Canon-forming and pop

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

On today's poll thread Cis raises the spectre (which may be a benign spectre, and may not be spectral at all) of a 'pop canon'.

I have a couple of questions which may or may not relate to it:

Are there any very well-known (and ideally well-loved) pop songs that weren't especially popular when first released?

Are there any very well-known and well-loved pop songs that have never actually been hit singles?

Comments

[koganbot]

"Never a single" becomes fundamentally irrelevant (esp. in the U.S.) after 1970, and by the late '80s in the U.S. record companies were releasing singles and then withdrawing them shortly afterwards anyway, so the difference between "Iris" (number one in airplay but no physical single) and some other number one (gets to number one on the Hot 100 with only twelve copies being sold and doing the rest on airplay points) is fundamentally nonexistent.

Anyway, there are surprisingly few that come to mind for your main question, well-known now, overlooked then. "Under My Thumb" might be borderline (was never released as a single and therefore didn't get airplay, but about five years later was considered part of the Stones' canon), 'cept it's hard to say that much the Stones did was really overlooked. (And nonsingles like "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Gimme Shelter" don't count, because they got massive airplay on the FM stations.) The Shangri-Las' "Out In The Streets" didn't hit big (#53), and now is often cited as their best song. Same for Darlene Love's "Christmas, Baby Please Come Home," though I'm not sure how well-known you'd say those are today. The Who's "My Generation" only got to 74 on the U.S. charts, though I assume it was big in Britain. Ike & Tina Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High" hit in Britain but only made it to 88 in the U.S. The Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset" was probably never even released here and for practical purposes the Kinks had no presence in the U.S. between '67 and '70. But everyone I've cited so far was a well-known act, even if they have what are now acknowledged classics that didn't hit so big initially. The Youngbloods "Get Together" didn't hit until two years after it first came out, I think. And I think the Grateful Dead's "Casey Jones" and "Truckin'" took several years before they were really established as the Dead hits.

The crucial ones will be the MC5's "Kick Out the Jams," the Velvet Underground's "Heroin" and "Sister Ray," the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and "Search and Destroy," the New York Dolls' "Personality Crisis." Of course, you can question how well-known they are today, but they're definitely part of the canon whereas they were barely heard in their day. Might want to add Bob Seger's "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man," though that's even more borderline as to being well-known. Maybe the Runaways "Cherry Bomb" too, though again I think Tom's looking for something with more latter-day presence. There are probably a whole slew of soul tracks that became classics retrospectively in Northern England. Martin would know these better than I; Soul Brothers Six "Some Kind Of Wonderful" would be an example, though again it's canonical without necessarily being that widely known. L'Trimm's "Cars With The Boom" only hit in scattered markets, and not on Top 40, so it may well be more widely known and loved now than back in its day. Probably there are examples of songs that did well in specialty markets (e.g., disco records) and later became better-known generally.

Interesting to speculate about the future. Hilary Duff's "Come Clean" was only a minor hit in the U.S., peaking at a relatively low 35, getting most of its following on little old Radio Disney. I'm wondering if in ten years it will be more widely played and loved than it was in its time. I heard it the other day piped into the supermarket.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

re northern soul, several of the top songs have recently been pressed into service on uk kfc ads which is not a good thing at all...

cars with the boom definitely a top poptimism hit :)