These threads about #1 songs made me think of this, and in particular of Wings’ “Mull of Kintyre”, which in the late 1970s was a monster hit pretty much everywhere in the world that kept a chart, except the United States, where it seemed nobody heard it.
When I finally did hear it, I knew why: It just wasn’t American. That’s all.
Anyone else have anything similar?Oh there are lots of records that were huge in the UK but bombed in the US. Check out this list of huge British hits. The reason a number of these songs didn’t hit in the US?
–Tied into competitions like Eurovision and Pop Idol that don’t mean anything in the US (Will Young, Alexandra Burke)
–TV stars from shows that never even got aired in the US (Ken Dodd, Robson and Jerome)
–Genres that didn’t really catch on in the US (glam rock band Mud)
–Novelty acts like Bob the Builder
At the end of 1974, the Albuquerque radio station played — as they did every year — the countdown of hits for the year. When they got to “Please Come to Boston”, they prefaced the song by saying they were about to play one that we probably hadn’t ever heard. They were right in my case. Apparently it was very hot in some other region of the country but it got hardly any airplay in the western states.
Interesting. The oldies pop stations in my area have always had it on their roster.
Not really what the OP is looking for, but I have a CD from a woman named Eleanor McEvoy (who I’m sure nobody knows about in the USA) and she turns out to be the biggest thing since sliced potatoes in Ireland.
The oldies pop stations in Albuquerque probably do too. I don’t think that’s particularly relevant. It didn’t get NM-area airplay in the season in which it established its credentials as a greatest hit.
Check out “Searching for Sugar Man”, an entire true movie based on this question. In South Africa the guy was a national hero, and he had no idea; everywhere else he was unknown.
Canadian band Chilliwack had a #1 hit in 1973 with their version of the song “Groundhog” in Little Rock, Arkansas. was fairly well know in western Canada, forgotten everywhere else.
“Stay the blazes home” - Stephen McNeil, Premier of Nova Scotia
Sixto Rodriguez - Wikipedia is the guy in the movie Searching for Sugar man. A lot of people in South Africa thought he was dead but he visited there so the knew he was still around.
The best example of this is “Tears” by Ken Dodd (not to mention just about anything by Cliff Richard). The best selling UK song of 1965, and the 3rd best seller of the decade in the UK (behind “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand”). Right in the middle of the Beatles hits and those by other UK rock groups, this song of a totally different genre was never heard in North America - except for the cover by Bobby Vinton (which reached around #50 on Billboard).
Dodd later got knighted, but passed away a couple of years ago at the age of 90.
I love this song - never heard it until today. I was never a Wings fan, but this I like.
It was played a lot in our area when it came out, but I haven’t heard it since the year it was released.
Teen angel made #1 in the US but was only #37 in the UK because the BBC banned it for being too depressing.
If Wikipedia can be trusted, Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush was #1 in the UK and a few other places, a big hit in a lot of countries, but didn’t trouble the scorers in the US.
Good points installLSC, but Wuthering Heights falls into none of these categories (I would contend that it doesn’t really fall into any genre; and KB can hardly be considered a novelty act, given her subsequent work). I leave it to Americans to speculate as to why this was such a miss in the US.
j
I listen to music from several charts from around the world and see songs like this all the time. The US and UK pop charts in particular have maybe about 50% overlap. Between the two Top-40’s on any given week, there will be roughly 60 unique songs, give or take.
The funny thing is, this means I’m not always quite sure of who is popular where. For example, I was surprised to learn that George Ezra is virtually unknown in the US. His song “Shotgun” went multi-platinum and was #1 in the UK and Australia, but peaked at just #35 in the US.
Not mentioned in the movie was that he also made a brief splash in Australia, and actually did a tour opening for Midnight Oil when MO was at the top of their game.
The Kinks - “Waterloo Sunset”. Hit #2 in the UK, top 10 hit in many other European countries, Australia and New Zealand. Never even charted in the US or Canada.
Was The Ketchup Song big in the US? I was in Europe at the time and it was everywhere. Billboard Hot 100 says it didn’t hit the top 40, but it looks like it did hit other Billboard charts very highly.
Also, what about the band Take That? Huge in the UK, unknown in the US.
I remember the Ketchup Song but this is the first I knew what it was actually called.
Sorry. I should probably have posted a link to it. Chorus hits at around 35 seconds. The official name of the song is “Asereje,” but I’ve always known it as “The Ketchup Song.”
“Back for Good” was an American Top Ten hit in 1995.
