History Main / BlackSheepHit

* Mr. President's "Coco Jamboo", [[OneHitWonder their only major hit in Anglophone countries]], was a reggae-rap tune very different from their traditional Eurodance material

* Music/DuranDuran are chiefly known for danceable {{New Wave| Music}} and AlternativeDance/Rock, whereas their 1993 comeback hit "Ordinary World" is a [[RaisedLighterTribute lighter-raising]] {{power ballad}}.
* Dusty Springfield kicked off her solo career in 1963 with "I Only Want to Be with You", a heavy song in her rather light career. Somehow, it shot to #4 in her native UK but missed the Top 10 in the US.

* Elvin Bishop's musical style is primarily blues rock. His only Top 10 hit "Fooled Around And Fell In Love", however, is an easy-listening soft rock ballad. Adding further is that the vocals were done by his then-backing vocalist Mickey Thomas (who eventually joined Music/JeffersonStarship on the strength of this song), as Elvin felt that his gruff vocal style did not do the song justice.
* "Everyday I Write The Book" is one of Music/ElvisCostello's biggest hits, but he's said he's not that big a fan of the song, admitting he deliberately wrote it to be very poppy.

* Music/{{Eminem}} had an unprecedented Black Sheep Hit with "My Name Is" (the second single off ''The Slim Shady LP'' [[note]] the first was the much more aggressive "Just Don't Give A Fuck"[[/note]]), which typecast him into launching every album with a novelty song that mocks pop culture and celebrity gossip. Because of the {{light|erAndSofter}}hearted tones of these tracks and their suitability for a video, they serve as the lead singles to his albums and, as a result, are some of his more popular and well-known songs - even when the albums they're attached to are twisted BlackComedy or outright brooding in tone. In the 2010s, Eminem stopped making these songs and expressed CreatorBacklash against them, seeing as they had originated as the product of ExecutiveMeddling and didn't, in his opinion, do anything to make anyone's lives any better, noting in "Guts Over Fear" he'd 'rather make "Not Afraid 2" than another motherfuckin' "We Made You"'. He did continue to make comedic songs/videos that nodded to the tradition, but they stopped serving as lead singles and became more stylistically diverse.

*** "Crack A Bottle" was the first time Eminem had launched a studio album with a song that ''wasn't'' a goofy novelty hit - instead, it's a GlamRap (!) posse cut with Music/DrDre and Music/FiftyCent. Slim is doing funny but basically conventional BoastfulRap on the song, not fitting the [[ConceptAlbum album concept]], and it's the only Slim cut on the album which doesn't use the ''Relapse'' [[ShiftingVoiceOfMadness accent]]. The reason for this is because it had been intended for Dre's legendary DevelopmentHell album ''Detox'', which at the time was supposed to form a tryptic with Em and 50's albums, with an overarching concept of following a recovery process - "I ''Relapse'', then ''Before I Self Destruct'', I ''Detox''". ''Detox'' ended up not coming out.
*** "We Made You" from ''Relapse'' is in the tradition of the goofy novelty records, with a music video directed by Joseph Kahn (who directed "Without Me"). On its own, it's about Slim Shady lusting after female celebrities - but in the context of the album, where it comes after a track about lynching Creator/LindsayLohan, it's much darker song about a priapic LoonyFan SerialKiller targeting drug-addicted women, fitting the SlasherMovie [[ConceptAlbum album concept]]. "We Made You" is also the ''final'' primary-coloured celeb-bashing joke single in the classical style, as Eminem decided that the formula was played out and didn't release one for ''Recovery''. His later comedic singles tend to nod at this tradition, but diverge in significant ways - at least until enough time had passed that he was able to use the candy-coloured MTV-pop imagery again as a StylisticCallback.

** While not a comedy lead single in the same way as the other examples, ''Recovery'''s lead single was "Not Afraid", an inspiring gospel-rap ballad that, while it has [[HurricaneOfPuns jokes in]], stands out from the rest of his entire discography for being ''earnestly positive'', having none of the sarcasm, hostility, SelfDeprecation or [[TheGadfly provocation]] that forms his SignatureStyle. Much like "My Name Is", above, Eminem wasn't able to replicate this no matter how much he tried, with his later attempts at making "Not Afraid"-like songs (such as "Survival" and "Guts Over Fear") being more ambivalent and negative, in line with his earlier inspirationals like "Lose Yourself" and "Sing For The Moment".

