I don't think musicians get much choice on whether something is a hit or not
or have a golden egg contract in place before releasing it.
Chances are the record company does very well out of it but the artist being shouted at to play it doesn't.
(
HappyToast Groat froth, Thu 3 Dec 2020, 15:20,
Reply)
The copyright holder will do nicely.
If that’s the artist then they do well. If that’s the record company they will do well. The artist of the most popular version of the song will do ok out of royalties too. If they’ve been stupid enough to sign away these rights, then diddums. And what artist would release anything without wanting it to be a hit? “Oh, that was just meant to be an album track actually, I really resent the people making it a hit, the record company made me release it as a single, life’s so unfair.” Fucking diddums.
Spare a thought for Norman Greenbaum though. Legend has it that many Hell’s Angels were rather keen on his one big hit, and at some gigs would force him to play it repeatedly under threat of violence should he not comply. He’d usually be able to get the hell out of Dodge after an hour or two. That’s pretty tough.
(
Prufrock Lucifer, son of the morning!, Thu 3 Dec 2020, 16:23,
Reply)