Pop songs that weren't big hits, but became career-defining (1 Viewer)

[win_the_game]

The early success of Natasha Bedingfield still confounds me to this day.

 

[Pipo]

The early success of Natasha Bedingfield still confounds me to this day.

I thought his brother's success helped a bit?

 

[Diddy]

I mean it was a little bit of intrigue but she did have some decent singles off the bat.

Plus it was 2004 so anything goes

 

[Devil]

It’s the fact she got eight charting singles in the US that I find all the more baffling.

 

[SDF]

Sarah Dawn Finger - Bigger Than Us

Now that really was CAREER DEFINING

 

[Pipo]

Mariah Carey - Loverboy
Christina Aguilera - Not Myself Tonight
Ariana Grande - Into You

 

[AGinAg (38)]

Mariah Carey - Loverboy
Christina Aguilera - Not Myself Tonight

 

[Pipo]

using the terms HITS and CAREER DEFINING a little loosely there

 

[Cerro de Casa]

Yes it went top 10 in the UK but it didn't really have legs and it only just made the top 50 in the USA.

However, I would say this is one of her career defining songs. And she performs it quite regularly on tour which I think means that the casual fans / general public are more aware of it than they ordinarily would be..

 

[aquaplex]

Deffo Dolly Parton's 9 to 5, and Bryan Adam's Summer Of 69.

Journey's Don't Stop Believing is another. When it had its 2010 resurgence I was fed up of all those people who were like "oh yes I remember this song from the 80s it defined my early years' NO IT DIDN'T AS IT WASN'T A HIT AND WOULDN'T HAVE SCRATCHED THE PUBLIC CONSCIOUSNESS OR CASUAL POP FANS SHUT UP.

 

[Debbie Jellinsky]

Melissa Etheridge's Like The Way I Do wasn't a big hit, but it got played at every party and during the "alternative/rock" sets in night clubs when I was a teenager in the 90s, so I think that was career-defining in Europe at least. Come to My Window was bigger in the US, but I don't think it's known at all over here.

Also: Gossip's Standing in the Way of Control wasn't a hit, certainly not as big as Heavy Cross, but it seems to have endured and it's the song I first think of when someone mentions Gossip.

 

[SDF]

I Wanna Have Your Babies was terribly ill conceived.

Pocketful of Sunshine though remains a BOP

 

[Devil]

It was such an obvious big UK hit, why on earth they just didn't bother after it did so well in the US was very strange

 

[AGinAg (38)]

Also: Gossip's Standing in the Way of Control wasn't a hit, certainly not as big as Heavy Cross, but it seems to have endured and it's the song I first think of when someone mentions Gossip.

It was top 10 in the UK. I presume in terms of sales it's their biggest hit.