Bands with lengthy and respected careers, but whose very first single is still their biggest hit

Can’t think of anyone who embodies this more than Radiohead, but I am sure there are other examples there. Open to suggestions

This was true of Kate Bush until very recently.

Good one!

The Kinks

nope, I'm sorry. Discogs has You Really Got Me as their first single, this is not true.

but..... Britney Spears

Yes Britney

were the Spice Girls respected enough for this thread?

xposts discogs does not sort into date order, only year.

So, it looks wrong. Kinks 1st = "Long Tall Sally"

Ha! Morio Agata!

initial sales is not an accurate metric, "Toxic" is a bigger hit than "...Baby One More Time"

Oh, on a technicality!

Pet Shop Boys

A-ha

I suppose the biggest one could be Mungo Jerry, they had hits for 4 years but does that count as lengthy? Probably not...

Boston

The Killers

Aimee Mann (via Til Tuesday)

Rick Astley, he's still recording isn't he?

Laurie Anderson, although her very first release was this but I'm not counting it
https://www.discogs.com/release/2314478-Laurie-Anderson-Its-Not-The-Bullet-That-Kills-You-Its-The-Hole

re Radiohead, they only do this on a technicality really? I guess there might be some disagreement but personally I think an EP is an (extended) single (and counted as one for the UK charts), so Creep is their second single, and was only a hit after it was reissued, by which time they'd also released Anyone Can Play Guitar

Oh, on a technicality!

Pet Shop Boys

No.

The Bar-Kays

Kesha. "Timber" might be bigger than "Tik Tok" but she wasn't the lead artist on it

Julie London

quite possibly... aerosmith!

This is tougher than it seems but The Sex Pistols: Anarchy in the UK probably counts.

Van Morrison?

In 2011, "Brown Eyed Girl" was honoured for having 10 million US radio air plays; it was one of only ten songs registered with BMI to have received that number of radio plays.[21] As of 2015, "Brown Eyed Girl" remains the most downloaded and most played song of the entire 1960s decade.[22]

Not really, it only reached no. 38 in the UK singles chart. God Save The Queen famously stalled at no. 2 and every other single up to 1979 (except for The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle) went top 10.

xp

soulja boy

If an artist's work with previous bands is to be included in their "career": Alex Chilton.

Not sure the Sex Pistols had a lengthy career where recordings are concerned.

At least in the US, Robyn would count here. "(Do You Know) What It Takes" was her first US single and, by Hot 100 stats (#7 peak, #29 year-end), was her biggest hit. Follow-up "Show Me Love" has nearly identical Hot 100 stats, too. But those are her only two Hot 100 hits in the US.

"Lucky Man" is still the song ELP is known for but its fair to say it's not really representative of the band's sound or what their fans really like about them. bonus points since it might actually be the first song Lake ever wrote period

this is a great question, can't really think of any examples other than the ones mentioned (Aerosmith a very good call)

Julie London also a good call

13th Floor Elevators do not have a "lengthy and respected discography" or they would qualify

Beck, if one discounts his pre-Geffen underground slabs

Link Wray

nice

don't think Aerosmith works -

Dream On

RIAA: 4× Platinum
BPI: Platinum

I Don't Want to Miss a Thing

RIAA: 5× Platinum
ARIA: 2× Platinum
BPI: 4× Platinum
BVMI: Platinum

lol dammit

Saint Etienne

Depending on how you want to define biggest hit: Spotify has "Dream On" at #1.

as god intended

the doors

steely dan

I suggested Pet Shop Boys as their first single was the Bobby O version of "West End Girls", but I guess they had bigger hits subsequently...

Status Quo vis-à-vis the USA

was surprised to learn that "Hello, I Love You" also went to #1, but Doors still a good call

Beck is a great one

Maybe Counting Crows as well

Were not we're.

looks like Evil Woman/Wicked World was released as a double a-side in the UK before Paranoid, but it didn't chart. So near yet so far!

The Undertones are definitely on this list.

Their first single (ok EP) wasn't the biggest at the time, but it's the biggest now.

it seems like the rule for this thread is

"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."

did leona lewis have a long and decorated career in the uk after "bleeding love"? i know she was one-and-done in the u.s.

Her first single was "A Moment Like This" - a UK number one

ha ha did they just recycle that song from American Idol?

yup!

As a solo artist, Del the Funky Homosapien's only hit was his first single, "Mistadobalina."

And I suppose Digable Planets didn't have a lengthy career, but you could say that "Cool Like That" is still Ishmael Butler's biggest hit.

erykah badu - "on & on." "bag lady" had a higher chart peak than "on & on" but the latter is still her most-streamed song (with approx 200 million more spotify streams than "bag lady") and her legacy song

ha I thought "Call Tyrone" was her biggest song.

but it doesn't seem like that's the consensus

as you noted, the OP with the Radiohead username who reactivated after two posts in the last six years to pose this question had to claim that EMI is a tiny indie, unlike EMI, as the only reason to exclude EPs, in order to justify their sole pick of Radiohead as fitting the premise

so

yeah but it was called “the Safari EP” from day 1, and the title track is track 3. When Cannonball arrived I thought whoa, the Breeders put out a single?

