When did The Trooper become Maiden's de facto big hit?

If we go solely by the facts, The Trooper was released as the second single from Piece Of Mind, peaking at #28 on US Billboard and #12 on UK Singles Charts, gaining frequent radio play across the US (arguably the bigger market) and better received than the previous single, Flight Of The Icarus (as per Wikipedia). The song has been a live staple, ever since.

Not to mention, it was in Live After Death, the band's first compilation album, Best Of The Beast in '96 also featured 'Trooper Eddie' on the cover (rest all Eddies are from album arts), first tribute Maiden album (A Call To The Irons) in '98 also featured the Death metal band, Vital Remains covering it and the song getting featured in the video game Carmageddon 2 (also in the same year) speaks of its already elite status in the band's discography even before the reunion.

Personally, it was my first Maiden song as well (heard it on a Facebook game called Guitar Flash). I think it checks on all the points, the band's music is all about. Signature galloping rhythm and leads, sing-along vocal lines and an accompanying music video as well!
 
Something else that's just come to mind, what about the Ozzfest controversy? Bruce waving the Union Jack during this song was something that Sharon took issue with, could've been some good publicity for it.
 
I think, for casual fans, the most recognizable songs, in no particular order, are The Trooper, Run To The Hills, The Number Of The Beast and Fear Of The Dark. The latter is the only "epic" among the list, so it makes sense that the others would end up as more popular, going purely by numbers and play statistics. Shorter songs can be repeated more often, mind-blowing I know :D

RTTH has been dropped quite a few times over the years, while The Trooper got the beer and its own gimmick at live shows, making it stand out even more. Not sure if it's relevant, but out of The Trooper, RTTH and TNOTB, The Trooper is the only one with a darker feel, thanks to its minor key. Could be seen as more "appropriate" for metal and a more epic feel by some, who knows. RTTH and TNOTB have a lightheartedness in their overall feel which can be seen as cheesy by some, or could feel closer to some hard rock bands instead of a heavy metal band.

Not that those are my opinions, I'm just spit balling.
 
It's the beer. They pushed the brand heavily in the early 2010s, even the Maiden England release got a Trooper-style artwork despite the song not even being on the album. Moreover, I'm pretty sure they picked the Trooper theme because the artwork is so iconic. Run to the Hills was the better-known song, but everybody knew the Trooper Eddie.
 
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Thought this was interesting. Google Trends shows a peak in searches for "the trooper iron maiden" in August 2005, which correlates with the Ozzfest incident on August 20th. There's a small spike in the summer of 2006 (which could be due to the releases of AMOLAD and Guitar Hero II), then a slump throughout late 2006, possibly because they weren't playing it on the first leg of the AMOLAD tour?

A couple more spikes in 2008 - 2009 correlate with the Somewhere Back in Time tour/compilation album release, then another one in May 2010, though The Final Frontier was announced in early June. There's a bit of a drop off throughout late 2010 - early 2011, then another small spike in mid-2011 after it returned to the set of the Final Frontier Tour.

It's interesting that there's a slump throughout 2012 and early 2013, despite the Maiden England Tour having started. It picks up again when the tour resumes in the summer of 2013 and after the beer was launched, then interest starts to peter out. Something happened in October 2019 that caused a small spike, then Piece of Mind was shown in Stranger Things in July 2022, causing another spike.
 
Edington said:
Something else that's just come to mind, what about the Ozzfest controversy? Bruce waving the Union Jack during this song was something that Sharon took issue with, could've been some good publicity for it.
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The Eggfest incident had nothing to do with the Union Jack really, it was due to Bruce's jokes about reality shows (remember that The Osbournes was peaking at the time). And to his jokes on Ozzy's poor performances (but he and Ozzy are long time friends, so it was a joke between them two). $haron took it personally and orchestrated the "incident" while Iron Maiden were laying down an absolute face melter of a show without missing a single beat.

Btw I have no idea when The Trooper became their big hit and I'm actually not sure it is their big hit. It's bigger than it used to be, that's for sure. When I started listening to Iron Maiden (some 15 years ago), it surely was a classic but not really that famous outside the heavy metal circle.

I doubt the beer has much to do with it, tho.
 
BTW, wasn't The Trooper from Rock In Rio the most viewed Maiden video on YouTube for awhile? I feel like that could coincide with the peak in interest in the late 00s.
 
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