Songs that were successful worldwide, but not in the US

I actually forgot about this topic entirely, so I appreciate you creating it on Popedia! Yeah, unfortunately, most people on inthe00s don't seem to be interested in discussing foreign pop cultures or topics of this nature. To be honest, i'm actually starting to lose interest in participating on the inthe00s boards, due to the constant threads based on Late 2000s and Early 2010s, as well as the decadeology slant of the boards. 

In this day and age, it's strange that the United States is still so reluctant in accepting imported bands and artists, especially given how multicultural the country is. I think the media is partly to blame for this. They project an image of the "ideal, middle-class America", which is built on the idealism and values of Americana. I've actually listened to a few American radio stations (thanks to livestreaming) in recent months, and it astounded me how there was such a lack of imported bands/artists in their playlists. 


What makes it even more puzzling, is the fact that alternative-rock was still quite popular in the American music scene in 1996.  The United States were embracing British acts, such as Oasis and Blur, yet "Spaceman" by Babylon Zoo was completely shunned and the latter is not even a Brit-pop song! I believe the song epitomizes 1996 in a number of ways. The music video is representative of the dark, moody vibe surrounding the pop culture of the Mid '90s, particularly with it's heavy use of shadowing. Also, the song itself is alternative-rock, which was still a popular genre at the time. 

That's interesting to hear! I knew Oasis were the "bigger" of the two in the United States and that "Girls & Boys" and "Song 2" were minor hits, however I didn't realise that the respective albums did not perform particularly well at all. That's surprising, especially given how well "Song 2" performed on the Modern Rock and Hot 100 Airplay charts. 

Yep, I was referring to the actual music video of "Spaceman".  


I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. The only German song which I can think of that achieved success here was "99 Luftballons" by Nena, which actually topped the charts in 1984. It's quite possible that Australia was unwelcoming of German bands in the 1980s. The majority of the songs which charted here throughout the decade were either imported US and UK songs, or songs composed by Australian artists/bands. 

It absolutely astounds me that this wasn't even a hit in the US. It didn't even chart on the Billlboard Hot 100! "Teenage Dirtbag" was quite successful in a lot of countries around the world, however it arguably achieved it's biggest success in Australia. It stayed at #1 for four consecutive weeks and it was certified 3x Platinum. The song was the second best-selling single of 2000, despite the fact that the single was only released in July.

This won Eurovision for the UK in 1981 and topped the charts of numerous European countries. The United States isn't an active participant in the annual song contest, so it's perhaps not entirely surprising that this failed to crack the charts whatsoever here, but even in countries as far away from Europe as South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, this was a still a big top 10 hit. Also, there have been previous Eurovision songs that have in fact been successful in America, such as ABBA's "Waterloo" and Gina G.'s "Ooh Aah...Just a Little Bit." This was clearly one of the biggest soccer hits of the early 1980s, aside from Trio's "Da Da Da."


Unless you frequented gay night clubs, you probably didn't know about this song whatsoever if you were an American because it didn't reach US shores at all in spite of its huge success everywhere else, Canada excluded.


This song was a resounding success in all sorts of countries around the world in 1996, even places like Japan and Taiwan, but the United States completely passed it up, despite the fact that "Back for Good" was a big hit here in late 1995. Evidently, Americans at the time only had room for Celine Dion, Journey, Az Yet, and Mariah Carey to serve its piano-driven pop ballads, leaving this in total obscurity. Gary Barlow did achieve some success with the adult contemporary crowd in America in late 1997 with "So Help Me Girl," but he never emerged a household name here like he did around the world.

Actually, America did import a lot of eurodance. It was much more of a mainstream presence here than Britpop or mid-90s European teen pop ever was. Real McCoy and La Bouche had multiple big hit singles in the States, and Ace of Base were absolutely huge here in the mid-90s. Several other classic eurodance songs became big hits in the United States, such as Haddaway's "What Is Love" ("Life" also did well), Corona's "The Rhythm of the Night," Amber's "This Is Your Night," Rednex's "Cotton Eye Joe," Culture Beat's "Mr. Vain," Captain Hollywood Project's "More and More," and Nicki French's cover of "Total Eclipse of the Heart," among others. While not a whole lot of eurodance made it to American shores, it was still a huge part of the pop scene here regardless, and the movement produced surprisingly few soccer hits, seeing as the most successful songs of the genre almost always made it to the United States as well. The genre also lasted a year longer in the United States than it did in the UK, having still been in its peak throughout 1996 and only fading away around mid-1997, whereas in the UK, its decline started in early 1996 and it was dead by roughly autumn of that same year.

While we're on the subject though, here would be probably the biggest soccer hits of the mid-90s eurodance movement:


Yet another homebred soccer hit – ironic that of all eurodance songs, it was the one performed by an American that did particularly poorly in North America despite hitting #1 in several other countries worldwide. My guess for that is that unlike most eurodance songs, which employed the familiar male rapper/female singer trope, this was clearly a novelty song, which most Americans just couldn't take seriously from 1991 to 1996. "Cotton Eye Joe" most likely got lucky because it appealed more to the Southern audience that most prominently resists imported popular music but was embracing the line dance craze and found it quite a ballroom floor filler.


Whigfield, of course, wouldn't make it huge in Australia until 1997, ironically the time they had fallen out of favour elsewhere, but this was an astronomically successful hit throughout Europe in the mid-90s. Whigfield had zero hits in the United States, who refused to import anything from Denmark until Lukas Graham achieved international superstardom two decades later.

Mind you, this act is guilty of the exact same ploy as Milli Vanilli, hiring a model to lip-sync their songs live and pose on the album and CD covers, despite the fact that it was somebody else entirely singing their songs. Most people believed Whigfield to be be Sannie Charlotte Carlson, but actually her songs were recorded by Annerley Gordon, one of her songwriters. Most other eurodance groups at the time hired real singers to appear on their records, so it's no surprise to me that Whigfield was specifically ignored over here.


I was surprised when I found out that this was actually 2 Unlimited's biggest hit worldwide, not "Get Ready for This," because I had never heard it as an American except as a remix featured in Dance Dance Revolution 5th Mix. It shot up to #1 in numerous countries but didn't chart in the United States or Canada. 2 Unlimited may be the only titans of eurodance who were superstars everywhere in the mid-90s except North America.

It's interesting, actually, because their first two singles, "Get Ready for This" and "Twilight Zone," flopped when they charted here in the early 90s, yet both songs were extremely popular at sporting events throughout the decade, with "Get Ready for This" actually becoming a legitimate hit here in early 1995. 2 Unlimited can be easily compared, in this regard, to the Outhere Brothers and Reel 2 Real, both of which produced multiple hits that were only technically successful on foreign charts but were well-known at sporting events and featured on ESPN's Jock Jams series throughout the decade. Songs like "No Limit" and "Tribal Dance" were also on these compilations, so I guess 2 Unlimited did at least have a place in American pop culture history, unlike East 17 or Pulp. I think most Americans, including myself, knew who they were, a lot more actually than most eurodance acts that did score big chart hits.

This indie-pop song from German band, Milky Chance. It charted within the Top-40 in several European countries and peaked at #10 here in Australia, yet it did not chart in the UK and it only charted at #18 on the US Alternative Songs chart. For some reason, this was a pretty big hit here in Late 2016/Early 2017. It was actually more successful in Australia than it was in it's native Germany!

Interestingly enough, "Oh Carolina" actually topped the charts in the UK! It's surprising that Shaggy was never able to achieve mass success in the United States. I know that pop reggae never really caught on, like you mentioned, but given the success of "Boombastic", you would have thought that he would achieved more success with one of his follow-up singles.


It's funny that you should mention that this song is quite often regarded as one of the worst songs of the '90s. I'm not sure if you have read up on it or not, but from what I understand, Peter Andre copped a lot of backlash from the Australian public, despite how successful his singles were. In fact, he decided to permanently move to the UK to continue his career, due to the amount of criticism that was directed towards him and his songs. Many people viewed him as being a "poor man's" Michael Jackson.