History Main / BlackSheepHit

* Most of the output of Creator/WalterScott is set in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Scotland, his native country. His most famous novel, however, is ''Literature/{{Ivanhoe}}'', which is set in northern England in mediaeval times.

* Creator/AlanMoore considers ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'' to be this. It's one of his most famous and influential comics, but he has stated repeatedly that he doesn't rank it among his best DC Works, let alone best works overall. The success of ''The Killing Joke'' has likewise made Moore a prominent influence on ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' to the point of being consulted by Creator/TimBurton when in fact, the superhero Moore prefers is ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' and his most sincere and non-deconstructive works -- ''ComicBook/ForTheManWhoHasEverything'', ''ComicBook/TheJungleLine'', ''ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow'' -- are Superman stories, which paradoxically has had comparatively little influence on the latter character's story and setting.

[[folder:Films]]

* Creator/RoosterTeeth bills itself as a "Comedy Gaming Community," and most of its shows revolve around some form of that. ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', however, is an original {{Animesque}} action show with no ties to any games (other than its own spinoffs) and at least as much drama as comedy (particularly after CerebusSyndrome kicks in). It's one of RT's two biggest hits (up there with ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue''), to the point where it's receiving a big-screen theatrical release.

* Creator/RoosterTeeth bills itself as a "Comedy Gaming Community," and most of its shows revolve around some form of that. ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', however, is an original {{Animesque}} action show with no ties to any games (other than its own spinoffs) and at least as much drama as comedy (particularly after CerebusSyndrome kicks in). It's one of RT's two biggest hits (up there with ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''), to the point where it's receiving a big-screen theatrical release.

* Actually, very common on Website/YouTube in general. It's not uncommon for a channel's most popular video to be outside of their usual genre. Sometimes though many WrongGenreSavvy [=YouTubers=] see this as a hint to change their channel to more of that kind of video to get more views and subscribers across the board. This usually fails spectacularly as not only are they not able to recapture the magic of their Black Sheep Hit but they often end up alienating their regular audience that was giving them consistent support on their original genre of videos. Or they do achieve success but no longer enjoy doing it as they traded following their passion for more views and subscribers.
** It took 7 years for tech Youtube channel ''Linus Tech Tips'' to beat the previous biggest, which was a 7 minute 'live unboxing' and first look at a remote control toy firetruck, filmed back in 2011 back when the channel was still just a spin off of Canadian retailer NCIX's youtube channel. Yet it gained 11 million views. It was eventually dethroned in 2018 by a long video about building a PC from parts bought in a Chinese tech market.

[[folder:Film]]

[[folder:ClassicalMusic]]
* Camille Saint-Saëns did not permit "The Carnival of the Animals" to be published during his lifetime, feeling that its frivolity would harm his reputation. (The movement "Tortoises," for instance, consists of the "Can-can" theme from Offenbach's "Orpheus in the Underworld" played absurdly slowly.) Today, it is his best-known work, aside from "Danse Macabre", which was also written more as a joke, but has remained popular for decades.
* While ''Carmina Burana'' was a major turning point in Carl Orff's career and cast a long shadow over his later works, and its framing number "O Fortuna" was indeed the one Orff was inspired to write first, it's ''much'' more [[OminousLatinChanting ominous]] than most of his later vocal and theatrical works, which also tend to be less heavily orchestrated.
* Music/GiacomoPuccini was not a man to write comic operas, but ''Theatre/GianniSchicchi'' is the best known of his three opera collection ''Il trittico'', and ''O Mio Babbino Caro'' remains one of the most popular operatic arias in history.
* For many years after the failure of ''Un giorno di regno'', Music/GiuseppeVerdi considered writing a comedy in contrast to his more tragic output, but it wasn't until he settled on ''Theatre/TheMerryWivesOfWindsor'' as a subject that this came to light, and ''Falstaff'' has long held its position in the opera house despite being his operatic SwanSong. His Requiem, written in 1874 following the death of Alessandro Manzoni the previous year, also bears honor as one of these since it is one of his few non-operatic works still commonly performed.
* Music/GustavHolst, despite writing mainly folk-influenced works, including two great suites for military band, is known best for the far more modernistic "Planets" suite.
* Almost all of Johann Pachelbel's output consists of chorales and fugues, and is regarded as relatively important in the development of the mid-Baroque chorale by musicologists, but very few people nowadays can even ''name'' a piece by him '''not''' titled [[Music/PachelbelsCanon Canon in D]], which was the only canon he wrote and gained popularity in the 1970s.
* Music/MauriceRavel's "Bolero" consists of two melodic motifs [[BoleroEffect repeated over and over with increasingly heavier orchestration]]. Ravel fully recognized how gimmicky this was, describing the piece as "seventeen minutes of orchestration without music," but it became an instant hit and his best-known work.
* Like Verdi and Wagner, Paul Dukas was a relatively serious composer. His most famous work, of course, is one of his few "comedic" pieces – the symphonic scherzo ''L'apprenti sorcier''.
* Music/PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky is commonly known for two things: his ballets, and the ''1812 Overture'', a (relatively) short tone poem/patriotic military piece featuring heavy OrchestralBombing and the use of artillery as an instrument.
* Although it has since fallen out of the repertoire, Music/RichardWagner initially had one of these with the Meyerbeerian ''Rienzi''. Among his later works, ''Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'' is the only comedy among his works most frequently seen.

