I can see your logic that 17 is minor. Usually any song that hits the top 40 in any given chart is considered a hit. Big hits are those that make the top 10. But even then it’s relative. Look at Cheryl Lynn’s “Got To Be Real,” which failed to hit the top ten. This is one of the biggest disco songs ever. It is much better known than lots of disco songs that went top 10.
It really depends on one’s viewpoint. So with that said, I can’t say you’re wrong, 'cause you’re not
I have to disagree the A/C is minor. There are far more A/C radio stations and have always been than pop stations which chart the Hot 100. That’s akin to saying Reba McEntire is a minor star because almost all her chart hits were on the country chart.
Bands like The Who and Led Zepplin rarely made any charts except album sales but are huge.
The charts are just indicative of popularity in a particular arena, and even then they are subject to much manipulation and have always been. (But that’s another thread)
Same thing applies to Gary Lewis in “This Diamond Ring.” In his subsequent records, all the studio tweaking in the world could never hide his awful singing. I’m sure he was and is a nice guy, but his artistic gift was being Jerry Lewis’ son. I feel bad saying it, because I always kind of liked him as a person.
But this takes the cake:
True, most people didn’t think of him as a singer (or a serious actor) until the Wedding Singer. He has put out 5 albums though, which are about half songs and half skits IIRC.
Yes, that’s what it is…and your definition of “minor hit” is wrong, plain and simple.
I’ve followed the Billboard charts since I was 11 years old, and I worked in radio for nearly 20 years. I can tell you that a #17 song is NOT a minor hit by anyone’s definition (except perhaps yours). If said song also reaches #1 on the Adult Contemporary charts, then the minor hit designation is even more absurd.
A song that reaches #17 nationally has received significant airplay on radio stations all across the country, and sold significantly as well. I’d be happy to provide a list of other songs that reached #17, so we can see whether you would consider them to also be minor hits.
The extent to which a song is “remembered” years after the fact has no bearing on its hit status at the time it was contemporary.
On the stations I listened to, it did. And I say that as someone who didn’t listen to Adult Contemporary stations at all, where it obviously got considerably more airtime.
Again, whether the song is remembered today or not may be an interesting point of discussion…but it’s not the discussion we’re having here.
Quite right. The Wikipedia entry is incorrect – or at least, worded in a misleading fashion ("‘I’m Easy’ won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and the Golden Globe for Best Original Song (Motion Picture), in 1976). Thanks for catching this.
It’s certainly likely, then, that the attention called to “I’m Easy” by virtue of its Academy Award win helped make it a hit. Still, the song had to deliver the goods and bear repeated listenings.
“Teddy Bear” is a spoken word recording, a narration. They’re not supposed to be sung.
However, Red Sovine was a singer, and thus, not eligible for this thread. Yes, he had done spoken word recordings in the past (“Phantom 309” comes to mind), but he also had hits with conventional songs sung conventionally.
