Songs That Took Decades to Become Hits
Singles are like baby birds: They get pushed out of the nest and one chance to either fly away or fall to their gooey deaths.
Well, most of the time. Sometimes, the forces of the universe come together to resurrect a song decades after it’s been declared DOA. Such as…
‘Running Up That Hill’
In 2022, Kate Bush had the number one song in the world, which was weird because she hadn’t released any new music since 2011. The song in question was actually “Running Up That Hill,” which was a modest success when it was released in 1985, an obsession for ‘90s girls who loved Placebo and a number-three Hot 100 hit after it was featured prominently on Stranger Things. That show officially does the ‘80s better than the ‘80s.
‘What a Wonderful World’
Another song that got a boost from the screen was Louis Armstrong’s wistful 1967 ode to the excellent earth. It failed to chart at all back then, probably for the same reason — people weren’t feeling very globally optimistic at the time — that it reached the Hot 100 in 1988 after it was featured in a grisly scene in Good Morning, Vietnam. It’s been the official song of irony ever since.
‘Vienna’
Before TikTok, Billy Joel’s “Vienna” was just a forgotten B-side to 1977’s “Just the Way You Are,” but now it’s one of his most-streamed songs and the soundtrack of choice for young women staring out the windows of moving trains. It might be because it was featured in the 2004 movie 13 Going on 30, an era that people are officially getting nostalgic about, or maybe Gen Z is just in the habit of deep-diving into the catalogs of classic crooners. Who’s to say?
‘Harness Your Hopes’
Speaking of TikTok, a staple of the app was once a deep cut on Pavement’s 1999 EP Spit on a Stranger, but it was certified gold in 2024 and tripled the Spotify streams of their next most-famous song, which was an actual hit in the ‘90s. It’s almost certainly due to a 2017 change in Spotify’s recommendation system, which left users’ apps on “autoplay” by default. Basically, it sounds like a lot of other songs, so it was played for a lot of people who couldn’t be bothered to push a button. Hey, whatever gets those sweet streaming pennies.
‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’
In 2023, Brenda Lee’s middling Christmas classic reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time in the 65 years since it was released, breaking the record for the longest time from release to number one. The tipping point? At 78 years old, Lee released a jaunty new music video. That’s all we need, musicians. Just give us a fun little video now and then, and we’ll make you incredibly rich. MTV might be dead, but the system still works.
