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Post by jlthorpe on Jul 4, 2014 16:45:45 GMT -5
What country and R&B songs did better on the pop charts than on their respective charts (not including pop songs that crossed over to the country and R&B charts)?
Some examples:
"In America" by the Charlie Daniels Band peaked at #13 country, #11 pop.
"Theme from Shaft" by Isaac Hayes peaked at #2 R&B, #1 pop.
"Bust a Move" by Young M.C. peaked at #9 R&B, #7 pop.
"Wild Thing" by Tone Loc peaked at #3 R&B, #2 pop.
"Funky Cold Medina" by Tone Loc peaked at #7 R&B, #3 pop.
And along the same lines, what about pop songs that did better on the country and R&B charts?
Examples:
"Devoted to You" by Carly Simon and James Taylor peaked at #36 pop, #33 country.
"Live My Life" by Boy George peaked at #40 pop, #21 R&B.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2014 17:13:50 GMT -5
Cry by Faith Hill didn't make the top 10 on the country chart, but reached. #1 on the AC chart.
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Post by chrisinmi on Jul 4, 2014 17:32:30 GMT -5
Despite being primarily remembered as a country singer, Juice Newton did better on the pop and AC charts than on the country charts for much of the 1981-82 time frame. "Angel Of The Morning," "Queen Of Hearts" and "Love's Been A Little Bit Hard On Me" all went Top 10 pop and Top 5 AC, but missed the Country Top 10.
A number of Whitney Houston's '80s hits charted higher on pop than on R&B. None of the four #1 Hot 100 hits from her album "Whitney" also hit #1 R&B, though three of them did hit #2 R&B.
"You Needed Me" by Anne Murray was her only #1 Hot 100 hit, but missed the top of the Country and AC charts.
"Situation" by Yaz only reached #73 on the Hot 100 but reached #31 R&B.
If we're also going to count songs by established AC core artists that hit #1 on the Hot 100 but not AC, then we could include "Top Of The World" by the Carpenters and "Don't Wanna Lose You" by Gloria Estefan, both #1 Hot 100 hits that stopped in runner-up position on the AC chart.
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Post by mct1 on Jul 4, 2014 18:13:38 GMT -5
Early in country signer Rodney Crowell's career, when he was stuck in a pattern where he was recording songs that weren't big hits for him but would be when they were remade by other artists, his song "Ashes By Now" crossed over to hit the Top 40 on the pop chart (#37), but didn't even come close on the country chart (#78). At that point in time, Crowell had not yet even had a Top 40 hit on the country chart.
Daryl Hall & John Oates' "Do What You Want, Be Who You Are", the commercially disappointing first single from their 1976 album Bigger Than Both Of Us (their first new album after hitting it big in 1976 with "Sara Smile" and the re-released "She's Gone"), hit #39 pop but #29 R&B. The album would be commercially redeemed on the pop side by its second single, "Rich Girl".
The only other Hall & Oates single to chart higher R&B than pop was "Alone Too Long", their last single before "Sara Smile", which hit #98 R&B and didn't chart pop. "One On One" peaked only one notch higher on the pop chart (#7) than on the R&B chart (#8). It was the highest charting song they had on the R&B chart aside from "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)", which went #1 on both the pop and R&B charts.
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Post by Mike on Jul 4, 2014 18:37:59 GMT -5
"What's Love Got to Do With It" stopped at #2 R&B (blocked by "When Doves Cry"), but topped the Hot 100 for 3 weeks. I think Tina never really wanted to be known for singing just R&B though.
In 1993, "When She Cries" by Restless Heart made it to #9 Country, but reached #5 on R&R's pop chart and #4 on Billboard's (Top 40 Mainstream), as well as #2 Adult Contemporary. I make the distinction here to reflect the changed chart environment. FWIW though, it did stop at #11 on the Hot 100.
They then had "Tell Me What You Dream" (featuring saxophonist Warren Hill) which reached #19 on R&R, scraped Billboard's Pop Top 40, and is their sole AC chart-topper, but in addition to not really being a country song per se, I don't think it was even released there.
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Post by seminolefan on Jul 4, 2014 21:16:52 GMT -5
Janet Jackson's "When I Think Of You" was the only single from her Control album to hit #1 on the pop chart. But on the flip side, it was the only single from that album to not hit #1 on the R&B chart, stopping at #3.
