Famous songs that were not big hits.

 

Sometimes songs are not big hits at first.  There are four reasons for this. 1. The group is not yet well known  and the song does make it the initial impact it deserves. 2.  The song was not released as a single purposely in attempt  to  increase album sales. 3. The song was not a chart hit because the chart rules of the time.  4. The song simply finds it´s audience over time and becomes a radio favorite.  

The most famous song to not be released as  a single, is ¨Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin.  The group preferred album sales, and a seven minute song by a hard rock group was not likely to played on top 40 radio in any case.   Only six  Led Zeppelin´s  classics were  hit singles, in the USA  and they never had a UK  hit  single during the 1970´s because they did not release singles in the UK. 

¨Freebird¨ - Lynyrd Skynyrd´s 1974  rock anthem, was only a #19 hit at the time- probably due to it´s length,. 

It is a little more inexplicable that the  shorter Aerosmith anthem,  ¨Dream On¨ was not a major hit when it was initially released in 1973.  Aerosmith did not end up hitting  the top 40 till  the song ¨Sweet Emotion came out in 1975.  However, that exposure enabled  ¨Dream On¨  to be reissued and it finally  become a big hit single in early 1976. 

Another album orientated artist not to have a top 15  hit, in the USA  was Jimi Hendrix, though his songs  did become top hits in England.   Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath have never had a top 40 hit.  Metallica had only two top twenty hits in the USA, though did have more then a dozen songs reach the top 100, and about twenty songs that were major hits on various international charts.

Sometimes  though, Album Orientated Rock  songs do actually become major  hits. The Deep Purple classic, ¨Smoke On the Water ¨ actually hit #4 in the USA, but it was not a top ten hit in the UK.   

Highly successful country artists sometimes do not get played as much on top 40 radio. Garth Brooks never has had a pop radio hit under his own name. Hank Williams only had two minor hits,  Keith Urban has never had top ten pop hit. 

  The Beatles  achieved airplay for numerous songs that were not released as singles in either the UK and or the USA.   The  Beatles usually never released  more then one album track as a single in the United Kingdom, and in the cases, of the Sgt.Pepper and  the White albums no singles were released at all.  Among the Beatles songs that were not released initially as singles in either the United Kingdom or the USA are ¨Michelle¨, ¨In My Life ¨, ¨Norwegian Wood¨, ¨Here There and Everywhere¨ ¨With a Little Help From My Friends.¨ ¨Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds¨, ¨A Day in the Life¨  ¨Fool On the Hill¨, ¨Back In The USSR¨, ¨While My Guitar Gently Weeps¨,  and  ¨Here Comes The Sun".  In addition, ¨Yesterday¨, ¨Twist and Shout¨ and ¨Long and Winding Road¨were only released in the United States as singles during their initial release periods.  

In 1996, physical singles sales were slowing down , while full length album sales were at their peak, this resulted in some songs not being released as physical singles but still getting a lot of airplay.  ¨Don´t Speak¨ by No Doubt was one of those songs.