[[folder:Popular Music]]
* Music/ThreeEleven - "Amber", a slow reggae-ish song compared to their ska-punk rap-rock signature sound.
** And their cover of Music/{{The Cure|Band}}'s "Lovesong," too. It was even softer than "Amber" was.
* ''38 Special'' is known for their guitar-driven, arena rock/AOR-oriented Southern rock. Yet their biggest hit was the synth-driven soft rock/adult contemporary ballad "Second Chance", released in 1989 and a "comeback" single (it had been several years since they'd had a top 40 hit) to boot.
* The biggest hit for 4 Runner on a debut album of standard, by-the-numbers upbeat country-pop was the dark and brooding gospel harmonies of "Cain's Blood."
* CountryMusic singer Aaron Tippin is best known for his patriotic, blue-collar working-man songs and his extremely nasal singing voice. However, his only #1 hits on the country charts do not reflect his typical blue-collar themes at all: "There Ain't Nothin' Wrong with the Radio" (1992) and "Kiss This" (2000) are goofy novelty songs, while "That's as Close as I'll Get to Loving You" (1995) is a smooth ballad about an affair which has Aaron singing in a much higher and less nasal range than usual.
* Music/{{Aerosmith}}, multiple times, with "Dream On", "Angel", and "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing", the latter being their only number-one hit in the US.
* Music/{{AFI}} was mostly known as a hardcore punk band at the beginning of their career. Their biggest hit, however, was the hard rock/emo song "Miss Murder", which blended in with other rock radio hits of the time.
* After the Fire were a British power-pop/new-wave band who had their biggest hit with "Der Kommissar", a {{cover|edUp}} of a Music/{{Falco}} song, that sounded nothing like their regular material. Additionally, it began moving up the charts ''after'' the band had broken up. A compilation album was quickly thrown together by Creator/EpicRecords to capitalize on the song’s popularity in the US market (where none of the band’s studio albums had been released).
* Music/AlanJackson is one of the leading voices in "neo-traditional" country, a style that flourished in TheNineties and up to the TurnOfTheMillennium which was defined by twangy fiddle-and-steel with a bit more modernized polish. So what was his biggest hit? A duet with Music/JimmyBuffett titled "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere", which fit well into Buffett's laid-back beach-party style but was a pretty radical departure for the usually more buttoned-down Alan.
* Atlanta singer Alicia Bridges got pegged as a "disco diva" when her dance-oriented "I Love the Night Life" became her biggest/[[OneHitWonder only hit]]. It was far removed from the bluesy rock & roll that made up the rest of her output.
* Fans turned on to Music/AlienAntFarm by their hit cover of "Smooth Criminal" were probably confused when they got that track and 12 tracks of emo. Before "Smooth Criminal" hit the radio circuit, AAF were a hyped band in the local Bay Area rock scene, and they had two minor singles that received some radio play. After "Smooth Criminal", it got really hard to market "that band who did that Music/MichaelJackson song".
* Music/AlisonKraussAndUnionStation, best known for very moody, mellow bluegrass music, had its only big hit with a more mainstream cover of Music/KeithWhitley's "When You Say Nothing at All". The song was a hit due mainly to unsolicited airplay from a tribute album, following closely on Krauss' first mainstream hit, a duet vocal on Music/{{Shenandoah}}'s "Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart" -- which was also a slick, mainstream, mid-90s country ballad, and thus an anomaly in the catalog of Shenandoah, who were usually more energetic, slick honky-tonk influenced country.
* Music/AllThatRemains are known as a heavy-metal band, but "What If I Was Nothing", a #2 hit, is a slow ballad.
* British duo [=AlunaGeorge=] ''is'' an ElectronicMusic act, mainly {{synthpop}}, trip-hop, and UK garage, but their biggest worldwide hit sounds nothing like it. While the original "You Know You Like It" fits their normal material well, the DJ Snake remix that turns it into [[TrapMusic trap]] is their only song to cross UsefulNotes/ThePond.
* Angry Anderson is a hard rock artist who got his biggest hit when the romantic ballad "Suddenly" was chosen to be the song at Scott and Charlene's wedding in ''Series/{{Neighbours}}''. He's reportedly fine with this.
* Music/AphexTwin and 'Avril 14th'. Most people don't even know it's by him but they know the song.
* Canadian hair-metal band April Wine is best known for a sweet ballad [[GratuitousFrench with French lyrics]] (and a kick-ass guitar solo) called "Just Between You And Me." It was admittedly written as an attempt to bring more female members into their fanbase.
* Music/ArianaGrande had a massive hit with "Break Free", which is an EDM number that is at complete odds with her normal Music/MariahCarey-esque RAndB style. This is because it was produced by German DJ Music/{{Zedd}} (who was even credited as a feature). For Zedd, however, it's pretty normal sounding.
* Avantasia is a German power metal project. Their biggest hit? The pop ballad "Lost in Space".
* Music/AvengedSevenfold's first number-one hit on the rock charts must have been a hard-rocking metal anthem, right? Wrong, it was actually a slow ballad called "So Far Away".
* Bachman-Turner Overdrive, a band cited as one of the precursors to heavy metal, hit the US top 10 only once - with the novelty song "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet".
* Music/TheBangles write the vast majority of their own songs, but of their four best-charting singles, "Manic Monday" was written by Music/{{Prince}} (and sounds like it, being a SuspiciouslySimilarSong vocally to his "1999"), "Walk Like An Egyptian" was a novelty song, "Hazy Shade of Winter" was a Music/SimonAndGarfunkel cover, and "Eternal Flame" was the only ballad on ''Everything''. Only their last top 5 hit "In Your Room" sounded like a typical Bangles song.
* The Music/BarenakedLadies ran into this with "One Week", the entirely goofy white-boy rap which finally shot them to international recognition after years of crafting intelligent, snarky pop-rock. A track off a later album hung a lampshade on the pressure they faced to repeat this success:
-->''Kinda like the last time''
-->''With a bunch of really fast rhymes''
-->''If we're living in the past I'm''
-->''Soon gone...''
* Beabadoobee's song "Coffee", best known through its sample on Powfu's 2020 hit "Death Bed (Coffee for Your Head)", is a lo-fi indie folk song that is very different from her normal sound, which is noisy guitar-driven indie rock similar to Music/{{Pavement}}. This is partly because of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, as "Coffee" was the first song Beabadoobee wrote and released.
* The Music/BeastieBoys' ''Music/LicensedToIll'' spawned one in the form of "You Gotta (Fight for Your Right) To Party!" Not only was it different for being a PunkRap tune, but most people [[MisaimedFandom didn't understand the irony of the lyrics]]. The band hates the song and hasn't played it live for over 20 years.
** Their second biggest hit "Sabotage", despite the turntables is clearly a rock song that's very unlike the hip-hop breakbeat output of the rest of the songs on ''Ill Communication''.
* Music/TheBeatles declined to release "Yesterday" as a single in Great Britain for fear it would become one of these. (Let's just say that their producer, George Martin, proposed that it be a Music/PaulMcCartney solo work. [[TheWorldIsNotReady The world was not ready]].) It became the most covered of their songs.
** According to ''Guinness World Records'', it's also the most covered of anyone's songs. Ever.
** ''Music/{{Revolver|Beatles Album}}''[='=]s "Eleanor Rigby" is another one, for similar reasons to "Yesterday" though not as severe.
** "Music/{{Help}}", originally written as a slow, bleak ballad similar to "Yesterday", was retooled into a rock song for similar reasons too.
** "The Ballad of John and Yoko" has a similar history, being written by John and Paul as a snarky response to the media hype around John Lennon and Yoko Ono. It's credited to the Beatles as a whole, but only John and Paul appear, with John playing both lead and rhythm guitar, and Paul playing bass, drums, piano, and percussion (it was an 'on the spur of the moment' recording).
* Bella Morte's "The Rain Within Her Hands" was a LighterAndSofter proto-UsefulNotes/{{Synthwave}} song, in contrast to their normal DarkWave and IndustrialMetal output, and became the basis for Andy Deane's SoloSideProject, The Rain Within.
* Music/BenFoldsFive with "Brick": Their signature style usually revolves around uptempo, jazz-influenced songs with witty, irreverent lyrics and fuzz bass. "Brick", meanwhile, was a somber ballad about abortion and the destruction of the relationship between the couple involved.
* Listen to Berlin's best-of collection and you'll notice that [[Film/TopGun "Take My Breath Away"]], the only song they're really known for, sounds like nothing else on the disc. Berlin's usual style is high-energy synth pop; "Breath" is a rather somber power ballad.
* 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.
* The rapper B.G. felt this way about the song "Bling Bling", which spawned a global phenomenon, and made the term a recognized word in the dictionary. Saying that people thought that was what he was all about.
* Music/BigAndRich's only Top 40 pop hit and only #1 country airplay hit is "Lost in This Moment", a sensitive and serious wedding ballad which is far removed from their in-your-face hard rock and rap influences (as codified by "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)").
* "Strange Fruit" was the only protest song Music/BillieHoliday ever recorded. It was the underground hit that marked the turning point in her career.
* Music/BillyCurrington is usually known for his relaxed, laid-back drawling country songs such as "Good Directions" or "People Are Crazy" (his biggest hit overall), or for warm impassioned ballads like "Must Be Doin' Somethin' Right" or "Let Me Down Easy". However, his career from 2013 onward has been dominated by heavier and more upbeat songs driven by electric guitar, such as "Hey Girl", "Don't It", and "It Don't Hurt Like It Used To".
* Music/BillyIdol, "Eyes Without a Face"; a synthpop ballad by a normally punk-rock singer.
* While Music/{{Bjork}} is known for "being weird", it's likely that the only song of hers the average person could name is "It's Oh So Quiet" (from her early album ''Music/{{Post}}'') which is (a) nothing like anything else she's ever done, (b) A [[CoveredUp cover]] and (c) [[CreatorBacklash a song she detests now.]]
** The relative popularity of her singles varies geographically, eg. in the UK, where she has the most chart success, "Hyperballad" and "Army of Me" were also top 10 hits. The former allowed her to avert OneHitWonder status, and like Radiohead and Beck who did the same thing (after a longer wait in their case), she achieved critical acclaim and established a long career.
* Music/BlackSabbath's "Changes", a piano-driven PowerBallad from the band that basically created HeavyMetal.
* Music/BlindMelon. A very extreme and passionately-defended case among fandom. "No Rain" is not only a classic example of LyricalDissonance, being a sort of sill-sounding upbeat song about paralyzing depression, but was also intended as a kind of parody of the white suburbanite angst that permeated much of the pop music of the 90s. And while the rest of the band's catalog ran the gamut of sound, style and emotion both lyrically and musically, the only thing any of their other material had in common with "No Rain" was Shannon Hoon's distinctive voice.
* Music/{{Blondie}}'s primary musical style is {{New Wave|Music}}[=/=]PopPunk, but their four highest-charting singles in the US were the disco-electronica songs "Heart of Glass" and "Call Me", the hip hop song "Rapture", and a cover of a rocksteady song "The Tide Is High".
** New Wave was in its infancy in the late 70's, and punk was just starting to become big in the US. Blondie's hits mark a transition phase in American pop music from disco to New Wave.
** Also, Blondie had a very flexible style that was tied strongly to both '60s pop and current trends. Thus, the experiments with hip-hop and disco, and the "Tide Is High" cover at a time that ska was experiencing a revival were typically unpredictable moves.
* Music/BlueOysterCult's ''Music/AgentsOfFortune'' album featured "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", which became a fluky breakthrough hit for a band whose previous albums are full of weird, abrasive proto-metal songs. Their only other U.S. Top 40 hit was "Burnin' for You", which somehow managed to be even ''poppier'' and less representative of their sound than "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was.
* Music/{{Blur}}, "Song 2", especially in America where it's the only song most people know by them. Ironically the song was written to parody American alternative rock at the time. Right down to the indecipherable vocals.
** Which isn't as much of a black sheep in the context of that album, which probably changed the course of indie rock music for the next decade.
** On a lesser note, there's "Girls and Boys", which is downright dance music, but employed in the same mocking tone as "Song 2".
* Music/BobMarley's "One Love" and "Three Little Birds" are happy anomalies in his usually serious rock reggae catalogue, but they are the songs most commonly associated with him. Similarly the album ''Music/{{Kaya|BobMarleyAlbum}}'' sold well but is LighterAndSofter than the rest of his work. It is said that he released accessible material on ''Music/{{Exodus|BobMarleyAlbum}}'' and ''Kaya'' so that the public would pay attention to his work for his next album ''Music/{{Survival}}'', which contained his most political themes to date. However, they ended up changing the public perception of him to that of a carefree hippie rasta rather than someone who was using his music to call for social change.
** The same can be said about his international hit song "No Woman, No Cry" (the version [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJzJewlOfVs featured]] on [[Music/LiveBobMarleyAlbum his live record]]), which is a track most people consider very moving. Yet, the original studio version, found on ''Music/NattyDread'', almost sounds comedic. And despite the fact that Marley did write a lot of love songs: he is also best known for his social commentary, which is overshadowed in "No Woman, No Cry" by its message of love.
* Music/BobSeger was first known for his garage rock and then his guitar-driven arena rock. His only #1? "Shakedown", a synth-driven song that was written by him, Harold Faltermeyer, and Keith Forsey for the movie ''Film/BeverlyHillsCopII''.
** Another one of his big hits, "Shame on the Moon", managed to get enough airplay at country radio to make #15 on the country music charts. It was even written by critically acclaimed country singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell. It, too, is a (less blatant) departure from his usual sound.
* While Bobby [=McFerrin=] is still respected as a jazz vocalist, he's not likely to ever live down "Don't Worry, Be Happy".
* The [=BoDeans=]' biggest hit is "Closer to Free", a jangly PowerPop song that sounds nothing else like the rootsy folk-rock they normally play.
* Music/BoneThugsNHarmony: The Ghetto Cowboy Song, and to a lesser extent "Tha Crossroads". The latter making them ContractualPurity in some fans eyes. What really made "Tha Crossroads" stand out on the ''E.1999'' album was the fact it was a somber rap ballad amidst a album that was filled with occult mysticism, and bloodthirsty gangsta rap. The original mix was closer in tone to the Gothic-sounding album. The former was actually a remix.
* Bonnie Tyler is primarily a pop-rock artist, but her first international hit was the country rock styled "It's a Heartache". Due to the success of "It's a Heartache" on country radio stations at the time (1978), this made people originally think she was a country singer.
* The Boomtown Rats was a punk rock/new wave band, but their one US hit was ''I Don't Like Mondays'', a much slower ballad.
* Music/{{Boston}}, who were stadium rockers, rarely recorded ballads. However, one of their few, "Amanda", became their only #1 hit.
* A rare example where the black sheep hit was their first: Music/BoyzIIMen are known for the romantic ballads and soulful harmonies. Naturally, their first hit "Motownphilly" was an up-tempo NewJackSwing dance number.
* Music/BradPaisley:
** He usually records tongue-in-cheek novelty numbers, and on the rare occasion that he ''does'' a ballad, it's still got an undercurrent of humor mixed with introspection ("Letter to Me") or sympathy and praise for the opposite sex ("Waitin' on a Woman"). Not so with "Then", a very pop-sounding ClicheStorm love ballad that sounds nearly nothing like the rest of his career as far as melody or lyrics.
** "Whiskey Lullaby" (featuring the aforementioned Alison Krauss) is a very soft, somber TearJerker, which is unusual for Paisley's standards, but not so much for Krauss'.
** Another example of a black sheep hit from him is "Remind Me", a duet with Music/CarrieUnderwood, which is his highest charting song on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. Like "Then", it's a poppy ballad, and its subject matter of DeadSparks is an aberration to both artists' catalogs.
** His very first #1 hit, "He Didn't Have to Be", is a ballad honoring stepfathers. A much softer and more heartfelt beginning compared to the songs he'd record later on.
** And then there's his collaboration with Music/DollyParton. "When I Get Where I'm Going" has a reverent, preachy quality that, although right up Dolly's alley, is rather far from Brad's wheelhouse.
* The two biggest hits for the British band Breathe in America were the ballads "How Can I Fall" and "Hands to Heaven". The rest of their material isn't exactly ''heavy'' by any means, but does have a much more upbeat and dance-y SophistiPop quality to it than those two songs.
* Two of Music/BrooksAndDunn's biggest hits were outside their honky-tonk roots: a Latin-flavored cover of B.W. Stevenson's "My Maria", and the bombastic, electric guitar-heavy, rock-influenced "Ain't Nothing 'Bout You". These are also among the few singles of their career that neither member of the duo wrote.
** While most of the songs have Ronnie Dunn doing lead vocals, and his voice is what people think about when they think of Brooks & Dunn, there are a few songs (most notably "Rock My World (Little Country Girl)" and "Lost and Found") that feature Kix Brooks doing lead vocals. This can be quite confusing if you're a casual fan.
* Music/{{BTS}}' first #1 hit in the US, "Dynamite", is also their first fully English single[[note]]not counting songs where they appear as featured artists[[/note]], and it's the only one where no member has writing credits (rap line included), so while its sound is on par with their GenreRoulette musical approach, it doesn't have BTS' usual lyricism, {{Call Back}}s or ties to larger themes. It's also their only single that's not part of an album (they usually release {{Concept Album}}s). Thematically, it only really fits on a meta sense, with the stated intent to bring joy to listeners during the COVID-19 pandemic being in line with the way much of their work seeks to bring healing and comfort (albeit through lyrics more elaborate and personal than in "Dynamite").
** According to the members, they liked the demo sent to them so much that they wanted to capture that feeling as much as possible, leaving the original English lyrics untouched (though not for lack of trying - they tried to add Korean lyrics and rap but it didn't work). This decision, however, also helped greatly in gaining US radio support (one of the main factors in Billboard [=Hot100=] charting), as a major reason previous BTS singles had lackluster radioplay in the US [[https://nowthisnews.com/pop/radio-why-wont-you-play-bts was the fear that non-English songs would lead listeners to tune out]].
* Music/{{Buckcherry}} mostly does heavily sexualized hard rock songs, but "Sorry", their only pop crossover hit, is a slow ballad.
* Music/KateBush's biggest international hit, "Running Up That Hill", is an upbeat and mainstream-accessible {{New Wave| Music}} {{Synthpop}} number, departing significantly from her traditional Art Rock and BaroquePop.
* Music/ButtholeSurfers' number one hit "Pepper" is a style parody of Music/{{Beck}} with serious lyrics, and not really representative of their output, which is generally darker, more humorous, and more experimental.
* Music/CalvinHarris did all the singing himself on his first two albums, but since he broke into the mainstream almost every song features a SpecialGuest doing the singing rather than him. There are two exceptions, namely "Feel So Close" from ''18 Months'' and "Summer" from ''Motion'', two massive hits sung entirely by him (the latter of which is seen as his SignatureSong). Almost every other song that doesn't feature a guest vocalist is an instrumental.
* CaptainSensible of Music/TheDamned had a solo hit with a cover version of "Happy Talk" from Film/SouthPacific. Allegedly the band's usual punk rock style came as a shock to some old ladies who later bought tickets to one of their shows expecting an evening of similar ballads. [[note]] One of the old ladies, upon hearing the dulcet tones of TheDamned's "New Rose" is reported to have said to a fellow concert goers that "This isn't exactly what I came here for - but I am glad I came!" [[/note]]
* 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/CarlySimon's "You're So Vain" is not her only TakeThat, but it's probably her least subtle. While it's far from her only hit, it's her only #1 (in Australia and North America), her best known song and is more rock-oriented than most of her hits.
* Music/CatStevens was quite reluctant to release "Wild World" on ''Tea for the Tillerman'' because he considered it too commercial compared to his folk-rock output, but it was indeed one of his first Top 20 hits. His next album, ''Teaser and the Firecat'', gave him two Top 10 hits with "Peace Train," which has a loose soul inspiration, and his cover/arrangement of "Morning Has Broken," contrasting his calm guitar with the flamboyant piano of [[Music/{{Yes}} Rick Wakeman]].
* Music/TheChainsmokers:
** Their BreakthroughHit was "#SELFIE", a novelty dance song about taking selfies. It sounds nothing like most of their more "normal" style of EDM, and it was thought that it would doom them to one-hit wonder status because of it. They managed to escape it by reinventing themselves as a more serious act, making this a textbook example of one escaping the looming shadow of a black sheep hit.
** They later had another one with "Closer", to a lesser extent. It was the first single to feature a member of the duo, specifically Andrew Taggert, [[StepUpToTheMicrophone singing]] as opposed to being handled entirely by a guest. This duet style song done with featured artist Music/{{Halsey}} became their first song to hit #1 in the United States.
* 80s group Champaign's big hit was the slow ballad "How 'Bout Us", which stands in contrast to their usual upbeat funk style.
* "Rockney" duo Music/ChasAndDave, best known for their humorous and fast-paced songs, had a hit with their maudlin ballad "Ain't No Pleasin' You".
* Music/CharliXCX finally had a hit with her theme from ''Film/TheFaultInOurStars'', "Boom Clap", after 8 non-charting singles and only being known for features (Music/IconaPop's "I Love It" and Music/IggyAzalea's "Fancy"). "Boom Clap" is a clean, upbeat, energetic {{silly love song|s}} that could safely be played on any radio station or event with children involved (indeed, the song is very popular with kids). Anyone who looked up her ''other'' material however, might have been in for a shock to discover how [[DeadpanSnarker sarcastic]], [[IntercourseWithYou raun]][[HardDrinkingPartyGirl chy]], and [[ClusterFBomb swear-filled]] her songs normally are. This is most likely why she never had another major solo hit afterwards.
* Music/CheapTrick's "The Flame". Best known for their high energy PowerPop numbers, they were [[ExecutiveMeddling forced to record this ballad by their label]] because their previous two albums had been duds. Guitarist Rick Nielsen hated the song so much that when its demo was first played for the band, he pulled the cassette out of the machine and destroyed it by grinding it with his boot heel. Eventually they felt obligated to record it and it became their only number 1 single. When they play it live, they often mock the song and the fanbase they picked up from it.[[note]]The band was offered the choice of either recording "The Flame" or a Diane Warren song called "Look Away", and they picked the ballad they hated the least. Music/{{Chicago|Band}} took "Look Away" to the top of the Hot 100 six months after "The Flame" did the same.[[/note]]
* Cherry Poppin' Daddies recorded music in practically every genre, but their main one was primarily ska. Yet they are labeled as a swing band, thanks to "Zoot Suit Riot". To be fair, "Zoot Suit Riot" was also the title track to a compilation specifically meant to highlight their swing material, which then became their most commercially successful album. Even before "Zoot Suit Riot" became a hit, the swing revival caused them to pick up a new fanbase, so their manager suggested they put together a compilation featuring just the swing songs from their previous albums.
* Music/{{Chicago|Band}}'s "If You Leave Me Now" was this at the time of its release. It was almost left off ''Chicago X'' for this reason. After the album was released, band member Walter Parazaider heard the song on the radio... and didn't know it was his own band's work. Needless to say, the success of the song led to a big shift in the band's style. Thirty-five years later, keyboardist Robert Lamm has been known to jokingly introduce it at concerts as "The song that ruined our career."
* Music/ChildishGambino started off as and has always been primarily a rapper. However, his album ''Awaken, My Love!'' saw him [[GenreAdultery veer off into funk]]. That album has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp7eSUU9oy8 ''Redbone'']], which was his first big hit on the charts.
* Everything Music/ChrisDeBurgh ever did falls into three categories: 1. Michael Bolton-esque PowerPop beltfests ("Don't Pay the Ferryman"), 2. Gentle, melodic folk ballads ("This Song for You"), and 3. narratives ("Patricia the Stripper"). One time... ''one time''... he did a mushy love song, "Lady in Red". Which he specifically did as a tribute to his wife. Guess which one gets the most airplay? (At least they're still married.)
* Chris Rea is best known as a blues-rock artist and for his slide guitar playing, but his biggest American hit was his debut single "Fool (If You Think It's Over)", a keyboard-based soft rock song which is also the only song he's released that he doesn't play guitar on.
* Music/ChuckBerry, the RockAndRoll legend whose songs such as "Johnny B. Goode" and "Roll Over Beethoven" influenced entire generations of rock artists, scored several hits on the R&B charts but only one #1 hit single on the Billboard Hot 100 during his multi-decade career: the silly novelty ditty "[[DoubleEntendre My Ding-a-Ling]]", which he didn't even write.
* Music/{{Chumbawamba}} got known as an anarchistic punk band, but the only song of theirs most people could probably name is the pop number "Tubthumping". Unfortunately, due to "anarchist punk" being virtually unknown in mainstream, and this tag being used in conjunction with every mention of the band, "Tubthumping" has become a representation of "anarchist punk".
** This was an EnforcedTrope, putting out a rollicking crowd-pleaser to attract people to their more serious work.
* Most of Music/TheClash's biggest hits are examples of this. Although music critics know them as revolutionaries in punk rock music (who later played reggae, jazz, world music and just about anything they could think of), most normal people know them for their pop hits: the title track and "Train in Vain" from ''Music/LondonCalling'' and "Rock the Casbah" and "Should I Stay or Should I Go" from ''Music/CombatRock''.
** "Train in Vain" and "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" are especially notable, since they were not sung by frontman Joe Strummer, but rather by guitarist and [[StepUpToTheMicrophone and occasional vocalist]] Mick Jones.
* Music/{{Coldplay}} was quite possibly the most popular rock band in the world during the 00s, rivaled only by Music/LinkinPark for the title. They're known for playing AlternativeRock, and later incorporating ElectronicMusic into their sound. Their biggest hit? "Viva la Vida", a BaroquePop song with elements of neither one. It was their only #1 pop hit in the US.
* Count Basie, leader of an influential jazz big band, had his only #1 hit in 1947 with "Open the Door, Richard", a comedy skit with the occasional chanted refrain and not much jazz outside of Basie's piano accompaniment. A contemporary review lamented that "musically, this is Basie's worst record."
* Coven was a hard rock band in the late '60s whose use of Satanic imagery predated Music/BlackSabbath by nearly a year (they even had a song called "Black Sabbath" and a bassist named Oz Osbourne), and their debut album concludes with a recording of a Satanic mass performed by the group. Their biggest hit? "One Tin Soldier", a folksy ProtestSong (first by The Original Caste) recorded for the soundtrack to ''Billy Jack''.
* Music/BlakeShelton was one of the big figures in bro-country, a subgenre defined by two things: rap-inspired production and a near-total disinterest in any topic beyond parties, booze, tits and cars. Even after bro-country fell out of favour, Shelton's output was still pretty heavy on pop production and light on deeper themes, which is why "God's Country," a bleak, harsh-edged Southern Gothic country song, is so jarring. It's not his ''biggest'' hit, but it still feels weird to listen to it and think that this was the dude who made "Boys Round Here".
* "Dance with the Devil" was Cozy Powell's first and biggest solo hit. Unfortunately, he didn't really mean it: "I only cut 'Dance with the Devil' for a laugh, but then it escalated until I felt I was losing credibility..." It led to him quitting music and going into motor racing full time for a few months, after which he was persuaded to join Strange Brew and then Music/{{Rainbow}}.
* Music/TheCranberries' "Zombie" to an extent - they've had hits that were just as big and were more representative of their signature style, but it's one of their most famous songs and also the only heavy, grunge-influenced thing they've ever done. They specifically went for a darker, more aggressive sound in this case because they thought it would fit with the overtly anti-war lyrics. It's sort of an inverse of the typical SurprisinglyGentleSong example.
** Even more so with "Salvation", an uptempo pop-punk number.
* Crazy Town's entire discography consists of [[RatedMForManly macho]] RapMetal. Their only #1 hit and by extension [[OneHitWonder their only Hot 100 entry]]? "Butterfly". A funky pop-rap love ballad that sounds absolutely nothing like anything else they have ever done.
* Music/{{The Cure|Band}}'s "Friday I'm in Love" is an incredibly silly love song, contrasting their usual darker style.
** The uptempo pop-styled "Just Like Heaven" is in great contrast to their gothic style, sounding more reminiscent of Music/NewOrder's guitar-driven material from around the same period.
* Music/DaYoopers' two best-known songs are "Rusty Chevrolet" and "Second Week of Deer Camp". The former is an example because it's one of the only parody songs they've ever done (specifically, of "Jingle Bells"), while the latter is far more traditional and folk sounding (the only instruments on it are an accordion and gutbucket bass).
* Music/DaftPunk's ''Random Access Memories'' takes it to another level by applying it on an album-scale. They're a massively influential ElectronicMusic duo, so naturally their biggest hit album would be a '70s {{Disco}}[=/=]{{Funk}} throwback to the sounds that originated from UsefulNotes/LosAngeles.
