Just because a song is successful, it doesn’t mean it’s going to stand the test of time. Even if it’s written by some of the best songwriters in music history. Perhaps the fact that these songs were written by iconic rock stars makes the fact that they slipped into oblivion even more understandable. A Rolling Stone or a former Beatle has hundreds of chart-toppers under his belt. It’s only natural that not all of them will be timeless.
Some songs were representative of a time in music. Some were eclipsed by other, even more successful hits. And others aged poorly, and even the musicians who made them want to forget about them. For many reasons, these three songs had huge success when they first came out, then were promptly forgotten. Here’s what happened.
“Miss You” – The Rolling Stones (1978)
The Rolling Stones aren’t a band that fans would associate with disco music. But as the ’70s were ending and disco was upon us, even the ultimate rock band couldn’t resist. “Miss You” was a big hit, the first single for their 1978 album, Some Girls, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, one of the greatest songwriting partnerships in music history. But even though Jagger and Richards are credited, many people should get praise for this classic.
When the song first came together, Jagger was working not with his usual partner, Keith Richards, but with another rock legend: Billy Preston. The iconic keyboard player was the one who showed the singer the incredible beat that later made the song, and Jagger worked on it with Preston while Richards was… otherwise occupied.
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“I got that together with Billy Preston, actually. Yeah, Billy had shown me the four-on-the-floor bass-drum part, and I would just play the guitar. I remember playing that in the El Mocambo club when Keith was on trial in Toronto for whatever he was doing. We were supposed to be there making this live record… I was still writing it, actually. We were just in rehearsal.”
Drummer Charlie Watts later said that his drumming on the track was heavily influenced by his and Jagger’s frequent visits to discos. While they never set out to make a disco record, the experience of listening to dance music nurtured their songwriting. “Miss You” quickly climbed to No. 1 on the American charts, and while it is by no means the most popular Rolling Stones song, it certainly makes you want to dance no matter where you are.
“With a Little Luck” – Paul McCartney (1978)
“With A Little Luck” is just one of Paul McCartney’s countless chart-topping hits, but it has somehow slipped into oblivion. This song, recorded aboard a boat in the Virgin Islands, where McCartney’s band Wings recorded their 1978 album, London Town, was released as a single in March of that year, and it topped the Hot 100 in May. The song was released during a turbulent time for the band, as once again, members were leaving the group (there had first been a sudden change in lineup in 1973, right before the recording of Band on the Run). The result was that Wings shrunk down to three members: McCartney, his wife Linda, who played keyboards, and lead guitarist Denny Laine.
“With A Little Luck” is a quintessential McCartney song, full of optimism and a message of love being the answer to everything. While the song topped the charts at the time, the reason it might have faded from people’s minds is that it followed the triumphant release of the single “Mull of Kintyre” over Christmas in 1977. “Mull of Kintyre” was an ode to the Kintyre peninsula, close to where the McCartney family lived on a Scottish farm. The song was such a huge success that it outshone everything, including The Beatles, and became the UK’s best-selling single of all time, dethroning “She Loves You.” After such a huge hit, “With A Little Luck” was inevitably eclipsed, but faithful fans will remember and appreciate it for the masterpiece it is.
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“Island Girl” – Elton John (1975)
“Island Girl” reached No. 1 in 1975, and was promptly forgotten almost immediately. There could be many reasons for this, but the main one is that the theme of this song is, looking back, completely inappropriate. The Caribbean-inspired tune follows the story of a Jamaican sex worker living in New York City. Songwriter Bernie Taupin co-wrote it with Elton John, and he crafted it specifically to be a commercial success.
“When I wrote ‘Island Girl’—that was one of the first songs I wrote for the new album—when I look back at all the lyrics, I knew that was going to be very commercial and would be the single,” Taupin explained. However, even though the song spent three weeks as No. 1, both fans and Elton John quickly got over it, and Taupin acknowledges that it’s not the kind of song anyone wants to remember. “That’s one that’s been erased from our work,” he said of “Island Girl.” “You will never see it on a greatest-hits album! It’s horrible. I don’t know what I was thinking of.”
No matter how good they seemed when they came out, some songs shouldn’t become classics, and “Island Girl” is one of them.
