Top 10 Musicians Who Saved Their Careers with One Song
These career-saving songs are iconic. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the top 10 musicians who suffered a flop, scandal, or simply bad fortune but single handedly revived their careers with one song.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 musicians who
00:12suffered a flop, scandal, or simply bad fortune but single-handedly revived their careers
00:18with one song.
00:2810.
00:29Jonas Brothers – Sucker Over a decade after they were first burning
00:39up the charts, the JoBros hit their biggest peak yet.
00:43In 2013, the Jonas Brothers disappointed fans when they cancelled their tour, announced
00:49their split, and pursued solo careers and side projects.
00:53This period lasted until 2019, when they finally announced their reunion.
00:58Kevin, Joe, and Nick were all on board for Sucker, their comeback single, which blew
01:04their past success out of the water.
01:13While it was unknown if the group's grown-up fans from their Disney era would still be
01:18interested in their music, they came out in droves to support Sucker.
01:22The song went No. 1 in 5x Platinum, with nearly everyone re-laminating their Jonas
01:28Brothers stand-cards.
01:299.
01:38P!nk – You In Your Hand Despite its title, Try This, many listeners
01:49skipped over P!nk's third studio album.
01:53None of the singles caught on, so she went back to the drawing board for its follow-up
01:57aptly titled, I'm Not Dead.
01:59While the lead single, Stupid Girls, was a moderate success, second single, Who Knew,
02:04didn't go too far.
02:06Thankfully, her next song, You In Your Hand, was bold and controversial enough to halt
02:11her unlucky streak.
02:18With a catchy tune and explicit lyrics about shutting down creepy guys at the club, it
02:23had more longevity than P!nk's other recent songs and set her back on the right track.
02:35Following the success of You In Your Hand, she re-released Who Knew, which became one
02:40of her most enduring hits to date.
02:478.
02:51Train – Hey Soul Sister Here's a song that refuses to leave our
03:02left side brains.
03:05After drops of Jupiter and some minor hits, many thought Train had left the station for
03:10good.
03:11The group took a multi-year hiatus in 2006 after their fourth album, For Me It's You,
03:16underperformed, and it seemed unlikely they'd recapture their early success.
03:21But after releasing Hey Soul Sister in 2009, it slowly climbed up the Hot 100 until reaching
03:27a peak of number three in 2010.
03:37The Jason Mraz-esque ukulele song received mixed reviews for its corny lyrics, but it
03:42undeniably sounded like a massive smash.
03:45Hey Soul Sister even surpassed drops of Jupiter in popularity, becoming Train's signature
03:51song over a decade into their mainstream career.
03:597.
04:03Aerosmith – Walk This Way If you thought the bad boys from Boston were
04:14content to stay a 70s band, dream on.
04:18After guitarist Joe Perry's 1979 firing, singer Steven Tyler's substance issues,
04:23and diminishing musical returns, Aerosmith had a rough go in the early to mid-1980s.
04:30And when they reconciled with Perry, their 1985 album, Done With Mirrors, wasn't the
04:35comeback the group hoped for.
04:37Instead, that would happen a year later in the form of Walk This Way, Run-DMC's remake
04:43of Aerosmith's 1975 hit.
04:53The rap group's version, which included contributions from Tyler and Perry, resurrected Aerosmith's
04:59career out of left field and granted crossover success to both bands.
05:03For the rest of the 80s and into the 90s, Aerosmith fans wouldn't want to miss a thing.
05:136.
05:17Marvin Gaye – Sexual Healing One of Motown's defining artists, Marvin
05:29Gaye is synonymous with the soul music of the 1960s and early 70s.
05:35Sadly, the next decade was rough for him.
05:38Gaye experienced depression, addiction, and tax issues.
05:42And one of his unfinished songs was put on his 1981 album, In Our Lifetime by Motown,
05:47against his wishes.
05:49After parting ways with the label, Gaye went back to his roots with Sexual Healing.
06:00Updating the subject matter of his earlier hit, Let's Get It On, the 1982 song was a
06:05sultry slow jam with funk elements.
06:08Sexual Healing scored Gaye his first two Grammys nearly 20 years into his career.
