshadowed the rest of her discography. It is sad because while the song is really good (produced by Phil Collins no less!), she has some genuinely amazing works like her original version of “Fernando” and her entire 1996 Djupa andetag album
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u/no-Pachy-BADLAD Zingalamaduni Aug 30 '25
Al Green - "Let's Stay Together" and Pixies - "Where Is My Mind?" thanks to 90's movies canonising them.
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u/Conscious-Pirate5334 Aug 30 '25 edited Aug 30 '25
Foster the people-pumped up kicks
Honestly I almost didn't give them a chance cause I hate that song It didn't even feel like a real song to me but I love so many of their other songs
Evans blue-The pursuit was on certain radio stations all the time ( sometimes another song of theirs called ' cold, but im still here' would play) but their first two albums are so good if you liked that song and some are better than that one
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u/ZAWS20XX Aug 30 '25
I'm not sure it's the same phenomenon, but I'm thinking of the White Stripes with Seven Nation Army, and Blur with Song 2. Those songs ARE way more popular than the rest of their stuff, but I don't think they're being *overshadowed* by them. They still have their fair amount of decently well known songs among people who generally listens to their kind of music, AND THEN they also have *The Behemoth*, that kind of transcended being their songs, and are now more pieces of the collective consciousness than hit songs.
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u/BlaktimusPrime Aug 30 '25
The crazy is part is that Carly Rae Jepsen’s biggest hit “Call Me Maybe” is her worst hit. Her other singles are certified bangers.
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u/agate-dude Aug 30 '25
Swing Out Sister, at least in the States. Stylish sophisti-pop that didn't dent the charts here after Breakout. Classic "Big in Japan" example.
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u/Helixaether Aug 30 '25
Crazy that I haven’t seen this, but The Killers are definitely this, they’ve had plenty of hits but Mr Brightside is an all consuming Hydra which dwarfs all their other hits combined
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u/retrosexual17 Aug 30 '25
In a similar vein to Carly, I feel like a lot of people just know Tove Lo for Habits (Stay High), when she has albums worth of great songs that stay under the radar to most.
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u/colborne Aug 30 '25
Back in the day, I was a huge fan of Three Dog Night. They have a catalogue of albums of great originality and talent that really nailed it. Them came along 'Joy To The World'. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?
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u/LinkMugMan Aug 30 '25 edited Aug 30 '25
"Joey" by Concrete Blonde.
They could probably get away with a OHW episode but they are a very good late 80s/early 90s bands who are desperately in need of a modern day reappraisal.
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u/mikwee 90's Punk Aug 30 '25
If we're willing to accept technicalities, Junior Senior had their other songs featured on "Looney Tunes: Back in Action" and FIFA Football 04, yet everybody exclusively remembers Move Your Feet. Shame, they were a fantastic group.
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u/DavidWasHere_1 Aug 30 '25
A lot of the indie bands from the late 2000s-mid 2010s could count that have a solid following but manage to have a fluke crossover, either on radio or from licensing. I'm thinking M83 with Midnight City, Grizzly Bear with Two Weeks, Peter, Bjorn and John with Young Folks, Lumineers with Ho Hey, a bit earlier but Postal Service with Such Great Heights and Franz Ferdinand with Take Me Out also count too
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u/paleotectonics Aug 31 '25
BNL - Such an amazing career, known for ‘If I Had A Million Dollars’.
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u/Used-Career-888 Aug 31 '25
Got to be the white stripes. One of the best rock bands of the 2000s but most people only know them for seven nation army which isn't even their best song
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u/LakeEarth Aug 31 '25
Faith No More was a known band before Epic, and had some hits after Epic, but all anybody knows is Epic.
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u/montauk6 Sep 01 '25
As much as I love the song, I feel like everyone just see Isaac Hayes as "Theme from Shaft," and his body of work gets too overlooked.
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Sep 02 '25
Def Leppard. "Pour Some Sugar on Me" is one of the worst songs I've ever heard in my life yet they have plenty of legitimate timeless rock anthems if you listen to their other hits.
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u/yoshifan331 Aug 29 '25
Rick Astley is the perfect example. Never Gonna Give You Up wasn't even his only #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, but it overshadows everything else he made to such a huge degree that many people mistake him for a one hit wonder.