[Music] Top Bands who never had a hit song

[Uh_huh_him]

The Rezillos
The Cramps
Big Black

 

[Peppermint Tea]

That's already been covered, they had 17 Top 40 singles, and not forgetting that Bankrobber made the top 30 on import sales only

Depends on your understanding of “hit single”. I saw it through the lens of Top 10.

 

[studio150]

Depends on your understanding of “hit single”. I saw it through the lens of Top 10.

Anything that makes the Guinness Book Of Hit Singles, I would suggest is more accurate and more widely accepted.

 

[Peppermint Tea]

Anything that makes the Guinness Book Of Hit Singles, I would suggest is more accurate and more widely accepted.

So, if you go off that as the metric, that is every single that’s ever charted, because that’s what that book covers. That rather renders this thread pointless.

 

[GT49er]

This has been a really fun thread so far - let's not turn it into an argument! Yes, maybe the OP should have specified what constitutes a 'hit' - earlier I suggested maybe top 20 - but it really doesn't matter. Top 40, or Guinness Book of Records - who cares?

It's strange how many bands that concentrated on LPs had unrepresentative hits with something (almost) completely different to their usual. Steeleye Span with 'All Around my Hat', for example, Fairport Convention with 'Si Tu Dois Partir' - even fairly heavy Marillion with a soft ballad like 'Kayleigh'. Jeff Beck, a VERY serious musician, had a one hit wonder (which he hated) with Hi Ho Silver Lining.
If Bowie hadn't invented Ziggi Stardust, and gone on to world-wide singles success, his career might have been defined by The Laughing Gnome!

 

[studio150]

The Rezillos
The Cramps
Big Black

Top Of The Pops

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Top Of The Pops

yeah stretching it a bit, just to get them a mention.

 

[WATFORD zero]

Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, Tom Waits?

You've obviously forgotten Frank's 'Valley Girl' which made 32 on the American billboard's top 40 and 'City of tiny lights' which I distinctly remember seeing on British TV (but it may have been OGWT)

 

[happypig]

John Mayall and the Blues Breakers.
Been going 60 years, released dozens of albums, never troubled the singles chart.

 

[Is it PotG?]

The Dooleys

'The Chosen Few' and the perfect 'Wanted' I hear you cry, but 'A Rose Has to Die'
underperformed.

 

[GT49er]

The Rezillos
The Cramps
Big Black

Ah The Rezillos - remember Eugene Reynolds (then called Alan IIRQ) drumming for our band before they got going. I say 'our' band - but really it was a VERY flexible line up, so maybe 'our' is pushing it a bit - I think only two of us (not including Alan) continued in the band for any length of time!
We thought we had a better plan for success at the time. Hey ho - got that wrong! Rezillos got it right - respect, good band.

 

[herecomesaregular]

For me, that would be Terry Reid (had a few of his songs covered by The Raconteurs, Rumer, Chris Cornell) but most people have never heard of him. I've been lucky to have seen him play live numerous times, in his later years. Certainly a character. (Chris Robinson obviously influenced by him).

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Whilst AC/DC had multi platinum albums including one of the biggest selling albums of all time in Back in Black, they never had a UK top 10 hit until a Christmas campaign in 2012 took Highway to Hell to number 4. This was many years after their commercial peak and remains their only top 10 hit.

 

[Randy McNob]

Anything that makes the Guinness Book Of Hit Singles, I would suggest is more accurate and more widely accepted.

I disagree. A song's popularity is not defined by its chart sales.

2 examples: we will rock you by queen. An iconic global song where anyone could name within a few seconds of the intro. But it was a B side. Same reason: We are family by Sister Sledge

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

They had a UK number 1.

A hit song? A single?

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Sorry but way to vague a question. What defines a ' Top Band ' as purely subjective and what's a hit?

Led Zeppelin have sold in excess of 300 million records and Whole Lotta Love only made it to no. 21 in UK charts

Led Zep was my first shout. I would imagine that Yes never had a hit single either.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

The Birthday Party
Wall of Voodoo

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

OK, so,
The Chameleons
Wishbone Ash
The Legendary Pink Dots
Porcupine Tree

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I'm not sure I would count LED Z, stairway is a classic and considered one of, if not, the greatest rock track of all time. Whether it was released as a single is not the barometer of hit song imo

Not having that.

It allows me to claim that if I think it is brilliant then it is a hit. This is one of the finest tracks of all time. But it wasn't a hit.



You have to stick with conventions. A. Hit. Single.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I disagree. A song's popularity is not defined by its chart sales.

2 examples: we will rock you by queen. An iconic global song where anyone could name within a few seconds of the intro. But it was a B side. Same reason: We are family by Sister Sledge

Technically We Will Rock You was a b-side when it was originally released but to all intents and purposes it was a double-a. Radio stations would often play both sides back-2-back and it even had its own music video.