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Even the biggest stars drop a dud sometimes. Join us as we count down our picks for the songs that completely bombed but somehow didn't destroy a musician's legendary career! Which track surprised you most? Let us know in the comments below!
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00:00Monster, you know it wouldn't be proper if we didn't return by the big rocket luncheon.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at those creative missteps that may have caused a musician to briefly stumble,
00:12but didn't derail the entire gravy train.
00:22American Life, Madonna.
00:30The Queen of Pop decided to get political back in 2003, and the immediate results were less than majestic.
00:38American Life was a jarring sonic cocktail of acoustic folk guitars, aggressive electronic beats, and a highly-questioned ultra-clunky
00:47rap section.
00:52The track became a lightning rod thanks to a controversial music video that had to be pulled and re-edited
00:58during the early days of the Iraq War.
01:00It stalled out at number 37 on the Billboard Hot 100, a disastrous showing for a lead Madonna single at
01:07the time.
01:08Yet Madonna is an institution.
01:10Just two years later, she dropped confessions on a dance floor, and the global smash hung up, proving that a
01:17single misfire couldn't dethrone her majesty.
01:30The year, 2015, saw The Weeknd riding high off the success of Beauty Behind the Madness and tracks like Can't
01:38Feel My Face.
01:39I can feel my face when I'm with you, but I love it.
01:44Seeking to keep the momentum rolling, Acquainted was pushed as a mainstream radio single, but while the song was a
01:51streaming favorite and critical darling, its actual performance as a radio single completely fizzled out compared to its massive predecessors.
02:07It barely cracked the top 60 on the Hot 100, and lacked the crossover pop appeal needed to keep the
02:13album's historic hot streak alive.
02:15Luckily for The Weeknd, this wasn't a career-killing crater.
02:19It was barely a speed bump.
02:21He simply retreated to the studio and returned a year later with Starboy, cementing his status as an untouchable, stadium
02:30-filling pop icon.
02:41Originally co-written and co-produced with Kanye West for Rihanna's anti-album, Reaper eventually found its way onto Sia's
02:482016 project,
02:50This is Acting.
02:52You came to take me away, so close I was a loveless gaze.
02:57On paper, a collaboration between two of the biggest hitmakers of the 2010s should have been an easy smash.
03:04Instead, the tropical-tinged pop track felt uncharacteristically generic and failed to capture the raw emotional lightning in a bottle
03:12of Chandelier or Elastic Heart.
03:21Sia herself later admitted in interviews that she wasn't particularly attached to the song, and that lack of passion translated
03:29to the charts.
03:30But when your catalogue includes some of the biggest pop anthems of the century, a minor flop doesn't hurt.
03:37Sia shrugged it off, dropped cheap thrills later that same year, and secured her very first Billboard number one hit.
03:50Slow Rivers
03:51Elton John and Cliff Richard
03:53In 1986, Elton John teamed up with fellow British legend Cliff Richard for Slow Rivers, the lead single from Elton's
04:01infamous Leather Jackets album.
04:09You would think pairing two of the most successful British artists in history would yield a massive hit. Yet, you
04:16would also be dead wrong.
04:25Slow Rivers
04:26The track is a painfully sluggish, overly dramatic ballad that felt severely dated even by mid-80s standards.
04:32Slow Rivers crawled its way to a miserable number 44 in the UK singles chart, and didn't even sniff the
04:38Billboard Hot 100.
04:39Yet, because he is Sir Elton John, his career survived. By the turn of the decade, he cleaned up, achieved
04:46sobriety, and staged a 90s renaissance featuring Oscar wins and the best-selling single of all time.
04:53Your candles burned out long before
04:57Your legend ever went
05:00Love Me Anyway
05:02Pink featuring Chris Stapleton
05:08Pink has built an empire out of arena-shaking pop-rock anthems. So, when she teamed up with country powerhouse
05:15Chris Stapleton for the acoustic-driven ballad Love Me Anyway in 2019, fans expected a crossover event.
05:22Is it for better or for worse? Or am I just your good time, girl?
05:29Despite stellar vocal performances from both artists, the song sat in a weird limbo.
05:35Too pop for traditional country radio, and too country for mainstream pop stations.
05:40It missed the Billboard Hot 100 altogether, peaking at number 15 on the bubbling under chart.
05:45Could you love me anyway? Could you?
05:53For almost any other artist, missing the main chart with the superstar feature would be a devastating blow. But for
05:59Pink, it was a non-issue.
06:01Her beautiful trauma world tour was busy grossing nearly $400 million, proving her live performance drawing power completely insulated her
06:10from single chart flops.
06:12Just come on and come on and raise your glass.