* Songwriter Dave Bassett is best known for writing hard rock songs (including the aforementioned "Second Chance" for Shinedown), but the biggest hit of his career? Music/RachelPlatten's "Fight Song", which is a purely Adult Contemporary ballad. He had another major hit only a few months later writing Elle King's Grammy-nominated "Ex's & Oh's". While it's the closest pop radio has seen to a "hard rock" hit since "Second Chance" and Music/KingsOfLeon's "Use Somebody", it's still practically pop compared to most other Bassett tunes. That being said, they're both typical songs for Platten and King. Those three songs were Bassett's only mainstream hits, with his only other top 40 entry being a song he wrote for the first winner of ''Series/TheVoice'', and none of the artists ever had another pop hit aside from Platten, and even then, with a song that wasn't written by Bassett and barely scraped the top 40 for a week or two. Shinedown and King both maxed out at #42, the latter only via a featured spot on a song by country singer Music/DierksBentley.
* Music/DavidAllanCoe was best known for his rebellious outlaw style, yet his biggest hit was the sensitive ballad "Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile".
* David Johansen, former singer for the proto-punk band Music/NewYorkDolls, recorded the pop song "Hot, Hot, Hot" under the pseudonym Buster Poindexter. He later described the song in an interview as the "bane of his existence". Unfortunately for him, the song is more famous than anything he ever did with his band.
* To some extent, two of the best known Music/DeadMilkmen songs are these: "Punk Rock Girl" doesn't differ that much from their usual style musically, but the lyrical humor is a bit LighterAndSofter than usual, and Joe Jack Talcum sings it instead of their regular vocalist Rodney Anonymous. Meanwhile, "You'll Dance to Anything" does have Rodney on lead vocals and is more representative of their TakeThat-laden humor, but since it's a TakeThat to [[NewWaveMusic NewWave]], it's based around deliberately repetitive synthesizers and drum machines instead of their usual full-band sound.
* Del Amitri's "Roll to Me" was added to ''Twisted'' as an afterthought, and it's now the only song of theirs that many people know. The rest of ''Twisted'' is a bit harder and while not inaccessible, isn't nearly as perky as "Roll to Me".
* "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever" by Music/{{Delirious}} might have been their most famous song in America. It was mellower than their other hits and was also more of an old-timey praise chorus song than a contemporary worship (a genre they helped popularize). Martin Smith didn't think it was one of his best songs, either. They later released a rocked-up version of it.
* Music/DiamondRio had their biggest crossover with "One More Day", a lush pop ballad that stood at complete odds to their usual twangy country-rock.
* Music/DireStraits, [[Music/{{Brothers in Arms|Album}} "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.
* In a bizarre twist, this happened to Music/{{Disturbed}} in just the opposite manner: "Down with the Sickness" remains one of their heavier and most well-known songs, which has gone to undermine their slower, more melodic works in later albums. 11 million records, five number 1 albums and a Grammy nomination later, they're still seen in the public eye as that band that makes staccato monkey noises. "Down with the Sickness" was typical of Disturbed's style at the time. The slower, melodic, stuff came later as the band got more mature.
** Happened in a much more typical fashion with their orchestral cover of the 60's folk classic "[[Music/SimonAndGarfunkel The Sound of Silence]]," which charted higher than anything they've ever done (becoming their first multi-platinum song) and saw them gain exposure on ''Series/{{Conan}}'', ''[[VideoGame/GearsOfWar Gears of War 4]]'' and ''Series/DancingWithTheStars'' and became one of ''very'' few post-2009 songs from Mainstream Rock artists to have even minor crossover success. Besides one [[ElectronicMusic electronic rock ballad]], the album it came from is one of their heaviest yet.
* One reason that Music/DonMcLean's successful career as a singer-songwriter was somewhat limited was that audiences and radio programmers expected his other songs to be similar to "Music/AmericanPie" and were disappointed when they weren't.
* Music/DonnaSummer was most famous as the Queen of Disco, but then "I Feel Love", her 1977 collaboration with Music/GiorgioMoroder, was almost entirely produced on a Moog Modular 3P synthesizer, and may be the UrExample of ItaloDisco and ElectronicDanceMusic, not to mention her singing in [[VocalDissonance head voice]] as opposed to her normal chest register.
* Music/{{Donovan}}'s lone #1 hit was the totally psychedelic "Sunshine Superman", following a long chain of [[Music/BobDylan Dylanesque]] folk rock. Eventually he switched to psychedelia because of this.
* 1990s country star Doug Stone was usually known for being a balladeer, usually with an emphasis on heartbreak or sorrow (as exemplified by his debut single "I'd Be Better Off (In a Pine Box)"). Two of his biggest hits ("A Jukebox with a Country Song" and "Why Didn't I Think of That") were far more uptempo, but not completely outside his comfort zone thematically — the first is about him seeking a place to [[DrowningMySorrows drown his sorrows]] after a fight with the Mrs., while the latter is him regretting that his girl is now with someone else. However, "In a Different Light" stands out as a romantic love song about a relationship with an [[OfficeRomance office worker]]. "Addicted to a Dollar" and "Born in the Dark" also stand out for having a much harder country-rock edge than the rest of his career.
* Music/DreamTheater wrote "Pull Me Under" almost as an afterthought to the album ''Music/ImagesAndWords'' because it was thought the album (which was released in 1992 but mostly written in 1989) needed a more straight-forward heavy song to balance out the EpicRocking and the ballads. The song went on to be a surprise # 10 rock radio chart hit and popular MTV video. They've also expressed irritation over the immense and enduring popularity of "Metropolis Pt. 1" (although this was not a radio hit) to the point where many fans wanted to hear it at ''every'' show. Mike Portnoy once asked, "Don't you guys ever get tired of this fucking song?" and John Petrucci said the band could "play it in [their] sleep."
* Music/DuranDuran are chiefly known for danceable {{New Wave| Music}} and AlternativeDance/Rock, whereas their [[Music/TheWeddingAlbum 1993 comeback]] hit "Ordinary World" is a [[RaisedLighterTribute lighter-raising]] {{power ballad}}.
* Music/DustySpringfield 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.
* While calling any of their songs a "hit" would be stretching it, the cult classic DeathMetal band Music/EdgeOfSanity is best known for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwhzmUismio "Black Tears"]], a catchy punk/alternative rock-influenced song which has been covered by numerous other metal bands including Music/HeavenShallBurn and Music/EternalTearsOfSorrow. Even with singer Dan Swanö's new band Nightingale, it remains a SignatureSong that gets played at most live shows and has become an AudienceParticipationSong.
* The Elastik Band were a pretty obscure, short-lived band in the 60's, but later on their bizarre, politically incorrect psychedelic blues-rock single "Spazz" became a cult favorite when it showed up on the compilation ''Nuggets''. Some time later, a compilation of their complete recordings came out, and it turned out they were otherwise a gentle folk-rock band who generally had more in common with Music/TheByrds or The Left Banke than Music/CaptainBeefheart.
* Music/ElectricLightOrchestra's trademark sound of symphonic rock brought them fame... but their biggest hit in the US was the string-less PowerPop song "Don't Bring Me Down".
** They also had two other top 20 hits in the U.S. - "Hold on Tight" and "Calling America" - which lacked strings (although it must be noted that strings had been largely abandoned by that point in their career).
* Music/EllieGoulding:
** As a common example of covers being black sheep hits, one of her biggest hits is "Your Song", an Music/EltonJohn cover. It is a lot more piano based than her other songs, which are basically electro-pop with folk elements.
** Also, "Burn" was the biggest hit off of ''Music/{{Halcyon}} Days''. It's the most straightforward pop song on the album, being a light-hearted song about ThePowerOfFriendship, while rest of the album consists of {{obsession song}}s and {{destructive romance}}s with a DarkerAndEdgier sound.
** "Love Me Like You Do" became her third Top 20 hit and second Top 10, and it is, by a sizable margin, the biggest hit of her career worldwide, yet it's completely different from what she normally does for a couple of reasons. It was made for ''Film/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' soundtrack, and as such is heavily about IntercourseWithYou (a topic she hasn't even hinted at before), and Goulding had absolutely no involvement in the songwriting process (a far cry from her normal IndiePop DIY style). It is in her signature {{synthpop}} style, however. It's just that the subject matter and production is completely different from what she normally does. It was also unusual in that its success was fueled by digital downloads and streaming whereas most of her previous hits were predominantly radio hits (it briefly held the World record for the most streamed song in a single week).
* Music/EltonJohn's "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" is one of his best-known songs, but is ''much'' harder than his other material. An inversion of the usual scenario. Elton also never thought "Bennie and the Jets" was commercial enough to be a hit. It not only ''did'' become a hit, but topped the ''R&B'' charts. Elton was one of the first white performers to play on ''Series/SoulTrain''.
* 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/ElvisPresley pretty much ran the gamut from loud rockers and jumpy, jazzy tunes to soft ballads and bluesy melodies. Shortly before his entry into the army, however, he recorded the Dixieland-based "Hard Headed Woman", one of the more unusual of his numerous chart-toppers, for the film ''King Creole''.
* Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer's "Lucky Man". ELP's first album did not have enough material to meet contract obligations, and thus Greg Lake decided to record a song he had written when he was twelve. It is very atypical of the band in that it focused mainly on acoustic guitar and singing instead of keyboards and instrumentals. A song meant to be a filler turned out to be a successful hit, reaching number 48 in the Billboard Hot 100. As a result, Lake would write and play acoustic guitar ballads on later albums, such as "From The Beginning", "Still... You Turn Me On" and "C'est La Vie", some of which were Black Sheep Hits in their own right.
* Emiliana Torrini's biggest hit "Jungle Drum" is a textbook example of this. Being very upbeat and rather poppy it was a big hit in Europe. And also completely different from her usual rather quiet, dark and bittersweet songs. Torrini herself was rather surprised at the success of the song since it [[ExecutiveMeddling barely even made it to the album.]]
* 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.
** "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.
** "The Real Slim Shady" from ''Music/TheMarshallMathersLP''
** While different from the other examples, "Stan" from ''The Marshall Mathers LP'' is an oddity in his discography for its deep storytelling, acoustic guitar ballad production, and conversational rapping, which won Eminem a fandom amongst people who preferred singer-songwriter and ClassicRock genres, as well as literary-minded critics who started calling him the great poet of the 2000s. Some of the HypeBacklash against Eminem was driven by these fans turning on him when they figured out that he doesn't write storytelling songs as often as he indulges in stream-of-consciousness VulgarHumor.
** "Purple Pills" from ''Devil's Night''
** "Without Me" from ''Music/TheEminemShow''
** "My Band" from ''D12 World''
** "Just Lose It" and "Ass Like That" from ''Encore''
** Apart from "3 a.m.", which is typical of the content on the album, all of the singles on ''Relapse'' are oddballs:
*** "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-colored 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-colored MTV-pop imagery again as a StylisticCallback.
*** "Beautiful" is a RapRock ballad produced in a totally different way to the rest of the album, and Eminem performs it in a strange, deep voice that he never used before this and didn't use again. This is because it was a song Eminem started writing on his [[CreatorBreakdown first day in rehab in 2006]], possibly intended for the scrapped album ''King Mathers''; Em decided it was the best song written during that time, finished it off, and kept it as testament to how much he'd [[CreatorRecovery improved since getting clean]].
** 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".
** "Berzerk" from ''The Marshall Mathers LP 2'' - silly, contains celebrity disses, but also a GenreThrowback to late 80s hip-hop, with the visuals, sound, sample, and [[BriefAccentImitation Eminem's delivery and accent]] evoking Music/BeastieBoys.
** "Framed" from ''Revival'' - based around AntiRoleModel and controversy-magnet themes like "The Real Slim Shady", but also a ([[LightmareFuel silly]]) {{Horrorcore}} song with a dark, moody beat that the video makes into a prequel to Eminem's ''Relapse'' MedicalHorror single "3 a.m."
** Though dissimilar from other examples, "Venom" from ''Kamikaze'' is the only non-diss track on the album (unless you count him calling his fans "[[TakeThatAudience retards]]"), and also got much more reach from being the theme to, well, ''[[Film/Venom2018 Venom]]''.
** "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 from these videos. "Gnat" also recaptures the UnintentionalPeriodPiece aspect of his older comedy lead singles, being about the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.
* Music/{{Eve 6}} followed a similar path. The hit from their debut self-titled album, "Inside Out", was much lighter and more pop-flavored than the harder-edged post-grunge style of the rest of the album. The following album ''Horrorscope'' was filled with mellower, poppier songs. Among several songs from that album to hit the charts was one that took them even further from their roots - the ballad "Here's to the Night", making it, arguably, a black sheep among black sheep (or maybe a black goat).
* Everything but the Girl's greatest hit was Todd Terry's dance remix of "Missing", which influenced them to undergo a GenreShift from their prior SophistiPop, though [[OneHitWonder they never achieved any further US pop hits]].
* Music/{{Extreme}} was known for poppy HairMetal with clever lyrics and remarkably intricate and speedy guitar work by Nuno Bettencourt (the Beethoven guitar riff from ''Film/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure'' came from their song "Play With Me" and a regular feature in their concerts was Nuno's rendition of "Flight of the Bumblebee"... take THAT, Music/DragonForce!). The only songs by them that get any airplay anymore? The ballad "More Than Words" and the folksy "Hole Hearted", both slower acoustic songs.
* After it was used for the closing credits of ''Film/{{Rushmore}}'', "Ooh La La" has probably become the best-known Music/{{Faces}} song, but it's an outlier for them several ways. The lead vocal wasn't by frontman Music/RodStewart or occasional lead singer Ronnie Lane, but rather by guitarist [[Music/TheRollingStones Ron Wood]] (his only lead vocal for the band, in fact), and it's an acoustic guitar-led CountryMusic-influenced number, when they specialized in raucous HardRock. As noted below, their predecessor band Music/TheSmallFaces already had experience with this trope.
* Music/FaithNoMore had one with "Epic", their only Top 40 hit. Of the [[GenreRoulette countless genres]] they've done over their long career, this was one of only a handful of songs that featured [[RapMetal rapping]]. Commonly seen as a song that pioneered rap metal, this song has led to them getting pigeonholed as being a "rap metal" band.
** Their second highest entry on the Hot 100 was a [[SurprisinglyGentleSong completely straight-faced]] cover of [[Music/LionelRichie The Commodores]]' ballad "Easy". Before they recorded it, it was a song that they would perform in concerts to [[TrollingCreator intentionally annoy]] close-minded metalheads in the audience.
* 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.
** The band's frontman Jonah Matranga scored a Top 10 pop hit in 2006 with his guest appearance on Music/FortMinor's "Where'd You Go", a song that is stylistically a million miles away from Far's mid-90s work.
* 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".
* Fat Larry's Band were a funk dance group whose one crossover hit was "Zoom", a slow ballad.
* Fergie's had numerous hits independent of Music/TheBlackEyedPeas, but one of her biggest would be "Big Girls Don't Cry". It's an adult contemporary song that sounds nothing like her normal "urban" material. It topped both the AC and Hot AC charts, which marks her only entry on the former, though some of her other songs scraped the end of the latter.
* Music/{{Filter}}'s "Take a Picture" is a light, melodic song that stands in contrast to their darker, heavier music. This leads to a funny moment when one unfamiliar with the group first plays "Hey Man, Nice Shot" on ''VideoGame/GuitarHero World Tour'' and then wonders why the band has a song on the mainstream pop-oriented ''Band Hero''.
* Finger Eleven present a variation. Until they had a hit with "Paralyzer", their best known song was the slow ballad "One Thing," which was far less representative of their typical style.
** And "Paralyzer", which was far more poppy than their usual work, is itself an example.
** 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 Wrestling/{{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.
* Sort of averted by The Music/FlamingLips' "She Don't Use Jelly" - the band's only American chart single. Most fans tend to be weary of it still being the first thing many people think of when they hear the band's name, but the band still like it: Even though they're increasingly playing less early material live, the song is nearly always included in their setlists. Plus, whilst their work tends to be a lot more atmospheric, the song still shows off the average LSD-infused weirdness of their early output, and their tendency to not take themselves too seriously.
* Music/FleetwoodMac's best-selling single in the UK is still, by quite a distance, the 1968 single "Albatross", an almost easy-listening instrumental bearing no resemblance to either the blues rock they normally played at the time, or the pop rock they became known for.
* Music/{{Focus}}, "Hocus Pocus". It still gets more play than anything else they ever did (with the possible exception of "House of the King"). If you've heard it, you'll remember Thijs van Leer's yodeling performance ("...yodel-lay-ee yodel-om-pom-pom!"). It is quite distinct from the rest of their repertoire, and has misdirected potential fans in the past. However, the group never turned against it.
* Music/FooFighters have a couple:
** "Big Me", from [[Music/FooFightersAlbum their debut]], is an upbeat jangly PowerPop song, and it was their first major hit single and [[SurprisinglyGentleSong unlike any of their normal hits]].
** "Walking After You", a downtempto love ballad.
** "Everlong", their most popular song, sounds ''very'' different than their usual hard rock style, with drums clearly influenced by PostPunk. This naturally makes it seem out of place when they perform it, hence why it's usually the show closer.
** "Learn to Fly", their biggest pop hit, was one of Dave's least favorite songs particularly for feeling it did not represent the band - and then its success led him to play it every night!
** "All My Life", their biggest hit in the United Kingdom, could count upon release it was ''harder'' than their usual style. Then the albums afterward produced plenty of heavy hits (such as their highest charting song in the US, "Best of You"), and it did not seem that much of a black sheep.
* Music/FosterThePeople's "Pumped Up Kicks", their only Top 40 hit, completely lacks the electro-pop slant of the rest of ''Torches''. Interestingly enough, it was the song that got the band a record deal in the first place; the material that made "Pumped Up Kicks" seem incongruent came along ''after'' it.
* While it's still one of the Foundations' many SillyLoveSongs, "Build Me Up Buttercup" is a lot more upbeat than most of them (including their other hit "Baby Now That I've Found You").
* 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 {{instrumental|s}} he initially recorded as an album cut, "Music Box Dancer", became a major worldwide hit in 1979, he shifted his style to instrumental music.
* Music/FrankSinatra and his SignatureSong "Music/MyWay", which is more adult contemporary than his usual swinging style. Indeed, he never really liked it despite being his most famous song.
* Music/FrankZappa's ''Music/SheikYerbouti'' contained one in the form of "Dancin' Fool". The humor is very typical of Zappa's music, but the highly commercial melody and radio-friendly production is not. Ironically he was trying to ''parody'' these effects, but Top-40 radio programmers [[MisaimedFandom didn't get the joke]]. See also "Valley Girl", the lead single from ''Music/ShipArrivingTooLateToSaveADrowningWitch''.
** "Bobby Brown (Goes Down)", from the same album as "Dancin' Fool", fits the bill as well.
* Music/FreeBand, "All Right Now". Before that, they mostly did slow blues-rock ballads.
* Funk group Freeez's biggest hit was the uncharacteristically electro-influenced "I.O.U.", which was written and produced by Arthur Baker.
* Fuzzbubble were a PowerPop band who were once the only rock act signed to Creator/BadBoyRecords, a label otherwise known for hip-hop and r and b. The Bad Boy connection led to the only charting song they were ever involved in, a RapRock remix of Puff Daddy's "It's All About the Benjamins" ([[ParodyDisplacement 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 history a bit with its HiddenTrack - a cover of Music/NotoriousBIG's "Hypnotize" InTheStyleOf lounge music.
* Music/GarthBrooks, "Lost in You" (from ''Music/InTheLifeOfChrisGaines'') at least was his biggest single pop-wise (it was his only Top 40 pop single, believe it or not).
* Gary Clark Jr. is known for his eclectic mix of guitar-driven rock, blues, and soul. However, his biggest hit, and his only rock radio hit so far, is his cover of Music/TheBeatles' "Come Together" made for ''Film/JusticeLeague2017''. This one is a booming electronic rock track that sounds nothing like what he usually makes, mainly due to being produced by Music/JunkieXL.
* Subverted by Music/{{Genesis|Band}}. Once a sophisticated progressive rock band, "Follow You, Follow Me" (a gentle love ballad) and especially "Misunderstanding" (a poppier song done InTheStyleOf Music/TheBeachBoys) ''should'' by all rights have been Black Sheep Hits for them. But they seemingly decided to go with it, and soon became ''far'' better known for a string of hit singles mostly fairly similar to those songs than for their more progressive work.
** 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).
** One of the most famous songs of Music/PhilCollins' solo career is "In the Air Tonight", which is much darker than his [[SillyLoveSongs usual output]] (same deal with "I Don't Care Anymore").
** Two of Music/PeterGabriel's biggest solo hits, "Sledgehammer" and "Big Time" (both from ''Music/{{So}}''), are quite a bit funkier and more light-hearted than his usual {{progressive|rock}}[=/=]WorldMusic-influenced songs that frequently tackle serious, mystical, and/or intellectual subject matter.
* The Music/GooGooDolls were originally a punk-oriented alternative band similar to Music/TheReplacements (they were on Metal Blade Records - a famous metal label, and as such, were a strange fit there) with a few slower acoustic songs here and there. They decided to record a ballad ("Name") for their 1995 album ''A Boy Named Goo'', which wound up being a major hit (their first, after five albums). They actually decided to roll with it and wound up completely changing their style to the softer pop-rock they're known for now.
* Music/GratefulDead - "Touch of Grey". The pop song introduced them to new fans in the 80's, whom their original fans absolutely hated.
* Music/GreenDay, "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)". Also, to a lesser extent, ''Music/AmericanIdiot''[='=]s "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends". Different from many examples in that they're not upset about it, and the songs are hardly out of place for the band anymore since ''Music/TwentyFirstCenturyBreakdown'' has many similar songs.
* "Sweet Child o' Mine" from Music/GunsNRoses, the riff was written as a joke by Music/{{Slash}}. The song was quickly written, it had been heard that Slash does not really like the song.
** Actually, the intro was just Slash warming up in their rehearsal-room, and Axl just happened to hear it, loved it and found an old poem he'd written and voila, Guns' most famous song was written.
** Most of ''Music/UseYourIllusion'' and all of ''"The Spaghetti Incident?"'' is this. In fact, when set-lists are put together, TSI is left off entirely, and only a few certain fan-favorites from UYI get on the set-lists. On Slash-tours, that'd be "Civil War". On GNR-shows, that'd be "Civil War", "Knockin' On Heaven's Door", "You Could Be Mine", "Estranged", "Don't Cry" and "November Rain" (the Ballad-Trio). And that's out of a setlist with up to 35 songs! 6 from UYI get to be played. Granted, the current GNR tour is called "Appetite For Democracy", which might help explain the shortage of UYI and TSI songs (and there's only one or two from ''Lies'').
* 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.
* "This Guy's in Love with You", a #1 hit for Music/HerbAlpert 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]]
* Music/TheHollies' "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress" is much harder than their usual material. Also, the lead guitar was played by vocalist Allan Clarke as opposed to Tony Hicks, and it contains a solo vocal from Clarke (one of the Hollies' trademarks was their great vocal harmonies). {{Justified|Trope}} since its InTheStyleOf Music/CreedenceClearwaterRevival (Clarke's vocals in this song specifically imitate John Fogerty's from the song "Green River"). Interestingly, Fogerty himself views the song as somewhere between ActuallyPrettyFunny and "A damn good song in its own right" to the point where he has ''happily sung the song in concert!''
* Hoobastank, "The Reason". It's completely a ballad, contrasting strongly with Hoobastank's usual alternative rock/alt-metal style (though they are mostly the former).
* One of Music/TheHumanLeague's greatest hits, "Being Boiled", was produced by their DarkerAndEdgier [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness "Mk. 1" lineup]], whose producers, Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, split with singer Phil Oakey to found Heaven 17 after their first two albums. On the other end of the scale, "Human", THL's only American #1 hit after "Don't You Want Me", is an adult contemporary ballad quite distanced from their signature synthpop sound.
* Music/{{Incubus}}'s breakout hit, "Drive", was much softer than their past work, though they've done more like it since.
* Music/IggyPop. Known for being the grandfather of punk rock, much of his output is rough, hard, and loud. But the closest thing he's had to a hit was a pop ballad love song. It's called "Candy" and is duet with Kate Pierson of The B-52s. It reached 28 in the US Billboard top 100.
* 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."
* Music/JanelleMonae's highest charting song is "Yoga", which is a much more traditional R&B/hip-hop song than most of her other music (which tends to fall into the GenreBusting trope).
* Music/JanesAddiction - "Been Caught Stealing", an upbeat hip-hop-esque song with dog barks.
* Music/JasonAldean had his first big hit in 2007 with "Why", which was also his only love ballad for quite some time. "Big Green Tractor" and "The Truth" are also far mellower than his usual rock style. With the release of the Music/KellyClarkson duet "Don't You Wanna Stay" (a PowerBallad), "Why" now looks like much less of a Black Sheep Hit, but the other two still qualify.
** There's also "Dirt Road Anthem", a CountryRap that's his biggest hit on the pop charts to date. Country-rap is not usually what he does.
* Music/JeffersonStarship mostly did rockers. Their biggest hit, "Miracles", was a soft ballad.
* "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/{{Jewel}}, normally a folk-pop singer-songwriter, had an unexpected #1 hit on the dance charts with "Serve the Ego", especially when it received a remix from the [=DJs=] Gabriel & Dresden. The success of "Serve the Ego" led her to lean fully into electronic dance-pop on her next album ''0304''; unfortunately, said album is widely regarded by her fans as a DorkAge that [[CreatorKiller killed her mainstream success]], and she's largely returned to her older style since. She would later record a pair of CountryMusic albums, ''Perfectly Clear'' and ''Sweet & Wild'', and two albums of children's music with ''Lullaby'' and ''The Merry Goes 'Round'', but compared to "Serve the Ego" and ''0304'', they were a much smaller diversion from her usual style.
* Music/JillScott's debut single "Getting in the Way" is about a woman confronting some hussy who's making moves on her man. It is ''much'' angrier in tone than 90% of her music, which is generally good-natured and uplifting, making it all the more baffling that ''this'' song was chosen as her first single and video.
* 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".
* Joan Osborne is a raw and rootsy blues-rocker whose one big hit, "One of Us", is a relatively lightweight alternative-pop tune.
* Music/JohnCage's "4'33[=''=]." Of course, [[FridgeLogic what else]] ''[[FridgeLogic could]]'' sound like it?
** Although he's also sometimes noted in the record books for another reason: His piece [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_Slow_as_Possible As Slow As Possible]] is currently being played in a church in Germany... and if things go as planned, will be until '''''September 5, 2640'''''.
* "Hurts So Good" by Music/JohnMellencamp. (And don't call him Cougar.) His greatest hit (besides "Jack and Diane"), but his later career should make clear he always wanted to be a "political" singer.
** "Ain't Even Done With The Night", a laid-back, [[Creator/StaxRecords Steve Cropper-produced]] soft rock/pop-soul ballad which pre-dates "Hurts So Good" and "Jack and Diane" and is far mellower that most of John's singles, might also count.
* Josh Turner is known for his very conservative, old-school approach to country music, with very modest production and lyrics (as exemplified by his breakthrough "Long Black Train", a Southern gospel song that many felt could've been cut in the 1940s or 1950s with almost no changes). But his biggest hits include "Your Man" and "Why Don't We Just Dance", both of which are unusually upbeat and sultry, and "Time Is Love", a more keyboard-driven country-pop song.
* Music/{{Journey}} felt this way for a long time about their ballads, fancying themselves an arena rock band. While Steve Perry and Jonathan Cain wrote and believed in ballads like "Faithfully", "Open Arms" and "Don't Stop Believing", Perry and guitarist Neal Schon clashed constantly over the creative direction of the band, especially since their ballads usually performed better.
* Music/{{Kansas}}, "Dust in the Wind". Also "Carry On Wayward Son" -- it lacks the "fiddle" strings that characterize many of their other songs.
** The disco-ish "People of the South Wind" is a good example. Kansas were unusual among prog-rock bands, in that they would bend to record company pressure to write hit singles, and were able to produce songs that charted well and weren't embarrassing. Unlike, for instance, [[http://www.amazon.com/Love-Beach-Emerson-Lake-Palmer/dp/B0000033P6 Emerson, Lake and Palmer]]. Since Kansas were much harder-edged than most other prog bands, they had a lot of mainstream success despite their main style being more along the lines of Music/{{Yes}} and Music/KingCrimson, making the band itself an example of this trope.
** Then in 1986, they released their last Top 40 hit, "All I Wanted", which had more of a mid 80's adult contemporary sound to it.
* Music/KatyPerry's ''Prism'' is filled with pure {{Pop}} music, except for its biggest hit "Dark Horse", which is much more "urban" than her normal material. It became her second song to top the rhythmic charts (following "E.T.", itself an example).
