These days, there’s seemingly countless ways you can listen to and discover great music: traditional radio airwaves, movie soundtracks, social media platforms, digital music services and so on. That makes the whole song landscape far less linear than in the past and gives older songs plenty of opportunities to pop up in surprising ways, whether revived as a viral TikTok song, used in an unexpected sample or featured as a big background tune in a popular show or film.
These are those such sleeper-hit songs, ones that didn’t see initial cultural and commercial success when they were released but gained major recognition later on. And they really run the gamut of pop music, from Elvis Presley ballads to Fleetwood Mac break-up anthems to Taylor Swift bops. Here are 15 super-popular songs that became hits years after they came out.
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1. “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” – Elvis Presley
Several of Elvis Presley’s biggest hits were actually written by or for other artists, from “Hound Dog” (first recorded by Big Mama Thornton) to “Blue Suede Shoes” (originally sung by Carl Perkins). His chart-topping 1960 pop ballad “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” was no exception—however, what was unusual is that the track had been originally released nearly four decades earlier.
Yes, the now-famous standard was written by Roy Turk and Lou Handman all the way back in 1926, with the first recording dropping a year later. And though it would be covered by many musical artists over the years, the ballad didn’t become a mega-success until The King got a hold of it, with his version reaching the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100.
2. “Baby Blue” – Badfinger
One of the greatest TV endings of all time turned a melodic early-70s rock song into a true television anthem—we’re talking, of course, about Breaking Badand that Badfinger-soundtracked goodbye to the show’s antihero for the ages, Walter White (Bryan Cranston).
Decade-old spoiler ahead, but the series finale of the acclaimed AMC crime drama saw the science teacher-turned-drug kingpin succumb to his injuries on the floor of that neo-Nazi meth lab while Badfinger’s melodic 1972 number “Baby Blue” plays in the background. Already a respected rock classic, the throwback song experienced a massive cultural resurgence four decades after its initial release thanks to that memorable music cue, with “Baby Blue” re-entering the global charts and claiming the top spot on Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs list.
Related: 1977 Rock Classic Is Suddenly Climbing the Charts 49 Years Later
3. “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” – Kate Bush
English singer-songwriter Kate Bush was an icon of the late 1970s and early ’80s thanks to hit songs like “Babooshka,” “The Man with the Child in His Eyes,” “Cloudbusting,” “Don’t Give Up“ and “Wuthering Heights” but arguably her most iconic track is “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God,” the lead single from the star’s fifth studio album, 1985’s Hounds of Love.
The sweeping song was popular among its initial release—it hit No. 30 on the US Billboard Hot 100—but it took on a whole new life when it was featured in season four of the Netflixsci-fi juggernaut Stranger Things, introducing the haunting masterpiece to a whole new generation of fans in 2022. Boosted by that streaming attention, “Running Up That Hill” reached number one in eight countries and reached a billion streams on Spotify 37 years after its debut.
“I thought the track would get some attention, but I never imagined it would be anything like this. It’s so exciting—and quite shocking really, isn’t it? The whole world’s gone mad,” Bush said of the song’s renewed attention in a June 2022 interview on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.
Related: 1983 Iconic Pop Hit Originally Written for ToTo is Climbing the Charts Again 43 Years Later
4. “Silver Springs” – Fleetwood Mac
British-American band Fleetwood Mac—most famously comprised of Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Lindsay Buckingham, John McVie and the late, great Christine McVie—aren’t strangers to seeing a song experience a later resurgence thanks to social media, what with their legendary track “Dreams” getting reborn via a viral 2020 video featuring a skateboarder drinking Ocean Spray. But an even more surprising renaissance happened years earlier with a far less popular song: “Silver Springs.”
Originally written by Stevie Nicks during the Rumours era, “Silver Springs” was famously left off the band’s landmark 1977 album, much to the singer’s chagrin. However, the breakup anthem would take on icon status two decades after its creation, during the band’s 1997 reunion concert, The Dance. The taped performance is famed for its smoldering passion and emotional intensity, with Nicks delivering the ballad’s heated lyrics (“You’ll never get away from the sound of the woman that loved you”) directly at Buckingham, her bandmate and onetime lover.