06:18More than physical. Bananarama.
06:21Hey, boy. It's a matter of fact. I got what you want.
06:27British trio Bananarama was on top of the world back in the mid-1980s, especially after their Europop cover of
06:34Shocking Blues, Venus, hit number one in the United States.
06:38Well, I'm your Venus. I'm your fire, the jokey fire.
06:43Bananarama were looking to capitalize, and they released more than physical as the follow-up single.
06:48Unfortunately, the track felt like a weak carbon copy of Venus, without any of the infectious magic.
07:01The song completely bombed in the US, scraping by at a lowly number 73, and drastically underperformed back home in
07:09the UK.
07:09It looked like their American crossover appeal was dead on arrival.
07:14However, the trio pivoted brilliantly, releasing I Heard a Rumor the very next year, matching their signature style with a
07:21much better hook and salvaging their global pop career.
07:30Get on your boots. You too.
07:35The future needs a big kiss, winds blow with a twist. Never seen a moon like this, can you see
07:40it too?
07:41When U2 prepares to launch a new album cycle, they usually do so with a world-stopping lead single like
07:47Beautiful Day or Vertigo.
07:49Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello.
07:53May I please go over the door?
07:55But in 2009, they unleashed Get On Your Boots to introduce No Line On The Horizon.
08:00And the collective response from the public was… well, let's go with confused.
08:07You don't know how beautiful.
08:12The track is a frantic, overproduced, and downright confusing attempt at garage rock that sounds like the band trying way
08:19too hard to be hip and youthful.
08:20It became U2's lowest-charting lead single in decades, failing to break the top 30 in the US.
08:26But U2 is an unkillable stadium rock monolith.
08:30They immediately embarked on the UK 360 tour, which shattered records as the highest-grossing concert tour in history at
08:39the time.
08:39I can feel… feel…
08:46Massive Attack
08:47Nicki Minaj featuring Sean Garret
08:50Tom, Tom, like in Lebanon, had a den in Pakistan, click, click, click, young Nick, the atomic bomb…
08:56Before she was the undisputed queen of rap, Nicki Minaj was a rising mixtape star trying to launch her debut
09:03studio album.
09:03She dropped her official debut single, Massive Attack, back in 2010, featuring an avant-garde, heavy experimental beat by Alex
09:11DeKid, and a futuristic desert-themed music video.
09:21The song completely failed to connect with urban or mainstream radio, charting at a dismal number 22 on the bubbling
09:27under Hot 100 before vanishing entirely.
09:35A flop of this magnitude normally kills a new artist's career before it even starts.
09:41Instead, Nicki pivoted instantly, dropped your love in Super Bass, and went on to completely redefine the landscape for female
09:48hip-hop over the next decade.
09:56Loverboy
09:58Mariah Carey
10:06In 2001, Mariah Carey's lead single, Loverboy, underperformed due to a chaotic mix of sample sabotage.
10:14Jennifer Lopez's team allegedly swiped the original Firecracker's sample, severe exhaustion, and the commercial failure of her film, Glitter.
10:22And he's so sublime, it's quite a bit of a tough feeling inside.
10:30While it reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, it was heavily discounted to 49 cents to get there,
10:37damaging her critical prestige and leading Virgin Records to buy out her $100 million contract.
10:42This challenge didn't kill her career, however, since Carey signed with Island Records, stabilized her personal health, and slowly rebuilt
10:51her momentum with Charm Bracelet.
10:52I can make it to the rain
10:56I can stand up once again
11:00By 2005, she staged one of music's greatest comebacks with her multi-platinum album, The Emancipation of Mimi, and its
11:0814-week number one smash, We Belong Together, cementing her legendary status.
11:21Before we continue, be sure to check out WatchMojo's 24-hour livestream. All of your favorite videos in one place,
11:2724-7. Always on, always live.
11:30Are you not entertained?
11:32Chinese Democracy, Guns N' Roses
11:41The deck was firmly stacked against Guns N' Roses back in 2008, thanks to the legendary delays and false starts
11:48that haunted the release of the group's sixth studio effort, Chinese Democracy.
11:53This ultimately hampered the success of Chinese Democracy, the song, before it even sped out of the gate.
11:59Because this first proper album single could never live up to 14 years of anticipation.
12:12The tune stalled out at number 34 in the Billboard charts, and album sales plummeted after the first week. Yet,
12:19the Guns N' Roses brand remains completely bulletproof.
12:29Slash and Duff returned to the fold, and the band launched the not-in-this-lifetime tour, grossing over $580
12:36million and proving that fans will always show up for rock legends.
12:48Do you like defending any of these tunes? Sound off in the comments!