In 1983 Talking Heads released Speaking in Tongues. To say that this was hotly anticipated is an understatement. I’d fallen for the ‘heads hook line and sinker by then and I was ready for their next one, thinking that this was a band that was about to go stellar. Speaking in Tongues did not disappoint – an excellent album with an extremely strong first single, Burning Down the House.
However, their time in the sun didn’t actually come properly until later in the 80s. Burning Down the House didn’t chart and was not played on the radio. This perplexed me at the time but maybe the time just wasn’t right for them. The subsequent version by Tom Jones and the Cardigans made the song a hit – vindicating my view that it deserved more attention than it initially received in 1983. I would say now that it is one of Talking Heads’ best known songs.
As I suck on my pipe by the fireplace and wistfully recall my time this earth, I have to conclude that a song that ends up as a “classic” does not necessarily get the attention it deserves at the time of release. Several well known Bowie singles stiffed in the charts. Bowie probably thought he was down the dumper on many occasions, shaking a bony fist of jealousy at TV footage of The Wombles and the Rubettes, seeing them having hit aftter hit after hit without breaking into a sweat (although I am sure Mike Batt and pals would have been a bit squelchy in those costumes).
We know now that the charts were somewhat rigged. Radio 1 DJs lined up outside Broadcasing House, showing a bit of leg and pouting – which attracted the pluggers from the labels and after a brief and grubby bit of business, you’d get a breathless Smashey or Nicey declaring that the latest one from Kenny was a se-hen-sensation!
Do you know of any other accepted solid gold classic pop songs that somehow sidestepped the upper reaches of the charts?
This Mortal Coil’s classic version of Song To The Siren peaked at 66 in the UK charts (but spent 101 weeks on the UK Indie Charts, whatever they are, or were).
I recall “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by Bauhaus being in the Indie Charts for years, it seemed. I don’t understand how that didn’t somehow translate into enough sales to qualify for the official chart.
Probably a general lack of chart return machines in the shops that were selling it.
Was their biggest hit by a mile in the States (and Canada) reaching the top 10.
Yeah, but I bet they were gutted about not being on Top of the Pops!
I seem to recall that they were. But then again I’m 50.
I don’t recall TH ever on TOTP in person. Videos, certainly.
There was a slew of Pixies singles that never troubled what most consider the charts to be but these days are treated almost like they were top 10 smashes… “Gigantic”, “Monkey Gone to Heaven”, “Here Comes Your Man”.
Loads from the mid 80’s
Hand in Glove
Never Understand
A Forest
Radio Free Europe
The original release of Made of Stone
Bearing in mind their reputation as a great (and prolific) singles band, The Smiths in general had a pretty poor chart career all in all, belying their legendary status – just two top 10 hits (both only reaching number 10) and a slew of middling positions in the teens & 20’s… of course they were on Rough Trade, so maybe it was a sales & distribution thing (see also Black Celebration’s point about Bauhaus above – maybe the indie labels were more suited to long-term sales…?)
The perception of them as a singles band was probably enhanced by what I remember as a lot of TOTP appearances.
The Rough Trade distribution explanation (TMFTL) would have added plausibility when Mozzer’s early solo singles all crashed into the top 10..
Interesting category… songs that are thought of as big hits when they weren’t.
Love Me Do peaked at 17.
but did manage number 4 when re-released 20 years later (which sort of underlines the point of this thread I suppose)
….and number 1 in the US in 1964 I think.
White Man In Hammersmith Palais never broke the Top 30
(stalled at 32)
Punk made barely any impact on the singles charts in 1977-8.
Er, apart from God Save The Queen, the mysterious disappearing number 1.
True,
New Rose – nowhere
Blizkreig Bop – nowhere
White Riot – 38
Teenage Kicks – 31
1978 was a better year with Buzzcocks, Siouxsie, The Skids and even Sham 69 sitting in the higher reaches of the chart
(even UK Subs and Cockney Rejects got on Top Of The Pops)
I always thought that Bryan Adams song never really got the attention it deserved at the time. That Robin Hood one.
That song from Four Weddings… sank without trace, I think. Shame, as it was jolly catchy and the singer had such a lovely smile!
Lovely smile? That’s smack rictus, ya ninny!
🎵Ae feel it in mae fangers
Ae feel it in mae tooos🎵
I love the Kevin Bridges gag about Marti Pellow.
‘The only guy who left Clydebank to become a junkie’
Pet Shop Boys. Being Boring. Flop when released as a single – now regarded by many as their best moment.
I agree. One of their best, certainly.
When Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight” was first released as a single, it reached no. 81 in the UK singles charts.
And rightfully so: a dull dirge. You could get a very bad impression of Clapton if you relied on his sappier moments.
I agree with you Vincent.
Just plain awful.
Oh yes. I loathe “Wonderful Tonight” too. Perhaps I should’ve made that clear in my initial post!
The Velvet Underground & Nico – hailed by tragic hipsters as the most influential album of all time, wasn’t actually a hit (peaked at 129 in the Billboard charts) and only achieved widespread recognition in the late 70s.
and then, of course, there is the famously ignored at the time Nick Drake, whose three albums are now considered to be classics of the folk rock era.
ditto Judee Sill
Robert Wyatt – Rock Bottom. Now recognised as a beautiful, ethereal album in which hope triumphs over adversity.
Big Star?
One that came up on Popmaster earlier this week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDpYBT0XyvA
Pop onto Wikipedia and check out the Steely Dan UK singles stats. Only four singles charted
Do It Again – 39
Rikki… – 58
Haitian Divorce – 17
FM – 59
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steely_Dan_discography#Singles
… and even Rikki’s minor showing was only down to a yellow vinyl single in the “Great Limited Edition Coloured Vinyl & Picture Disc Wars” of the late ’70s…
I’m very surprised Hey Nineteen didn’t make the UK charts. I remember it getting quite a bit of radio play at the time.
I am very surprised Reelin in the Years didn’t make the charts. Remember hearing it regularly on the radio.
Yet this peaked just outside the top 10 in ’83:
I’d say that Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over” is a pretty well-known song now. Maybe even a ‘classic’. Sort of.
It only made no. 27 in the UK singles charts when it was first released in 1986.
Only heard that on the way home from my daughter’s dance class tonight on the car radio.. She’s 8 – she closed her eyes and said “this is really good”.
I only heard Don’t Dream It’s Over as the laconic house version by Less Stress on Boys Own in 1990. Now that was a classic cover.
Think I first heard of it after Paul Young’s cover (not realising it was a cover at the time). Not a terrible version, but the original is the one I prefer now.
Every single ever put out by the Go-Betweens
Is surely (one of) the correct answer(s).
I hear hits. The public disagreed at the time
Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf – No. 30 when it was first released.
The Doors Light My Fire
Number 1 in America
Number 49 for 1 week UK 1967
Went top ten in 1991 during the mania surrounding “The Doors” film
Not sure if “Suzanne,” “Say You Don’t Mind,” “My White Bicycle,” “Both Sides Now,” or “The Days of Pearly Spencer” troubled the chart compilers either. Or “World Cup Willie!”
Love will tear us apart. Teenage parties in Hull in 1980 often featured kids shouting “get that rubbish off” after I sneaked it onto the turntable.
I still cant quite grasp,that Joy Division are now thought of as one of the sounds of 80s.
You were at the wrong parties. Mrs Moose, in Hull in 1980, was very keen on the Apart song.