These '80s Tunes Flopped On The Charts But Still Raked In Major Cash

Many of the most enduring, popular, and timeless songs associated with the 1980s weren't actually hits in the decade that spawned them — but they eventually became lucrative. While they were major releases by very famous and otherwise top-selling bands, these quintessential '80s hits were not technically even hits the first time around. Sometimes it takes a while for a song to catch on, and that's certainly how it went with quite a few rock, metal, and synth-pop tunes that would eventually be regarded as classics.

These sleeper hits persisted through fan support, soundtrack use, and appearances in bands' concert sets. Over time, they became undeniable classics, and it's just plain weird that what are obviously great songs that had what it took to capture a big audience simply didn't click when they first hit radio and record stores. But in the end, these songs became as entrenched and beloved as the biggest out-of-the-gate hits of the 1980s. Even though they didn't make the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart, or if they did, they barely scraped into the Top 40, they went on to amass hundreds of millions of listens on streaming services and enough sales to go platinum. These are some notable '80s songs that may have been chart flops, but which turned into virtual cash-printing machines for their performers, writers, and record labels.

With a staggering 2 billion-plus streams on Spotify alone, "Back in Black" is one of AC/DC's most listened-to songs, if not one of the most treasured hard rock songs ever recorded. It was a later single from the album of the same name, and the first recorded in the wake of the tragic death of Bon Scott, the band's previous frontman. New frontman and powerful shrieker Brian Johnson proved to fans that he could take over the helm of the Australian rock juggernaut, even taking it to new and unprecedented commercial heights.

The "Back in Black" album would go on to sell 27 million copies — the fourth most of any LP ever — and perhaps because fans opted to buy the whole thing instead of just the singles, at least initially. The single "Back in Black" made an undistinguished run on the Hot 100 in late 1980 and early 1981, peaking at a lowly No. 37. But this one was built to last, as it would eventually sell 7 million copies on its own.

With 1990s albums like the self-titled "Black Album" and "Load," Metallica helped make heavy metal — fearsome, angry, and ear-splittingly loud and fast — approachable and palatable to mainstream audiences, not to mention profitable. Its work in the 1980s remained solidly favored by hardcore fans of the band and the genre. After Metallica recruited millions of adherents in the 1990s with hits like "Enter Sandman" and "Until It Sleeps," its earlier, less commercially successful efforts earned a second look — millions of times over.

"One," a seven-minute-plus multi-part epic from 1988's "...And Justice for All" replete with wailing guitar solos, pounding drums, and the growling vocals of James Hetfield, is about a war veteran so horrifically injured that he suffers from a particularly hellish kind of locked-in syndrome, and got up to No. 35 on the Hot 100. Twenty years after its release, "One" had sold 500,000 copies, but by 2025, the RIAA had certified the single's quintuple-platinum status. That's all helped along by Metallica's streaming success: "One" has been queued up and rocked out to over 800 million times on Spotify.

Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough" is a chilly but peppy, robotic but joyful electronic song from 1981, when synth-pop was in its infancy. While the group would continually evolve its style and go on to have blockbuster success in both its native U.K. and the U.S. for decades to come, "Just Can't Get Enough" is probably Depeche Mode's signature song. It's the band's most successful 1980s single, selling a million copies in America, and it's a staple on streaming, too. On Spotify, "Just Can't Get Enough" has been listened to more than 540 million times as of 2026. 

Closely linked in the collective consciousness with the keyboard-soaked '80s, "Just Can't Get Enough" has been used in films and TV shows a bountiful 50-plus times, often to set action in the past. But the masses didn't listen to this song that much in 1981. Depeche Mode had only a cult following at first, not garnering much mainstream attention in the U.S. until 1984. Indeed, "Just Can't Get Enough" has actually never charted on the Hot 100.

After Ozzy Osbourne left Black Sabbath in 1979, he immediately got to work on a solo career and, in 1980, released the "Blizzard of Ozz" LP. The single "Crazy Train" sent a very strong signal about the kind of music Osbourne planned to record on his own and throughout the decade. Menacing and marked with the heavy and virtuosic guitar licks of Randy Rhoads, "Crazy Train" went on to become the singer's best-known non-Black Sabbath song, and while "Blizzard of Ozz" would sell a million copies within two years, the single strangely didn't do well on the pop chart. "Crazy Train" missed the Hot 100 completely, despite moderate success at rock radio.

But it's the Osbourne song that hardcore and casual fans alike wanted to hear. It has accrued more than 929 million spins on Spotify, by far Osbourne's most popular song on the streaming service, and the single has gone quadruple platinum. Only after the legendary Osbourne died at age 76 in 2025 did "Crazy Train" reach the pop chart, peaking at No. 39 following a surge in post-mortem listens and purchases.