* Music/KennyChesney has had three styles since scoring his first big hits at the TurnOfTheMillennium: beachy Music/JimmyBuffett-esque tunes, introspective acoustic ballads, or arena rock. His two biggest hits on the country charts, "The Good Stuff" and "There Goes My Life", are none of the above -- they're slicker and more mainstream than the likes of "You and Tequila", "A Lot of Things Different", or "Down the Road".
* Music/{{Kesha}} is mostly known for raunchy party anthems, but "Praying", a ballad sh wrote about her experiences being abused by her former producer, is an Adult Contemporary ballad.
* Music/KidRock with "Picture", a country-rock ballad duet with Music/SherylCrow[[note]]the official radio edit [[FakeShemp replaced her vocals]] with those of Allison Moorer, but most stations played the Crow version anyway due to her greater name recognition[[/note]] far removed from his usual mashup of hip-hop and rock. The song even became his first hit on ''country'' radio, which had never played him before.
* Music/KingsOfLeon's biggest hit (and their only pop hit) "Use Somebody" is completely different from the rest of their catalog, which leans far more towards indie rock, or its parent album, which has a more alternative rock feel.
* Music/{{Kiss}} released "Detroit Rock City" as a single. Yet radios liked to play the piano and string based B-side ballad "Beth" instead. Their other big Top 10 pop hit was "Forever" (co-written by Music/MichaelBolton of all people, though then-guitarist Bruce Kulick used to be part of Bolton's band) which while somewhat heavier still falls firmly into the PowerBallad genre. The only other studio single to flirt with the top ten (reaching number 11) was the {{disco}} influenced "I Was Made for Lovin' You" - Kiss just can't get a hit single with songs in their trademark style.
* Krewella's biggest hit "Alive" is much LighterAndSofter than most of their other songs.
* Music/LanaDelRey's only pop radio hit is a dance remix of "Summertime Sadness" by Cedric Gervais. It sounds nothing like her normal material (the original "Summertime Sadness" included), which is many things but ''not'' dance music.
* Lasgo is normally cheesy electro/pop trance, but "Only You" is retro Italo Hi-NRG.
* Music/LedZeppelin:
** "Stairway to Heaven" is far more gentle and calmer than most of their loud and heavy output. To this day Robert Plant despises "Stairway to Heaven" and even encourages radio stations not to play it! The band prevented it from charting by refusing to release it as a single (although a few 7-inch promos were made for distribution to US radio stations). In at least one interview, Plant stated that he always thought of the more typical Zeppelin-sounding "Kashmir" as the definitive Led Zeppelin song. Despite Robert Plant's feelings towards his signature song, Music/{{Heart}} performed it live at Kennedy Center and the video released shows Plant in the audience, visibly moved by the performance.
** The reggae-tinged "D'yer Maker".
** The Brazilian-influenced "Fool in the Rain" which managed to be the band's final Top 40 hit in the US.
** Plant felt the same way towards the chart success of his cover of "Sea of Love" as part of his side project The Honeydrippers, fearing that he would be [[TypeCasting typecast]] as a crooner.
* Music/LeeAnnWomack's career is dominated by neotraditionalist country with twangy vocals and plenty of fiddle and steel. But her biggest hit was the extremely slick pop ballad "I Hope You Dance".
* Most people who've heard of Leslie Fish know her first for "Banned From Argo", a lighthearted song about spacers[[note]]as in the crew of space ships[[/note]] misbehaving in bars and becoming [[PersonaNonGrata Personae Non Gratae]] as a result. However, most of her work, even most of her filks, is some kind of ''protest'' song.
* Lina Santiago's [[OneHitWonder only hit]], "Feels So Good (Show Me Your Love)", was Latin freestyle/electropop, while the rest of her debut ([[OneBookAuthor and only]]) album, thanks to ExecutiveMeddling, was mainly R&B/pop ballads.
* When "Breaking the Habit" was at its high point, new listeners may never imagine Music/LinkinPark was best known for being the raprocking face of NuMetal. The song helped the band change their style more successfully.
** "In the End" is this to a lesser extent compared to the other songs in their nu-metal era -- it lacks the use of electronica that defined their other songs, instead being replaced by the use of piano. It's also a bit lighter compared to the other songs, hence why it was such a big pop hit.
** "Bleed it Out" was a big hit on rock radio. It was also the only song off ''Minutes to Midnight'' that featured Chester and Mike as a VocalTagTeam.
** This distinction even extends to Linkin Park's co-vocalist Mike Shinoda, whose side project Music/FortMinor only managed one pop hit: "Where'd You Go?". It is a far softer song than the rest of the material found on ''The Rising Tied'' when compared to the hard-edged underground RapRock featured throughout the rest of the album.
* Lita Roza was much respected as a jazz and ballad singer, but her big hit record was the children's novelty song "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?", which she loathed so much that after recording a single take, she never sang it again.
* Country music band Little Texas' biggest hit, "My Love", was also the only single with keyboardist Brady Seals on lead vocals instead of usual lead singer Tim Rushlow. It was also a more relaxed midtempo song, instead of their usual upbeat country-rock fare or slick power ballads.
* The people who made "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" a hit in 1972 would be surprised when attending live performances by Looking Glass--it was a a hard-edged Jersey Shore Sound band. Many of its members later formed heavy metal band Starz
* Los Bravos recorded a large amount of material in the pop-rock vein. However, [[OneHitWonder their only hit]], "Black Is Black", shows some soul influence (particularly from the Four Tops' "I Can't Help Myself") rather than pop-rock.
* Few people who aren't fans of flamenco music (or even those who are) can name any other song by Los Del Rio besides "Macarena". While the original version of "Macarena" sounds like a fairly standard flamenco song, the Bayside Boys remix is a different story entirely.
* From Argentina's border, Brazilian band Los Hermanos had "Anna Júlia", a catchy pop-rock song unlike the rest of their material (specially [[NewSoundAlbum the one stuff came after]]), which [[CreatorBacklash they've grown to hate.]]
* Music/LouisArmstrong, primarily a player of hot jazz, is best remembered for the sentimental pop ballad "What a Wonderful World".
** Either that or the theme from ''Theatre/HelloDolly'', which is a Black Sheep Hit of a different style.
* The Lovin' Spoonful, "Summer in the City", which had a much harder sound than their usual folk-pop. Their second biggest hit, "Do You Believe in Magic?" was poppier than their usual sound.
* Maddie & Tae's TakeThat to bro-country, "Girl in a Country Song", is much more mainstream-sounding than their other work, which has a neo-traditional sound comparable to the Dixie Chicks. Given the song's purpose, the different sound was likely intended as a StealthParody.
* 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 in the U.S., and also sounds ''much'' closer to their regular style.[[/note]]
* Similar to The Elastik Band mentioned above, The Magic Mushrooms gained immortality on the ''Nuggets'' compilation, which closed with their wacked-out 1966 minor hit "It's-A-Happening". They only released two follow-up singles, and the A and B sides are Folk Rock in the vein of Music/TheLovinSpoonful, rather than the PsychedelicRock that the first single (and the band name) would lead you to expect.
* Major Lazer scored a massive crossover hit with "Lean On", which became one of the biggest EDM crossovers since "Wake Me Up". It's also one of their only songs that doesn't feature any {{reggae}} vocals.
* Maria [=McKee=] with "Show Me Heaven" mean't people expected her to be a pop balladeer when her usual style was more of a raw country rock.
* Music/{{Marillion}} had one with "Kayleigh", which is a '''lot''' poppier than their usual progressive rock style.
* Music/MarilynManson's two biggest hits are his cover of [[Music/{{Eurythmics}} "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)"]] and his song "The Beautiful People". The first is unlike most of his work due to being a cover song (but admittedly, standard for his covers, which are "Take song with dark lyrics but more positive sound, inject the misery that oozes out of him, record") and the second really doesn't mesh with most of the album it is on, due to being heavier than half the songs, lighter than the other half, and being much more sane than most of the album (the figurative language is much easier to figure out, with stuff like "It's all relative to the size of your steeple", and the song in general being more traditional metal). The both are concert staples, but still don't fit in, partially due to the fact that each album is so insanely different that slamming them all together really can be just kinda odd.
* "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" was also a black-sheep hit when Music/MarkChesnutt covered it; before that song, he was mostly known for his honky-tonk influences, and certainly ''not'' for pop power ballads. It was also apparently [[ExecutiveMeddling forced upon him by the label]].
* Music/MeghanTrainor had one with "Like I'm Gonna Lose You", featuring John Legend. The song is more along the lines of classic soul, rather than her normal bubblegum pop/doo-wop style. It ended up being her biggest hit on adult contemporary stations.
* Melissa Manchester's biggest hit and only Grammy Award-winning song is "You Should Hear How She Talks About You" in 1982 which is a dance pop song while her primary music style is MOR. Her other top 10 hits, "Midnight Blue" and "Don't Cry Out Loud" are more representative of her usual style of music.
* Music/{{Metallica}}, "Nothing Else Matters" (the closest the band came to writing a ballad) and "The Unforgiven" from ''The Black Album'', and all of ''Music/AndJusticeForAll'' save for "One", which was the only song from said album that survived the band's live setlist after the tour for the album ended.
* Music/{{MGMT}}'s album '''Music/OracularSpectacular''' was a criticial and commercial hit and reached the charts with "Kids", "Time To Pretend" and "Electric Feel". Despite the album and singles' success its entire sound is very different compared to their regular music. Even "Kids" and "Time To Pretend" had appeared earlier on their EP "Time To Pretend" (2005) in a different version. As a result it became a Black Sheep Hit and the band themselves have made clear that they won't be making songs like those again.
* Michael Franti is a fusion musician who has been playing professionally since 1986 and recording since 1992, with nine albums in his name in a variety of styles from jazz to reggae to hip-hop. The only song of his to get significant airplay is 2009's "Say Hey (I Love You)", a {{Silly Love Song|s}} that barely represents the scope of his abilities.
* As an experimental musician, Mike Oldfield has never been interested in crafting pop hits, but he's remembered by most people as the guy who recorded "Music/TubularBells", the theme from ''Film/TheExorcist''. Only a small part of the album-long composition was used in the film, but that part was released as a single and made the U.S. Top 10.
* Music/{{Ministry}}'s "(Every Day Is) Halloween" was the biggest single from the band's period where they tried to be a {{new wave|Music}}/SynthPop act. Once they became an Industrial Metal band, [[OldShame they tried to shove it under the rug]]. Same with "Revenge", their first hit song.
* Comedian/singer Minnie Pearl, best known for her appearances on ''Series/HeeHaw'', had [[OneHitWonder exactly one hit]]: a completely serious AnswerSong to Red Sovine's heartwarming trucker's hit "Giddyup Go", titled appropriately enough, "Giddyup Go - Answer".
* Music/MirandaLambert is known for her somewhat prominent rock influence and empowering lyrics, with up-tempos such as "Kerosene", "Gunpowder & Lead", or "Mama's Broken Heart". But her first top 5 hit was the mid-tempo, bluegrass-influenced "White Liar". And its followup was "The House That Built Me", a sentimental ballad featuring only her voice and acoustic guitar, which became her absolute biggest hit to date.
* Modern English were generally a moody, goth-influenced post-punk band when the jangly, upbeat "I Melt With You" became a big hit - in the US they're still considered a OneHitWonder (they did technically have two other hits on the Billboard charts, but one of them was just a 1990 remake of "I Melt With You").
* Music/ModestMouse - "Float On". While the song sounds pretty similar to their other songs, it is 1000x times more upbeat and positive than other songs by them. "Dashboard" far more so.
* Music/TheMonkees had one with "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone", which they CoveredUp from Music/PaulRevereAndTheRaiders by making the Top 20. Not too may songs of theirs are that hard. Also worthy of mention is the schizophrenic "Alternate Title", aka "Randy Scouse Git", which Mickey Dolenz wrote after watching "Til Death Do Us Part" on TV.
* Music/MontgomeryGentry reflects this with most of their #1 hits. The first was the in-your-face, vaguely RapRock-influenced "If You Ever Stop Loving Me", which stands out as being more aggressive than even their typical country-rock style. "Lucky Man", "Back When I Knew It All", and "Roll with Me" are far softer than their usual fare, with "Something to Be Proud Of" being their only #1 hit that reflects both their rowdiness and introspection in equal measure. Both "If You Ever Stop Loving Me" and "Roll with Me" stand out for being sung entirely by Troy Gentry with very little vocal contributions from Eddie Montgomery (mainly due to the latter having a second backing vocal from Five for Fighting), as opposed to their usual formula of having [[VocalTagTeam both of them sing lead alternately]] or having Eddie lead and Troy harmonize (which was more common on their earlier singles before they established the back-and-forth formula on "My Town").
* Music/MrBig, a band known for having one of the fastest and most technically adept guitarists in rock and metal (and this was in the late 80s, when lightning-fast guitar shredders were everywhere) and a world famous bass guitar virtuoso, naturally had their biggest stateside hit with "To Be With You", a relatively slow and simple acoustic ballad.
* 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.
* With Music/MyChemicalRomance, they like to take it to an extreme, with their entire latest ''album'', ''Music/DangerDaysTheTrueLivesOfTheFabulousKilljoys'' being the most successful album they've had so far, despite a different style to what they're often known for (This album was [[FunPersonified Fun Personified as an album instead of a character]] while they're often known for emotional '[[DeTerminator don't stop singing]]' powerful songs which are often mistaken for Emo). However, to fans who listened to their previous albums, they'd know they've had similar songs scattered through their previous albums, but none had been released. This time, all but a small percentage are anything but poppy and fun. Previous non-single songs, such as ''House of Wolves'' for example, have a similar tone and style to ''Danger Days''.
* Nada Surf's "Popular" differs a lot from their other songs, for using spoken word verses excerpted from ''Penny's Guide to Teen-Age Charm'' and a sound more reminiscent of grunge rather than the power pop and indie rock that the is common in the band's discography.
* Music/{{Nazareth}} was a hard rock band that made the mistake to record a ballad, "Love Hurts", and has been mistaken for a ballad band ever since.
* While many of Music/NoDoubt's most memorable hits are in the ska-punk genre, the ballad "Don't Speak" is by far their most recognizable song, and arguably the song that turned singer Gwen Stefani into a household name.
* Music/TheNeighbourhood's most popular song is "Sweater Weather", a romantic song with a vastly different tune than their other songs like "Afraid" or "Honest".
* Music/NewOrder's "Blue Monday" was only meant as an experiment with electronic instruments, and an encore instrumental piece which could be played after they had left the stage, but ended up as their best selling single.
* Music/NickCave's duet with Music/KylieMinogue, "Where The Wild Roses Grow", was an international hit song, yet Cave himself felt a bit bothered by this as its soothing performance, despite the LyricalDissonance of the topic, is not all representative for the rest of [[Music/MurderBallads the album]].
* Music/NickiMinaj had a massive hit with "Starships", which is one of her few songs that's entirely sung rather than rapped.
* "Head Like a Hole" was originally this for Music/NineInchNails. It's a loud, angry rock song with a guitar-driven chorus while the rest of their debut album is dark synth pop with little, of any, guitar and more brooding or angsty lyrics. The follow-up ''Broken'' was full-on industrial metal in a style more similar to "Head Like a Hole" than any of their other material.
* Music/{{Nirvana}}'s "About a Girl" is the only song off ''Music/BleachAlbum'' that most people can name, and the only one you'll likely hear on the radio or in a public setting. For good reason, it's much more mainstream friendly than the rest of the album, being more in line with the material from ''Music/{{Nevermind}}''. ''Bleach'' is easily their least-accessible album in their entire library, being much noisier and denser than its polished follow-ups, with the exception of that song. It should be noted however that it wasn't a hit until ''after'' Kurt Cobain's death, due to being featured as the lead single off of ''Music/MTVUnpluggedInNewYork'', where before then it was very obscure (like the rest of ''Bleach''), making it a SleeperHit.
* The ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' arrange "Bad Apple!!" is by far Nomico's most popular song, but most of her other works are peppy {{moe}} songs in a much higher, cutesy register.
* Minor example: Although Duane Allen is considered the lead singer of Music/TheOakRidgeBoys, tenor Joe Bonsall sang lead on their most famous song, "Elvira".
* Music/TheOffspring:
** "Gone Away", their 1997 song, is a [[TearJerker tear-jerking]] DueToTheDead that sounds nothing like most of their comedic material. It was their only #1 hit on mainstream rock until 2015, and their first song to go gold in any country ([[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Australia]]).
** "Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?", which became one of the band's few pop radio hits in their nearly 25-year career.
* Another one whose first hit is the black sheep: Music/OneRepublic. In TheNewTens, they're best known for upbeat pop-rock like "Good Life", "Counting Stars", and "Love Runs Out", but try convincing anyone from the [[TurnOfTheMillennium previous decade]] that that would be the case, when their first single was the ultra-slow "Apologize" (thanks to a redrummed backing track by superstar producer Timbaland) and their second was another ballad, "Stop and Stare" (though still a step towards the rock side, which was completely absent from the former).
* Music/TheOsmonds, purveyors of safe seventies pop music had a big hit with "Crazy Horses", a hard rock song.
* Music/OtisRedding was already famous as an Stax/Volt R&B artist when he recorded "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay". Three days later, he and most of the rest of his band died in a plane crash. The song became wildly popular (the first posthumous song to top the charts in the UK), even though it's very different from much of his ''large'' body of work.
* Music/OutKast have long been known for their endlessly creative brand of hip hop. Their biggest hit? "Hey Ya", a [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles-esque]] pop song, which became this trope mostly [[IAmTheBand because Big Boi wasn't involved with that song]]. If [=OutKast=] was just André 3000, there would have been more songs like "Hey Ya!". Follow-up "The Way You Move" was also more R&B than rap; this time around André 3000 wasn't involved with the song, so if [=OutKast=] was just Big Boi, there would have been more songs like it.
* "Jackie Blue", by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, sounds absolutely nothing like the rest of the album it appeared on (''It'll Shine When It Shines''), or much of the rest of the band's catalog for that matter.
* Music/OzzyOsbourne is known for the metal he does. His only two songs to chart in the top 40 in the US were "Close My Eyes Forever" (a somber, melancholy duet with Lita Ford) and "Mama, I'm Coming Home" (about his impending "retirement"; also co-written by [[Music/{{Motorhead}} Lemmy]]!), which are ''not'' indicative of the bulk of his discography. His highest-charting song in Britain, "Changes" (which hit no.1), is a father-daughter duet with Kelly, and a cover of what is ''itself'' a Black Sheep Hit of Black Sabbath's.
* Music/{{POD}} is known for rap-rock, but their surprise comeback in 2012 with "Lost in Forever" and "Beautiful" differs heavily from the material they're known for. While the former is still fairly heavy, it lacks a lot of the rapping, while the latter is a full-on soft ballad. The single released in between, "Higher", was more typical P.O.D., but unlike the other two, it fell short of the top 10.
* Music/{{Pantera}}'s biggest hit on rock radio was a cover of Music/BlackSabbath's "Planet Caravan". Like the original, it's a softer PsychedelicRock number that sharply contrasts their hard-hitting GrooveMetal material. The ''Far Beyond Driven'' liner notes even acknowledge that this isn't the kind of material fans would normally expect from them - The following message is printed in place of the song's lyrics:
-->This is a Black Sabbath song off of the ''Paranoid'' album. So don't freak out on us. We did the song because we wanted to. It has nothing to do with the integrity of our direction. It's a tripped out song. We think you'll dig it. If you don't, don't fucking listen to it. Thanks. On behalf of the rest of Pantera, Phil Anselmo '94.
* Music/{{Paramore}}:
** "The Only Exception" is the band's biggest pop hit (or at least it was, until "Ain't It Fun" a few years later), and has managed to become one of many examples of "punk band with hit ballad" syndrome.
** "Ain't It Fun" is much funkier than anything else the band has made.
* Music/PatBenatar's "Love Is a Battlefield".
** Rather typical of her later style; she and Neil Geraldo seem to indicate that their earlier style was more the result of ExecutiveMeddling, and that a change in record label produced songs like "Love Is a Battlefield" and "We Belong" that are more in line with their preferred style.
* Music/PattiSmith was a founding mother of American [[PunkRock punk music]] who was shockingly profane for a female vocalist of her time, and brought to her music a strong feminist vibe. Her best-known hit is "Because The Night" (first heard on the 1978 record ''Music/{{Easter}}''), a pop love ballad written by Music/BruceSpringsteen, which contains ''none'' of these elements.
** "Hungry Heart" for Springsteen would qualify as well, being musically miles away (although lyrically similar) from his bleak late 70's/early 80's output. He originally wrote it for the Ramones, but recorded it himself after being chewed out by his manager for giving away his hit songs ("Because the Night", as well as "Blinded by the Light", which became a #1 hit for Manfred Mann, and "Fire", later a #2 hit for the Pointer Sisters). Most of his later singles from "Born In The U.S.A." were cut from the same cloth.
* Music/PaulaCole's "I Don't Wanna Wait", a.k.a. the ''Series/DawsonsCreek'' theme song. The rest of her work is much harder and darker. Yes, darker than a song about wanting to die.
* Music/PearlJam had this with "Last Kiss". Even though it was a cover of an old 60's pop song, and only originally offered to the band's fan club, once radio stations picked it up it became their biggest hit.
** The jury is still out if their second biggest American radio hit, "Better Man", also qualifies.
* Jazz legend Peggy Lee will be remembered to kingdom come for "Fever", "It's A Good Day", "Is That All There Is?", "Why Don't You Do Right" and literally hundreds of other superbly performed torch songs...but her biggest hit by far was a forgettable, racist (by today's standards) number called "Mañana (Is Good Enough for Me)", sung in a faux-Mexican accent and comprising a string of stereotypes about Latin Americans. Latinos are OnceAcceptableTargets but in 1948 they still were AcceptableTargets, which helps explain how that song got to #1 for nine weeks.
* Music/PeterTosh's biggest hit "You Gotta Walk And (Don't Look Back)" is a very upbeat synth-heavy {{reggae}} cover of the Temptations song, sung as a duet with Music/MickJagger. Sounds nothing like his other work where he usually sounds more cynical.
* Invoked intentionally by early ChristianRock band Music/{{Petra}}, because their usual material was considered unacceptable for airplay on Christian radio.
* Music/PinkFloyd's [[Music/TheWall "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2"]] became a ProtestSong, something which the band hadn't planned, resulting in it being [[BannedInChina banned in South Africa]].
** Their first commercially successful singles, "See Emily Play" and [[Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon "Money"]] count for being groovier and more accessible than their ProgressiveRock sound.
* "Hey There Delilah" by the Plain White T's - their usual style is much more upbeat and is more pop-punk oriented, but their acoustic ballad was what became a major hit. Their only other Top 40 hits in the United States, "1234" and "Rhythm of Love", were ''also'' acoustic ballads (although both slightly more upbeat).
* Music/ThePolice with "Every Breath You Take". A number one hit in many countries, it was the best selling single of 1983 in the US and the 5th best selling single of the decade. The Police's music style is a combination of New Wave, reggae, post-punk, and rock, but "Every Breath You Take" was borderline ''soft rock'' and a departure from their usual sound. Everyone of all ages has probably heard of this song at least once since almost any radio station still plays this song daily (it actually holds the record of one of the most requested songs in radio history) and many think it's a romantic ballad to this day. [[LyricalDissonance They are in for a huge surprise.]]
* Music/PorcupineTree are mostly a ProgressiveRock group whose music is not generally considered radio-friendly. Their 2005 song "Shallow", a {{Grunge}}-esque rock song, was their only radio hit in the U.S.
* Primitive Radio Gods scored a hit in 1996 with the ethereal "Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand", but the rest of the album it was taken from consisted of '80s style rock. The only things the rest of the material had in common with the hit was {{sampling}} and use of drum machines. Unsurprisingly, the group never had another hit.
* Music/{{Queen}}:
** John Deacon conceived "Another One Bites the Dust" as a "little ditty about a cowboy". It was initially not intended to be a single because it was so far and away from the rest of the album, but Music/MichaelJackson managed to convince them it should be a single. They took the risk, and you can see how it paid off.
** "Bohemian Rhapsody", particularly the operatic middle section ("I see a little silhouetto of a man..."). Not only does it lie at one extreme of their range of styles, it also employs an eight-part harmony (overdubbed in the studio), so despite its huge popularity they have never been able to perform the entire song live.
** "Under Pressure" was the band's only big name single to be recorded alongside an outside artist, in this case David Bowie. It's gone on to be one of their most recognizable hits.
** "Body Language", from 1982's Hot Space, peaked at #11 in the United States and was not only a departure in sound from their earlier hits, but it was also the album's highest-charting single in that region. As a result, the band included it on the US leg of the Hot Space tour, but outside of those performances and its later inclusion on the 1992 Greatest Hits compilation in the US, it remained largely ignored by the band.
* Music/{{Queensryche}}'s sole Top 40 hit, "Silent Lucidity", which is a mainstream rock ballad rather than their prior ProgressiveMetal.
** Its source, ''Empire'' could be considered a Black Sheep Album, as the majority of it is lighthearted Music/{{Yes}}-esque ProgressiveRock of the more mainstream-leaning '80s sort, in stark contrast to the darker material that surrounds it.
* Music/{{Radiohead}}'s "Creep", which is a very radio-friendly pop/indie rock song with a relatively traditional guitar/bass/drum sound. It's not only very different than most of the rest of the parent album ''Music/PabloHoney'', but completely different than Radiohead's subsequent stuff, which is heavily electronic, jazz, and pure-rock. Even 20 years later, it's still their most recognized (but hardly only) hit.
* Music/{{Rainbow}} was a metal pioneer, but their one and only Top 40 hit was "Stone Cold," a slow song from the Joe Lynn Turner era.
** In the UK at least, "Since You've Been Gone" was a big hit, but it is a glam rock song.
* "Mujer Amante", a love song by the Argentinean HeavyMetal band RataBlanca was their biggest hit ever. The rest of their music was 100% HeavyMetal. (Even at high speeds and heavy sound.)
* Ray Parker Jr.'s "Film/{{Ghostbusters|1984}}", which sounds uncannily like a Music/HueyLewisAndTheNews song "I Want a New Drug" but sounds nothing like Parker's other work. This led to legal action being taken and an out-of-court settlement.
* Music/RayStevens is mainly known for his novelty songs. However, he had his biggest hit with the extremely serious and sentimental "Everything Is Beautiful". He had another serious hit earlier with "Mr. Businessman" and also had a country hit with the Gospel standard "Turn Your Radio On".
* Record label Razor & Tie mostly serves as an outlet for hard rock artists like Music/AllThatRemains, Music/ThePrettyReckless, and Music/{{Starset}}. But they will always be best known for Music/KidzBop, an act who can’t be any more different from the former three, plus, Razor and Tie started out as a reissue and compilation label.
* "Under the Bridge" by the Music/RedHotChiliPeppers got a lot of people buying ''Music/BloodSugarSexMagik'' expecting more of the same and not an album full of funk with only maybe two other ballady songs. Imagine all the suburban housewives who liked "Under the Bridge" and wound up stumbling into "Sir Psycho Sexy"!
** "Under the Bridge", while being a SurprisinglyGentleSong, nevertheless treats a fairly dark topic - Anthony Kiedis's reflections on everything and ''everyone'' he's thrown away in his life because of drugs, and the city/spirit of Los Angeles as the only entity that will support him unconditionally.
** They managed an inverted version of this later on, with the hit "Can't Stop" from the album ''By The Way''. Can't Stop is the only example of funk-pop on the album. The remaining tracks are mostly ballads, though there are a few exceptions.
* Aaron Barrett of Music/ReelBigFish has gone on record saying "... ["Sell Out" was] some dumb novelty song I wrote ten years ago.".
* Music/{{REM}} has the peppy "Shiny Happy People", which even features [[Music/TheB52s Kate Pierson]]. [[CreatorBacklash And damn, they hate this song]].
** "Radio Song", a funk-rap-rock song with KRS-One.
** "Stand", which is far more bubblegummy than their normal output.
* The Rembrandts, "I'll Be There For You" (the ''Series/{{Friends}}'' theme), a more mainstream-pop friendly song compared to their alternative power-pop sound.
* Music/TheResidents are best known by the mainstream public for their underground hit "Kaw Liga", which is a very danceable cover of a song by Music/HankWilliams and very catchy and slick compared to their general experimental output.
* Canadian indie-rock band Rheostatics had to write an in-universe hit single for the soundtrack of the film version of ''Whale Music'', and the song ended up becoming an actual Top 40 hit, proving that they ''could'' write a hit single if they wanted to. They didn't enjoy the experience and never tried it again.
* While Music/{{Rihanna}} frequently plays the GenreRoulette (she is ostensibly a ContemporaryRAndB singer), she had this happen to her with [=FourFiveSeconds=], her 2015 collaboration with Music/KanyeWest and Music/PaulMcCartney. It's a folk tune that doesn't sound at all like anything else she's ever done.
** An earlier single "Take a Bow" is much slower, and more suited towards adult contemporary than her normal 'urban' material.
*** "Stay" is also much slower than her normal material, and ended up being her biggest hit on AC and Hot AC radio.
** Even her signature song "Umbrella" falls into this, not so much in sound as it is in subject matter. Many, many of her songs are about love, and often, [[IntercourseWithYou sex]]. "Umbrella" however, is completely about ThePowerOfFriendship. It's not often she sings about platonic relationships.
* Music/RiseAgainst usually write blistering HardcorePunk anthems with ''heavy'' political themes, but they had a big hit with the subdued, apolitical acoustic song "Swing Life Away".
* Comedian/singer Rodney Carrington rarely saw chart action due to the highly profane nature of his songs, which include such titles as "Letter to My Penis", "Dancin' with a Man", "Morning Wood", "Burning Sensation", et cetera. But in 2009, he had his only major chart hit to date with "Camouflage and Christmas Lights" -- a completely serious song about a soldier celebrating Christmas while on active duty.
* Rollergirl's [[OneHitWonder only major hit]], a cover of Sunscreem's "Love You More", is trance, while most of her other songs are Eiffel-65 style Nu-Italo/Europop.
* This often happens with veteran artists who try changing their sound to meet current tastes. "Miss You", Music/TheRollingStones' flirtation with disco, is one example.
* "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" by Rupert Holmes, who otherwise does serious work. This song is "the success that ruined his career."
* Music/{{Rush}}'s only Top 40 hit in the United States (charting at #21) and only number one hit in Canada was "New World Man" off their 1982 album ''Music/{{Signals}}''. The song was a huge hit on the radio, but the only reason the song was written was to balance out Side A and Side B on cassette and vinyl versions of the album. The song was written in one day and recorded at the very end of production. The song departs the progressive-elements that characterizes Rush and it has a standard 4/4 time signature throughout the whole song, a very rare thing for Rush to do. The song essentially follows a standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus pattern in the absence of a guitar solo and the bridge sounds like something that should be on a song by Music/ThePolice.
* In TheNineties, Music/SarahMcLachlan was an artist who specialized in folk and alternative music, and she commonly received airplay on rock radio. However, her two biggest hits, 1998's "Adia" and "Angel" (both from ''Music/{{Surfacing}}''), were adult contemporary piano ballads. Ever since the success of these two singles, she's been producing nearly nothing but piano-based adult contemporary music.
* "Always" by Saliva was a post-grunge ballad that was softer than the rap-heavy nu-metal songs they’re better known for, like "Your Disease" and "Click Click Boom". They did shift away from the rap stylings later on, but even compared to their new output, "Always" is
* Saving Abel were another late 2000s to early 2010s band often lambasted as "butt rock". Only two of their five top 10 hits on rock radio, "18 Days" and "Drowning (Face Down)", were not highly sexual or hedonistic songs, and only "Drowning" had nothing to do with women or romance at all. Their sophomore album leaned much more heavily on the sexuality, right down to having a model on the cover. (Their debut originally had a woman’s butt on the cover, but it was later replaced by a photo of the band.)
* Music/{{Scorpions}}, "Wind of Change". Even though this song became the hymn for the Berlin Wall fall, vocalist Klaus Meine said that the song had actually been written long before, and he happened to stumble on it when looking at some annotations.
** Also, the PowerBallad "Still Loving You".
** Ever since "Wind of Change", all their hits have been ballads. And we're still talking about the band that gave us "Rock You Like a Hurricane".
* Music/{{Seether}} are usually considered to be South Africa's answer to Music/ThreeDaysGrace. Then they released "Words As Weapons", a rousing, "Mad World"-influenced alt-rock anthem, gaining them new-found success. Then of course there's "Broken", which was their only pop hit. It's far softer than their normal material, and their only song to feature guest vocals (courtesy of frontman Shaun Morgan's then-girlfriend [[Music/{{Evanescence}} Amy Lee]]).
* OneHitWonder Michael Sembello's "Maniac", a fast-paced NewWave {{Synthpop}} anthem, is completely different from the other songs on its parent album, which are mainly post-disco, funk, and contemporary R&B/soul.
* Music/ShadowsFall, while no strangers to power ballads ("The Art of Balance", "What Drives the Weak", "Inspiration on Demand", etc.), had never made one that was quite as modern rock-oriented as "Another Hero Lost". It was an obvious bid at widespread radio play; while it did accomplish that, it also pissed off dedicated fans (who hated it for being such an obvious radio song) and alienated non-fans who latched onto it (as the parent album was far heavier than that song). The band quickly turned against it and stopped playing it live around the end of 2008 and never brought it back.
* Music/{{Shinedown}}'s cover of "Simple Man". Constantly screamed for at concerts by drunk people who know the band only for Brent Smith's rendition of this Music/LynyrdSkynyrd classic. Old interviews had the band stating that they would never play it live again, due to guitarist Jasin Todd's departure. It is thought among some fans that the song's resurfacing in their Carnival of Madness tour is due to pressure from their record label Atlantic, and the band actually hates playing the song. Singer Brent Smith has been heard to drop snide remarks at fans who show up only to hear Simple Man ("How many of you want to hear Simple Man so you can leave?").
** To a lesser extent, Shinedown's biggest hit to date (and their only pop hit) "Second Chance" is not very representative of the band's typical hard rock style, although the band does embrace this song.
* Music/SiouxsieAndTheBanshees, whose signature style is GothRock, achieved their biggest hit in the US with the much poppier AlternativeDance single "Kiss Them For Me."
* The Silencers, a Scottish rock band with a bit of a [[CultClassic cult following]], are known for their highly prolific and eclectic output, but most of their songs are generally categorized as "punk", and they skew towards a rather aggressive sound with strong electronic influences. But their best-known song is probably their mellow and soulful cover of the traditional Scottish folk song "Wild Mountain Thyme", which caught on after it was used in a Scottish tourism ad. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MagG8J--BBI music video]] is the most viewed Silencers video on Website/YouTube by a pretty substantial margin.
* Music/{{Slipknot}}'s lead single off their successful [[SelfTitledAlbum self-titled]] debut, "Wait and Bleed", could be considered an example. While it has the speed, angst and chaotic qualities of most of their output, it's by-far the least heavy non-electronic song on the record. It's also one of the album's shortest songs.
** Another example from may be the record's other single, "Spit It Out". While it's faster and longer than "Wait and Bleed", it's one of the band's few songs that has out-and-out rapping, causing them to often be pegged as RapMetal.
** Same goes for "Before I Forget". Even taking ''Volume 3'' being LighterAndSofter in account, the melodic rock nature of the song stands in contrast to the less conventional arrangements of the album's other songs. Doubly so for "Vermillion", the band's rather twisted attempt at a romantic PowerBallad.
** In keeping with the theme, "Left Behind" is ''Iowa'''s SpiritualSuccessor to "Wait and Bleed" in terms of song structure and style.
* Music/TheSmallFaces were a mod rock band comparable to a bluesier version of Music/TheWho. Their biggest hit (and only hit in the US) was "Itchycoo Park", a flower power number they wrote as a joke. In the UK, they scored another Black Sheep Hit with the equally jokey "Lazy Sunday". The lukewarm reception of the band's more serious songs led Steve Marriott to leave the group in order to form Humble Pie, while the other four regrouped as Music/{{Faces}}.
* Music/SmashMouth's first hit single, "Walkin' on the Sun", was a '60s-esque pop tune; the rest of their debut album was mostly pop-ska, with the exception of a cover of War's "Why Can't We Be Friends?" Like Sugar Ray, who charted at about the same time, they embraced their Black Sheep Hit, and their second album was much heavier on the retro-pop.
* One of the Smithereens' biggest hits? "Too Much Passion", a light soul-pop song that sounds nothing like their guitar-driven sound. Their other top 40 hit, "A Girl Like You", is an upbeat power pop love anthem also atypical of their headier fare.
* Music/TheSmiths have "How Soon Is Now?" It's probably their best-known song, but its dreamy atmospheric quality is nothing like their normal indie rock sound.
* Soft Cell's megahit, "Tainted Love", is nothing like most of their other material, which is loaded with kinky sexual content that would not be played on most radio stations. In fact "Tainted Love" was [[CoveredUp originally an obscure 1965 Motown song performed by Gloria Jones]].
* Despite being their SignatureSong, Music/SonicYouth[='s=] "Teen Age Riot" is highly atypical compared to their usual oeuvre, consisting of the standard verse-chorus structure that they more often than not forego.
* Sophie B. Hawkins's biggest pop hit is "As I Lay Me Down," which lacks the overt sexual content of most of the rest of her repertoire (including her other big hit, "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover").
* Music/{{Soundgarden}}'s "Black Hole Sun" is LighterAndSofter, with a tone described by the band as "Beatles-esque", but became the band's SignatureSong.
* Outside of their native UK, the vast majority of people have probably only heard one Spandau Ballet song, the jazzy ballad "True". This actually sounds nothing like the majority of their very synth-heavy work.
* Music/{{Squeeze}} seem to make a habit of being atypical in their successes:
** Their first significant success was “Take Me I’m Yours”, In which the lyrics depict an exotic fantasy world. Then they went on to a career of closely observed slice-of-life pop songs.
** "Cool for Cats", one of their biggest hits in the UK, was sung by guitarist Chris Difford rather than usual lead singer Glenn Tilbrook.
** Their two biggest hits in the US also count. "Tempted" leans toward soft rock and 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.
* Music/SteelyDan's biggest hit in the UK is "Haitian Divorce", a reggae-influenced song that is not only atypical of their normal jazz rock sound, but also one of their more obscure singles in their native United States. It's one of only a few of their singles to miss the Billboard Hot 100 entirely. The main reason "Haitian Divorce" was a hit in the UK was because it came out at a time when reggae music was particularly popular thanks to the likes of Bob Marley. It should be noted that the song doesn't get radio airplay very often anymore.
** In the US, they had a big hit with "Dirty Work", a country-influenced ballad which features effeminately voiced guest vocalist David Palmer on lead vocals. At the time, songwriter and usual singer Donald Fagen felt Palmer could help make the song a bigger hit, and had also hired him to sing vocals live, due to lack of confidence in singing and playing piano at the same time. After the album ''Can't Buy a Thrill'' (which features vocals from Fagen, Palmer and fellow bandmember Jim Hodder), Fagen would assume lead vocals for all their songs - partly for continuity and partly because he felt nobody could convey the cynicism in his lyrics as well as he could. This is something of a subversion in that the two other hits from ''Can't Buy a Thrill'' - "Do It Again" and "Reelin' in the Years" - do feature Fagen singing lead.
* Stevie B was a singer in the late 80s and early 90s who was part of Miami's freestyle scene and, as a result, wrote and performed mostly dance songs. His only number 1 (and only top 10 hit, for that matter) on the Billboard Hot 100 was "Because I Love You (The Postman Song)," a piano-based love ballad. Unlike his previous singles, this one never even touched the dance charts, but that never stopped it from being his most well-known single.
* One of the most popular Stingers songs with fans of the 80s cartoon ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'' is "Destiny". Riot usually sings lead and the women are backup however in this song Riot only sings the chorus.
* Stone Sour's two biggest hits, "Bother" and "Through Glass." (the latter starts off ballad-y and gets harder as it goes, but is still different from their other songs). A few other of their rock hits, like "Sillyworld" and "Hesistate", also qualify.
* The Stranglers' "Golden Brown", a baroque composition that was completely different from the band's earlier punk rock sound.
** The Stranglers had no particular commitment to any one style. Their roots were actually in folk rock, but they abandoned that with the emergence of punk/new wave.
* The Strawbs specialised in folk-rock, mostly based on timeless poetic themes, historical events or personal experiences. The majority of their songs originated from frontman Dave Cousins, who sang lead vocal on all but a few. "Part of the Union", by far and away their biggest hit ever, was a topical pub-rock anthem that took the rise out of the militant workers who were butting heads with the UK's employers and government at that time. It was written by Rick Hudson and John Ford and performed with John Ford on lead vocals. The huge success of this Black Sheep Hit was one of the main factors in Hudson and Ford's departure from the group, and also resulted in it being excluded from the playlist entirely when they took their next album on tour. (However, Hudson, Ford and [=PotU=] were all eventually returned to the fold.)
** Also, "Part of the Union" is sometimes assumed to be a pro-union anthem.
* Strawberry Alarm Clock and their #1 hit from 1967 "Incense and Peppermints" count. For one thing, the lead vocal on "Incense" wasn't even by a band member; their producer had brought in someone else to write the song's lyrics and the band hated them, so they had a friend who was visiting the recording session sing lead. And the song leaned much more in the direction of PsychedelicRock than their usual material, which was typically Sunshine Pop (with a bit of Psychedelic influence) featuring elaborate vocal harmonies. Naturally, the band never had another hit afterwards.
* "Babe" by Music/{{Styx}} is a slow ballad, unlike most of their other more rock-oriented works. "Mr. Roboto" is mostly synthesized, while most of their songs were guitar-based.
* Music/SugarRay's "Fly". To the point where they had a song that sounded like it ("Every Morning") released as the first single from their next album ''14:59''. And another, "Someday", from the same album...and ''another'', "When It's Over", as the lead single from their ''next'' [[SelftitledAlbum album.]]
** "Every Morning" was likely the result of ExecutiveMeddling. Sugar Ray were originally an abrasive punk-influenced alt-rock band who turned out to have an unlikely talent for sweet-sounding ballads. Their singer commented that they had turned into the kind of band they hate.
* One of Music/{{Sugarland}}'s biggest hits was "Stay", a ballad done entirely on organ and acoustic guitar. It is also one of the only songs in their catalog where lead singer Jennifer Nettles sings entirely by herself (although the other member, Kristian Bush, is still the one playing guitar on it). The five-minute minimalist ballad was far removed from anything else in Sugarland's discography, never mind anything else on country radio at the time.
* Music/{{Sum 41}} is a skate punk / PopPunk, but their biggest hit "Fat Lip" is one of their only songs to feature [[PunkRap rapping]].
* Music/TaylorSwift:
** Her first ever Billboard Hot 100 #1 song "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" leans more towards being catchy, radio friendly bubblegum pop (with some electronica thrown in for good measure) when compared to her more thoughtful, guitar based country-pop fare. It (along with its parent album ''Red'') also marked a huge turning point in her career - her switch from straight country-pop to more mainstream music.
** That song's follow-up "I Knew Were You Trouble" is a ''dubstep'' song, albeit in a more restrained manner.
** "Shake It Off" is a horn-driven, Motown-like song with a tongue-in-cheek cheerleader chant in the middle and not a hint of country elements; even "Trouble" had acoustic guitar strumming in the verses. It was even different from much of its parent album, ''1989'', which is built around [[TheEighties 1980's]]-influenced synth-pop.
* Music/TalkingHeads' "Wild Wild Life", from ''Music/TrueStories'', was a mainstream rock song rather than the eclectic WorldMusic-influenced sound the band became known for on albums like ''Music/RemainInLight''.
* Ten Years After's biggest hit, "I'd Love to Change the World", was much softer than their usual hard-rock style.
* Terror Squad's only #1 hit ([[OneHitWonder and only hit whatsoever]]) was "Lean Back", a party track that introduced a dance move made for people who can't dance. This song came in the midst of the rest of the album, which feature less mainstream-friendly material that was ''not'' made for the radio or party playlists.
* Latin music star Music/{{Thalia}}'s "I Want You", a deliberate and successful attempt at a US crossover pop hit, but generally considered a throwaway by her regular fanbase.
* Music/TheoryOfADeadman is mostly known as a poster-child for the much maligned "butt-rock" genre, but their only pop hit, "Not Meant To Be", was a soft ballad that got zero airplay on rock radio. They’ve done more songs like it since, such as "Hurricane" and "Angel". "Drown", meanwhile, is a dark and brooding song that lacks the hedonistic themes they’re known for on most of their songs.
* Music/ThinLizzy's "Whiskey in the Jar" was originally recorded as an Irish in-joke and as B-side to one of their singles. When the management got hold of it, they flipped it to the A-side and it became a massive hit, much to the band's chagrin. Music/{{Metallica}} covering it didn't help too much.
* Music/TobyKeith's biggest crossover hit is "Red Solo Cup", a silly acoustic novelty song far outside his usual mainstream sound, ''and'' one of only a handful of singles that he did not co-write.
** His 2000 hit "How Do You Like Me Now?!" is his biggest hit on the country charts. At the time, it was far more cocky and in-your-face than he had ever been before, but instead of letting it be a black-sheep hit, he began changing his style to match. Similarly, the post-9/11 "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)" was a jarring change for him as he had never done a patriotic song before, but its success led to him doing several more.
* Music/ToddRundgren, despite his [[GenreRoulette mastery of a myriad of different genres and styles]], may be best known for the latter-day Music/TalkingHeads rip-off "Bang the Drum All Day". Especially by [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague Green Bay Packers]] fans.[[note]]The song is played after every Packers touchdown at their home stadium, Lambeau Field.[[/note]]
** All of Rundgren's big hits ("Bang the Drum All Day", "Hello It's Me", "I Saw the Light", "We Gotta Get You a Woman") are from the poppier side of his music. He can get ''really'' experimental and weird from time to time (''A Wizard, A True Star''; the early Utopia albums).
** He was so disgusted with the vapidness of his biggest hit "I Saw the Light" (which he insists his record label forced him to record, and he writes off as a "bad Peter Frampton wannabe song"), that he intentionally quit the high-profile music business to focus on producing other artists while occasionally releasing [[DoingItForTheArt more low-profile but critically-acclaimed]] albums.
* "867-5309/Jenny", Music/TommyTutone’s only hit single, was a goofy novelty love song that didn’t sound anything like the rest of their discography, which was much more serious and straightforward.
* Tones and I's "Dance Monkey" is this for her, according to [[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/26/tones-and-i-not-alone-wishing-people-would-stop-making-song-about-that-tune this article]].
* Music/{{Toto}}'s "Africa". The song was almost omitted from the ''Toto IV'' album, since the band in general was tired of it, and some members even thought it didn't sound like Toto at all.
* "Christmas Canon" is one of Music/TransSiberianOrchestra's most famous works, yet it's very different than most of their albums and songs. Instead of using electric guitars, the song strives for a children's choir, pianos and strings instead.
* Music/TravisTritt is known mainly for big-voiced impassioned ballads (including all of his #1 hits -- "Help Me Hold On", "Anymore", "Can I Trust You with My Heart", "Foolish Pride", and "Best of Intentions") or rowdy honky-tonk numbers ("Here's a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)", "T-R-O-U-B-L-E", "Put Some Drive in Your Country"). But in late 2000-early 2001, he scored one of his biggest career hits with "It's a Great Day to Be Alive", a folksy sounding, light-hearted ditty about enjoying life.
* The British PunkRock band Tubeway Army had exactly one big hit: "Are Friends Electric?", a SynthPop tune that came into existence after their lead singer Music/GaryNuman had found a stray Minimoog in the studio. The reason why they had no more hits: [[BreakupBreakout Gary Numan dissolved the band because he wanted to switch to synthpop entirely, and he didn't need a band anymore for that]].
* Music/TheTurtles, under pressure from upstairs to put out hit material, recorded "Elenore", deliberately going for the trite and cheesy ("Elenore/gee, I think you're swell") - it was a big hit. The band's best known song, the #1 hit "Happy Together", was created in a similar way.
* Music/UriahHeep, a hard rock group, had their biggest hit in Germany with "Lady in Black", a semi-acoustic song that borders on progressive folk. The keyboardist Ken Hensley wrote it, changed from his usual Hammond to Mellotron strings for a change and even contributed the lead vocals because David Byron refused to sing it. Probably the only reason why this didn't happen in the UK and the USA is because it was kept from being released as a single there.
* Music/VanMorrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" is ''way'' poppier than most of his other stuff. It ''really'' doesn't help that Morrison was broke, desperate, and had no star leverage when he wrote it. Because he was forced to sign the rights to Bang Records, he gets virtually no ongoing royalties whatsoever from what is still his most popular song (which is why he was still broke and desperate when he recorded his career-defining album, ''Music/AstralWeeks''). Yet the fans still expect to hear it at gigs, which does not help his legendary curmudgeonliness.
* Velvet is an Italian band whose most popular song is the poppy, catchy "Boyband". The problem is, they are an indie rock band mostly influenced by Britpop and AOR, and that song is a parody of the BoyBand phenomenon at the peak of its popularity in the early 2000s. Not only that song has very little to do with the rest of their discography since then, but the general public took it at face value despite it [[PoesLaw being clearly satirical]]. Thus most listeners didn't take them seriously anymore and their sales and popularity suffered.
* "All in the Mind", the title track of Music/TheVerve's first single, is in a very different style from the rest of the band's early output as seen on the ''Verve EP'', which was more strongly psychedelic or shoegazer.
** "Bittersweet Symphony", their sole American hit, which was certainly more mainstream in its sound than their normal output.
* Vince Vance & the Valiants were mostly known for their novelty songs, such as "Bomb Iran" (a parody of Music/TheBeachBoys' CoveredUp [[Music/BeachBoysParty version of "Barbara Ann"]]) and the flashy appearance of Vance. However, their most famous song is the fairly serious Christmas song "All I Want for Christmas Is You" (not to be confused with the Music/MariahCarey song from her album ''Music/MerryChristmas''), which also has Lisa Layne doing the vocals.
* Music/TheWaitresses were a struggling NewWave band when their label ordered them to create a [[ChristmasSongs Christmas Song]] for an {{Anthology}} album it was producing. Several months later the band was on tour in December and they were shocked to learn that the song, "Chistmas Wrapping" was a big hit on the radio. It has remained a seasonal favorite to this day.
* Music/WalkTheMoon's "Shut Up and Dance" became a surprise SleeperHit, being their first song to hit the ''Hot 100'' (entering the Top 10). It's also different from their repertoire as it's far more poppier than their normal material, which usually targets alternative radio. They’ve done more like it since
* Music/WaylonJennings hated "Luckenbach, Texas", because it was way too conventional and derivative for his outlaw country style, but he recorded it anyway because he figured it would be a huge hit. He was right: it was his biggest hit on the country charts and crossed over to the pop Top 40 too.
* Filipino rock band Weedd was, by nature, a band of 16-year-old high school boys who drew their influence from the '70s hard rock their dads most likely listened to. But their only mainstream hit was the faux-reggae "Long Hair", a novelty throwaway about how teachers in their school didn't like long bangs and "undercut" hairdos, as was the style in the mid-'90s.
* Canadian alternative R&B artist Music/TheWeeknd made a surprise detour into UsefulNotes/{{Synthwave}} territory with his late 2019 hit "Blinding Lights".
* Music/{{Ween}}'s biggest hit was "Push Th' Little Daisies", a cheerful, upbeat pop-rock song that is remarkably different from the rest of the band's work. Their penultimate album ''quebec'' was also the most critically well-received of their career, despite it being tonally extremely different from the remainder of their work (being an extremely downbeat ProgressiveRock album for the most part).
* Music/{{Weezer}}'s Green Album got lots of airplay for "Hash Pipe", which had a harder sound than most of the emo the band regularly played, and a ''much'' harder sound than anything from that album.
** The Green Album's second single "Island in the Sun" then went and did the opposite, taking the album's poppy direction and going even further with it.
** "Beverly Hills" is a better example. It's their biggest hit, and it sounds nothing like the rest of the album (Mostly soft ballads)
* Music/WeirdAlYankovic:
** While parody artists frequently adapt their output to match the music of the times, was there anyone who watched him and his band develop their fame in the "Eat It" era who believed that his first top 10 hit in the US was going to be a ''rap''? "White And Nerdy" is his biggest American hit to date.
** Weird Al's original composition "You Don't Love Me Anymore", a breakup song with humorously brutal lyrics, was a decent hit in Canada and one of the most popular ballads in the Philippines in 1992 and 1993 -- probably the only Weird Al song many Filipinos instantly recognize. So popular was the song in the Philippines that it inspired a song called "Sinaktan Mo Ang Puso Ko" (semi-literally translated to "You Broke My Heart") by Michael V, who is arguably the country's answer to Weird Al for his parodies of popular songs and original novelty recordings. Even in the States, "You Don't Love Me Anymore" stands out for being one of his only non-parody songs that isn't InTheStyleOf another artist.
* While Creator/AndrewLloydWebber is known for his work in musical theatre, he used to produce an Eurodance remix single of UsefulNotes/GameBoy ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'''s theme song in 1992 under the pseudonym "Doctor Spin".
* Wild Cherry was a 70's rock band. As disco became more popular, many of their audience, particularly the black members, started asking them to play "funky" music. So they came up with the song "Play That Funky Music". which became their only number one hit (more specifically their only hit ever), although it was nothing like the rest of their music.
* Kim Wilde is best known for perky NewWaveMusic jams such as "Kids in America"; however her DarkerAndEdgier SynthPop single "Cambodia" [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff was a surprise hit in many European countries]], though it never caught on in the UK or US.
* Music/WithinTemptation's "What Have You Done" was a commercial success, but many longtime fans dislike the presence of male vocals (especially from a singer who never appeared in any other WT track) and dismiss the song as an Evanescence rip-off.
** It could be argued that Music/{{Evanescence}} had their own black sheep hit with "Bring Me to Life", as that song was recorded with someone from a different band entirely, and 99.98% of their output lacks male backing vocals. Said male backer was added due to ExecutiveMeddling, and Amy Lee released [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5QFLV_lzeQ a version]] that lacked it in 2017 (claiming to have been happy to do so).
* Music/WizKhalifa's "See You Again" was recorded for the ''Film/FuriousSeven'' soundtrack and was a pop-rap song combined with a piano-based ballad, which is completely at odds compared to usual urban stuff. It became his first bona-fide mainstream hit, becoming much bigger than its already-huge parent movie and the biggest rap hit since "Thrift Shop".
** This also extends to the ''Music/Furious7Soundtrack'' itself. The entire licensed soundtrack has a very 'urban' feel with rap, EDM, and latin music. "See You Again", which is a piano ballad that's placed almost in the middle of the album, [[MoodWhiplash is very incongruent compared to the rest found throughout.]]
* Music/YeahYeahYeahs best-known song is "Maps"--a somber, minimalist love ballad that's quite different from the band's usual upbeat, eclectic IndiePop sound. For comparison's sake, try listening to the song before playing one of their other big hits, like "Heads Will Roll", "Zero", or "Gold Lion". If you're not a fan, you could be forgiven for not realizing that it's the same band.
* Music/YellowMagicOrchestra was to be a single album side project that parodied Exotica. Instead, the album became one of the most important in Japanese recording history.
* Music/{{Yes}} - "Owner of a Lonely Heart", compared to their ProgressiveRock work from before that song/album, which is largely because they had undergone massive turnover right before that album. It was the same band InNameOnly.
** Their second biggest hit, "Roundabout", while poppy, is still "progressive", but not nearly as much as their other material.
** Their 1977 minor hit, "Wondrous Stories", was more soft-rock and folksy (well, with heavy Mellotrons and synthesizers) than the band's usual style of the time.
* You Me at Six's biggest hit in America was "Room to Breathe", a song that takes more cues from alternative metal than their typical pop-punk style.
* Music/ZacBrownBand, despite being a constant player of GenreRoulette (they are nominally a country band), pulled this off with "Heavy Is the Head", their 2015 collaboration with Music/ChrisCornell which went to #1 on Mainstream Rock while not charting on any country-based format. The track is a great deal heavier and harder than anything else ZBB has done before. "Beautiful Drug" also stands out as their first stab at an electronica influence.
* How many people could have guessed that the biggest hit of Zedd's career in the United States would be, of all things, a collaboration with a ''country singer'' of all people? "The Middle" with Music/MarenMorris is his highest charting hit as a lead artist. It also sounds nothing like the country music that Morris normally makes.
* Music/ZZWard's single "Last Love Song," which has received solid airtime on radio stations, is a pretty traditional BreakupSong: slow, melancholy and despairing. The rest of her debut album, "'Til The Casket Drops," is quite upbeat and energetic, even when dealing with breakups or bad relationships.

