Songs whose popularity was not reflected on the charts

Believe it or not, Bob Marley has absolutely zero hits in the US, his only charting song being "Roots, Rock, and Reggae" making it to #51 in 1976. This stands in stark contrast to the UK, where he had several massive hits, even though he's hardly less of a legend in America, no pun intended. His lack of hit making power in the US, however, can be explained by the fact that his songs were not released as singles here like they were in the UK, so they're absent from the Hot 100 for the same reason Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" was not technically a hit song.

His son, Ziggy, has fared similarly. He's technically a one-hit wonder for "Tomorrow People," which reached #39 in 1988, but to this day, the only two songs of his that I hear are "True to Myself" from 2003 and "Love Is My Religion" from 2006. Both of these still appear quite a bit on the radio today, and yet neither ever showed up on the charts, not even the Adult Pop Songs chart. "Love Is My Religion," however, was in fact released as a single in America, so in my opinion definitely counts for this thread:

When I re-discovered this song a couple of months ago, I thought it sounded familiar. I can actually remember this song from when it was released, back in 2005. I'm surprised that I can, given the fact that it only peaked at #51 on the ARIA Chart. I remember it did receive a fair amount of airplay though, despite it's position on the charts.

I seriously should have mentioned this one at the very beginning of this thread:



The Romantics are a classic one-hit wonder of the new wave movement. The cache? Their one huge hit in the US was actually "Talking in Your Sleep" from 1983, not this. However, speaking as an American, you would absolutely never think that. "What I Like About You" was, I'm pretty sure, the very first new wave song I ever heard, and I came across it quite a few more times afterwards as a kid, as well. Considering just how huge an anthem it was, you would have to guess that it did just as well in America as it did over in Australia, where it reached #2. It absolutely astounds me that it didn't even make it into the top 40 in the US, only peaking at a #49 on the Billboard Hot 100. To be fair, a fair number of early new wave songs weren't enormous back when they first came out here, but considering how well groups like Blondie, The Knack, and The Cars did, even before the '80s even started, it seems inconceivable that a song with as much longevity as "What I Like About You" could do so poorly on the Hot 100.

"Talking in Your Sleep", on the other hand, is a mostly forgotten song that doesn't even sound like it's by the same band. Whereas "What I Like About You" was one of the most ubiquitous oldies I knew during my childhood, I only discovered "Talking in Your Sleep" when I started compiling my custom Now albums, despite it peaking at #3.

To be fair, a lot of early new wave songs bolstered by MTV charted far lower than they probably deserved in the US. For example, "Video Killed the Radio Star" only peaked at a measly #40, compared to its #1 mega-success in its native UK. Even Duran Duran's "Girls on Film", which came out about the same time that MTV launched, failed to chart whatsoever in the US despite getting a proper single release for that territory, being one of Duran Duran's signature songs, and also having a reputation as one of the most prominent hits of MTV's early days. I suppose you can sort of compare it to S Club 7's "Bring It All Back", which didn't chart in America at all despite being one of the group's most popular songs and being released as a single, yet is still relatively well-known here because of its exposure through television. Whatever the case, even if MTV wasn't yet at the height of its popularity in the early '80s, the legendary status that hits like "Video Killed the Radio Star" and "What I Like About You" have since attained certainly suggests they deserved far better, especially considering songs like "Whip It", "Don't Stand So Close to Me", and "Heartbreaker" did quite well on the Hot 100 before MTV existed.

The crazy thing about The Romantics in particular is that not only did "Talking in Your Sleep" chart far better than "What I Like About You", even the followup to "Talking in Your Sleep", "One in a Million", outperformed "What I Like About You", having peaked at #37, and that song doesn't even have a Wikipedia page.

This is purely from an American perspective, perhaps San Diego, in particular. While "One Night Stand" was a huge deal in 2001 in its native UK and a few other countries, it never reached the Hot 100 or even airplay charts in the United States. Despite this, I heard it a lot on Channel 933, my city's FM station, back around the end of 2004 and beginning of 2005. You would think it would have at least made the top 20 of the Mainstream Top 40 here, but nope. I suppose it was just San Diego, in particular, that welcomed the single with open arms, while most of the rest of the country passed it up completely. Although the track was slightly remixed for its 2004 US release, it was specifically the 2001 original, complete with its infectious beeping riff, that I distinctly remember playing on the radio.



Similar to "What I Like About You" for the Romantics, this is easily one of New Order's most famous songs, aside from "Blue Monday", yet it only ever charted particularly well in Australia. Its performance in the US was equivalent to Mis-Teeq's "One Night Stand" (#4 on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart, absent from the Hot 100), yet even in New Order's own UK, the single totally bombed, reaching only a pathetic #56, a peak even worse for that country than the US.

Considering the countless number of sporting events and movies this song has appeared in, including James Cameron's The Terminator, it's pretty shocking "Bad to the Bone" never cracked the Billboard Hot 100 and only reached #27 on the Mainstream Rock Songs chart back when it came out in 1982.

I actually don't think I have ever listened to that song before. Not sure why, but it reminds me a bit of "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins.