Currently #21 on USA Spotify and rising. It was the 28th highest streamed/selling song in the UK for 2025. Looks like it's about to do the same thing in America this year and I couldn't be happier for The Goo Goo Dolls.

For all of you too young to know this, "Iris" was ACTUALLY the #1 song of 1998 and probably would've been Top 5 of the entire 1990's, but Billboard was f**king stupid and had a rule in place where a song was ineligible to chart on the Hot 100 if it wasn't given a physical single release in the US. This was essentially a move to punish labels for "forcing" people to buy the entire album because it was the only way to own the specific song. So, despite being the #1 song on the radio for a record 18 weeks, "Iris" "only peaked" at #9 on the Hot 100 and was the catalyst for the rule change. (Thanks for the correction @jeauseph )

I guess Gen Z Tik Tok is just obsessed with the song and that's what made it go viral, no specific movie or tv show placement like "Running Up That Hill".

With that being said, I hope it becomes the next "Running Up That Hill" and it peaks in the Top 5 like it always deserved to. I mean really, it should've been a 14+ week #1, but you know… Billboard and their cherry-picked rules….

They finally abolished the dumb rule when Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn" had peaked a few weeks prior, which was another MASSIVE hit song that got screwed by the same rule. It "only peaked" at #42 on the H100 because BB removed the rule as it was already quickly descending on radio after it was also #1 for like, 14+ weeks

Another fun fact: Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On", arguably one of the biggest songs of all time in music history, only had two weeks at #1 bc of the same rule — it wouldn't have charted at all had her label not issued a physical single, sold it in stores for two weeks towards the tail end of its peak, and then completely removed it just so it could get the chart peak it deserved, let alone chart at all…. Pretty savage when you think about it lololol

Also, No Doubt's "Don't Speak" had a 16 week run at #1 on the radio the year prior, and it never charted AT ALL!!!!

greatest song of all time

super interesting thread. i wasn't aware of this rule and the implications it had on these classics

Wasn't the same with „Don't Speak"?

omg I love this song so f*cking muchhhhh and John Rzeznik was extremely sexy in the 90s too also while were here, let's stan another classic of his... from the movie that made me realize at a VERY young age that I was attracted to dudes too (Jim Hawkins will always be the first actual crush I ever had! idc that he's animated girl 5 year Joe's world was SHOOK by Treasure Planet lol)

Meanwhile we now have album bombs that litter the Hot 100 with tracks that 98% of the population have never heard of

Billboard just can't get it right

17 minutes ago, Genie in a Bottle said:

"Iris" never charted on the Hot 100.

well actually not to be an annoying b*tch but that ended up not being true! it did end up being a catalyst for the rule to change and ended up debuting and peaking at #9 on the Hot 100! but yeah I agree it should've had a wayyyyyyy bigger chart run on it

9 minutes ago, dejmieeen said:

Wasn't the same with „Don't Speak"?

Correct. Don't Speak was #1 on radio for 16 weeks.

Iris, Don't Speak, and Torn are the 90's trinity of the biggest hit songs that never/barely charted.

7 minutes ago, jeauseph said:

well actually not to be an annoying b*tch but that ended up not being true! it did end up being a catalyst for the rule to change and ended up debuting and peaking at #9 on the Hot 100! but yeah I agree it should've had a wayyyyyyy bigger chart run on it

Wait I thought it was Torn that forced the rule change? But this makes more sense. Maybe they were ruling concurrently and Iris peaked on radio after Torn???

Okay I think "Don't Speak" was the one that never charted. F*ck ahhh I got them mixed up. I'll edit the thread.

I had no idea about the charting thing with Iris but I did know about it with Don't Speak, and Janet's Got til It's Gone. Billboard is consistently fraudulent.

Bigger than any MPG song

I constantly go back to this video when I'm stoned and in the mood to watch amazing live performances. Them doing it in the rain makes it all the better and the lead singer was so hot back in the day.

51 minutes ago, Genie in a Bottle said:

Wait I thought it was Torn that forced the rule change? But this makes more sense. Maybe they were ruling concurrently and Iris peaked on radio after Torn???

Okay I think "Don't Speak" was the one that never charted. F*ck ahhh I got them mixed up. I'll edit the thread.

yeah! Don't Speak never appeared on the Hot 100, I remember that one

The classicry.

Great song.

I hope this 90s classic is next.

Deserved, such a stunning song

This smash

very interesting that this is making a resurgence!

breakin' dishes, lush life, starry eyed, iris... the number of classics that tiktok is finding rn. idk how they catch on specifically but i'm not mad about it

1 hour ago, Skirt said:

Great song.

I hope this 90s classic is next.

THIS ONE GOT SCREWED TOO!!!! The rule got removed halfway through this song's radio dominance and should've been a #1 on the Hot 100 as well.

The 1997-mid 1999 Hot 100 is an absolute, inaccurate disaster. The rule got officially canned in December 1998, but there were still songs like "I Want It That Way" that would've gone #1 and "No Scrubs" would've been #1 for way longer than it actually was, because they got released as physical singles after the parent album already came out. Labels were basically like, "ummm ok, we don't actually know if they're gonna get rid of this dumb rule, but regardless, we want people to buy the album over the single so let's just hold off releasing these as physical singles too." While those songs weren't getting hosed like Iris and Don't Speak, their singles run were intentionally marred in order to get people to buy the full album. Which is def a shady practice by the labels and has nothing to do with BB, but it stemmed from that dumbaşs rule in the first place and then they just took it too far, considering the industry didn't stop issuing physical singles outside of the US until the early 2010's.

In fact, the first "airplay only" #1 single on the Hot 100 was "Try Again" by Aaliyah in 2001. So it took about two years for the chart to truly reconfigure. It was the first major hit song to not get hosed by the rule.

6 hours ago, Genie in a Bottle said:

It was the 28th highest streamed/selling song in the UK for 2025.

Mr. Brightside better watch its back.

I always hated this song. It going so viral is baffling to me.

We need Don't Speak to have the same fate

18 minutes ago, BJ1998 said:

I always hated this song. It going so viral is baffling to me.

Not all of us are born with the privilege of having good taste.

You were born the same year it was a hit, so you can at least share some gratitude for exiting your mom's womb when this GOD tier song was terrorizing every FM radio station. Not like you would remember though.

18 minutes ago, A Million Lights said:

We need Don't Speak to have the same fate

I completely agree. I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if it happened. It's such a great song and sounds like something Gen Z would eat up. If Olivia Rodrigo or Taylor Swift sang it, they'd be creaming at how iconic and classic it sounds.

Gwen was such a cool f*ckin chick, such a diverse musical ICON until she got dickmatized by a B-rate country singer and thus became MAGA-fied. Womp womp womp.

Maybe "Don't Speak" getting the Iris treatment will be the catalyst to her waking the f up.

Lol random but I met her in an ice cream shop in calabasas by chance a few years ago, she was with her kids, and she was really nice. We both were a bit awkward, but it was a wholesome interaction. This was before she went full Christian fembot.