Related: 1975 Rock Classic Is Suddenly Climbing the Charts 51 Years Later
5. “Murder on the Dancefloor” – Sophie Ellis-Bextor
British singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor found global fame with her 2001 disco-pop smash “Murder on the Dancefloor,” which peaked at number two on the UK singles chart and became a top 10 hit worldwide. However, the early-aughts groove would re-enter global consciousness two full decades after it first dropped courtesy of a little movie called Saltburn.
One of the best films of 2023, Emerald Fennell‘s comedy-thriller features a very memorable (and very naked) dance number performed by lead actor Barry Keoghan set to Ellis-Bextor’s signature hit, a viral scene that propelled the song back onto the charts: Twenty-three years after its debut, “Murder on the Dancefloor” again reached number two on the UK singles chart and also entered the US Billboard Hot 100 for the very first time.
6. “Three Little Birds” – Bob Marley
It might seem surprising how much of a sunny favorite it’s been for decades, but “Three Little Birds”—released by Bob Marley and the Wailers on their 1977 album Exodus and later as a single in 1980—actually didn’t chart on the Billboard Hot 100 at the time of its original release.
However, the optimistic reggae track eventually found official chart success three decades later off the back of a massively popular cover version by then-eight-year-old British singer Connie Talbot, a notable Britain’s Got Talent contestant who included the song on her 2008 debut album Over the Rainbow. Colbat’s sweet rendition went on to reach No. 1 on the Hot Singles Sales rankings.
Related: He Died 45 Years Ago Today — and His Best-Selling Album Came Out After He Was Gone
7. “Bohemian Rhapsody” – Queen
Frankly, we can’t remember a time when Queen’s rock-opera masterpiece “Bohemian Rhapsody” wasn’t being passionately screamed along to in sports stadiums and karaoke bars the world over. The six-minute opus, which was written by frontman Freddie Mercury and was released as the lead single from the band’s1975 album A Night at the Opera, was an unlikely No. 1 hit, spending nine consecutive weeks at the top of the British charts upon its release.
But that was far from the song’s only surge—in fact, “Bohemian Rhapsody” reached a rare achievement, charting across three decades. The second bout of popularity occurred in the early 1990s, boosted by the tragic death of Mercury to AIDS-related pneumonia in November 1991 and the infamous headbanging scene in 1992’s Wayne’s World. It would break into the charts yet again following the 2018 release of the Oscar-winning Freddie Mercury biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody.
Related: 1970 Rock Classic Lasting Nearly Seven Minutes Became a Breakthrough Hit, Despite Never Reaching No. 1
8. “Proclamation” – Gentle Giant
Fans of the British progressive rock band Gentle Giant had already known and loved the group’s song “Proclamation”—the first track on their sixth studio album, 1974’s The Power and the Glory—long before Travis Scott sampled the gorgeous rock hit nearly 50 years after its release.
The rapper opens his 2023 single “HYAENA” with a vocal sample from the “Gentle Giant” song, an unexpected crossover that not only introduced the band to a legion of new fans but also helped drive the original “Proclamation” up the Billboard Hot 100 chart to No. 14.
“We are honored by the inclusion of our 1974 song ‘Proclamation’ in the intro track ‘Hyaena’ to Travis Scott’s new album Utopia,” the band released in a statement. “We are always amazed how Gentle Giant’s music continues to inspire and evolve across diverse genres and generations, particularly within the hip-hop community.”
9. “Pink Pony Club” – Chappell Roan
Some breakthrough songs take over the pop-culture zeitgeist instantly: “…Baby One More Time,” “Call Me Maybe,” “Old Town Road” and what have you. But Chappell Roan‘s pop hit “Pink Pony Club” took several years before it made significant chart impact—in fact, it took five years after its initial release in April 2020 for the modern queer anthem to grow into a global phenomenon following a memorable performance at the 2025 Grammy Awards, at which Roan took home the coveted Best New Artist statuette.
The song eventually hit No. 1 on the US Billboard Pop Airplay chart and was certified five-time platinum in the United States, with everyone from Kelly Clarksonto GWAR to Keith Urbanaffectionately offering up their own cover versions.
10. “Everytime You Go Away” – Paul Young
Hall & Oates had plenty of chart-topping hits, including “Rich Girl,” “Sara Smile,” “You Make My Dreams,” “Kiss on My List,” and “Private Eyes,” but surprisingly, “Everytime You Go Away”—the Daryl Hall-penned pop-soul ballad originally appeared on the band’s 1980 studio album Voices—wasn’t a part of that illustrious bunch. In fact, the song wasn’t even released as a single by the band.
However, it was half a decade later when British soul singer Paul Young covered the tune for his 1985 studio record The Secret of Association and turned it into a number one hit, with the ballad topping the Billboard Hot 100 on July 27 and staying there for one week. That success was a surprise even to Young: “I almost passed on the song because I was getting into the relatively darker material (darker than my first CD) that was making up the album,” the singer explained in a 2011 interview with the Kickin’ It Old School blog.
Related: Iconic ’70s Duo’s Classic Album Comes Roaring Back on the Music Charts Decades Later
11. “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” – Brenda Lee
Given their inherently annual nature, we’re used to Christmas songs coming back into popularity year after year, and Brenda Lee‘s iconic holiday classic “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”—which, fun fact, the American singer recorded when she was only 13 years old—is one such recurring yuletide favorite.
However, the festive number saw quite a resurgence in 2023 when Lee released an official music video for the song and subsequently took over the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, marking Lee’s third number-one single and making Lee the oldest artist ever to top the Hot 100 at age 78.
Related: 44 Years Ago, Willie Nelson Took a Song From a Future Christmas Queen to No. 1
12. “Red Red Wine” – UB40
English reggae band UB40 struck chart gold with “Red Red Wine,” which was featured on the group’s 1983 album Labor of Love and became a massive international hit, topping the UK Singles Chart in the year of its release. It went No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 five years later after UB40 performed the single at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert in June 1988.
That’s quite a departure from where “Red Red Wine” originated: It is actually a cover of a 1967 Neil Diamond song, a folksy ballad that only peaked at No. 67 on the Billboard 100 list in April 1968 upon its release.
13. “Truth Hurts” – Lizzo
Lizzo has had a tumultuous career as of late, but the rapper-singer had a strong run of hits there for a minute, including self-love anthems “Good as Hell” and “Juice.” Her first major hit, though, was “Truth Hurts,” a sleeper hit of a song that didn’t even chart upon its original release in 2017.
It would actually be two whole years later—thanks to TikTok virality, a memorable soundtrack moment in the Netflix rom-com Someone Great and the singer’s own standout performance at the MTV Video Music Awards—that “Truth Hurts reached the coveted number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 record chart when it was re-released as a radio single in March 2019.
“We’re number 1. This is a [win] for all of us. Anybody ever felt like they voice wasn’t heard. Anybody who felt like they weren’t good enough. You are. We are. Champions,” Lizzo celebrated the much-awaited moment on Instagram.
14. “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” – The Proclaimers
Scottish alt-rock duo The Proclaimers, a.k.a. twin brothers CraigandCharlie Reid, crafted an inescapable earworm with “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles),” the jaunty lead single from their sophomore album, 1988’s Sunshine on Leith.
When it was first released, the sing-along favorite (“But IIIIIIII would walk five hundred miles / And IIIIIII would walk five hundred more”) was predominantly a success in its native UK—where it reached No. 11 on the singles charts—as well as Australia. However, the folksy tune got way more attention after it was featured in theJohnny Depp-led romantic comedy Benny & Joon in April 1993. That summer, “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” reached the top three on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Related: 18 Weird Songs That Shouldn’t Have Hit No. 1 (But Did)
15. “Cruel Summer” – Taylor Swift
It may seem unlikely for a Taylor Swift song not to be a major, unavoidable hit straight out of the gate, but “Cruel Summer” wasn’t immediately a mainstream standout when the pop icon released her 2019 record, Lover. Instead, the album-only track existed largely as a favorite of diehard Swifties—that is, until the Eras Tour.
When Swift began performing the song as the big opener of her record-breaking global tour, that sheer exposure prompted a massive streaming spike. Four years after its initial drop, “Cruel Summer” was released as a radio single in June 2023 in response to that viral demand and officially claimed the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in October of that year. More like cool summer, right?
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