Definitive 'primarily known for one song' band?

[Ordnael]

Secret smile did a number on me during my late teen years...see there was this girl I absolutely adored but I was to much of a coward to do anything about it and that smile she had, that damn smile melted me inside. So that music played a lot in my mind. Never knew from who that music was till now, I just thought of it as a generic feel song from that time period.

 

[Kyriakos]

Obscure band, not very good but had solid riffs (as in this one).
Likely their most popular song.

 

[Broken_Erika]

 

[Gori the Grey]

Coolio.

The fact that I don't even have to give you song title tells you everything you need to know.

*****
This has kind of come up in our discussions, but you can be a band/performer with a lot of hits and still be primarily known for one of them. Megahit among your hits, or most characteristic of your style, or just "that one special song."

See if I'm not right

Pink Floyd
Another Brick in the Wall

Led Zeppelin
Stairway to Heaven

The Eagles
Hotel California

Eminem
Lose Yourself

Possibly Frank Sinatra
New York, New York (although My Way might pop to mind first for some people)

Possibly even Michael Jackson
Thriller (although Beat It might pop to mind first)

And the definitive example: Lynyrd Skynyrd
Freebird, to the extent that "Play 'Freebird'" has become a meme for "do that thing you're best known for"

 

[Ordnael]

I would put Money up there with Another Brick in the Wall (part 2 mind you) for Pink Floyd. Mostly because traditional media, at least here, always plays Money on the background of a news piece related to casinos, cash or something alike. I still remember one of the last times I heard Money on the news.

 

[Kyriakos]

Coolio.

The fact that I don't even have to give you song title tells you everything you need to know.

*****
This has kind of come up in our discussions, but you can be a band/performer with a lot of hits and still be primarily known for one of them. Megahit among your hits, or most characteristic of your style, or just "that one special song."

See if I'm not right

Pink Floyd
Another Brick in the Wall

Led Zeppelin
Stairway to Heaven

The Eagles
Hotel California

Eminem
Lose Yourself

Possibly Frank Sinatra
New York, New York (although My Way might pop to mind first for some people)

Possibly even Michael Jackson
Thriller (although Beat It might pop to mind first)

And the definitive example: Lynyrd Skynyrd
Freebird, to the extent that "Play 'Freebird'" has become a meme for "do that thing you're best known for"

Of those (not counting Coolio) I think the Eagle's one is generally on a league of its own, maybe followed by Sinatra? ^^
Eg Lynyrd has this:

 

[EnglishEdward]

I would put Money up there with Another Brick in the Wall (part 2 mind you) for Pink Floyd. Mostly because traditional media, at least here, always plays Money on the background of a news piece related to casinos, cash or something alike. I still remember one of the last times I heard Money on the news.

I associate Pink Floyd more with

The Dark Side of The Moon

 

[Arakhor]

Possibly even Michael Jackson
Thriller (although Beat It might pop to mind first)

Michael Jackson is absolutely the last person who should appear in this thread. Even I, a committed ignorer of pop music, could name at least three Jackson mega-hits (Billie Jean, Black or White, Thriller).

 

[Kyriakos]

Michael Jackson is absolutely the last person who should appear in this thread. Even I, a committed ignorer of pop music, could name at least three Jackson mega-hits (Billie Jean, Black or White, Thriller).

But if it wasn't just about songs, you certainly could include Vivaldi and Orff ^^

 

[Gori the Grey]

Michael Jackson is absolutely the last person who should appear in this thread. Even I, a committed ignorer of pop music, could name at least three Jackson mega-hits (Billie Jean, Black or White, Thriller).

Right, but you illustrated my point: that there is one single song by which even such a figure is still best known.

Eg Lynyrd has this:

That's what makes Skynyrd so much an illustration of my point.* Sweet Home Alabama is equally as big a hit and yet the meme for "do that thing you are best known for doing" singled out the other great hit.

*and therefore, by the way, the definitive "band primarily known for one song."

Thread won!

 

[Kyriakos]

That's what makes Skynyrd so much an illustration of my point. Sweet Home Alabama is equally as big a hit and yet the meme singled out the other great hit.

I'd also put Freebird as the most known, but certainly they are both massively known ^^

 

[Gori the Grey]

The logic of my argument depends heavily on that very fact.

If you are well known for X and yet something else (Y) is the thing you are best known for, to the point that your being known for that thing becomes a meme for anyone being known for a thing in any field, then you are very much best known for Y.