* The band Far are widely considered to be one of the first emo bands, but like many early groups in the genre, they had no hits before they disbanded in 1999. When they reunited in 2008, they released a joke cover of Ginuwine's R&B hit "Pony" as a reunion single. That cover, which is heavier than their usual fare, became their first and only entry on the Billboard Alternative chart.

* Texas power-pop group Fastball's "Out of My Head" was a ballad that was different from the rest of their album ''All The Pain That Money Can Buy''. As a bit of extra (and unfair) trivia, due to a Billboard chart quirk that denied Hot 100 chart entry to their monster pop radio hit "The Way", [[ChartDisplacement "Out of My Head" is also their only official Top 40 hit despite being much less remembered than "The Way".]] Nowadays, when Fastball appear on one-hit wonder retrospectives and countdowns, it's usually for "The Way" and not "Out Of My Head".

** Also, many Wrestling/{{WWE}} wrestling fans are only really familiar (aside from the aforementioned two songs) with "Slow Chemical", which the band tailor-made for the wrestler Kane to use from 2002 to 2008. It was a remake of Kane's instrumental theme and took more cues from that than the normal Finger Eleven sound.

* Music/FrankMills first gained notice as a singer-songwriter in his native Canada, with a couple of his vocal songs also becoming minor hits south of the border in the United States. But when a piano [[{{Instrumentals}} instrumental]] he initially recorded as an album cut, "Music Box Dancer", became a major worldwide hit in 1979, he shifted his style to instrumental music.

** Genesis had been making a steady progression towards the mainstream even before Music/PeterGabriel left ("I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" and "Counting Out Time" are probably the most "poppy" sounding of their early stuff, despite the latter being on a double concept album). They had no serious commitment to a particular style or image; they just did what they did and followed whatever worked for them. Hell, their first singles were done "in the style of" Music/TheBeeGees in an attempt to appeal to producer Jonathan King, and their [[OldShame largely forgotten]] first album, ''From Genesis to Revelation'' was essentially a Music/ProcolHarum[=/=]Music/TheMoodyBlues clone. They didn't really have much success with it until Phil Collins underwent a nasty divorce and started throwing himself at his work ("Misunderstanding", along with "Man On The Corner", were essentially Collins solo tracks that the rest of the band liked).

* French singer Henri Salvador is best known for his child friendly comedy songs, yet he also wrote a lot more mature romantic ballads, which were never quite as popular. He's also famous for recording the first French rock-and-roll songs under the pseudonym Henry Cording, but despite that he later claimed to dislike rock-and-roll and treated his Henry Cording persona as an OldShame.

* Music/JacquesBrel: One of Brel's most popular songs, "La Valse A Mille Temps" (and its TranslatedCoverVersion, "Carousel"), is a comedic number, almost completely devoid of any of the social commentary he is best known for. He once claimed in an interview that "La Valse" "should have never become such a success."

* "Aqualung" is one of the most recognizable songs by Music/JethroTull, yet it lacks the flute prominent in their other songs. Another Tull example is "Living in the Past," scored in the UncommonTime of 5/4.

* Music/JimCroce wrote mostly melodramatic, guitar-laden pieces during his brief career as a singer-songwriter. A couple of months before his tragic death in a plane crash, however, he scored his only #1 hit – at least in his lifetime – with the blues-inspired, piano-heavy "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown."

* "This Guy's in Love with You", a #1 hit for Herb Alpert in 1968, is one of the few vocal entries among the mostly instrumental material of Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. It's a Black Sheep Hit in another way—even though it was recorded during the Brass' heyday, it was credited solely to Alpert.[[labelnote:Postscript]]Alpert went on to become the first (and to this day only) artist to hit #1 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 with vocal and instrumental performances, with "Rise" (1979) filling the latter slot.[[/labelnote]]

* The British {{ska}} band Music/{{Madness}}, known to Americans for the '80s song, "Our House", is a OneHitWonder in the United States, in part due to the fact that ska in general wouldn't really catch on until [[SkaPunk the third wave of ska during the '90s]]. "Our House" itself is a far more conventional-sounding post-disco and soft rock song that sounds almost nothing like their TwoTone and {{New wave|music}} material.[[note]] They actually had another American hit on the Top 40, their cover of Labi Siffre's "It Must Be Love", but that song has been completely forgotten by Americans.[[/note]]

