Artists misinterpreted by their "one-big-hit"

Brigantium said:
RTTH, NOTB and Fear would probably be the most widely known here, I would have thought, followed by Trooper.
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If I ever mention Maiden to people in work, they usually respond "Bring your Daughter to the Slaughter" and I always have to say that BYDTTS is not typical Maiden.

Paranoid by Sabbath fits into this category I think.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
Just curious where you live, Spambot? In the states, I've never met a single non-Maiden fan who know anything that Iron Maiden has done other than Run to the Hills.
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Kinda curious about that with everybody posting here who's location I don't already know, definitely relevant to this thread.

Out here (Denver, CO), I've heard Number of the Beast on the radio and even in some stores quite a few times. Haven't heard Run To The Hills nearly as much. I think most people who aren't aware of Maiden around here are still at least familiar with more than Run To the Hills.

Also, I decided to search for Iron Maiden on youtube and found that the first three results are The Trooper, The Number of the Beast, and a live video from the current tour (spoiler alert!). I actually had to scroll down a bit to even find RTTH.

Did the same with Van Halen, Jump is indeed the first result. After that it's Hot For Teacher and Runnin' With the Devil. I really doubt anybody's first exposure to Van Halen (at least in the USA) is going to be youtube though.
 
I just of one! Frank Zappa with Valley Girl. That was a huge hit and still likely the only song that a lot of people know by him in the US. Very generic for his standards, the only thing characteristic of Zappa in that song is the humor.
 
Mosh said:
I just of one! Frank Zappa with Valley Girl. That was a huge hit and still likely the only song that a lot of people know by him in the US. Very generic for his standards, the only thing characteristic of Zappa in that song is the humor.
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Also Bobby Brown Goes Down, a similarly famous song here in Europe, even in Czechia.
 
That song did so well in certain parts of Europe that Zappa wanted the record company to pay an anthropologist to do a study on the appeal.

It didn't even chart here. I'm not sure if it was even a single, it would've had to be heavily censored.
 
Mosh said:
Kinda curious about that with everybody posting here who's location I don't already know, definitely relevant to this thread.

Out here (Denver, CO), I've heard Number of the Beast on the radio and even in some stores quite a few times. Haven't heard Run To The Hills nearly as much. I think most people who aren't aware of Maiden around here are still at least familiar with more than Run To the Hills.
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I've lived in suburban Illinois, city of Chicago, Los Angeles, Tucson, and Salt Lake City - barring one time I heard Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter, Run to the Hills is the only Maiden I have heard on the radio.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
Just curious where you live, Spambot? In the states, I've never met a single non-Maiden fan who know anything that Iron Maiden has done other than Run to the Hills.
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Croatia, Europe. Maybe just coincidence but when I mentioned Maiden to people whom I didn't think they were into rock/metal, they surprised me with "The Trooper". Maybe it's due to single cover, Trooper Eddie has been used in these areas for different purposes (footballs supportes for example).

Anyway, this geographical factor that I didn't notice is possibly the reason why VH has avoided Europe for last 20 years. Their last tours in USA were successeful, but it could seem like Europe has forgoten about them.

Welsh Phantom said:
Paranoid by Sabbath fits into this category I think.
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I would said the same. But somehow I think "War Pigs" got more exposed lately - in last year I can swear I heard that song in at least 2-3 movies/series.

JudasMyGuide said:
As does... dare I say it? ... Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2
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Althought that song is the most "radio-friendly", it's taken from a concept album that doesn't really differentiate form that song. On the other hand, their discography is really hard to sumarize in just one song.
 
Spambot said:
Althought that song is the most "radio-friendly", it's taken from a concept album that doesn't really differentiate form that song. On the other hand, their discography is really hard to sumarize in just one song.
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That song is a radio-rock with disco influences... very different from what Pink Floyd have been known, now or then. It fits the album because of the overall narrative and the fact its theme is reprised thrice on the first disc alone in different contexts... but it would surely feel out of place on any other PF album.
 
Before reading this, if you'd asked me to name the three Iron Maiden songs the casual listener might recognize, I would have named, in order: (1) Run To The Hills, (2) The Trooper and (3) Can I Play With Madness.
Welsh Phantom said:
Paranoid by Sabbath fits into this category I think.
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How so? Sounds like Sabbath to me.
 
Cornfed Hick said:
How so? Sounds like Sabbath to me.
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I think it does not represent their sound at the time. They would play like that again with Dio (Mob Rules), but this type of short, to the point and fast, punkish even, track sounds rather out of place on the album named after that very song.
 
Shadow said:
What is representative of The Kinks, though? They went through (and innovated) so many styles that it's not really possible to say. Both the songs you mentioned could be called representative of their respective eras.
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I'm not sure. I agree You Really Got Me represents their early period quite accurately... however it's not what people have in mind when they talk about the Kinks today. It' just way too different from their other stuff, whether we take into consideration the "Victorian" stuff, the operas, the hard rock era... whatever.

Lola is somewhat tougher, since it sounds as a regular Kinks song at first... but it's more of a novelty track, with the lyrics not really sounding like Ray, its feel being again quite different from the rest of their wort etc. Lola would maybe fit on Muswell Hillbillies, IMHO, and even then hardly. So, I get what you mean, but neither of the songs is really representative of the band as a whole. I also agree it's quite hard to classify the Kinks in general, though.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
As does... dare I say it? ... Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2
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I'd agree with that. That song is the first thing non-Floyd fans think of when I mention Floyd.

I think it's the only Floyd song the crowd who wears Dark Side of the Moon t-shirts and doesn't actually have a clue about Pink Floyd's discography is familiar with.
 
On the "most recognizable Maiden song" discussion, the answer to that in Turkey would be Fear of the Dark by a wide margin. I've had countless people come up to me and say "Fear of the Dark is a cool song" upon seeing me with a Maiden shirt on. I also experienced the "I only came to the gig for one song" thing first hand when I saw Maiden live in Istanbul, I saw a lot of people leave the place after FOTD was over.
 
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
But these results you got back, these are the top three in order of what? YouTube search results are partially user based are they not?
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Not sure how that works. I assume it's partially customized to you, partially based on what people typically click when searching for Iron Maiden, and partially recent uploads (hence the tour video).

I don't think Another Brick Part 2 would be the only well known Floyd song. Wish You Were Here and Money are just as famous.
 
Cornfed Hick said:
Before reading this, if you'd asked me to name the three Iron Maiden songs the casual listener might recognize, I would have named, in order: (1) Run To The Hills, (2) The Trooper and (3) Can I Play With Madness.
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My list would look like this: (1) Fear of the Dark (2) The Trooper (3) Run to the Hills
I've never understood the popularity of "Can I Play with Madness" is USA, was it a big hit single, does it play constantly on radio?

The Flash said:
Ramones and Misfits are even worse examples, most people I've seen rock their t-shirts couldn't name a single song by them when asked.
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That unfortunately has nothing to do with music, it's just fashion bussiness. "New Yorker" stores, for example, push hard to publish t-shirts with band logos on them, sometimes they aquire the logo legally (Guns n' Roses, Ramones) sometimes they alternate a litlle but it's still pretty recognisable (Rolling Stones sued them couple of years ago). With time passing by, more things are going to be in public domain and there will be more ways to avoid the law, would be surpised to find Megadeth t-shirt in a few years in fashion stores. Since it's not merchandise, those shirt are usually a lot cheaper and people who buy it are unaware of band's music, they probably know it's a music shirt and recongise the iconography (because they've probably seen it somewhere) and buy it because it's "famous" and cheap.
 
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