 

[Arakhor]

Right, but you illustrated my point: that there is one single song by which even such a figure is still best known.

Well, of course there's always going to be a single song which performed the best for any singer, but trying to establish which one that is for multiple mega-hitters like Queen or Jackson is a fool's errand.

 

[Kyriakos]

Imo in such cases it seems that the second (but also hugely popular) song in the long run gets too close to the first and that would be why I am not fully agreeing with your suggestion @Gori the Grey .
Of course it only works if they are both massive - so wouldn't work for (say) Final Countdown and anything else in some top10 list Europe might have produced, as the gap is vast.
Perhaps another example of this LynSky effect would be Nirvana with Smells like Teen Spirit and Lithium.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Well, of course there's always going to be a single song which performed the best for any singer

Not so.

While I was compiling my list, I considered, and rejected, the following: Chicago, Styx, Elton John, Billy Joel.

And I had reservations about putting Sinatra and Jackson in the list.

Of course it only works

But the point is that it has worked, in this one case, to the degree of producing a meme on the very subject.

So think of it this way. Clear your head of this thread. Ask people "what internet meme do you think of when you think of the sentiment 'do that thing you're best known for'?"

The answer they would give you is "Play Freebird."

If you are so well known for something that you are the poster child for being known for something itself, then you are really, really known for that thing.

 

[Arakhor]

Of course it only works if they are both massive - so wouldn't work for (say) Final Countdown and anything else in some top10 list Europe might have produced, as the gap is vast.
Perhaps another example of this LynSky effect would be Nirvana with Smells like Teen Spirit and Lithium.

I've never heard of Lithium before (the song, not the element), so for me, Nirvana is a perfect case of "I only know this one song by X band".

While I was compiling my list, I considered, and rejected, the following: Chicago, Styx, Elton John, Billy Joel.

And I had reservations about putting Sinatra and Jackson in the list.

I chose performed specifically, because that's just a matter of statistics. Whether x amount of people have heard of a song, however that is defined, is clearly subjective, rather than objective.

 

[Gori the Grey]

I chose performed specifically, because that's just a matter of statistics. Whether x amount of people have heard of a song, however that is defined, is clearly subjective, rather than objective.

But the title of the thread is "known for."

And by the way, this adds to the argument I'm advancing with Kyr. Free Bird only hit 19 on the charts; Sweet Home Alabama got as high as 8. It is, by that metric, statistically superior. If Skynyrd is nonetheless best known for Free Bird to the point of its becoming a meme for "get on to the thing you are best known for" then they are really, really known for that thing.

In fact the very archetype of being known for a thing.

 

[Kyriakos]

@Arakhor It is subjective, but surely the larger the sample (and here we literally have the entire world as potential sample) the rarer it would be to not have heard of massively popular songs
Which is why I am much more unsure of your point about Lithium than about Gori's claim (with which I largely - just not fully - agree).

Not so.

While I was compiling my list, I considered, and rejected, the following: Chicago, Styx, Elton John, Billy Joel.

And I had reservations about putting Sinatra and Jackson in the list.


But the point is that it has worked, in this one case, to the degree of producing a meme on the very subject.

So think of it this way. Clear your head of this thread. Ask people "what internet meme do you think of when you think of the sentiment 'do that thing you're best known for'?"

The answer they would give you is "Play Freebird."

If you are so well known for something that you are the poster child for being known for something itself, then you are really, really known for that thing.

The issue there is that - as with others out of all our arguments, my own including too obv - this gets anecdotal and you risk running into an outlier: for example I wasn't aware at all of the "play Freebird" meme

 

[Arakhor]

Well, just to use my (lack of) experience, Free Bird is a meme (for many things, including its frenetic pace and difficulty), but Skynyrd is inextricably linked with Sweet Home Alabama. If you asked me to name their greatest hit, I'd always say SWA rather than FB, not least because that would require me to remember who actually did FB in the first place.

 

[Kyriakos]

Well, just to use my (lack of) experience, Free Bird is a meme (for many things, including its frenetic pace and difficulty), but Skynyrd is inextricably linked with Sweet Home Alabama. If you asked me to name their greatest hit, I'd always say SWA rather than FB, not least because that would require me to remember who actually did FB in the first place.

I too wasn't aware it was by LS... Knew the song, of course, and immediately agreed it is at least as famous.

Vangelis has a number of other famous pieces (primarily or entirely instrumental), but this has to be the most famous by far: