Favorite first flop singles (late 80s/90s females edition)

[leoapp]

Only included some of the biggest late 80s/90s pop female artists with multiple hits.
First flop singles:
-->first flop single after releasing multiple (at least) smash hits, either barely top 20/top 40 Hot 100 peak.
-->Included only the artists' own projects, didn't include collaborations/featuring credits outside the artists'own projects
(Examples: Whitney & Aretha duet)
--> earlier flop eras/singles before mainstream success werent included
(Examples: Janet's first 2 albums, Celine's early eras, Madonna's first 2 bombed singles, Paula's first 2 bombed singles, etc)

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

Lol pretty much all of them.

[Lost In Musical Reverie]

"Crybaby" is a R&B gem and one of many career highlights for Mariah. It baffles me the song was such an underperformance. It's my main pick.

Honorable mentions go to Whitney Houston's fantastic "My Name Is Not Susan" and Britney's "Don't Let Me Be The Last To Know". Fitted with the sound of the time, strong songwriting and great performances, yet somehow flopped?

[leoapp]

Like most of them, but the top 3:

Whitney's is one of her best uptempo jams ever. I must be in the minority who prefer MNINS, compared to bigger pop dance hits like HWIK. or IWDWS.
Overall, the whole IYBT album is her best.

Paula's is one of the most underrated jams in music history. The music video IS her BEST. Sad sad sad it flopped. How come??? The album is weak though.

Mariah's is one of her best slow jams. R&B Mariah at her best. But I understand, it was too R&B for 2000 teen pop era. And her feud with her label made it worse...

[Ling-Ling]

I love a lot of these, but I went with "Oh Father." One of my favorite Madonna songs.

[toomuchboy]

My Name Is Not Susan
Think Twice
Oh Father
Dirrty

[Ernesto]

"Think Twice" by Celine Dion for the '90s
"Oh Father" by Madonna for the '80s.

Brilliant records! I listen to them both frequently, particularly "Think Twice" which is my favourite Celine Dion song. I still have the 2 U.K. cd singles for it. Even after peaking at No.95 on the Hot 100, I thought A.C. radio would play the hell out of it but no such luck and No.21 was as high as it got.

I won't pretend to be a massive Madonna fan but I can honestly that say I've always been drawn to her softer side. "Oh Father," "Till Death Do Us Part," and "Promise to Try" are beautiful, painful, and haunting moments on her "Like a Prayer" album.

[leoapp]

I know Xtina is hated in this forum. but somehow she's winning the favorite flops.

Dirrty is such a strong song to be her first flop. Weird. Imagine youtube existed back then, maybe the infamous music video views alone could've helped it topped the Hot 100.

[Leigh]

It's so strange to me to see Think Twice classed as a flop single for Celine, just because in the UK it was SO big and was everywhere, and it was the first time I became aware of Celine. It was only recently that I learned how poorly it did here in the US.

[back2blk]

Give me Janet, Give me Britney, Give me Toni. I stan a flop.

[jenglisbe]

Jun 17, 2021 7:51:47 GMT -5 Leigh said:

It's so strange to me to see Think Twice classed as a flop single for Celine, just because in the UK it was SO big and was everywhere, and it was the first time I became aware of Celine. It was only recently that I learned how poorly it did here in the US.

Her U.S. run in general is odd/spotty.

"Where Does My Heart Beat Now" was her only real U.S. hit off Unison.
"Beauty and the Beast" was then a top 10, but was of course tied to a Disney film. "If You Asked Me To" then went top 10 as well, but nothing else from the album was even top 20.
"The Power of Love" was then a huge #1 here, but then yet again none of the follow-up singles even came close to the top 10.
Falling Into You was the first album where she was able to follow-up the lead single with more top 10s.
Then with Let's Talk About Love the only real U.S. hit she had was "My Heart Will Go On."
These Are Special Times and All the Way each produced 1 top 10 as well.
I think FIY remains the only album where she had multiple top 10s (excepting for Celine Dion since it also contained "Beauty and the Beast" but that wasn't exactly for that album).

[Jay D83]

"Crybaby" easily.

[spiritboy]

Oh Father. Stunning song, stunning video.

[divasummer]

"My Name Is Not Susan"- Whitney- I always Loved this and it came from the album that made me start stanning her.
"My Love Is For Real"- Paula Abdul- I was shocked when this underperformed. At the time it was "Fierce"!
"Dirrty"- XTina- So strange this didn't "smash" but most people knew it and I think it got decent recurrent airplay.
At least it did in Boston.

[Deleted]

Madonna, Whitney, Britney, Christina, Jennifer... the rest are meh.