base talk BIG collaborations that never reached #1 on Billboard

[Mariano]

SHOCKED at this whole thread. I was told by ATRL that big collab guarantees #1 smash hit, something isn't right here! 

[Great808]

Charlie Puth/Meghan Trainor - Marvin Gaye

 

Meghan Trainor/John Legend - Like I'm Gonna Lose You

 

Not quite #1's but damn massive peaks and very remembered, LIGLY is Meghan's most recurrent hit

[JoeAg]

5 hours ago, Flower said:

 

This flopped so hard that I was shook, because I specifically remember I was a Navy and I listen to this for the first time and i was like "THIS IS GONNA SMASH SO HARD"

 

and this was release in a time where any Rihanna song have a high chance to be a hit.

I still love this one! I know it was piggybacking off of that The Police-esque radio friendly reggae fusion vibe that Bruno smashed with with Locked Out of Heaven, but girl this one was an absolute banger and suchhhh a great walking anthem for me in the dead of winter in my junior year of high school. GOD the nostalgia is so real  either way, an injustice. now that I'm relistening, this would've very obviously smashed harder had it been released in the early spring

[Prodigal Self]

8 minutes ago, Great808 said:

Charlie Puth/Meghan Trainor - Marvin Gaye

 

Meghan Trainor/John Legend - Like I'm Gonna Lose You

 

Not quite #1's but damn massive peaks and very remembered, LIGLY is Meghan's most recurrent hit

BIG collaboration, Meghan Trainor and Charlie Puth

[Nido]

Gaga made it look so easy 

[andresg770]

4 hours ago, Link16 said:

 

IIRC the story for this one is that the top exec in Mary J. Blige's label didn't allow it to be released as a single in the US or in the US version of George's GH album.  Apparently he didn't want Mary to be associated with GM after his arrest at a public restroom.

 

Anyway, George and his label got mad because of that, and so they didn't let Mary include the track in the US version of her album, either. So of course, no commercial single in the US meant no Hot 100. I do wonder how well it would've done, though, considering neither artist was topping the charts at the time...

[Happylittlepunk]

Me against the music was honestly fuckin terrible. No wonder it flopped. It's easily one of Britney worst singles tbh. I know dame well Britney only made it a single because madonna was on it. 

[SarahWalkers]

6 hours ago, Flower said:

 

This flopped so hard that I was shook, because I specifically remember I was a Navy and I listen to this for the first time and i was like "THIS IS GONNA SMASH SO HARD"

 

and this was release in a time where any Rihanna song have a high chance to be a hit.

The verses are fire and one of the best in a pop song

 

The chorus is just completely atrocious. Nobody wants to hear that 

[Distantconstellation]

41 minutes ago, Happylittlepunk said:

Me against the music was honestly fuckin terrible. No wonder it flopped. It's easily one of Britney worst singles tbh. I know dame well Britney only made it a single because madonna was on it. 

Yeah it's a terrible song. And I feel it prevented in the zone from selling more. Yes the song peaked high but that was cause it had two big names and hype. But look at in the zones sales in the UK.. the album only peaked at #14 there and she had a #2, #1, #1 single from that album.  I think toxic would have been a great lead. 

[AxelFox]

I feel such strong disconnect from this thread because I absolutely love Me Against The Music

[raisetheroof]

#32

#18

 

#21

For how big both artists are, their collaborations made no noise

[Truth Teller]

9 hours ago, Flower said:

 

This flopped so hard that I was shook, because I specifically remember I was a Navy and I listen to this for the first time and i was like "THIS IS GONNA SMASH SO HARD"

I feel like this only underperformed in the anglosphere. It smashed on YouTube (well, for non-musical reasons perhaps) and it's currently Shakira's 10th most played song on Spotify with nearly 250k plays a day.

[Maneater]

Loads of them reached #1 in other markets though 

Edited Tuesday at 01:25 PM by Maneater
Typo

[kellysclarkson]

 

[SinnerCity]

10 hours ago, frankvert said:

Girl the digital era started officially in 2004   

Yeah, but it really didn't take off until later wasn't it? Or am I confused?