* Music/{{Eminem}} had an unprecedented Black Sheep Hit with "My Name Is" (the second single off ''The Slim Shady LP'' - the first was the much more aggressive "Just Don't Give A Fuck"), which typecast him into launching every album with a novelty song that mocks pop culture and celebrity gossip. Because of the {{light|erAndSofter}}hearted tones of these tracks and their suitability for a video, they serve as the lead singles to his albums and, as a result, are some of his more popular and well-known songs - even when the albums they're attached to are twisted BlackComedy or outright brooding in tone. In the 2010s, Eminem stopped making these songs and expressed CreatorBacklash against them, seeing as they had originated as the product of ExecutiveMeddling and didn't, in his opinion, do anything to make anyone's lives any better, noting in "Guts Over Fear" he'd 'rather make "Not Afraid 2" than another motherfuckin' "We Made You"'. He did continue to make comedic songs/videos that nodded to the tradition, but they stopped serving as lead singles and became more stylistically diverse.

* Elvin Bishop's musical style is primarily blues rock. His only Top 10 hit "Fooled Around And Fell In Love", however, is an easy-listening soft rock ballad. Adding further is that the vocals were done by his then-backing vocalist Mickey Thomas (who eventually joined Music/JeffersonStarship on the strength of this song), as Elvin felt that his raspy vocal style did not do the song justice.

* Music/TheCardigans' "Lovefool" is much poppier and upbeat than the rest of their work (but its lyrics are just as [[LyricalDissonance dark and ironic]] as their other songs).

** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUIElvJRyNU original music video]] made the intent of the song very clear: needless to say, they were forced to shoot a new one for American audiences.

* Music/{{Eminem}} had an unprecedented Black Sheep Hit with "My Name Is", which typecast him into launching every album with a novelty song that mocks pop culture and celebrity gossip. Because of the {{light|erAndSofter}}hearted tones of these tracks and their suitability for a video, they serve as the lead singles to his albums and, as a result, are some of his more popular and well-known songs - even when the albums they're attached to are twisted BlackComedy or outright brooding in tone. In the 2010s, Eminem stopped making these songs and expressed CreatorBacklash against them, seeing as they had originated as the product of ExecutiveMeddling and didn't, in his opinion, do anything to make anyone's lives any better, noting in "Guts Over Fear" he'd 'rather make "Not Afraid 2" than another motherfuckin' "We Made You"'. He did continue to make comedic songs/videos that nodded to the tradition, but they stopped serving as lead singles and became more stylistically diverse.

*** "We Made You" from ''Relapse'' is in the tradition of the goofy novelty records, with a music video directed by James Kahn (who directed "Without Me"). On its own, it's about Slim Shady lusting after female celebrities - but in the context of the album, where it comes after a track about lynching Creator/LindsayLohan, it's much darker song about a priapic LoonyFan SerialKiller targeting drug-addicted women, fitting the SlasherMovie [[ConceptAlbum album concept]]. "We Made You" is also the ''final'' primary-coloured celeb-bashing joke single in the classical style, as Eminem decided that the formula was played out and didn't release one for ''Recovery''. His later comedic singles tend to nod at this tradition, but diverge in significant ways - at least until enough time had passed that he was able to use the candy-coloured MTV-pop imagery again as a StylisticCallback.

* After the unprecedented success of "My Name Is", Music/{{Eminem}} had a habit of launching every album with a novelty song that mocks pop culture and celebrity gossip. Because of the {{light|erAndSofter}}hearted tones of these tracks and their suitability for a video, they serve as the lead singles to his albums and, as a result, are some of his more popular and well-known songs - even when the albums they're attached to are twisted BlackComedy or outright brooding in tone.

** "We Made You" from ''Relapse''.
*** An interesting case - as a single it comes off as a goofy novelty record where Eminem, as his Slim Shady [[AlterEgoActing alter-ego]], expresses his lust for female celebrities, but in the context of the album, where it comes after a track about lynching Creator/LindsayLohan, it's much darker song about a priapic LoonyFan SerialKiller targeting drug-addicted women. This lets it fit the remit of being a "The Real Slim Shady"-like song, while also fitting the [[ConceptAlbum album concept]] where Slim's murders symbolise how fame makes celebrities turn to drug addiction and die while the tabloids feed off them.
*** "We Made You" also holds the distinction of being the ''final'' primary-coloured celeb-bashing joke single. For ''Recovery'', Eminem decided that the formula was played out and didn't release one. (When an interviewer told him that they were disappointed by it, saying they'd been looking forward to a video of Eminem 'dressed like Tiger Woods and surrounded by porn stars', Eminem said the fact that everyone could have imagined exactly what the video would have been is why he decided not to do it.) He later expressed some CreatorBacklash against these songs, seeing as they had originated as the product of ExecutiveMeddling and didn't, in his opinion, do anything to make anyone's lives any better, noting in "Guts Over Fear" he'd 'rather make "Not Afraid 2" than another motherfuckin' "We Made You"'. While Eminem has made comedic lead singles since, they tend to be more ambiguous, being ''lighthearted'' rather than outright joke songs, blending with other genres and using different visuals - at least until enough time passed that he was able to use the candy-coloured MTV-pop imagery again as a StylisticCallback.

** "Framed" from ''Revival'' - based around AntiRoleModel and controversy-magnet themes like "The Real Slim Shady", but also a ([[LightmareFuel extremely silly]]) {{Horrorcore}} song with a dark, moody beat that the video makes into a prequel to Eminem's ''Relapse'' MedicalHorror single "3 a.m."

** "Godzilla" from ''Music To Be Murdered By'' and "Gnat" from ''Music To Be Murdered By Side B'' both have videos with a distinctive visual style meant to call back to Eminem's earlier comedy hit videos, complete with ultra-bold colours, {{Homage Shot}}s and Eminem interacting with and reprising his old characters and personas. "Gnat" also recaptures the UnintentionalPeriodPiece aspect of his older comedy lead singles, being about the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.

*** An interesting case - as a single it comes off as a goofy novelty record where Eminem, as his Slim Shady [[AlterEgoActing alter-ego]], expresses his lust for female celebrities, but in the context of the album, where it comes after a track about lynching Creator/LindsayLohan, it's much darker song about a priapic LoonyFan SerialKiller targeting drug-addicted women. This lets it fit the remit of being a "The Real Slim Shady"-like song, while also fitting the [[ConceptAlbum album concept]] where Slim's murders symbolise how fame makes celebrities turn to drug addiction and die while the tabloids feed off them.
*** "We Made You" also holds the distinction of being the ''final'' primary-coloured celeb-bashing joke single. For ''Recovery'', Eminem decided that the formula was played out and didn't release one. (When an interviewer told him that they were disappointed by it, saying they'd been looking forward to a video of Eminem 'dressed like Tiger Woods and surrounded by porn stars', Eminem said the fact that everyone could have imagined exactly what the video would have been is why he decided not to do it.) He later expressed some CreatorBacklash against these songs, seeing as they had originated as the product of ExecutiveMeddling and didn't, in his opinion, do anything to make anyone's lives any better, noting in "Guts Over Fear" he'd 'rather make "Not Afraid 2" than another motherfuckin' "We Made You"'. While Eminem has made comedic lead singles since, they tend to be more ambiguous, being ''lighthearted'' rather than outright joke songs, blending with other genres and using different visuals - at least until enough time passed that he was able to use the candy-coloured MTV-pop imagery again as a StylisticCallback.

** "Godzilla" from ''Music To Be Murdered By'' and "Gnat" from ''Music To Be Murdered By Side B'' both have videos with a distinctive visual style meant to call back to Eminem's earlier comedy hit videos, complete with ultra-bold colours, {{Homage Shot}}s and Eminem interacting with his old characters (like bopping the straitjacketed Shady from "My Name Is" and a lookalike for his ''Encore''-era self showing up in the video for "Godzilla", and reprising his part as the SubvertedKidsShow [[TheHost TV host]] from "My Name Is" in "Gnat"). "Gnat" also recaptures the UnintentionalPeriodPiece aspect of his older comedy lead singles as well, being about the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.

