For me that one is always going to be Don’t Let the Sun Go Down.
Madonna could arguably have one for each decade of her career but overall I might go with ‘Like A Prayer’ - it seems to have a balance between initial success, enduring popularity and critical acclaim.
You could easily argue for ‘Material Girl’, ‘Like A Virgin’, ‘Vogue’, ‘Music’, ‘Hung Up’, ‘Holiday’, they’re all contenders.
Someone upthread mentioned Culture Club, I’d go for ‘Karma Chameleon’ just above ‘Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?’
Other artists:
Michael Jackson - ‘Billie Jean’ (I’ve known people to argue for ‘Thriller’ but I’d say that’s his signature video)
Prince - ‘When Doves Cry’ or ‘1999’
Kate Bush - ‘Wuthering Heights’
Janet Jackson - ‘Rhythm Nation’ or ‘Nasty’
Pet Shop Boys - ‘West End Girls’
Britney Spears - ‘…Baby One More Time’
Rihanna - ‘Umbrella’
Kylie Minogue - ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ or ‘I Should Be So Lucky’
Cher - ‘Believe’
Eurythmics - ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)’
Celine Dion - ‘My Heart Will Go On’
Dixie Chicks - ‘Wide Open Spaces’
Mariah Carey - ‘Hero’
Roger Miller–King of the Road
Michael Ball–Love changes Everything
Doug Sills–Into the Fire
Elton John’s had many hit songs but it’s hard to pick any one that’s his signature. One could also argue for “Your Song.” Same with John Denver…it could be Rocky Mountain High as well as Country Roads.
For Prince I would have thought “Little Red Corvette.”
Jackson Five – “ABC”
Dusty Springfield - Son of a Peacher Man
John Lennon - Imagine
Beck - Loser
Mick Jagger - (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA
Buddy Holly - Peggy Sue or maybe That’ll Be The Day
Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit
Roger Daltrey - My Generation
David Bowie - Heroes or Space Oddity
Sinead O’Conner - Nothing Compares To You
Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode
Leonard Nimroy - The Ballard of Bilbo Baggins
William Shatner - toss up between Common People and The Real Slim Shady
Couple of debateable ones there.
I’ll go old school
Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street
Al Stewart - Time Passages
Rush - Tom Sawyer
Miles Davis - 'Round Midnight
I would first think of “If You Could Read My Mind” although I personally like your pick better.
Frank Sinatra’s signature song is clearly, clearly, “My Way”. Anyone arguing otherwise doesn’t understand the concept of the signature song.
Lots of acts don’t have signature songs, and that’s fine. A signature song isn’t just their biggest hit, or one they wrote themselves, it’s the song that has the most meaning for the artist, that they never get tired of performing.
If you have to argue over what the signature song of an act is, they clearly don’t have a signature song. Tom Lehrer doesn’t have a signature song.
I’d have a hard time calling that his signature song. He is blessed/cursed with a few that he’s not allowed to leave the stage before playing. It seems more so that he gets to qualify in the Paul McCartney category - too many songs that are “must perform” to have a signature.
Layla, I shot the Sheriff, Crossroads, Lay Down Sally – Each of these songs seems to point straight to him as a performer.
Light My Fire - The Doors
Paranoid - Black Sabbath
Sharped Dressed Man - ZZTOP
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
:dubious: That’s not even who I think of when I think of that song. It was a big hit for Clapton but I never liked his version.
I thought it was a song indelibly associated with one performer that sums up his or her essence, or at least the performer’s image. I don’t know if Sinatra liked performing My Way or if was sick to death of doing it at every concert. Either way it’s the song you think of when you think about who Frank Sinatra was. Despite all of Paul McCartney’s hits I think you could associate Hey Jude or Let It Be with him in the same way.
“Breakin’ Up Is Hard To Do” --Neil Sedaka (It’s the one that has “, , v doobie u v v” in it)
Yannick C’est soiree la
I agree entirely. It doesn’t matter what song you like of theirs the most, it matters what song sums up who they are in the eyes of the world. Plus Frank Sinatra admitted that he didn’t even like the song “My Way” at first but he got known for it because that is how the public sees him. It may not be the way he sees him but that’s how it goes.
I will always and forevermore associate Loudon Wainwright III with “Dead Skunk.”
Rick James- Superfreak
And for the record Sinatra absolutely hated Strangers In The Night. He didn’t like the sing-song melody and mocked it with the doo-be-doo-be-doo ending he tacked on at the end. Ironically it was his first million seller. I remember when he sang it during his *Concert For The Americas *performance. Prior to singing it he said he usually didn’t perform it but was going to that night due to a very special request. During the ovation afterward he walked back toward the orchestra with the mike hanging down at his side but you could still hear him laughingly yell out to the orchestra, “I hate that fucking song!”
Warren Zevon-“Werewolves of London”…even though it’s not his best material. For me, it’s “Desperados Under The Eaves.”
Doris Day – Que Sera Sera
Also, it just seems wrong that William Shatner has a “signature song.”