[[folder:Other Music]]
* [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MLg83QMmlGs “Katusha”]] is one of the Red Army Choir's best known songs. While it is a marching song, instead of being about patriotism or killing capitalists and fascists, it's about a young girl's love for a soldier.

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Creator/AlanMoore considers ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'' to be this. It's one of his most famous and influential comics, but he has stated repeatedly that he doesn't rank it among his best DC Works, let alone best works overall. The success of ''The Killing Joke'' has likewise made Moore a prominent influence on ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' to the point of being consulted by Creator/TimBurton when in fact, the superhero Moore prefers is ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' and his most sincere and non-deconstructive works -- ''ComicBook/ForTheManWhoHasEverything'', ''ComicBook/TheJungleLine'', ''ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow'' -- are Superman stories, which paradoxically has had comparatively little influence on the latter character's story and setting.

[[folder:Film]]
* Creator/DavidFincher sees ''Film/TheSocialNetwork'' as this and is amazed that this became his most commercially and critically successful film, when it's so different from his other films, and what he's interested in:
--> '''Fincher''': "It’s a little glib to be a film. Let’s hope we strove to get at something interesting, but [[Film/TheSocialNetwork Social Network]] is [[ItsNotSupposedToWinOscars not earth-shattering]]. Film/{{Zodiac|2007}} was about murders that changed America. After the Zodiac killings in California, the Summer of Love was over...No one died during the creation of Facebook. By my estimation, [[FirstWorldProblems the person who made out the worst in the creation of Facebook still made more than 30 million dollars]]...And besides, on Social Network, [[MagnumOpusDissonance I didn’t really agree with the critics’ praise]]. It interested me that Social Network was about friendships that dissolved through this thing that promised friendships, but I didn’t think we were ripping the lid off anything. The movie is true to a time and a kind of person, but I was never trying to turn a mirror on a generation."
* Creator/MartinScorsese considers ''Film/TheDeparted'' to be one for him. For one thing it's set in contemporary America which he rarely tackles (he prefers HistoricalFiction and period films and his last "contemporary" film before this was ''Bringing Out The Dead''), secondly it deals with a milieu and city (Irish Mob and Boston) entirely different from his common territory (New York and the Italian Mob), and likewise deals largely with the police force and corruption (whereas he prefers dealing with VillainProtagonist), in addition to having many shoot-outs and action scenes. In terms of narrative, Scorsese noted in his speech at the Oscars that, "It's the first film of mine with a plot" and noted many times that ItsNotSupposedToWinOscars and that he was surprised that it won.
* More like Black Sheep CultClassic, but the Franchise/{{Tron}} franchise seems to be this for Creator/{{Disney}}. Produced in 1982, when the studio was on the ropes and desperate to try ''anything'', a live-action sci-fi film with heavy-duty religious themes and enough graphic violence to power a [[VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh first person shooter]] is definitely not what anyone expected out of The Mouse. It made back its budget, and became VindicatedByHistory for its contributions to CGI, making it possibly the most enduring product to come out of the Disney Dark Age.

[[folder:Literature]]
* Creator/ChrisVanAllsburg is best known as the author and illustrator of ''Literature/{{Jumanji}}'' and ''Literature/ThePolarExpress'' (both adapted into [[TheFilmOfTheBook successful films]]), which are quite a bit LighterAndSofter than his other works. For most of his career, Van Allsburg was known for his distinctly moody and evocative black-and-white illustrations (''The Polar Express'' is one of his few works with color illustrations), for his [[BlackComedy dark and playful sense of humor]], and for tackling subject matter that can be [[DefangedHorrors fairly scary by the standards of children's literature]]. Case in point: ''The Widow's Broom'' is a [[GothicLiterature gothic]]-influenced story about a woman who inherits a [[WickedWitch witch]]'s enchanted broom, ''The Garden of Abdul Gasazi'' is a rather creepy tale about a boy who stumbles into a retired magician's garden, and ''The Mysteries of Harris Burdick'' is a collection of enigmatic illustrations paired with story prompts (some of which are clearly horror-themed). By contrast, ''Jumanji'' is a fairly lighthearted adventure story with a very simple premise, and ''The Polar Express'' is a sweet and sentimental story about a boy who travels to the North Pole to meet {{Santa Claus}}.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* Music/StephenSondheim was known for writing songs with complex music and dense lyrics with intricate rhymes, which even highly experienced singers often find very difficult to sing. One of the few exceptions is in ''Theatre/ALittleNightMusic'', one of the [[LighterAndSofter lightest]] musicals from the later years of his career (which is really saying something, as it's basically ''Adultery: The Musical''), where he wrote a song intended for the non-singer Glynis Johns. To make up for Johns' lack of singing experience, he kept the melody and lyrics markedly simple, resulting in a minimalistic (but very evocative) song where her character laments her disappointment at the state of her life using short and simple phrases. The result was "Send in the Clowns", Sondheim's only mainstream pop hit--which went on to be covered by numerous popular artists (most notably Judy Collins and Music/FrankSinatra), and eventually became a {{jazz}} standard.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* In-universe, ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'''s supplementary materials suggest that the band Midnight Riders had a single #1 hit in their long career as a biker-fueled southern rock band: a slow piano ballad called "This Man Loves You", played by [[NobodyLovesTheBassist their long-suffering "provisional temporary band member" of a bassist]] and originally released as a B-side. The band refuses to play the song live.
[[/folder]]