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Post by jlthorpe on Jul 4, 2014 22:21:39 GMT -5
Some R&B additions:
Atlantic Starr, "Secret Lovers" - #4 R&B, #3 pop
Klymaxx, "I Miss You" - #11 R&B, #5 pop
Klymaxx, "Man Size Love" - #43 R&B, #15 pop
MC Hammer, "Pray" - #4 R&B, #2 pop
Stephanie Mills, "Never Knew Love Like This Before" - #12 R&B, #6 pop
Prince, "Cream" - Did not chart R&B, #1 pop
Prince, "Delirious" - #18 R&B, #8 pop
Prince, "Little Red Corvette" - #15 R&B, #6 pop
Shalamar, "Dancing in the Sheets" - #18 R&B, #17 pop
Stevie Wonder, "Send One Your Love" - #5 R&B, #4 pop
Stevie Wonder, "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" - #3 R&B, #1 pop
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Post by mct1 on Jul 4, 2014 23:01:01 GMT -5
"In America" by the Charlie Daniels Band peaked at #13 country, #11 pop. In that era, Daniels straddled the worlds of "country-rock" and "country", so it's perhaps not that surprising that he would have a single do this. Some of his singles in the early '80s seemed to be aimed at one market and not the other; "The Legend Of Wooley Swamp" and "Still In Saigon" were Top 40 hits on the pop chart, but not on the country chart. Earlier in his career, Daniels was actually pretty much strictly "country-rock"; he never had any significant country success at all until signing with Epic Records in 1975. His first two pop Top 40 singles, "Uneasy Rider" and "The South's Gonna Do It", were not country hits of any significance. "You Needed Me" by Anne Murray was her only #1 Hot 100 hit, but missed the top of the Country and AC charts. In the early part of her career, Murray enjoyed some success on both the pop and country charts, but not always with the same songs. Around 1975 or 1976, while she was going through a bit of dry spell on the charts, she began to establish herself as primarily a country singer. "You Needed Me" was both her first big hit on the pop charts, and her first song to chart higher pop than country, in about four years. It was also the last time she would hit the Top 10 on the pop chart, and the last time she would even come close to having a song chart higher pop than country. "What's Love Got to Do With It" stopped at #2 R&B (blocked by "When Doves Cry"), but topped the Hot 100 for 3 weeks. I think Tina never really wanted to be known for singing just R&B though. Later on, IIRC, Tina would be subject to some criticism from the R&B press for having turned her back on the style and become a "rock" (read: "white music") singer. "Let's Stay Together" was a much bigger R&B hit than pop (#3 vs. #26), but after that it would become fairly common for Tina's singles to chart higher pop than R&B -- although she did have five R&B Top 10 hits between 1984 and 1986. By the later singles from her Break Every Rule album, R&B radio had lost all interest in her music. "Two People" was the last R&B Top 40 hit she ever had, aside from a collaboration with Barry White in 1996. Prince, "Cream" - Did not chart R&B, #1 pop Prince, "Delirious" - #18 R&B, #8 pop Prince, "Little Red Corvette" - #15 R&B, #6 pop A number of Prince's singles in the 1983-85 period charted higher pop than R&B, although the difference wasn't usually all that large. The pendulum then swung back the other way, probably a matter of his popularity declining less on the R&B side than on the pop side as he fell from his very high peak (as opposed to his popularity among R&B audiences increasing in real terms). "Cream" really sticks out, as by then most of his singles were charting higher R&B. |
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Post by blackbowl68 on Jul 5, 2014 4:35:17 GMT -5
This I found rather shocking in 1970:
Give Me Just A Little More Time - Chairmen of the Board (#3 pop, #8 Soul)
O-o-h Child - The 5 Stairsteps (#8 pop, #14 soul)
Band of Gold - Freda Payne (#3 pop, #20 soul) also #1(6) UK
I believe all charted soul first before pop.