*** An interesting case - as a single it comes off as a goofy novelty record where Eminem, as his Slim Shady [[AlterEgoActing alter-ego]], expresses his lust for female celebrities, but in the context of the album, where it comes after a track about lynching Creator/LindsayLohan, it's much darker song about a priapic LoonyFan SerialKiller targeting drug-addicted women. This lets it fit the remit of being a "The Real Slim Shady"-like song, while also fitting the [[ConceptAlbum album concept]] where Slim's murders symbolise how fame makes celebrities turn to drug addiction and die while the tabloids feed off them.
*** "We Made You" also holds the distinction of being the ''final'' primary-coloured celeb-bashing joke single. For ''Recovery'', Eminem decided that the formula was played out and didn't release one. (When an interviewer told him that they were disappointed by it, saying they'd been looking forward to a video of Eminem 'dressed like Tiger Woods and surrounded by porn stars', Eminem said the fact that everyone could have imagined exactly what the video would have been is why he decided not to do it.) He later expressed some CreatorBacklash against these songs, seeing as they had originated as the product of ExecutiveMeddling and didn't, in his opinion, do anything to make anyone's lives any better, noting in "Guts Over Fear" he'd 'rather make "Not Afraid 2" than another motherfuckin' "We Made You"'. While Eminem has made comedic lead singles since, they tend to be more ambiguous, being ''lighthearted'' rather than outright joke songs, blending with other genres and using different visuals - at least until enough time passed that he was able to use the candy-coloured MTV-pop imagery again as a StylisticCallback.

** "Godzilla" from ''Music To Be Murdered By'' and "Gnat" from ''Music To Be Murdered By Side B'' both have videos with a distinctive visual style meant to call back to Eminem's earlier comedy hit videos, complete with ultra-bold colours, {{Homage Shot}}s and Eminem interacting with his old characters (like bopping the straitjacketed Shady from "My Name Is" in "Godzilla", and reprising his part as the SubvertedKidsShow [[TheHost TV host]] from "My Name Is" in "Gnat"). "Gnat" deliberately goes for the UnintentionalPeriodPiece aspect of his older hit singles, as well.

*** An interesting case - as a single it comes off as a goofy novelty record where Eminem, as his Slim Shady [[AlterEgoActing alter-ego]], expresses his lust for female celebrities, but in the context of the album, where it comes after a track about lynching Creator/LindsayLohan, it's much darker song about a priapic LoonyFan SerialKiller targeting drug-addicted women. This lets it fit the remit of being a "The Real Slim Shady"-like song, while also fitting the [[ConceptAlbum album concept]] where Slim's murders symbolise how fame makes celebrities turn to drug addiction and die while the tabloids feed off them.
*** "We Made You" also holds the distinction of being the ''final'' primary-coloured celeb-bashing joke single. For ''Recovery'', Eminem decided that the formula was played out and didn't release one. (When an interviewer told him that they were disappointed by it, saying they'd been looking forward to a video of Eminem 'dressed like Tiger Woods and surrounded by porn stars', Eminem said the fact that everyone could have imagined exactly what the video would have been is why he decided not to do it.) He later expressed some CreatorBacklash against these songs, seeing as they had originated as the product of ExecutiveMeddling and didn't, in his opinion, do anything to make anyone's lives any better, noting in "Guts Over Fear" he'd 'rather make "Not Afraid 2" than another motherfuckin' "We Made You"'. While Eminem has made comedic lead singles since, they tend to be more ambiguous, being ''lighthearted'' rather than outright joke songs, blending with other genres and using different visuals - at least until enough time passed that he was able to use the candy-coloured MTV-pop imagery again as a StylisticCallback.

** "Framed" from ''Revival'' - based around AntiRoleModel and controversy-magnet themes like "The Real Slim Shady", but also a ([[LightmareFuel extremely silly]] {{Horrorcore}} song with a dark, moody beat that the video makes into a prequel to Eminem's ''Relapse'' MedicalHorror single "3 a.m."

