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Post by Telso on Oct 2, 2020 19:22:34 GMT 10
What are the most bizarre tracks in your opinion that hit it high in any chart?
For me, by far the weirdest one I've encountered while exploring charts is Laurie Anderson's "O Superman". It's basically two spoken word sections, one continuously looped and the other heavily processed through a vocoder. There's very minimal background music, that has no melody or no rhythm. And despite all of this, it reached the top 30 in Australia, the top 20 in Belgium, the top 10 in the Netherlands and a whopping number 2 in the UK back in 1981:
And I can't say I don't love this. It's basically Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek", but even weirder and from the new wave days.
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Post by SharksFan99 on Oct 2, 2020 20:24:02 GMT 10
Great topic! This is something that is right up my alley.  I can think of a few strange chart placements (which I will post later), but this would have to be one of the weirdest I have come across: Believe it or not, this was actually a side project released by a member of Aqua, the group responsible for hits such as "Barbie Girl" and "Doctor Jones". It's a spoken-word rant about American society, and the 'song' (which is a bit of a generous title to give it, IMO) discusses issues such as the homelessness crisis in the US, the legalisation of marijuana, and the rapid rise in obesity rates. What baffles me the most about this is the fact that despite it being a political rant about American society, it was a genuinely successful hit here in Australia back in 2005, to the point where it managed to debut as high as #5 on the ARIA Chart and it stayed within the Top-10 for an incredible four weeks! There's literally nothing mainstream about this. I've honestly got no clue as for how it not only managed to place so highly on our charts, but even managed to receive airplay both on radio and on TV. I can vouch for that as I can personally remember this from when I was 6. The only other country where this managed to chart was the UK, where it was a minor hit by reaching #30 on their charts almost two years after it was a hit in Australia. It's such a bizarre release.
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Post by fusefan on Oct 3, 2020 2:02:26 GMT 10
Great topic! This is something that is right up my alley. I can think of a few strange chart placements (which I will post later), but this would have to be one of the weirdest I have come across: Believe it or not, this was actually a side project released by a member of Aqua, the group responsible for hits such as "Barbie Girl" and "Doctor Jones". It's a spoken-word rant about American society, and the 'song' (which is a bit of a generous title to give it, IMO) discusses issues such as the homelessness crisis in the US, the legalisation of marijuana, and the rapid rise in obesity rates. What baffles me the most about this is the fact that despite it being a political rant about American society, it was a genuinely successful hit here in Australia back in 2005, to the point where it managed to debut as high as #5 on the ARIA Chart and it stayed within the Top-10 for an incredible four weeks! There's literally nothing mainstream about this. I've honestly got no clue as for how it not only managed to place so highly on our charts, but even managed to receive airplay both on radio and on TV. I can vouch for that as I can personally remember this from when I was 6. The only other country where this managed to chart was the UK, where it was a minor hit by reaching #30 on their charts almost two years after it was a hit in Australia. It's such a bizarre release. Somebody took a standup comedy bit from comedian Greg Giraldo and added music to it. Greg Giraldo died in either 2009 or 2010 I think.
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Post by Telso on Oct 3, 2020 4:33:19 GMT 10
This is an electro song that splices together archival audios from the Vietnam war era. The music video even uses some pretty graphic videos too. This blend of war commentary and jaunty synth music is honestly seriously off-putting, but the underground industrial scene of the 1980s was pretty obsessed with war aesthetics in general so this is actually nothing special. Expect for the fact that this was a massive hit across Europe in 1985, topping notably the UK charts and several other countries, and even reaching the top 20 on the Billboard.
It's just so... weird. Could you imagine an EDM song coming out nowadays themed after the Iraq war?
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Post by goodbants on Oct 3, 2020 4:35:42 GMT 10
I still think Old Town Road is one of the weirdest songs ever.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2020 7:21:29 GMT 10
Agree on O Superman and 19. Also 'Barbie Girl' by Aqua. They also have another thing in common - I think they are all terrible songs.
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Post by Qwerty on Oct 3, 2020 23:57:50 GMT 10
This 1983 spoken word comedy track spent 8 weeks at #1 in Australia, and was the #1 single that year.
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Post by fusefan on Oct 4, 2020 10:37:23 GMT 10
This for being a very late disco song to hit #1 in June 1981
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Post by Telso on Nov 2, 2020 0:36:40 GMT 10
This for being a very late disco song to hit #1 in June 1981 Well, it's less weird that it's a disco song in 1981 (to be honest some geniune disco songs charted as late as 1983), and more so because it's a strange, structureless collage of Beatles covers and other 60s songs, and from a Dutch group nonetheless. Maybe people were feeling really nostalgic after the tragic passing of John Lennon?
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Post by daywatch on Nov 2, 2020 3:49:54 GMT 10
Not necessarily popular on the charts but popular among the meme world.
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Post by Telso on Nov 2, 2020 5:42:46 GMT 10
Not necessarily popular on the charts but popular among the meme world. The meme world has countless songs weirder than this, and yeah, let's focus on the charts exclusively.
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Post by Qwerty on Nov 2, 2020 9:32:49 GMT 10
This song by Bob the Builder reached #1 in the UK and Australia in 2000/2001!
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Post by SharksFan99 on Nov 2, 2020 9:55:51 GMT 10
Despite it being hugely controversial at the time of it's release, "Closer" reached an incredibly high peak of #3 on the Australian ARIA Charts and even finished as the 87th best-selling single of 1994. That's quite impressive for such a bizarre, 'left of field' song.
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I can think of a few strange chart placements (which I will post later), but this would have to be one of the weirdest I have come across:
