4 Rock Songs That Wrongfully Flopped, but Are Still Classics to Me

Chart positions are helpful metrics but by no means faultless, as proven by these four incredible rock songs that are classics—in my mind, anyway—despite them having flopped below the Top 40 (if they made it to the charts at all).

There are a lot of reasons why an objectively great song won’t make it to the charts. Sometimes, chart positioning has nothing to do with the track itself but with how fierce the competition around it happened to be at the time. Other times, it might take a re-listen (or two or three) to appreciate a song fully.

Here are three rock songs that, in this writer’s humble opinion, never got their rightful place at the top of the charts.

“Sympathy for the Devil” by The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones’ 1968 track, “Sympathy for the Devil”, might be considered a classic rock song now, but when the band first released it, it all but flopped on the charts in their native U.K. and across the pond in the U.S. The Stones enjoyed modest success with the track in the Netherlands and Belgium, peaking at No. 14 and No. 21 in those countries, respectively. A 2003 dance remix of the Stones tune performed much better, peaking at No. 1 on the U.S. and U.K. Dance charts.

“Monkberry Moon Delight” by Paul and Linda McCartney

“Monkberry Moon Delight” is an unavoidably strange track by Paul and Linda McCartney, but I’d argue it’s no odder than anything The Beatles were putting out in their final years together as a band. The 1971 track from Ram is a bop, even if its lack of chart success might suggest otherwise. Even writing about this song will inevitably get the catchy hook stuck in my head for the rest of the day, so you can imagine its efficacy when you actually listen to it and sing along with McCartney’s infectious and gruff vocal delivery.

“Ophelia” by The Band

Closing out this list of classic rock songs that flopped on the charts despite being objectively good tunes is The Band’s 1975 lead single from Northern Lights — Southern Cross, “Ophelia”. A prime example of The Band’s ability to blend rock ‘n’ roll with roots, Americana, and Dixieland music, “Ophelia” peaked at an incredibly modest No. 62 on the Billboard Hot 100. But with so much cross-genre potential, we find it incredible that it never broke into the Top 40 at the very least.

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