*** An interesting case - as a single it comes off as a goofy novelty record where Eminem, as his Slim Shady [[AlterEgoActing alter-ego]], expresses his lust for female celebrities, but in the context of the album, where it comes after a track about lynching Creator/LindsayLohan, it's much darker song about a priapic LoonyFan SerialKiller targeting drug-addicted women. This lets it fit the remit of being a "The Real Slim Shady"-like song, while also fitting the [[ConceptAlbum album concept]] where Slim's murders symbolise how fame makes celebrities turn to drug addiction and die while the tabloids feed off them.
*** "We Made You" also holds the distinction of being the ''final'' primary-coloured celeb-bashing joke single. For ''Recovery'', Eminem decided that the formula was played out and didn't release one. (When an interviewer told him that they were disappointed by it, saying they'd been looking forward to a video of Eminem 'dressed like Tiger Woods and surrounded by porn stars', Eminem said the fact that everyone could have imagined exactly what the video would have been is why he decided not to do it.) He later expressed some CreatorBacklash against these songs, seeing as they had originated as the product of ExecutiveMeddling and didn't, in his opinion, do anything to make anyone's lives any better, noting in "Guts Over Fear" he'd '''rather make "Not Afraid 2" than another motherfuckin' "We Made You"'''. While Eminem has made comedic lead singles since, they tend to be more ambiguous, being ''lighthearted'' rather than outright joke songs, blending with other genres and using different visuals - at least until enough time passed that he was able to use the candy-coloured MTV-pop imagery again as a StylisticThrowback.

** "Godzilla" from ''Music To Be Murdered By'' and "Gnat" from ''Music To Be Murdered By Side B'' both have videos with a distinctive visual style meant to call back to Eminem's earlier comedy hit videos, complete with ultra-bold colours, {{Homage Shot}}s and Eminem interacting with his old characters (like bopping the straitjacketed Shady from "My Name Is" in "Godzilla", and reprising his part as the SubvertedKidsShow [[TheHost TV host]] from "My Name Is" in "Gnat").

** "My Name Is" from ''Music/TheSlimShadyLP''
*** "My Name Is" deserves special attention because it is so much an outlier that nothing else in Eminem's discography, before or since, has sounded like it. It's based on a barely manipulated soul sample with psychedelic keyboards, while everything else on the album is done in a spooky, synthetic G-funk style; Eminem also raps it in an almost conversational flow, using little in the way of his signature complex rhythm patterns and rhyme schemes. He also raps it as Slim Shady in a [[NerdyNasalness squeaky, nasal voice]] that he [[VocalEvolution stopped using]] after this album. Its sound is hard enough to classify that it was heavily played on rock stations, who viewed it as being suburban [[PissTakeRap comedic]] RapRock rather than the Music/DrDre-produced, BattleRapping-derived hardcore hip-hop work it was intended to be. Notably, despite extensive attempts to replicate the song, neither Eminem nor Dre could even figure out how to make another record that sounded like it.

** "We Made You" from ''Relapse''. An interesting case - as a single it comes off as a goofy novelty record where Eminem, as his Slim Shady [[AlterEgoActing alter-ego]], expresses his lust for female celebrities, but in the context of the album, where it comes after a track about lynching Creator/LindsayLohan, it's much darker song about a priapic LoonyFan SerialKiller targeting drug-addicted women. This lets it fit the remit of being a "The Real Slim Shady"-like song, while also fitting the [[ConceptAlbum album concept]] where Slim's murders symbolise how fame makes celebrities turn to drug addiction and die while the tabloids feed off them.
** Averted finally on ''Recovery'', for which he decided that doing a joke celebrity-bashing song wouldn't suit the material. When an interviewer told him that they were disappointed by it, saying they'd been looking forward to a video of Eminem 'dressed like Tiger Woods and surrounded by porn stars', Eminem said the fact that everyone could have imagined exactly what the video would have been is why he decided not to do it.
*** However, while lacking a comedy single, ''Recovery'' still gave us "Not Afraid", an inspiring gospel-rap ballad that stands out from the rest of his entire discography for being ''earnest'', having none of the sarcasm, hostility or SelfDeprecation that forms his SignatureStyle. Much like "My Name Is", above, Eminem wasn't able to replicate this no matter how much he tried, with his later attempts at making "Not Afraid"-like songs being considerably more ambiguous and negative.
** "Berzerk" from ''The Marshall Mathers LP 2''.
** "Framed" from ''Revival''.
** Though disimilar from other examples, "Venom" from ''Kamikaze'' is the only non-diss track on the album, and also got much more reach from being the theme to, well, ''[[Film/Venom2018 Venom]]''.