06:13While Gaye would tragically die less than two years later, Sexual Healing allowed him
06:18to enjoy a career revival.
06:235.
06:28Britney Spears – Womanizer The princess of pop has never left the public's
06:39radar, but she's had periods of staying there for all the wrong reasons.
06:44Britney Spears' music career was doing fine when she saved it with 2008's Womanizer.
06:50Her previous album, Blackout, remains a fan favourite to this day.
06:54However, she was just coming out of the other side of her tumultuous personal life and it
06:58was unknown how it would impact her career.
07:01Thankfully, the obnoxiously catchy Womanizer showed that Britney's struggles wouldn't
07:06impact her hit-making abilities.
07:15The song became her first number one since her debut single, Baby One More Time, and
07:19included a hit music video that served as the sequel to Toxic.
07:24So when people thought that she was slipping under, Britney found the perfect antidote.
07:314.
07:33Cher – Believe Mariah Carey may be known as the songbird
07:45supreme, but Cher is more like a phoenix.
07:49She's practically immortal, always rising from the ashes and reinventing herself just
07:53when people are close to counting her out.
07:56Her most impressive pivot came in the late 90s, after health struggles, unsuccessful
08:08releases and the death of Sonny Bono, her ex-husband and former duet partner.
08:14Cher's comeback single, Believe, had a whole new sound, and we don't just mean a change
08:20in genre.
08:27Besides having a club-ready Eurodance vibe, it became one of the first hit songs to use
08:32autotune.
08:33Going number one and earning Cher a Grammy for Best Dance Recording, Believe restored
08:39everyone's faith in the goddess of pop.
08:473.
08:50Santana – Smooth Man, it's a hot 100 chart topper.
09:03In 1999, Carlos Santana and his eponymous band made one of music's most random comebacks.
09:18Despite being anywhere near the top of their game since the early 1980s, Santana stopped
09:23releasing new albums altogether following 1992's Milagro.
09:27However, after Carlos Santana had a meeting with record exec Clive Davis in the mid-1990s,
09:33the band began to work on Supernatural, their blockbuster return to commercial relevance.
09:38The much-memed lead single, Smooth, featured vocals from Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20 and
09:44compared love to a sweltering heatwave.
09:55With an updated sound, infectious guitar hook, and a current name in the mix, Smooth not
10:00only saved Santana's career and legacy, but gave them some coveted pop crossover appeal.
10:122.
10:14Tina Turner – What's Love Got To Do With It?
10:24With just one song, the queen of rock and roll went from a second-hand emotion to the
10:28first artist on everyone's minds.
10:31Tina Turner first rose to fame in a duo with then-husband Ike Turner in the 1960s.
10:37Although they stopped working together in 1976 and divorced two years later, while Tina's
10:43first few solo works didn't take off, that changed when she took a five-year hiatus and
10:48returned with the 1984 album, Private Dancer.
10:58One single, What's Love Got To Do With It?, was a modern, sexy rebrand that kickstarted
11:03her comeback as a free, single woman ready to mingle with solo success.
11:08At the time, Tina became the oldest woman to top the Billboard Hot 100 at 44 years old.
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11:341.
11:36Mariah Carey – We Belong Together Most people associate Glitter with parties
11:49and celebrations, but in Mariah Carey's case, it's majorly derailed her career.
11:55The 2001 movie and soundtrack album, Glitter, were poorly received commercial disappointments
12:00and Carey's 2003 follow-up album, Charm Bracelet, failed to mitigate the damage.
12:06Thankfully, she got back on track for her next album, 2005's The Emancipation of Mimi,
12:11particularly on the single, We Belong Together.
12:19Interestingly, the R&B ballad, Lamenting a Failed Relationship, could almost be read
12:27as a response to her declining career.
12:29Fortunately for Carey, the song totally turned things around.
12:33It became one of the longest-running number one songs in history and spawned a feature-length
12:37comeback with The Emancipation, showing that Mariah Carey and the top spot, Truly, do belong
12:44together.
12:52Which currently struggling artist do you think deserves a comeback?
12:56Let us know in the comments!