They’d only released one LP and one EP — the latter the year before! — so it’s not like they’d established a pattern

jill scott

Erykah Badu?

yah voodoo chili posted her a few posts above, that's what put jill scott in my mind

oh shit i'm sorry!

apparently bjork's biggest single was "it's oh so quiet," i could have sworn it was "human behaviour"

hmmm apology not accepted. j/k

xpost Her biggest streaming song is "Army of Me."

A Guy Called Gerald

"tyrone" is a fan favorite but i don't think she ever released a proper studio version of it, did she?

the live version got some airplay

Yeah, that's the only Badu song I regularly heard on the radio.

Thought Boston might work but alas Amanda charted higher than More Than A Feeling

yeah but More than a Feeling is at over a billion streams and Amanda is at 123 million.

Xpost - thanks for the corrections on Carole King. She would have been a cool answer but the facts got in the way

facts got in the way

hate when that happens

ffs

sorry wrong thread

Cold Chisel may not be particularly well known on ILM but first single "Khe Sanh" is likely their biggest hit by most measures. Certainly their most streamed song on Spotify. (They apparently get a million+ streams per month on that platform and have arguably had a very "lengthy and respected career" in their own region.)

I thought of the Doors too, but would you really call that a lengthy career?

one of my first suggestions itt, but nope "Break On Through" was their first single and a minor hit

N!N!N! I think I'm gonna have to dq you on that one. "Khe Sanh" is among their most beloved (and top Spotify yes) but charted at 41, their Wikipedia discography shows *thirteen* singles which charted higher, including #4 for "Forever Now".

I was going to suggest Neneh Cherry as Buffalo Stance is her biggest solo hit, but looking into it her duet with Youssou N'Dour actually outsold it. I'm guessing Buffalo Stance has overtaken that now in the streaming era.

Dear sic please list the qualifying suggestions so far ;) <3

arguably had a very "lengthy and respected career" in their own region.

Six years and two months from the first single to the cinema release of the concert film of their farewell gigs, seven months prior.

Khe Sanh an intersting case though inasmuch as it was banned from commercial radio for being too offensive at the time, but canonised by classic rock radio in the ‘80s probably because it didn’t rock too hard —> Spotify stats downstream from that for sure

^ They kept reconvening again later though. And the later LPs seem to find an audience every time.

The utility of chart peaks is something I ponder every time such questions come up. I wish total sales volumes were as consistently, um, lookup-able as peak chart positions. I'm not sure these solitary data points from almost 5 decades ago tell us much about consumer behaviour beyond that one week.

Interestingly I see that that Wikipedia entry *does* include NZ volume data up to December '25: taking that at face value, it's the only triple-platinum single noted in that territory lol. Nothing else exceeds platinum. Though I assume that too includes digital.

haha sleeve

They kept reconvening again later though. And the later LPs seem to find an audience every time.

Reunion tours every time _____ ______ ran out of money from paying heavies to threaten off ppl who’d witnessed someone getting beaten bloody fourteen years doesn’t really count as a sustained career imo. and even though three of the reunion albums sold over 30k, I bet all four of them added together got played fewer times than the first Tex, Don & Charlie CD alone.

Ha, the year-end charts for the reconvening LPs tell a tale:
1 peak, 21 year
2 peak, 76 year
2 peak, 47 year
1 debut, 97 year

I'm not sure these solitary data points from almost 5 decades ago tell us much about consumer behaviour beyond that one week.

When Pearl Jam got mentioned upthread I noticed that their second-best charting song (#7 on Hot 100 for "I Got Id") now ranks 109th on Spotify.

(ugh to clarify: their 109th most streamed.)

^ It's quite interesting innit. Maybe the term 'hit' does in fact imply exactly these sort of momentary spikes rather than, you know, Dark Side of the Moon sitting at #146 for 20 years straight or whatever? I'm really not sure.

...got played fewer times than the first Tex, Don & Charlie CD alone.

Bwahahahahahaha

Um, Cabaret Voltaire, perhaps?

Don't know why that came to mind...

Another one that released an EP first.

Still not sure why people think EPs are singles. Is Chronic Town or Superfuzz Bigmuff a single?

7" 45rpm

Um, Cabaret Voltaire, perhaps?

really !?
would have thought some of the Virgin era singles were their biggest hits simply due to bigger budgets re marketing etc
Sensoria being the obvious suggestion.

True, but I'm sure that extended play sold loads over years