** "Berzerk" from ''The Marshall Mathers LP 2''. Though it's not like the rest of the album is any less light-hearted.

* Music/DireStraits, [[Music/BrothersInArms "Money for Nothing"]]; a fast-paced, high-energy pop rock song from a band typically known for roots and blues rock. Even in the context of its parent album, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

** Their two biggest hits in the US also count. "Tempted" leans toward soft rock and has sports a lead vocal by Paul Carrack during his brief stint with the band. "Hourglass" is {{Soul}}-influenced a la Music/CultureClub or Music/GeorgeMichael, with an odd MotorMouth chorus.

** Their two biggest hits in the US also count. "Tempted" leans toward soft rock and has lead vocals by Paul Carrack during a brief stint with the band. "Hourglass" is {{Soul}}-influenced a la Music/CultureClub or Music/GeorgeMichael, with an odd MotorMouth chorus.

** "Tempted", probably their biggest hit in the US, has main vocals by Paul Carrack during a brief stint with the band.

* At a time when most of his popular songs were guitar-influenced, Cat Stevens had a Top 10 hit with his cover/arrangement of "Morning Has Broken" from ''Teaser and the Firecat'', contrasting the calm guitar of Stevens and the flamboyant piano of [[Music/{{Yes}} Rick Wakeman]]. His next album, ''Catch Bull at Four'', had no singles at all, but the pop-influenced "Sitting" and "Can't Keep It In" propelled the album to #1.

* Fuzzbubble were a Music/CheapTrick-influenced PowerPop band, albeit one somewhat incongruously signed to Bad Boy Records, a record label primarily known for hip-hop. The only charting song they were involved in was a RapRock remix of Puff Daddy's "It's All About the Benjamins" ([[WeirdAlEffect you know, the version that formed the basis of]] [[Music/WeirdAlYankovic "All About The Pentiums"]]). When their full-length album [[DevelopmentHell finally came out]], they lampshaded this a bit with its HiddenTrack - a cover of "It's All About the Benjamins" InTheStyleOf beat jazz.

* After the unprecedented success of "My Name Is", Music/{{Eminem}} had a habit of launching every album with a novelty song that mocks pop culture and celebrity gossip. Because of the {{light|erAndSofter}}hearted tones of these tracks and their suitability for a video, they often serve as the lead singles to his albums and, as a result, are some of his more popular and well-known songs:

** "We Made You" from ''Relapse''. An interesting case - as a single it comes off as a goofy novelty record where Eminem, as his Slim Shady [[AlterEgoActing alter-ego]], teases female celebrities, but in the context of the album, where it comes after a track about lynching Creator/LindsayLohan, it's much darker song about a priapic LoonyFan SerialKiller targeting drug-addicted women. This lets it fit the remit of being a "The Real Slim Shady"-like song, while also fitting the [[ConceptAlbum album concept]] where Slim's murders symbolise how fame makes celebrities turn to drug addiction and die while the tabloids feed off them.

** "Berzerk" from ''The Marshall Mathers LP 2''.

* While the majority of Music/{{Eminem}}'s music deals with dark and brooding topics, usually about his personal life, he also has a habit of always releasing at least one [[MoodWhiplash "joke" song]] on each album that mocks pop culture and celebrity gossip. Because of the more {{light|erAndSofter}}hearted tones of these tracks, they often serve as the lead singles to his albums and, as a result, are some of his more popular and well-known songs:

*** "My Name Is" deserves special attention because it is so much an outlier that nothing else in Eminem's discography, before or since, has sounded like it. It's based on a barely manipulated soul sample with psychedelic keyboards, while everything else on the album is done in a sort of spooky, synthetic G-funk style; Eminem also raps it in an almost conversational flow, using little in the way of his complex rhythm patterns and rhyme schemes. Its sound is hard enough to classify that it was heavily played on rock stations, who viewed it as being suburban [[PissTakeRap comedic]] RapRock rather than the Music/DrDre-produced, BattleRapping-derived hardcore hip-hop work it was intended to be. Notably, despite extensive attempts to replicate the song, neither Eminem nor Dre could even figure out how to make another record that sounded like it.

** "We Made You" from ''Relapse''
** Averted finally on ''Recovery'', which consists entirely of sober and serious subject matter; the untitled hidden track is the closest thing to a joke song on there.

* Music/TheB52s are well-known for their [[Main/NewWaveMusic new wave]] and [[Main/PostPunk post-punk]] sound, but "Love Shack", one of their five Top 40 hits, is lighter and more poppy.