My Ding a Ling , Chuck Berry
Owner of a Lonely Heart, Yes
What other singer or group’s most successful song is least indicative of their normal style or skill?
– Nearly all Elvis Costello hits, including Veronica.
– Someone’s gonna mention Blur and Nada Surf, although I’m not familiar with their “other” songs so I couldn’t say.
– In the same vein, the cover of “Cars” by Fear Factory.
– While were on turn-of-the-decade semi-goth bands: “Voodoo” by Godsmack. Easily their best and most popular song, but unlike anything else I’ve heard by them.
Aerosmith’s I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing is their biggest hit. I don’t think I’ve ever even heard it, though I think it’s a “power ballad” (ugh). Not the least indicative of their style, since they had a few hits of that ilk in the 90s, but it certainly ain’t the Aerosmith I grew up listening to.
“Fooled Around and Fell in Love” – Elvin Bishop, who is primarily a blues guitarist.
“Beth” – Kiss
“Dancing in the Dark” by Springsteen. I like it, it’s fun, but it’s not quintessentially him.
One of Us by Joan Osborne
And I can’t find a reference, but I would bet “I Want to Know What Love Is” was Foreigner’s biggest hit. [Not that I don’t like it, especially because now I picture Hal Sparks from I Love the 80s singing along.]
“Jump” - Van Halen
The Zombies’ “Time of the Season.” The druggy, vaguely menacing tone of this song is pretty unique in their catalog. It sounds more like a Doors song than a typical Zombies track.
There are also a lot of bands that changed their style after an unrepresentative hit-- Sugar Ray and Smash Mouth come to mind.
How so? VH had tons of ‘playful’ songs like that one.
Barenaked Ladies - “One Week” or “If I Had a Million Dollars”
Hits like these peg them as a novelty band when most of their music is actually quite layered and serious.
The **Grateful Dead’s ** biggest hit was Touch of Grey. Until I read that, I would have assumed Trucking.
Quarterflash had their fifteen minutes with “Harden My Heart.” Their AMG review touches on the fact that subsequent songs and albums lacked the radio-friendly hooks and without warning, their fifteen minutes was up.
I saw Marv and Rindy Ross on VH1 once, and they were basically dismissing that song. They said it wrecked their careers. The record company wanted more like it, and they had no more like it. They could never outdo it, nor come close to it, nor hit with any other kind of song. The record company pressured them into being the kind of pop group they were on the records, and would not let them do the kind of music they wanted, which would have been harder. At this point, they hate “Harden My Heart” and are soured on the whole pop star experience.
Todd Rundgren’s “Bang On The Drum All Day.”
Along with KISS, any 80s hard rock band who had the “one obligatory power ballad per album for all the ladies” would be a good bet. Extreme and Saigon Kick come to mind as bands whose ONLY hit was the ballad, but Poison and Motley Crue are just as guilty.
Jimi Hendrix: All Along the Watchtower
Harry Nilsson’s “Cocoanut”
Naw all along the watchtower … everybody has done , go with a Hendrix original like purple haze or Hey Joe
That’s it… Hey Joe, it has the bluesy open feel prevalent on so many of Hendrixs works
Jethro Tull’s biggest hit Aqualung is notable in that it doesn’t have any flute in it. Otherwise, it’s pretty typical Tull fare.
Because the Night which was an unusual ‘biggest hit’ twice - for Patti Smith and later for 10,000 Maniacs. It’s a power ballad, and neither act was especially known for power ballads.