!!Examples:

--> '''Fincher''': "It’s a little glib to be a film. Let’s hope we strove to get at something interesting, but [[Film/TheSocialNetwork Social Network]] is [[ItsNotSupposedToWinOscars not earth-shattering]]. Film/{{Zodiac}} was about murders that changed America. After the Zodiac killings in California, the Summer of Love was over...No one died during the creation of Facebook. By my estimation, [[FirstWorldProblems the person who made out the worst in the creation of Facebook still made more than 30 million dollars]]...And besides, on Social Network, [[MagnumOpusDissonance I didn’t really agree with the critics’ praise]]. It interested me that Social Network was about friendships that dissolved through this thing that promised friendships, but I didn’t think we were ripping the lid off anything. The movie is true to a time and a kind of person, but I was never trying to turn a mirror on a generation."

* Subverted by Music/{{Genesis}}. Once a sophisticated progressive rock band, "Follow You, Follow Me" (a gentle love ballad) and especially "Misunderstanding" (a poppier song done InTheStyleOf Music/TheBeachBoys) ''should'' by all rights have been Black Sheep Hits for them. But they seemingly decided to go with it, and soon became ''far'' better known for a string of hit singles mostly fairly similar to those songs than for their more progressive work.

* After it was used for the closing credits of ''Film/{{Rushmore}}'', "Ooh La La" has probably become the best-known Music/{{Faces}} song, but it's an outlier for them several ways. The lead vocal wasn't by frontman Music/RodStewart or occasional lead singer Ronnie Lane, but rather by guitarist [[Music/TheRollingStones Ron Wood]] (his only lead vocal for the band, in fact), and it's an acoustic guitar-led CountryMusic-influenced number, when they specialized in raucous HardRock.

* Before they enlisted Music/RodStewart and changed their name to Faces, the Small Faces were a mod rock band comparable to a bluesier version of Music/TheWho. Their biggest hit—and the one song of theirs widely heard in the US—was "Itchycoo Park", a flower power number they wrote as a joke.
** In the UK, they scored another Black Sheep Hit with the equally jokey "Lazy Sunday". The lukewarm reception of the band's more serious songs led Steve Marriott to leave the group in order to form Humble Pie.

* CaptainSensible of Music/TheDamned had a solo hit with a cover version of "Happy Talk" from Film/SouthPacific. Allegedly the band's usual punk rock style came as a shock to some old ladies who later bought tickets to one of their shows expecting an evening of similar ballads. [[note]] One of the old ladies, upon hearing the dulcet tones of TheDammed's "New Rose" is reported to have said to a fellow concert goers that "This isn't exactly what I came here for - but I am glad I came!" [[/note]]

* CaptainSensible of Music/TheDamned had a solo hit with a cover version of "Happy Talk" from Film/SouthPacific. Allegedly the band's usual punk rock style came as a shock to some old ladies who later bought tickets to one of their shows expecting an evening of similar ballads. [[note]] One of the old ladies, upon hearing the dulcet tones of TheDammed's "New Rose" is reported to have said to a fellow concert goers that "This isn't exactly what I came here for - but I am glad I came! [[/note]] the

* CaptainSensible of Music/TheDamned had a solo hit with a cover version of "Happy Talk" from Film/SouthPacific. Allegedly the band's usual punk rock style came as a shock to some old ladies who later bought tickets to one of their shows expecting an evening of similar ballads.

* Everything Music/ChrisDeBurgh ever did falls into three categories: 1. Michael Bolton-esque PowerPop beltfests ("Don't Pay the Ferryman"), 2. Gentle, melodic folk ballads ("This Song for You"), and 3. narratives ("Patricia the Stripper"). One time... ''one time''... he did a mushy love song, "Lady in Red". Which he specifically did as a tribute to his wife. Guess which one gets the most airplay?

** And their cover of Music/TheCure's "Love Song," too. It was even softer than "Amber" was.

* Music/TheCure's "Friday I'm in Love" is an incredibly silly love song, contrasting their usual darker style.

* Music/BobMarley's "One Love" and "Three Little Birds" are happy anomalies in his usually serious rock reggae catalogue, but they are the songs most commonly associated with him. Similarly the album ''Music/{{Kaya|BobMarleyAlbum}}'' sold well but is LighterAndSofter than the rest of his work. It is said that he released accessible material on ''Music/{{Exodus|Album}}'' and ''Kaya'' so that the public would pay attention to his work for his next album ''Music/{{Survival}}'', which contained his most political themes to date. However, they ended up changing the public perception of him to that of a carefree hippie rasta rather than someone who was using his music to call for social change.

* 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" ([[ParodyDisplacement 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.

* The now-defunct Website/YouTube channel "foreverpandering" had a few videos of him ranting about terrible gaming channels. A popular series of his was just called "iJustine", where he took the piss out of iJustine's playthrough of ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}''. The people who found these videos on his channel also found videos about other gaming channels that he thought were bad, such as LetsPlay/ElectricalBeast and [=MinecraftChick=], so naturally people assumed that he uploaded videos like that regularly. They subscribed, only to find him uploading song covers and making rants about things that aren't gaming channels. He never made another gaming channel rant again.
%%** Eventually, foreverpandering shifted to a new, music-centered channel under his real name, Music/KenAshcorp, [[SubvertedTrope turning the above case on its head]]. His music received much more online traction over the years, completely overshadowing his {{MST}} of iJustine's playthrough, [[SignatureSong "Absolute Territory"]] in particular getting over 20 million views as of 2020.

* Music/StephenSondheim is known for difficult music that packs lots of geniusly-rhymed words with lots of chords and is extremely difficult for even gifted singers, and his shows tend to not last very long or be very popular, but get revived like crazy. For ''Theatre/ALittleNightMusic'', his lightest work when he got to write the musicals he wanted (and that's not saying much, as it's basically Adultery: The Musical!), he wrote a song for the non-singer Glynis Johns to sing expressing her disappointment, using short phrases. It's a very simple song, but suddenly everyone began to cover it. Even now he refers to "Send in the Clowns" as his medley of greatest hits.

* Cat Stevens was quite reluctant to release "Wild World" on ''Tea for the Tillerman'' because he considered it too commercial compared to his folk-rock output, but it was indeed one of his first Top 20 hits. His next album, ''Teaser and the Firecat'', gave him two Top 10 hits with "Peace Train," which has a loose soul inspiration, and his cover/arrangement of "Morning Has Broken," contrasting his calm guitar with the flamboyant piano of [[Music/{{Yes}} Rick Wakeman]].

** Eventually, foreverpandering shifted to a new, music-centered channel under his real name, Music/KenAshcorp, [[SubvertedTrope turning the above case on its head]]. His music received much more online traction over the years, completely overshadowing his {{MST}} of iJustine's playthrough, [[SignatureSong "Absolute Territory"]] in particular getting over 20 million views as of 2020.

* Stone Sour's two biggest hits, "Bother" and "Through Glass." (the latter starts off ballad-y and gets harder as it goes, but is still different from their other songs).

** "Love Me Like You Do" became her third Top 20 hit and second Top 10, yet it's completely different from what she normally does for a couple of reasons. It was made for ''Film/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' soundtrack, and as such is heavily about IntercourseWithYou (a topic she hasn't even hinted at before), and Goulding had absolutely no involvement in the songwriting process (a far cry from her normal IndiePop DIY style). It is in her signature {{synthpop}} style, however. It's just that the subject matter and production is completely different from what she normally does. It was also unusual in that its success was fueled by digital downloads and streaming whereas most of her previous hits were predominantly radio hits (it literally held the World record for the most streamed song in a single week -- until Wiz Khalifa broke it with "See You Again").

** The band's frontman Jonah Matranga scored a Top 10 pop hit in 2006 with his guest appearance on [[Music/LinkinPark Fort Minor]]'s "Where'd You Go", a song that is stylistically a million miles away from Far's mid-90s work.

* Music/LanaDelRey's only pop radio hit is a dance remix of "Summertime Sadness" by Cedric Gervais. It sounds nothing like her normal material, which is many things but ''not'' dance music.

* Few people who aren't fans of flamenco music (or even those who are) can name any other song by Los Del Rio besides "Macarena".

* Strawberry Alarm Clock and their #1 hit from 1967 "Incense and Peppermints" count. For one thing, the lead vocal on "Incense" wasn't even by a band member; their producer had brought in someone else to write the song's lyrics and the band hated them, so they had a friend who was visiting the recording session sing lead. And the song leaned much more in the direction of PsychedelicRock than their usual material, which was typically Sunshine Pop (with a bit of Psychedelic influence) featuring elaborate vocal harmonies.

* Music/WalkTheMoon's "Shut Up and Dance" became a surprise SleeperHit, being their first song to hit the ''Hot 100'' (entering the Top 10). It's also different from their repertoire as it's far more poppier than their normal material, which usually targets alternative radio.

** Happened in a much more typical fashion with their orchestral cover of the 60's folk classic "[[Music/SimonAndGarfunkel The Sound of Silence]]," which charted higher than anything they've ever done (becoming their first multi-platinum song) and saw them gain exposure on ''Series/{{Conan}}'', ''[[VideoGame/GearsOfWar Gears of War 4]]'' and ''Series/DancingWithTheStars''. Besides one [[ElectronicMusic electronic rock ballad]], the album it came from is one of their heaviest yet.