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Post by jlthorpe on Jul 5, 2014 9:05:01 GMT -5
"In America" by the Charlie Daniels Band peaked at #13 country, #11 pop. In that era, Daniels straddled the worlds of "country-rock" and "country", so it's perhaps not that surprising that he would have a single do this. Some of his singles in the early '80s seemed to be aimed at one market and not the other; "The Legend Of Wooley Swamp" and "Still In Saigon" were Top 40 hits on the pop chart, but not on the country chart. Earlier in his career, Daniels was actually pretty much strictly "country-rock"; he never had any significant country success at all until signing with Epic Records in 1975. His first two pop Top 40 singles, "Uneasy Rider" and "The South's Gonna Do It", were not country hits of any significance. Prince, "Cream" - Did not chart R&B, #1 pop Prince, "Delirious" - #18 R&B, #8 pop Prince, "Little Red Corvette" - #15 R&B, #6 pop A number of Prince's singles in the 1983-85 period charted higher pop than R&B, although the difference wasn't usually all that large. The pendulum then swung back the other way, probably a matter of his popularity declining less on the R&B side than on the pop side as he fell from his very high peak (as opposed to his popularity among R&B audiences increasing in real terms). "Cream" really sticks out, as by then most of his singles were charting higher R&B. Not being an expert on the country and R&B genres and what songs/acts they were playing at the time, it's hard for me to tell which songs fit into their genres and which were more pop. There were a lot of Prince songs that did better pop than R&B, like you said, but I figured he would've done better R&B-wise. Even in the early '90s, some of his songs did much better on the Hot 100 and on Radio and Records, like "7" and "The Morning Papers". And I was wondering why Charlie Daniels did better with "The Legend of Wooley Swamp" and "Still in Saigon" on the pop charts ("Still in Saigon" didn't even hit the country chart). I didn't want to mention his earlier songs since I didn't think he was country at that time (like you said, those songs weren't significant hits). And obviously, a lot of songs only did better on the pop charts by one or two positions, but still interesting that they did better than in their own genres. |
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Post by Mike on Jul 5, 2014 12:11:07 GMT -5
"Let's Stay Together" was a much bigger R&B hit than pop (#3 vs. #26) Hardly surprising, given that it was a cover of the #1 R&B song of 1972 (Al Green's original spent 9 weeks on top!). I do think she would have gotten there herself with What's Love Got to Do With It, had it not been for Prince. |
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Post by mct1 on Jul 5, 2014 15:06:50 GMT -5
From the examples and discussion so far, I'm getting the sense that it wasn't all that unusual for black artists to have hits chart higher pop than R&B, especially if they had built up a track record on the pop charts, or had a sound that was relatively pop- or rock-friendly. (Of course, some of the examples cited so far have had fairly extreme differences, not just a matter of a few notches.) I guess these artists' records didn't necessarily "cross over"; pop fans/radio thought of them as a pop act, while R&B fans/radio thought of them as an R&B act, and the song competed independently in both arenas against whatever else happened to be on each chart at the time. In some cases, R&B fans may have even come to think of these artists' output as a little too poppy, somewhat dampening the reception on the R&B side. A few more I've come across:
The Pointer Sisters:
"Fire" - #2 pop, #14 R&B
"He's So Shy" - #3 pop, #10 R&B
"Slow Hand" - #2 pop, #7 R&B
"American Music" - #16 pop, #23 R&B
"Neuton Dance" - #6 pop, #13 R&B
"Yes We Can Can" charted one notch higher pop than R&B. "Fairytale" and "Should I Do It", both of which hit #13 pop, didn't chart R&B at all, but it's possible they just weren't promoted to the R&B market.
Donna Summer:
From the point she got really hot on the pop charts in 1978 with "Last Dance", through the singles from her 1980 album The Wanderer, most of Summer's singles charted higher pop than R&B. The most extreme examples:
"MacArthur Park" - #1 pop, #8 R&B
"Heaven Knows" - #4 pop, #10 R&B
"Dim All The Lights" - #2 pop, #13 R&B
"The Wanderer" - #3 pop, #13 R&B
Her duet with Barabra Streisand, "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" hit #1 pop but only #20 R&B. The second and third singles from The Wanderer hit the Top 40 pop but didn't chart at all R&B.
Before and after the above time period, most of Summer's singles did better R&B than pop, though there were some exceptions. Her last pop Top 10, "This Time I Know It's For Real", wasn't an R&B hit at all.
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Post by davewollenberg on Jul 5, 2014 17:35:31 GMT -5
Cornelius Brothers 'Treat her like a lady' hit #20 soul, and #3 pop.
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Post by mstgator on Jul 6, 2014 9:36:41 GMT -5
Prince, "Cream" - Did not chart R&B, #1 pop Prince, "Delirious" - #18 R&B, #8 pop Prince, "Little Red Corvette" - #15 R&B, #6 pop A number of Prince's singles in the 1983-85 period charted higher pop than R&B, although the difference wasn't usually all that large. The pendulum then swung back the other way, probably a matter of his popularity declining less on the R&B side than on the pop side as he fell from his very high peak (as opposed to his popularity among R&B audiences increasing in real terms). "Cream" really sticks out, as by then most of his singles were charting higher R&B. I'm not even sure "Cream" was even promoted to R&B radio. Note that the album's lead single "Gett Off" was a Top 10 R&B hit but only hit the pop chart on the strength of sales. "Insatiable" appears to have been the intended follow up to "Gett Off" at R&B, as it hit #3 there as "Diamonds and Pearls" was hitting big at pop (before "crossing over" to R&B as well). Prince had successfully used this separate releases for separate formats strategy before, with "I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man" vs "Hot Thing" in 1987 and "The Arms of Orion" vs "Scandalous!" in 1989. |
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Post by rayshae3 on Jul 26, 2014 14:37:58 GMT -5
Listening to this week’s AT40/70s from 1971, one of the biggest anomalies ever for a country song performance in country vs. the pop chart : John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” (Hot 100#2; Country#50) (!!!)
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