Aerosmith is the quintessential example of this: Their first charted single was released in 1973, and they kept cranking out hits for 25 years before finally hitting #1 on the charts in 1998 with “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.”
Kylie Minogue is another example: first emerged on the music scene in 1987, but her biggest hit, “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head,” wasn’t released until 2001.
Other examples?
Possibly the most notable example of this is Chuck Berry, whose only #1 single was the novelty song My Ding-a-Ling in 1972. His first hit was Maybellene in 1955.
Yes with Owner of a lonely heart in 1983 after 10 studio albums from 1969 until 1980.
Grateful Dead didn’t get a #1 until 1987 with Touch of Grey, though they were well known and established for 20 years previously.
Louis Armstrong became famous in the twenties and his most famous song is from 1967.
Before Good Morning, Vietnam made Wonderful World popular again in 1987, Armstrong’s most famous song was arguably Hello Dolly from 1964.
Of course, before 1964 he was famous for a LOT of jazz classics.
Putting Armstrong on this list with a 1960s era song is absurd.
And, just for kicks, although Armstrong’s recording of All the Time in the World didn’t chart when the Bond film on Her Majesty’s Secret Service came out in 1969, it DID chart in 1994 in the UK after being used in a Guiness commercial. (!)
It’s apparently the third most popular song played at weddings, according to a 2005 BBC survey (even though – spoiler alert – the bride dies immediately after the wedding in the film. Go figure. Of course, songs popular at US weddings are frequently just as perversely inappropriate)
Again, choosing a 1960s-era Louis Armstrong song made popular later because of its use in an ephemeral pop culture artifact is absurd.
Nope. What a Wonderful World was number one for a month in 1967 and is easily more popular than his earlier stuff today.
If the list is ‘Artists whose most popular song came well after their initial rise to fame’ then he’s the perfect example.
I disagree, especially with your repeated use of the word “absurd.”
Armstrong was well beyond his “initial rise to fame” (OP) when he recorded several tracks in the 50s and 60s for which he’s best known today.
ETA: “Yeah!”
Another is Dick Dale, with “Misirlou.”
Genesis had their biggest hits in 1984 (UK, Mama) and 1986 (Invisible touch, USA). They had been making albums since 1969.
The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos were formed in the 11th Century A.D., but didn’t score a hit until 1994. Their album reached #3 on the Billboard 200 and sold six million copies worldwide.
I wouldn’t equate a song being number one with being someone’s “most popular song”. Elton John didn’t have a number one hit in Britain (in the U.S. yes, but not in his home country) until “Sacrifice”, two decades after his career started. But I would hardly call it his most popular song.
Again, IFF you are equating being #1 on the charts with popularity, we cannot overlook the Boss. Bruce Springsteen only has one chart-topper, in 1985, with Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. 1984’s Dancing in the Dark did reach #2, though.
That’s actually a good point. I, too, thought of Chuck Berry when I first read the thread title, but can one really argue that “My Ding-A-Ling” is Chuck Berry’s most popular song? It may have been his only number one hit, but surely “Johnny B. Goode” or any of another half dozen songs are more well known. I get the sense that it was just some goofy ephemeral novelty song when it hit #1, and I wouldn’t be surprised if people who are otherwise familiar with Chuck Berry songs are completely unaware of it today.
I respectfully disagree: Kylie’s cover of “The Loco-motion” was a huge hit in her native Australia and charted around the world. (Wiki link) She might have arguably been considered a one-hit wonder in the US until “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” was released, though.
For “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”, on which chart do you mean?
As shown in the link, “Dancing in the Dark” did make #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart in the U.S. But “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” did not make #1 on that same chart.
Weird Al Yankovic release his first song in 1976, didn’t get to Billboard’s Top 10 until 2006, and his first #1 album was in 2014.
Would you count having their big hit after they died as being “well after” their initial rise?
Janis Joplin
Otis Redding
Smokey Robinson is an interesting case. He had been the lead singer for the Miracles for years, but was probably better known in the music industry as a writer and producer for Motown. The Miracles had some pretty big songs, and Smokey wrote a bunch more hits for everyone from Marvin Gaye to the Temptations to Mary Wells, but Smokey and the Miracles didn’t have a #1 hit for themselves until Tears of a Clown, at which time they’d been together for ten years.
I’d nominate “Smooth” by Rob Thomas and Carlos Santana. That song still gets more airplay than everything else by Matchbox 20 or Santana combined.
Can’t figure out why, either because I don’t think it’s that great of a song.
The “Ever discovered an artist…” thread mentions Bonnie Raitt. She’d been performing for many years when the megahit album “Nick of Time” came out.