[Kimi]

12 hours ago, l3disko said:

A Madonna/Britney track only reaching #35 is pretty tragic.

well the song was tragic 

[Unreachable101]

 

A missed opportunity… all there was missing was a music video.

[Erreur2 La Nature]

12 hours ago, l3disko said:

A Madonna/Britney track only reaching #35 is pretty tragic.

There are many reasons behind this low peak and it's not representative of how big the song was. It was a big hit all around the world.

 

Australia (ARIA)[43]	1
Australia Dance (ARIA)[86]	1
Croatia (HRT)[90]	1
Denmark (Tracklisten)[92]	1
European Hot 100 Singles (Billboard)[93]	1
Hungary (Single Top 40)[99]	1
Ireland (IRMA)[100]	1
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[108]	1
US Dance Club Songs (Billboard)[38]	1
US Dance Singles Sales (Billboard)[112]	1
Canada (Nielsen SoundScan)[89]	2
Greece (IFPI)[98]	2
Italy (FIMI)[101]	2
Norway (VG-lista)[105]	2
Scotland (OCC)[107]	2
UK Singles (OCC)[111]	2
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia)[88]	3
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[87]	4
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[110]	4
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[49]	5
Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)[95]	5
Germany (GfK)[97]	5
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[104]	5
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[109]	5
Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[103]	6
Czech Republic (Rádio Top 100)[91]	9
US Dance/Mix Show Airplay (Billboard)[113]	9
France (SNEP)[96]	11
US Pop Airplay (Billboard)[39]	11
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[45]	13
European Radio Top 50 (Billboard)[94]	19
Romania (Romanian Top 100)[106]	21
US Billboard Hot 100[37]	35
Japan (Oricon)[102]	38

[Barovi]

Crtfy had potential too bad the chorus is horrendous 

[frankvert]

24 minutes ago, SinnerCity said:

Yeah, but it really didn't take off until later wasn't it? Or am I confused?

Here's a RS article from 2005 saying how Gwen & BEP ushered in the iTunes era 

 

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/stefani-peas-lead-singles-boom-106080/

[MonsterNavy]

 

 

 

 

[tost1]

The Eminem and Beyonce one. I mean it was tragic, but I expected #1 on the names alone

[UnusualBoy]

Weird that no one has mentioned Scream & Shout, the song was #1 almost everywhere and it peaked #3 in US  

[swissman]

A lot of the options here are forgetting "BIG" was capitalized in the title of this thread, which implies we are not looking for simply two a-list artists to appear together, but examples where the collaboration itself is bigger than the sum of its parts, as if the mere combination can/should create something truly huge.

 

And with that logic, I think very few songs could compare. Scream by Janet and Madonna is probably the best example, though others I'd cite are Enough is Enough by Donna Summer and Barbra Streisand, When You Believe by Whitney and Mariah, etc. I think what truly defines something as BIG is if both artists are at the same relative stature and that the idea of them collaborating is also slightly unbelievable.

 

To cite anything else is just citing a regular collab where one artist wants to add a little flavour to their single so puts on a popular but not HUGE artist, or where a popular but not HUGE artist wants to add some weight and nabs a truly HUGE artist, or two popular artists combining their commercial appeal but without it being a HUGE deal.

[swissman]

14 hours ago, Link16 said:

#15

I think the problem here, and probably for a lot of the examples in the OP and in this thread, is that the song itself didn't live up to the worth or the brand of either artist.

 

In the example of Shakira and Rihanna, the result was like some middle-of-the-road, averaging out of their brands in such a way that there really wasn't a clear, interesting point of view, only a song that I don't think either of them would have ever released individually, nor one for which you could say the same thing because it's so unique. To put it bluntly, the material was beneath both of them.

 

 

[Also the music video didn't help either. It didn't try very hard to be interesting, instead relying on faux lesbian male gaze tropes which might have been alright had the lyrics not been directed at a man]