Singles with huge potential that failed to chart high due to unfortunate circumstances

Wasn't there an Oasis single where they left a number off the bar-code so it missed out on a week of chart action?

I think Hit Me With Your Rhythm stick was accidentally deleted at the peak of it's UK chart run.

Put Yourself in My Place by Kylie Minogue. The record company (in Australia) went on it's Christmas break between the releases of part 1 and part 2 of the CD single.

 

Shortly after the song's release, speculation arose that the first letter of each of the title nouns intentionally spelled LSD. Although Lennon consistently denied it, the BBC banned the song.

 

But it was never released as a single so it doesn't count, does it? They didn't officially release any singles from Sgt. Pepper (at the time). And the banning sure didn't cut into the sales of its parent album

 

My mistake. I'm glad it's still well known. Then again most Beatles songs are.

 

Dixie Chicks anyone?

 

Travelin' Soldier was being promoted by the Dixie Chicks when on March 10, 2003, lead singer Natalie Maines told a London, England, audience the band was ashamed that then United States President George W. Bush was from Texas. Subsequent U.S. publication of Maines' comments caused some stations, including 42 owned by Cumulus Media, to drop the song from their playlists, causing it to fall from No. 1 on the country singles chart to No. 3 the following week, March 29, before disappearing from the charts entirely.

 

Darryl Hall's Sacred Songs album
(not actual cover)

teams up with one eccentric Mr Robert Fripp
who played solo guitar on Kiss is on my List



deemed too weird to be released and would kill Hall and Oates gravy train of hits

RCA delayed this over two years
and did not approve of several Hall contributions to Robert Fripp's Exposure
(which actually was to the benefit of the Fripp album with Peter Hammel and Suzy Roche's wonderful performances)

 

The Anti-Bush comment made by Natalie Maines angered many country music fans and was financially damaging. Following the uproar and the start of a boycott of Dixie Chicks' music, which, in turn, caused Dixie Chicks' cover of the Fleetwood Mac song "Landslide" to fall sharply from No. 10 down to 43 on the Billboard Hot 100 in a single week. It dropped out of the entire chart the following week.

 

Amy Grant was getting less airplay off the Christian Radio charts when she went secular with Baby Baby and the Hearts in Motion album

 

This was a huge hit all over Europe in the summer of 1980, but barely scraped the Top-20 in the US. I've always thought it should have made it all the way to #1:



To some degree it's always struck me as the prototype for a lot of work to come in the '80s, by acts like Pet Shop Boys and Tears For Fears. In fact I'm kinda surprised PSB have never covered it (although both Erasure and Beck have).

 

Zep's Bron-Y-Aur Stomp got pulled after two weeks in Holland by their record company. The Dutch distributers must have rush-released it in September 1970 in tandem with the release of the LZIII-album and that probably went against the band's strict singles policy. As far as I can see no immediate single was chosen by the band until they settled upon Immigrant Song a couple of months later.

Hit-material? Possibly, although the approach was new at the time and it might have met with some disdain by fans of the first two albums.

 

Great song. Their first hit, If I Had You, was the bigger hit here, though. The latter was covered by Tracey Ullman on her You Caught Me Out album!

 

I think "Timothy" would have been bigger had it not been for the fact that Timothy himself was the band's main pr guy.... and well, you know what happened.

 

David Bowie's "Jump They Say", could have been a big hit had his record label not filed for bankruptcy right after.

 

I was always surprised that one didn't do better. Great 'later' Bowie single with a striking video.

 

"Heroes and Villains".

 

It went Top Ten on the Modern Rock charts, but didn't cross over to CHR.

 

It made #9 on the charts here. Sounds like a big hit, but it was only on the charts for 6 weeks...

 

Elton John-Heartache All Over The World

A spat with Geffen kept the song from going higher than #55.

 

well, at least that 70's show made it more well-known, covered by Cheap Trick

 

Leather Jackets was one of the few Elton albums not to spawn at least one big hit. It's reputed to be Elton's least favourite album and is always passed over when remasters/reissues are put out.

 

This will be the first Elton John album I'll listen to in it's entirety.

 

Isn't that "incident" a welcome excuse for her career having dried up? In Europe no one was upset about that incident, it was a good laugh, but her albums sold less and less even before.

 

All For You sold 7 million worldwide and Damita Jo sold 3 million. Damita Jo was a much better album and it sold poorly because of the lack of exposure/promotion due to the blacklisting.

 

I really wouldn't start there if I were you!